The Christian Way

 

The uncertainty of God’s existence is a great stumbling block to more persons than many imagine.Before anyone can even begin to accept anything about the Plan of Salvation,heaven, hell, or anything else that the Bible teaches, this fundamental teaching has to be taught.

 

 

I recently saw a poster on a famous social network where an atheist was conversing with a Christian. The conversation went as follows: the Christian told the atheist that the reason the atheist did not believe in God was that he hated Him (God). The atheist’s response was that he did, as much as the Christian hated Big Foot. The conversation then went on a tangent, where the Christian said that Big Foot is a mythical creature, and the atheist was silent, as to give the idea that that was precisely how he felt about God.

Having spoken to various atheists and agnostics myself, I know that this is a common argument,where they try to justify their choice of beliefs that there is no evidence or insufficient evidence that God is indeed real, and just like the stories of Santa Claus in the North Pole or Big Foot which are figments of the imagination, so is God. Despite the increasing doubts of more and more people on God’s existence, I tell you here today without a doubt that the evidences for God’s existence are profoundly real.

For those who already believe, this will serve to strengthen your faith. For those who have doubts,or seek to deny God’s existence, I hope that this will expose you to the fact that indeed there is a God around who loves you and who is waiting for you to accept Him. Again, I say that my purpose is NOT to force anyone to do anything,as many persons have complained in the past. God has still given us freewill to choose. My duty, however, is to spread God’s Word, and His existence, which I personally know to be true.

 

PART # 1: The Bible: True Science foretold?

Many sceptics, agnostics and atheists throughout the ages have tended to rely on what was considered‘scientific’ at whichever point in history. Many also tend to, not only group all religions and persons who believe in God as the same, but also particularly ridicule those who believe in and follow the God of the Bible, as being ‘mere followers of a fairy tale’, counting them as foolish to follow what a ‘book’ says. With the same mouth, however, countless numbers of these same atheists follow and treasure the books of other atheistic ‘philosophers’, ‘scientists’ and theorists - human beings like themselves with finite knowledge. The Holy Bible,in contrast, claims to be authored and inspired by an Eternal, All-knowing Being who created the world – a grand claim that may be difficult for some persons to fully grasp. If the Bible’s claim is true, then, in every aspect it covers, whether scientifically, medically, historically, etc. it should be shown to be true for all time, surpassing even known human knowledge at that point in history.  Over the millennia,scientists, historians, archaeologists and all groups of persons have claimed to find faulty areas of the Bible, fooling some to believe that the Bible is disproven. However, time and time again, the ‘scientific’ view of that era proves to be the one at fault, and the Bible proves to surpass human knowledge. Below are a summary of a few amazing, eye-opening facts. 

 

 

True science and the Bible

 

Astrophysics

 

Number of stars

 

 

 

“God said to Abraham 'Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.' And He said to him, 'So shall your descendants be.'(Gen 15:5)".

 

“As the host of heaven (stars) cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the descendants of David My servant(Jeremiah 33:22).”

 

"Therefore from one man, ...were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude-- innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.(Hebrews 11:12)"

 

These three references were written by persons, all of whom lived and died long before the invention of any technological instrument which could reveal the innumerable amount of stars. Moses, who wrote down the first account, lived around 1400 B.C[1]. The actual statement, however, was told initially to Abraham, a person documented in both secular [2] and religious sources [1]to have lived during about 2000 B.C., i.e. 2000 years before Christ was born. Jeremiah lived in 626 B.C. [1], while Hebrews was written in about A.D. 61-63[1], i.e. about 61-63 years after Christ was born.

In ancient times, up to even 150 A.D., the ‘scientists’ and ‘scholars’ of that age, including the famous astronomer Ptolemy, taught that the total number of stars in the heavens were under 3000 [3]. On a clear night the naked eye can only count about 1000 stars.

It was only in 1608 that the telescope was invented, and as more and more powerful telescopes were invented, such as the Hubble, modern science has now caught up  with what only an All-knowing God could have revealed through the Bible revealed millenia before - there are countless billions upon billions of stars in the universe.

 

     Gravitational Properties of Constellations

 

“Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, Or loose the belt of Orion?” (Job 38:31) 

The Book of Job is one of the most ancient Books of the Bible, dated by most to have been written around the time of Moses, in 1400 B.C [1]. As seen above, the verse names specific constellations and is also specific as to the direction of the forces present in these constellations. As most know, the force of gravity was discovered only in about 1666 by Isaac Newton [4]. What is even more insightful in this Scripture though – the direction of the forces, were only discovered in the last century. Astrophysicists have now found that the stars of Pleiades move in unison with each other, and are thus gravitationally bound [5].They have also discovered that the stars in the belt of Orion are free agents that are not gravitationally bound.It took scientists millennia to eventually (and many times unknowingly) confirm what the Bible revealed in ancient times.

 

    The earth hangs on nothing

 

"He stretches out the north over empty space; he hangs the earth on nothing (Job 26:7)"

 

The passage above again comes from Job, written about 1400 B.C [1]. Beliefs of pagan scientists at that time were conflicting – but one unifying detail was that they ALL believed that the earth was supported by some physical object. A popular explanation by the ancient Greeks was that the earth was upheld on the shoulders of a strong man named Atlas. Others believed that the earth was supported by pillars, or that a dragon supported the earth. Space explorations in the modern era have now confirmed that the earth is not physically supported by matter, rather by solar gravitational attraction [4], as was revealed millennia before in the Bible.

 

     The shape of the earth

 

"It is He who sits above the circle of the earth...(Isaiah 40:22)"

 

The Book of Isaiah is dated around between 745-695 B.C., and can be traced and cross-referenced with the list of the Kings of Israel (Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah) during whose reigns he prophesied. This Scripture is the only scripture which explicitly states the shape of the earth, being circular, which was unknown outside the Bible in ancient ‘science’ for centuries after, even among the Greek scholars.It took over 300 years after this scientific fact was independently proven by Aristotle in 350 B.C. [7], and which modern space exploration now also confirms.

 

MEDICINE

 

     Circumcision – 8 days old

 

“And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you; every man child in your generation…” (Gen. 17:12) [Also see Lev. 12:3; Luke 2:21}

 

The Books of Genesis and Leviticus where the command was initially given, were written by Moses in 1400 B.C. This requirement of circumcision at such a specific time after birth has been found to have great medical insight only recently discovered.

Over 2000 years later, in 1939 A.D., medical researcher Doisy [8] isolated and discovered that the two main blood clotting factors, Vitamin K and Prothrombim,reach their highest level in life, about 110% of normal, on the 8th day afterbirth [9] – the specific day that was commanded in the Bible. These blood clotting agents facilitate rapid healing and greatly reduce the chance of infection. You can verify with any Obstetrician that the 8th day of life is the ideal time for a circumcision, and that any circumcision done earlier requires an injection of Vitamin K supplement.

 

     Life is in the blood

 

“For the life of a creature is in the blood…” (Leviticus 17:11)

 

This statement was writtenby Moses (1400 B.C.) [1], over 3000 years before doctors realized that indeed, a person’s life is indeed in the blood. Conventional medical practice taught that bloodletting patients should be practiced, so that the disease would be removed. In fact, the death of former U.S. president George Washington in 1799 is thought to have been attributed to this malpractice [10]

 

     Sanitary practices

 

“And every open vessel, which hath no covering bound up on it, is unclean. And whosoever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open field, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave,shall be unclean seven days.” (Numbers 19:15-16)

“And whomsoever he toucheth that hath the issue, and hath not rinsed his hands in water, he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself with water and be unclean until the even…and every vessel of wood shall be rinsed in water. And when he that hath an issue is cleansed of his issue; then he shall number to himself seven days for his cleansing and wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in running water, and shall be clean.”(Leviticus 15:11-13) 

 

As seen above,, the Israelites were instructed to wash themselves and their clothes in running water if they had a bodily discharge, if they came in contact with another person's discharge, or if they had touched a dead human or animal carcass. They were also instructed to wash any uncovered vessels that were in the vicinity of a dead body, and if a dead carcass touched a vessel it was to be destroyed. Items recovered during war were also to be purified through either fire or running water. In addition, the Israelites were instructed to bury their human waste outside of camp, and to burn the waste of their animals. As mentioned earlier, the Books of Moses were written in about 1400 B.C., and, in these times, the neighbouring Egyptian civilization, deemed by many scholars as being one of the most ‘advanced’ ancient civilizations, the Egyptians - were dying by the thousands due to "remedies" that almost always consisted of some amount of human or animal dung [11]. Still, for centuries after this, operations were done without washing in running water, and the mortality rate was very high as diseases spread from patient to patient.

 

    Bacteria

 

 “He is a leprous man, he is unclean; the priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean…And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip and shall cry, Unclean, unclean. The garment also that the plague of leprosy is in, whether it be a woolen garment, or a linen garment….if the plague be spread in the garment….it is unclean. He shall therefore burn that garment…wherein the plague is…And if the priest shall look,and, behold the plague be not spread in the garment…Then the priest shall command that they wash the thing wherein the plague is…(Leviticus13:44-45;47,51-54)

“And he that is cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water, that he may be clean;..” (Leviticus 14:8)

 

These laws written by Moses indicate knowledge of the presence and ability of bacteria/pathogens which caused human sicknesses both inside and outside the body to spread, which far surpass every secular ‘high thinking scientist or human’ of that time. It was only in the late 19th century, only over 100 years ago that Louis Pasteur demonstrated in his Germ Theory of Disease that most infectious diseases were caused by microorganisms originating from outside the body. This new understanding of germs and their means of transmission led to improved sanitary standards that resulted in an enormous drop in the mortality rate. Yet these core principles of sanitation were being practiced by the Israelites thousands of years earlier. It is now known that leprosy is a bacteria, a living organism, that certainly can survive on walls and garments! In fact, it is now known that leprosy "can survive three weeks or longer outside the human body, such as in dust or on clothing" [12]

 

    Laws of Quarantine

 

“But that man that shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from among the congregation, because he hath defiled the sanctuary of the Lord…” (Numbers 19:20) {Also see Leviticus 13,14 and 22} 

 

Leprosy was long thought to be a hereditary disease and not an infectious one. In fact, it was not until 1873 that it was shown that leprosy was infectious rather than hereditary [13] . Of course God knew this all along, as His laws to Moses His instructions regarding quarantine to prevent the spread of leprosy and other infectious diseases are nothing short of remarkable, considering that this life-saving practice was several thousand years ahead of its time. Infected persons were instructed to isolate themselves outside the camp until healed, and were to shave and wash thoroughly. The priests that administered care were instructed to change their clothes and wash thoroughly after inspecting a plague victim.

The Israelites were the only culture to practice quarantine until the last century, when medical advances finally demonstrated the importance of sanitation and isolation during plagues. The devastating black plague of the 14th century that claimed millions of lives was not broken until the church fathers in Vienna began encouraging the public to start following the guidelines as set forth in the Bible. The promising results in Vienna compelled other cities to follow suit, and the dreaded plague was finally eradicated [14].

 

    The First Antiseptic 

 

“And a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon all the vessels,and upon the persons that were there, and upon him that touched a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave.” (Numbers 19:18) [Also see Psalm 51:7].

Hyssop oil was charged by God to Moses to be used as a purifying agent. Hyssop oil has now been shown to contain 50% antifungal and antibacterial agents.

 

BIO-CHEMISTRY

 

     Man from dust

“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7)

 

Researchers at NASA's Ames Research Center confirmed [19] that every element in man can be found in the soil.

 

GEOGRAPHY/ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

 

   The Hydrologic Cycle

 

"For He draws up drops of water, which distill as rain from the mist, which the clouds drop down and pour abundantly on man. (Job 36:27-28)"

 

"All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; to the place from which the rivers come, there they return again (Eccl 1:7)"

 

The complex nature of how water is supported in clouds despite being heavier than air is clearly implied when God declared to Job: "Do you know how the clouds are balanced, those wondrous works of Him who is perfect in knowledge (Job 37:16).

 

As mentioned before, the Book of Job is dated back to the time of Moses in 1400 B.C., while Ecclesiastes, was written by Solomon, who lived around 1000 B.C. About six centuries after the Books of Job and Ecclesiastes were (350 B.C.) written, Aristotle demonstrated only a vague understanding of this process. Though he recognized that rain came from clouds, he incorrectly postulated that air turned into water and vice versa. It was only in 1580 [15] that secular science only proposed the theory that water indeed undergoes a cyclical process – a process described in the Bible millennia before.

 

  Ocean Currents

 

“Have you entered the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in search of the depths?” (Job 38:16)

 

This is another amazing statement written in about 1400 B.C. – a time when no human could ever begin to imagine the oceanic exploration we have today. Even before as recently as 1930, little was known about the ocean floor. It was not until about 1973 that direct observations of springsunderneath the sea were made [16-18]

 

These facts form just a fraction of the amazing evidences that there must have been an All-knowing Eternal Being who had revealed these facts – either directly or indirectly within the Holy Bible. The Bible itself stands as a testimony, which through the ages, sceptics have ridiculed, denied defied and tried to destroy,  holding on to theirl imited knowledge. As knowledge increases, however, the Words of the Bible continue to stand firm and proven by both sceptics and believers. Please stay tuned for Part 2 of this quest on searching for evidences on God’s existence.

 

 

Reference list: 

1. Halley, H. (1965). Important Old Testament dates. Halley’s Bible handbook: The revised edition.p.34.

2. According to the Encyclopaedia Brittannica Online, (2014): “The excavation of a royal palace at Mari, an ancient city on the Euphrates, for example, brought to light thousands of cuneiform tablets (official archives and correspondence and religious and juridical texts)…which specialists utilized to show that, in the biblical book of Genesis, narratives fit perfectly with what, from other sources, is known today of the early 2nd millennium bc…”. For more information, see: Encyclopaedia Brittanica Online. (2014). “Abraham”. Retrieved from:<a>http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1544/Abraham</a> [Accessed: 8/1/14].

3. College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University. (n.d.).Constellations: Frequently Asked Questions.Retrieved from:<a>http://www.physics.csbsju.edu/.../asp/constellation.faq.html</a> [Accessed 8/1/14].

4. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (2006). (20) Newton’s theory of “Universal Gravitation”. Retrieved from: <a>http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Sgravity.htm</a> [Accessed 8/1/14].

5. “The Pleiades, on the contrary, have nearly the same motion. They travel through space like a flock of birds; they always stay together; they must have a local system of stars held together by mutual gravitational attractions…” Quote In Trumpler, R.J. (1944). The Pleiades. SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 56(329).p.66-67. Retrieved from: <a>http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/.../0000067.000.html</a>[Accessed 8/1/14]

6. Halley, H. (1965).Isaiah. Halley’s Bible handbook: The revised edition.p.285.

7. Wudka, J. (1998). Aristotelian Cosmology. University of California Riverside. Retrieved from:<a>http://physics.ucr.edu/~wudka/Physics7/Notes_www/node35.html</a> [Accessed 8/1/14]

8. Encyclopaedia Brittanica. (2014).Edward Adelbert Doisy. Retrieved from:<a>http://www.britannica.com/.../168069/Edward-Adelbert-Doisy</a> [Accessed 9/1/14].

9. Mercola, J. (2010).The potential dark side of the routine newborn vitamin k shot. Retrieved from: <a>http://articles.mercola.com/.../high-risks-to-your-baby...</a>[Accessed 9/1/14].

10. Mitgang, H. (1999). Death of a president: A 200 year old Malpractice debate. New York Times. Retrieved from: <a>http://www.nytimes.com/.../death-of-a-president-a-200...</a> [Accessed 8/1/14].

11. Manniche, L. (1989). An Ancient Egyptian Herbal. pp. 92,136,146.

12. Turkington, C. and Ashby, B. (2007). Leprosy.The Encyclopaedia of Infectious diseases.p.139.

13. Davis, C. P. n.d. What is the history of leprosy (Hansen’s disease). Retrieved from: <a>http://www.onhealth.com/leprosy/page2.htm</a> [Accessed 9/1/14].

14. Geffrey, G.R. (1996). The Signature of God. p.149.

15. National Ground Water Association. n.d.The hydrologic cycle. Retrieved from:<a>http://www.ngwa.org/.../Pages/The-hydrologic-cycle.aspx</a> [Accessed 9/1/14].

16. Ballard, R.D., and Grassle, J. F., "Incredible World of Deep-sea Rifts," National Geographic, V. 156, No. 5, November 1979, pp. 680-705.17. West, S., "Smokers, Red Worms, and Deep Sea Plumbing," Science News, V. 117, No. 2, January 12, 1980, pp. 28-30.18. Corliss, J B., et a]., "Submarine Thermal Springs on the Galapagos Rift," Science, V. 203, No. 4385, March 16, 1979, pp. 1073-1083.