Five Great Mysteries in the Bible, by Witness Lee

USING THE BIBLE TO PROVE SCIENCE

In these days there is a group of Christians who are scientists and who love to say, “We will use science to prove the Bible.” I do not agree with this kind of saying. Rather, we are in favor of using the Bible to prove science. Any science that does not correspond with the Bible is untenable.

You probably know that many theories are changed after a few years. Science today is different from science fifty years ago; forgive me for saying this. This does not mean that I despise education; rather, I encourage the young people to receive education. However, that is on the human side. God has given us a Bible, which we may now use to measure science.

First, let us consider the origin of the universe. Everyone agrees that this origin is monistic, not pluralistic. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” This is monistic; this one beginning is just God Himself. Moreover, the earth created by God is round, not flat or square. There are two portions of the Word to prove this matter.

The Book of Isaiah

Over two thousand seven hundred years ago, near the time of Confucius in China, which was the time of Isaiah in the Old Testament of the Jews, Isaiah said that God sits above the circle of the earth (Isa. 40:22). How interesting it is that Isaiah spoke such a word even near the time of Confucius! The earth which Isaiah referred to was the earth created by God in the beginning in Genesis 1.

Nearly twenty-seven hundred years after Isaiah, at the time of the translation of the Chinese Bible, because people had the concept of the earth being a globe, the translators rendered this verse as: “It is He who sits upon the circle of the globe.” After I read this and did some research on it, I concluded that the word globe should not be used. Why? Because at the time of Isaiah, the word globe could not be found in any dictionary; only the word earth was there. Therefore, I looked into the original language and found that Isaiah 40:22 does not contain the word globe but earth. If the word globe is used, the opposers could say that the Bible is a fabrication. Hence, we dare not use the word globe. What Isaiah said was that God is sitting above the circle of the earth.

The Book of Job

Another proof in the Bible can be found in the book of Job. Job lived probably at the time of Abraham, between one and two thousand years earlier than Isaiah. Even at such an ancient time, Job said, “He [God] stretches out the north over the void; / He hangs the earth upon nothing” (Job 26:7). This is really wonderful! Even such an ancient person of about four thousand years ago knew that the earth is hanging upon nothing, which has been confirmed today also by astronomers. Now you can see that it is secure and dependable to use the Bible as a proof of science.

(Five Great Mysteries in the Bible, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee)