SCIENCE vs THE BIBLE

 
(Or General Revelation vs Special Revelation).
 
Most Christians think Christ came to take away sin, or "save sinners" like it says in 1 Timothy 1.15. But actually you can make the case that He came to father the Church, ie, the Christian community in order that it, the Church, would produce SCIENCE, aka "General Revelation," God's Revelation of Himself via Nature. By Nature, I mean the study of Nature. And what has the study of Nature become?? SCIENCE, of course. Just like if I say the Bible = Special Revelation, i mean the study of it. For to an illiterate, the Bible reveals nothing. You have to be able to read it. Likewise, you have to be able to "read" the stars in order to extract "the glory of God" that they are "declaring" (Psalms 19.1 - "The skies declare the glory of God").
 
In addition to Christ taking away sin, He came to BRING SCIENCE to the world. Thru the Church, for it has been predominantly Christians down thru the last 2000 years that have led the way in scientific advances and technological inventions. This is confirmed in the Bible where it says Christ came to take away the curse of the Fall(Genesis 2-3). "There shall be no more curse"(Revelation 22.3). "There is no night there"(Rev.21.25). What do i mean by "take away the curse" ??
Well, there's the curse of back breaking labor, "eating bread by the sweat of your brow"(Genesis 3.19). How does SCIENCE lift that curse off man's shoulders??!! Well machinery today does the work that men used to have to do. As the Christian world abolished slavery, God rewarded society by sending ideas into the minds of scientists, in terms of machines/devices of every kind. The history of Science is synonymous with the history of CHRISTIANS in science - the scientists of every type !! Dr. D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, Coral Ridge(Ft Lauderdale)Fla., preached a sermon about "Christ Taking Away the Curse" - by bringing SCIENCE to the world. Delivered in the early 1980s(?), it was an unspeakably glorious radio sermon !! When I say,"Christ" here I am including the apostle Paul who came after Him. For Paul is part of "the body of Christ"(Ephesians 1.22-23). Paul preached on General Revelation(Romans 1.19-20). By calling the study of Nature a form of theology (a theological pursuit), Paul forever raised the status of science in the eyes of ancient man. For in those days theology was more highly prestigious than it is today. Based on Paul, scientists like John Kepler spoke of "the book of Nature," as if it were Holy Scripture. The idea was that the scientists that studied it amounted to a sort of priesthood. For what do priests do? - interpret holy books. Did you catch that?? The early scientists considered themselves a priesthood !! In short, serving God was what motivated them, empowering their work til it bore fruit. Yes Paul was instrumental in the rise of the sciences in the Christian West. But Paul was an extention of Christ. So Christ gets the credit. So to say that "Christ came to take away sin" is like saying the pioneers settled America in order to cut down trees and clear the stumps and rocks from the land. You are leaving out what follows that initial work. Namely, harvesting of crops. Science is the crop that comes with the removal of mankind's sin.
How does Science compare with the Bible??!! The Bible predicts Judgment by fire(2 Peter 3.11-13, etc). But Science produces the nuclear bombs which will fulfill those prophecies. The Bible says "the days of a man will become like the days of a tree(Isaiah 65). But it is SCIENCE which will fulfill those words by enabling people to live 500 or even 1000 years. I'm talking about thousands of years from now. The Bible predicts man will stand on the moon and stars (Psalms 8.3,6). In other words, colonize space, spreading civilization to the whole Milky Way Galaxy !!! But it is SCIENCE which will produce the space ships,etc, that will bring about the fulfillment of Psalms 8.3,6 !!
 
Finally, Paul asks, "Have they not heard [the word of God]"(Romans 10.17). Then He answers,"yes" and quotes from Psalms 19 about the light of the heavens "declaring" their message(the expansion of the universe, which is the basis for the Big Bang Theory, of course). My point here is that Paul is calling the voice of the skies "the word of God" !! Or at least he is putting the voice of the skies in the position of being the equivalent to the word of God. By so doing, Paul is making science equal to the official Word of God, namely the Bible - to a limited degree. For the voice of the heavens presupposes the scientific devices that decrypt the light of the stars which is what "the voice of the skies" refers to. I mean, in Psalms 19.1-4 it reads, "there is no place where their voice is not heard." But if we take out the words written in italics(King James Version), we get a much different message.It says, "their voice is not heard." In the Hebrew that's literally what it says !! The meaning is that the socalled "voice of the skies" refers to a visible statement, not an audible statement. At a stop light, when the traffic signal turns green, it is saying "go." But it is a silent statement, a visible one. Ditto for the voice of the heavens in Psalms 19. Its purely visible. LSS: Paul is putting science on a par with the Bible !! At least they are supposed to work together, complement each other - like male and female !!
PS: Moses speaks of Creation of the universe taking place over 6 "days"(Genesis One). But Paul says Creation took place over "eons" of time(Hebrews 11.3 in the Greek). Where the KJV has "worlds," the Greek has aionos which means eons !! So Paul is actually "fulfilling" what Moses calls "days," by expanding into eons. Like you fulfill a peach seed by planting it so it can become a peach tree. But it is science that reinforces Paul's words. For they aren't enuff to free people from the bondage of literalism concerning Genesis One. Only with the coming of SCIENCE can Genesis One be understood aright. For the Big Bang Theory establishes the age of the universe to be 13.7 billion years. While Genesis One gives us 7 "evenings and mornings" or 14 periods. The 13.7 in the 13.7 billion years can be rounded off to 14. Thus it agrees with, and fulfills the 14 sub periods given in Genesis One.