2013 A.D.: This new finding is going to rewrite the books about.... **fill in the specific category of scientific study**
To be a Christian and to love new scientific findings is to be in a love - hate relationship. New scientific discoveries are awesome. Listening to the scientists fit the new discovery into their God-free paradigm is like chewing sand.
Is there any more common of an excited exclamation heard from the scientific community than this: "This is going to change everything we though we knew about 'fill in the blank' " Seriously, you hear scientists saying this all of the time, or read articles where they say it. Archaeologists are always rewriting Maya history, Toltec history, Aztec history, Chinese history, Egyptian history, Hittite history.... the list goes on and on, obviously.
There is always a new finding in astronomy that causes them to 'rethink all that they thought they knew about....: black holes, quasars, the composition of comets, the meteor belt, the rings of Saturn, the interior of mars, the center or age of the universe, dark matter, string theory.....the list goes on and on, obviously.
On the opposite end of the size spectrum, particle physicists are shaking up the foundations of their understandings on a regular basis also. Look, there's a Lepton! Where did it go? Is there a Klepton?
The world's top medical researchers are always gaining a new understanding of how the human body functions which will open up entirely new methods for treating cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, AIDS, cardiovascular disease, dandruff, wrinkly skin, blindness, eczema, psoriasis, Parkinson's, you name it.
The largest dinosaur that ever lived?!? They will find one, and name it that to sell magazines or get viewers to watch their documentary. After all, it's the biggest one they've found so far. But there are no embarrassing retractions made if two years later the fossilized skeleton of a larger one from a different species is found. Maybe there shouldn't be, of course. But I'm just saying this: we are taught to look up to our scientists as a type of 'ultimate authority' concerning the facts on all things scientific. But they are constantly changing the official story line as new discoveries emerge. That's O.K. That's understandable, and that's what you should expect from a group that works constantly to further and to refine the body of knowledge about the Creation. I call it the Creation. They would probably call it the Universe, or 'our surroundings', or 'the world we live in', or 'our environment.'
But let's consider this fact, because it is a fact: the Bible's scriptures have been a stationary target with an established testimony for close to 2,000 years now for even the newer of its books. It has stood beneath the probings, the doubtings, the various 'callings into question' of its contents by groups both Christian and non-Christian. It has even placed difficult challenges upon itself, so to speak. It contains prophecies......many, many wonderful prophecies. They have to come to pass if they are from God. They are embedded in the Bible's scriptures, so those scriptures stand or fall as truth right along with the prophecies.
Some of the Bible's prophecies were given out in its earlier books. Some were only given out at the time of Jesus. Some were given out in the Book of Revelation, given out closer to the 100 A.D. time frame. They have this much in common: the ones that were supposed to come true by a given time did so. Every one of them, every single time. Many of the ones that were given out were somewhat open ended as to when exactly they would occur, but specific about what it was that would finally occur. Of those, the ones that did come to pass came to pass exactly within the confines of the prophet's passed on words. And some prophecies still are unfulfilled, yet not one of those has failed to come to pass by the specified time. It truly is a fact that I have never read, nor heard someone speak of, a single Biblical prophecy that failed to come to pass within it's given time.
Sometimes in scripture prophets of God such as Jeremiah would oppose false prophets of false gods, or just false prophets claiming to speak for the real God, and those prophets would utter a false prophecy. But those are shown to have been false very shortly afterwards within the narrative of that Biblical book, or perhaps the next book. But that is it. The Bible's real prophecies have proved unavoidably accurate. In a few cases, God has sent a prophet to declare a prophecy to someone, and upon hearing it, the person would show fear and repentance, so sometimes God would send the prophet back to change His words towards that person, because God has stated that He loves to show mercy when He deems it appropriate. But sometimes the offense is too grievous, and He cannot or will not.
The point is, the Bible claims that it has the words of truth, and whatever else you might try to say against it, the Bible can make this claim: it has withstood every assault without having to retreat, regroup, and rewrite itself. And there have been many assaults! Science, on the other hand, is always changing its storyline as new information comes in. Always!! Yet, it holds itself to be a higher source of information than scripture, though scripture has stood firm and stood proven as the centuries rolled by. During those same centuries science has undergone nearly a complete make over and still isn't close to being done remaking itself because of its constant new discoveries, or the correction of previous interpretations which they have discovered to be incorrect.
Again, it's fine for science to keep rewriting the books concerning their findings. They keep proving that things have a slightly different character than what was previously held to be the case. They would be wrong not to rewrite and restate the most current state of their knowledge. But should God, His truths, and His Words for mankind be banished away as myth by a system that cannot even begin to keep its own story straight?
To make a simple analogy, what if Scripture was like a man on trial, accused of falsely claiming to be the Possessor of Truth, and now Scripture has unexplainedly been brought to trial and is being accused of actually being a delusional liar. (This defendant is actually the Holy Scriptures.) Yet he claims he has never told a lie.
Witness after witness has come forward and testified that they had tried in previous times to prove the man a liar in some respect or another but had always failed. Finally, another witness - Science - is brought forward. He takes the stand and claims that the defendant must be guilty, because he - Science - is the actual Possessor of Truth! But when the defendant's attorney questions Science, Science openly admits that he has changed his story every time that he proved his old story to be not quite right, which is many times.... more times than he can even begin to remember. Still, Science makes the claim that despite this, he should be held in higher esteem than Scripture, the one who has never been shown to utter a false statement though he has many hundreds of pages of statements on record, permanent record, which can be shown to have been placed into writing thousands of years ago. And it is a matter of record that he has been probed and tested by enemies seeking evidence of his lies a great many times, though they always failed to find such evidence.
Could any jury of rational and fair-minded people be brought to convict the defendant based on such evidence? If not, doesn't the evidence bear better testimony that the defendant is the Possessor of Truth than that Science is?
The nice thing about believing in science, calling yourself a 'man or woman of Science', is that there is no particular burden placed upon us by science. Christ calls us to be His servants. Science could care less what you do. Christ says that there is a good and acceptable way for us to think, speak, act, love, and feel. Science doesn't really lay any such limits upon our behavior or character. Some people may say that they are drawn to Science's high and impartial standards, but how many of that group of people actually (perhaps secretly) prefer Science because of its almost non-existent expectations for people? Scripture tells us that men flee the light because their deeds are evil. Isn't it true? We are like that, aren't we? Yet it is the light that can heal men's souls, not the darkness.
Scientists as informational investigators, as data discoverers, as statistical sifters, as truth seekers, as blazers of new frontiers into the glories hidden in the Creation, are all valid and worthy workers. But, as evictors of the Creator of it all? As self-knighted editors, maybe even self-styled dismissers of the Word of God? They haven't the track record to justify such outrageous and rebellious claims! Theirs' is a history of constantly retreating from their formerly held position, and adopting a newly modified version of the old, or at times even a brand-new position. Is that a track record that qualifies you to cast doubts on the deeply rooted God-provided rock that is Holy Scripture?
And no, Science does not necessarily lead to a plateau of pure and lofty truth. Not always. Where money is available to research something, that is where researchers must go to get a job. So, it is the one with the money who often determines what will be called 'scientifically proven truth.' If there is funding to prove that catastrophic manmade global warming does exist and no funding to disprove catastrophic manmade global warming, then how will those who do not believe in such warming pay for the research that might prove their case? And, if the group that is funded to research it discovers that the evidence is weak, or the warming not so catastrophic, how many jobs will be lost if they openly disclose that finding? Scientists have mortgages. Who wants to be a scientist that kills the goose that lays the golden egg? Science, in this respect, can be used to provide an air of respectability to a questionable - even asinine - hypothesis. And that hypothesis, once firmly established as truth in the minds of the public, can justify placing authoritative oppression upon people's activities, ostensibly for their own good. And there you have the plan of the One World Order bunch, who work out the plans of Satan through many channels, though I couldn't say if they knowingly work for him, or merely are being manipulatively used as a tool in their own right.
God is the proper authority to reign over mankind. The more man recognizes and submits to God's authority, the less and less any human government is really needed at all. Satan cannot be worshiped where God is. No one knows this better than Satan. 'Satan is real' says the Bible, and the Bible tells us the truth, as is well evidenced by one fulfilled prophecy after another.
The Bible has no mortgage to pay. It speaks about a lot of things, and it claims in various places that it is the Word of God. It has been solid as a rock for hundreds of decades of human history, making its claim that it holds the truth that humans need if they would avoid eternity in Hell, if they would gain eternal life with their Maker. It has predicted the future with complete success thus far, over the course of a couple of hundred prophecies. It shows no sign of fading from this unmarred success rate. Its promise is for every man and every woman that chooses to believe and follow. You simply cannot top the Bible as a source of truth, can you? Does anyone know of a book with a better record?
The pursuits of science can be quite a good thing, a very positive influence upon mankind. But like Reuben, it has dared to climb up upon its Father's couch. It would almost have itself be worshipped. Has Science been hijacked by Satan in various ways and in various venues that he finds useful for promoting his deadly delusions? I would certainly say so. The Hollywood movies that we term Science Fiction are quite often displaying the wiles and wisdom of science as it saves the world from disaster and destruction. But precious few of those movies contain acknowledgements of the sovereignty of God. Yet God is sovereign. And in fact, Science never has saved a planet. God, on the other hand, has created them, filled them with life, flooded them out completely, renewed them, and promises to destroy it all again at a future date by fire, to remake it anew.
The next time you hear or read the words, "This is going to change everything!", or "This is going to rewrite the book on ........." remember this: it only needs to be rewritten because it was wrong. And it has been found wrong and has needed revision very constantly. And it's not going to 'change everything' anyway. For instance, it's not going to change Scripture. Scripture wasn't the one that just found out that it was wrong - Science was. Again. And it's not going to rewrite all of the books.... just the wrong books. Just Scientific books. The Bible is a book. It doesn't need to be rewritten. It wasn't wrong.
It's not blind, closed eyed, closed-minded adherence to dogma to say these things. It's open-eyed attention to the comparative track records of Science and the Bible. One is always finding something that's going to 'change everything', and that's because nearly everything that it claims to know it actually only knows in part. And then it finds the next thing that's going to 'change everything'. And then the next. And it always will need to make those changes, were it to go on forever. It would never 'get there'. It would never arrive at where God already is. Science can only continue advancing with some degree of skill and method, but always with some degree of error, and the finish line is unimaginably far away anyway. We all know that to be a fact. How large is 'the body of all knowledge'?
That's Science. The other, the Bible, is a love letter to all of mankind from the One that made all mankind, a letter that basically is saying 'listen, learn, be wise, believe, commit, repent, be baptized, and follow, and you'll find Me there waiting when you get there." That one never has to change His story. He is the Holy Father of us all, and He sent His Son Jesus to first give us the teachings that lead to life, then die for us, then lead us and be our real and literal Earthly King. He could answer any Scientific question that we might ever ask because He was there with the Father when every single thing was made, and He has a perfect understanding of it all. And scripture says (1 Corinthians 15:20-28) that eventually Jesus will merely turn and give everything He has to the Father, so that the Father will be all in all.
That will be a day profound beyond any present ability of ours to imagine, I feel sure, and how blessed we will be, all of us sinners, if we are counted worthy to see it.