The Bible is God’s benchmark for truth by which all other claims to veracity are measured. In days gone by, craftsmen would make a mark on their bench to set the standard measurement for items they were making. All duplicates were measured according to the mark made on the bench, the benchmark. If anything fails to agree with the benchmark, it is to be rejected. Isaiah the prophet understood this fundamental rule.
To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Isaiah 8:20 (NKJV)
The Bible is self-authenticating and does not depend on man’s opinion of it. We either believe it or not, but not believing it does not mean it is not true. Truth stands on its own.
For we cannot oppose the truth, but must always stand for the truth. 2 Corinthians 13:8 (NLT)
Jesus is the Truth, the Logos or Word of God. He became a man, representing God’s truth and person perfectly.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 (NKJV)
In him and in the written Word there is no falsehood at all. All of God’s words are true and faithful. Jesus said we must live by EVERY word of God, not just the ones we find acceptable and not too convicting or embarrassing. (Matthew 4:4)
The Word of God is always true because it was spoken by one who never lies.
God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? Numbers 23:19 (NKJV)
Men lie. Satan always lies, but God never does. Anyone who refuses to believe the lie that God is untruthful honors God.
Our relationship to God’s Word must be to uphold its truthfulness against all naysayers, even those who claim that so-called “science” disproves the Bible.
The apostle Paul warned us against putting faith in anything besides God and his Word.
Timothy, guard what God has entrusted to you. Avoid godless, foolish discussions with those who oppose you with their so-called knowledge. 21 Some people have wandered from the faith by following such foolishness. May God’s grace be with you all. 1 Timothy 6:20–21 (NLT)
How we will related to the Bible is one of the most important decisions anyone will ever make. We must decide if we will place ultimate confidence in it or in man’s wisdom.
If we make the decision to put our full trust in the written Word of God, we affirm our faith in the Lord Jesus, who is the fleshly embodiment of that Word. Below are some verses that will guide us in our decision.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shined in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend (extinguish, overcome) it. John 1:1–5 (NKJV) Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. John 17:17 (NKJV) Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. 6 Do not add to His words, Lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar. Proverbs 30:5–6 (NKJV) All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16–17 (NKJV)
Jesus believed every word of God is inviolable and cannot be altered or “broken.” (John 10:35) The incarnate Word validated the written Word. We dare not contradict him!
You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you. Deuteronomy 4:2 (NKJV)
We are to regard God’s Word with the greatest esteem and submit our own opinions and conjectures to it.
Anyone who makes this commitment to adhere to God’s Word will find it to be quite astounding that many who profess to possess such faith doubt its accuracy when it comes to the creation of the heavens and earth. I do not condemn anyone for doing this because for most of my life I too failed to fully embrace what the Bible says about the earth where we live and the heavens above it. Instead, like so many, I capitulated to the “experts” and “scientists” who allege that the Bible got it wrong in Genesis Chapter One. I joined the chorus of unbelief that says that those verses in the first chapter of the Bible are mere poetry that God never intended for us to take literally, even though Jesus and the authors of those books, who were under the inspiration of God’s Spirit, believed it to be literally true.
I never saw the insidiousness of casting doubt on the very first book of the Bible.
We are only fooling ourselves if we think the world does not see through our duplicity. Why should anyone believe the gospel message if Genesis, the foundation of the Bible, is untrue? Many of us who deny the literal truth of Genesis Chapter One, when it comes to the heavens and earth, affirm that the creation of Adam and Eve actually took place as the Bible says. It should be obvious that if one is true, so is the other. It should also be clear to us, as Satan knows, that if one is false, so is the other. Why cannot we followers of Christ see this?
We humans have a remarkable capacity for self-deception. We convince ourselves that partial belief is all God expects or requires.
This is similar to Saul’s transgression when he only partly obeyed God’s word, while claiming to have fully obeyed. God told him to kill everything, even the animals, but Saul spared some of the best livestock.
Then Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed are you of the LORD! I have performed the commandment of the LORD.” 14 But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?” 1 Samuel 15:13–14 (NKJV)
Samuel told him that such partial obedience was comparable to the sin of witchcraft. (1 Samuel 15:23) Indeed, as we shall see in a future article, the power of the occult is behind much of what modern astrophysics teaches. Putting our faith is such a rebellion against God’s Word aligns us with witchcraft! If Samuel were here today to confront our disbelief in God’s Word, in response to our claim to be Bible believers, he might ask: “What then is this heliocentrism?”
It is impossible to be a heliocentrist while claiming to believe the Bible is true, unless one practices self-deception.
Evangelicals generally agree that the Bible is our benchmark for truth in moral and spiritual matters and the gospel, but surrender authority to those who call themselves scientists when it comes to understanding the world in which we live. We have accepted the worldly credo that “science” is proven objective truth that requires us to reinterpret the Bible any time it seems to contradict it.
This is nothing short of worshiping science above God, something that should be abhorrent to every disciple.
The scientific revolution was ignited and fueled by the ignoble quest to liberate ourselves from being chained to the Bible. Man is determined to figure out how things work for ourselves without God’s help. But God has so designed his creation that we cannot unravel its mysteries on our own. We need the Holy Spirit and what is found in God’s Word.
Copernicus, the acknowledge “founder” of the heliocentric theory, was not impressed with the Bible. Here is a quote.
Two contemporaries of Copernicus, Luther and Calvin, leaders in the Protestant Reformation, solidly refuted heliocentrism. Here are two representative quotes.
These two men still held the Bible in great esteem and considered that anytime what is called science contradicts what is revealed in the Bible, it is an error. They adhered to the famous tagline of the Reformation – Sola Scriptura. Sadly, today our motto might be said to be Sola Sciencia.
Trying to gain knowledge outside of what God has revealed was exactly what got Adam and Eve in trouble. Modern science, especially theoretical astrophysics, has become a religion that postulates untestable theories that morph into unchallenged dogma which must be believed by the faithful, usually at the expense of God’s revealed truth in the Bible.
We were created to believe. We will believe in something, whether it is God’s truth or something else.
The most powerful “god” in the modern West today is probably what we call “science.” This was never more evident than during the manufactured so-called COVID crisis when we were told to “Trust the Science,” even though now we know that the “science” was fraudulent.
Science was never meant to be simply trusted. That is reserved for God alone.
Trusting “science” can only be done by those who accept that it is a modern religion complete with its priests, temples, and dogma. True science has always depended on being tested and verified before acceptance. The high priests of “science” today, however, ask us to bow down without giving any scrutiny.
What is even more disconcerting for us Christians is how so-called “science” has pushed the Bible out of its position as the highest arbiter of truth.
One of the beautiful and challenging aspects of pursuing a biblical cosmology is that it requires us to return to a childlike faith in the Bible. We must be willing to stand against the monolithic giant of modern astrophysics and NASA armed only with the slingshot of God’s Word. We will find that, contrary to what we have always been told, there are quite good reasons to question the narrative that has been pounded into us since infancy. We will also find that there are many questions to which we will have no answer. God has shrouded his creation in quite of bit of mystery. But that should not concern us because the other side cannot explain many things either. We will discover that ultimately it boils down to whether we believe God or not.
