Modern students of physics study the essence of nature: the
properties of matter and time. The phrasebiblical
physicssuggests
that
what the Bible
states about matter, time and earth-history may be different from what
scientists believe.Biblical
physics is not a biblical term. We infer Biblical physics by
interpreting the Bible with rules.
Rule:We
should seek a simple, literal interpretation. The Bible clearly
contains
passages that are not literal. For example, “Jesus said, I am the vine,
you are the branches.” Jesus did not look like a vine nor did his
disciples sprout leaves. A contemporary listener would understand this
as an
analogy, a similarity
between things that are otherwise dissimilar. A literal
interpretation seeks to
understand the words and grammar in the way a contemporary would.
Rule: Our language, assumptions and
culture can influence our interpretations.
For example, biblical Hebrew did not have past, present or future
tenses. They did not imagine time as an independent thing
stretching from past to future. What happened was either
continuing or completed, without regard to when. We might ask,
were the creation days 24 hours? This would be a foolish question
to the ancients. How
could you know the length of a day before the markers for seasons and
days had formed? Their time was not
independent of the cycles of the sun, moon and stars. In the
culture of the
patriarchs, days and years were thought to deteriorate
from one generation to the next (Genesis
47:9).
Our
time-oriented language and way of
thinking influences how we interpret the biblical words, especially on
the subject of earth-history. All
ancient societies saw the earth
as a place where everything changes and has changed. We think of
the universe as a place of changeless
laws and constants. It is important to remember that our
scientific definitions, laws and constants are only a few centuries
old. Understanding a text in its
historical
context requires that we interpret it in their
culture. We must not
tailor the Bible to fit our scientific way of thinking.
Rule: Some
Biblical statements are fundamentals that serve as a foundation for
other issues. A fundamental is an essential element, an
important
principle, on which detailed knowledge rests. We
always interpret
physical reality with fundamentals that are accepted by
faith. We
should look for our fundamentals from the Bible, even in the area of
physics. The fundamentals of Western science historically came
from a pagan
Greek.
Rule: The basis for biblical physics must be what
the entire Bible states about matter, time and earth-history
interpreted
literally in their culture and language, not our science. We
must not focus on
a single verse and
exclude other passages that could contradict a pet interpretation.
Rule:
If biblical
physics
is a valid interpretation, it should be supported by simple
evidence. Indeed it is supported by the strongest,
simplest
evidence possible. This visible evidence
is in
the heavens, (the raqiya), where the Bible declares that
knowledge is available for
all. We see the past all the way back to the
creation era in the distant heavens. We also see star trails
in the Milky Way that confirms that galaxies continually spread
out. The overwhelming
visible evidence supports a literal interpretation without using
mathematics or complex measurements. What we see with optics fits the
literal Hebrew grammar that
the heavens are continually forming. Biblical physics allows
us to believe the visible history of the universe. This is in
contrast to scientific physics which contrives a mathematical universe
that is 99% invisible to protect its unmentioned basic principle.