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Bienvenido Macaraeg Jr.

First of four parts

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DOES the Bible square with science? Most people don’t think so.

In one of his talks early on in his presidency, President Rodrigo Duterte, while expressing belief in the Bible, somehow wondered about the Bible’s accuracy and thence, its veracity.

He wondered so because he must have heard that the Bible allegedly says that the earth and the universe are only about 6,000 years old based on the Genesis Creation.

On the other hand, science says that the universe came into existence almost 14 billion years ago. And that the earth is about 4.5 billion years old. How then could the Bible’s account be true? Or how could science be wrong?

Sadly, churches and their leaders could not give credible answers to these questions. Hence, they just shrug it off by saying that “it is a mystery” and we just have to take the Bible on faith.  Others just explain it away by saying that Genesis was not meant to be understood in a scientifically accurate manner. Whichever way, such explanations are unsatisfactory.

Most churches are not keen on checking their beliefs for accuracy because they may be engrossed with the salvation issue. While such is good since salvation is the primary message of the Bible, still there is equally a need to address the issues that thinking people like President Duterte have because Jesus also died for them.

Jesus cares as much for people who wouldn’t believe unless they are given proof like Thomas, one of His disciples.  Christ did not tell Thomas, “Just take everything on faith.” No, Jesus saw to it that He again returned a week later to make a special appearance just to give the doubting disciple physical proof! That’s how much Jesus cares for such kind of individuals.

And it is difficult to draw these thinking individuals to Christ unless they first see that the Holy Bible is credible and therefore truly the Word of God!  Believing that the Bible is the Word of God is extremely important because it is only in the Bible that we truly find the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ.

Last time, I wrote an article titled “Duterte, the Bible and God.” This time, let me address another controversial topic: Do science and the Bible agree?

Based on scientific findings and studies, including the latest with the aid of the Hubble telescope, scientists have established that the universe is 13.8 billion years old, and the earth is 4.5 billion years old as mentioned earlier.

The first ape-like human ancestors lived five to seven million years ago.  And the skeletal remains of the earliest Homo sapiens—the Homo Erectus and Homo Neanderthalensia—are said to have lived in Africa 200,000 years ago.

And yes, the dinosaurs! Scientists tell us they began to inhabit the earth 200 million years ago. With countless skeletal remains that had been unearthed, that is a scientific fact that cannot be denied.  And yet the vast majority of Bible teachers and scholars are at a loss where to place those gigantic reptiles in Bible context. So, they just sweep the thought under the rug, so to speak, and avoid the issue.

Now, how could all these be possible if the heavens and the earth were created only about 6,000 years ago?  Would you be surprised if I tell you that the Bible does not disagree with these scientific findings?

Firstly, the problem lies in the erroneous translations into English of some words in the Bible by the translators in the 16th century. It must have been because they didn’t yet understand the whole context of the Bible then, plus the fact that their understanding was then quite limited since the scientific and archeological discoveries were to start coming about 300 years later. Thus, they inadvertently chose the wrong English words to translate certain Hebrew words.

But what added to the problem is the fact that Bible scholars who came up with more recent versions still translated those words erroneously even when there are now abundant Bible materials and references to help them update their understanding.

It could have helped had the leaders of churches and denominations checked the words in Hebrew or Greek in which the Bible books were originally written instead of solely relying on translations.  Had they done so, they could have updated and improved their understanding of the Bible.

So here, let’s try to be like a “supersleuth” who, with some gathered evidence and testimonies, is able to come up with an accurate account of what really happened. Let’s do the same with this issue of the Bible and science.

Let’s go now to the creation story in the Bible.

Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the universe.”

This creation occurred 13.8 billion years ago and not just 6,000 years ago! The belief that this creation happened 6,000 years ago is pure speculation and conjecture. There is no passage in the Bible that would say that this passage referred to a time 6,000 years ago.  Neither is there anything that would say that this could not refer to a time almost 14 billions years ago or even farther back.

Also, God could have started His creation with the Big Bang. There is also no Bible passage that would go against that theory. On the contrary, there are passages that would definitely support the Big Bang theory but it is not my purpose to discuss that at this time.

But before the creation of the universe, at a much earlier time than 14 billion years ago, God created the angels and a brilliant archangel he named Lucifer. Hence, we read in Job 38 that the “morning stars (archangels) sang and the angels shouted for joy” (vs. 4-7) at the time God created the heavens and the earth. This proves that the angels were already around before the creation.

Lucifer and a third of the angels were then assigned on this planet earth.  Apparently, God wanted to see if He can establish His kingdom on earth by commissioning Lucifer and the angels for the job. Incredulous? Just keep on reading.

Within this time span was also the time when the dinosaurs roamed the swampy, coniferous forests-filled earth from about 243 million years ago (Triassic-Jurassic period).

It is also within this period that ape-like creatures said to be the earliest human “ancestors” existed five to seven million years ago. Until the Homo Erectus and Homo Neanderthalensia came later about 200,000 years ago.  But this early, the reader might be tempted to ask: “Now where would that place Adam and Eve who the Bible says were our first parents?” Cool down, cool down. We’ll get to that soon.  Just stick around.

But scientists also say that the dinosaurs along with those early human-like creatures suddenly disappeared 66 million years ago during the Cretaceous-Paleogene period! Why? What happened?

We’ll answer that in the coming second part of this article. (to be continued)

 

E-mail: goodconqueror@websprinter.net

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