Written by Aidan Thomas

Brethren Of Christ Articles - The Reliability of the Bible

Article Index
The trustworthiness of the historical and scientific facts recorded in the Bible
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400 years of the King James Bible 1611

 Why we can trust its reporting of historical and scientific facts.

 Even though the Bible claims to be a book written by men under Divine Inspiration and therefore an infallible record, yet it tells us to “prove all things..”  (1 Thess 5:21). 
And we can test the reliability of its historical and scientific facts by presenting a selection of evidence from history, archaeology, astronomy and nature to show that the Bible is a factually accurate document.

 Science can be defined as ‘knowledge based on observed facts and tested truths arranged in an orderly system.’   And it is in this broad compass that we use the term ‘scientific facts’ to cover astronomical and natural phenomena recorded in the Bible.

 Astronomy

We will look first, briefly, at a few astronomical facts which are mentioned in the Bible, the accuracy of which has been established by relatively modern telescopic instruments.
In a phrase describing the number of the promised descendants of Abraham, the Bible likens their numerical extent to being like “the stars of the heavens and the sand of the sea.” 
Now from a mere natural observation, even on a clear night, the idea that there were anywhere near as many stars in the sky as there are particles of sand on the beach would seem incredible. 
Yet modern telescopes have enabled man to see beyond the boundaries of natural sight.   And one writer has said that “even if man could count at a rate of one million stars a second, it would take at least a million years to count the stars of the Universe !”

 And astronomers, with the most powerful telescopes available, are not able to even count the number of galaxies. 
The Hubble space telescope has shown that there are at least 50 billion galaxies and some astronomers calculate that there could be a 100 trillion.
Based on a figure of 50 billion; if all the stars in the Universe were divided between 5 billion people (the approximate population of the world) then every single person would have at least ten billion stars.
These facts which confirm the truthfulness of the Biblical record, concerning the well nigh innumerable amount of stars, were not capable of being proven until the recent advent of sophisticated telescopes.

Over 3,000 years ago the Bible records that God, in a testimony of His great power, said to Job, “Can you bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, ( i.e. the seven stars) or loose the bands of Orion ?”  Job 38:31. Another prophet, Amos, writes of them as “the seven stars and Orion.” 5:8.
This was for many years a puzzle to translators because there were only six stars that could be seen by the naked eye.  Modern telescopes have revealed that there is a seventh star in the cluster, but it is so dim that it can only be seen with the aid of telescope.  This shows that the Bible has, like so many of its statements, been proved right in the light of later discoveries.

 And what is the significance of the words “Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, or loose the belt of Orion?”
In the last century astrophysicists have discovered that the stars of Pleiades move in unison with each other, and are thus gravitationally bound. They have also discovered that the stars in the belt of Orion are free agents that are not gravitationally bound.
Again, the effect of these particular stars and the stability of these constellations were recorded well before they were confirmed by astronomical observations.

 In the Genesis account of the creation of the earth as a fit habitation for man, we read “let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years.” 1:14
We now recognise the influence of the sun, moon and stars and their distances and exact juxtaposition to the earth is for the benefit of the earths’ inhabitants. 
Yet these words were recorded over 3,500 years ago.

The stars are of sufficient distance from the earth so that their light is enough to give some light to the night sky but not so much as would cause it to be like the day. 

For many centuries it was believed that the earth was flat and the centre of the Universe. Yet over 2,500 years ago, the prophet Isaiah writes of “the circle of the earth”  40:22. And in Job 26:7 we read that “He hangeth the earth upon nothing.”  And the Psalmist says that the world is established or stable, that it cannot be moved. i.e. from its orbit.  93:1.  

The understanding that the Earth, as one of the planets, has a stable and unchangeable circuit around the sun was not always recognised.
Copernicus in the 16^th century and Galileo in the early 17^th century argued from their astronomical observations that the sun, not the earth, was the centre of our solar system, much to the annoyance of the Roman Catholic Church who regarded such views as heretical and placed Galileo under house arrest for his discoveries.