The Basis of Biblical Physics

Modern students of physics study the essence of nature: the properties of matter and time. The phrase biblical physics suggests 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.

Last edited on June 10, 2008