The Bible as Science: The Oldest Book

Modern science loves to critique the Bible, but what happens when the Bible turns around and questions science? We open Job 38 and watch God respond to Job’s challenge with a blunt examination of creation, origins, and human limits and the most honest answer keeps resurfacing across the centuries: “I don’t know.”

We build the case that the Bible and science are not natural enemies when you actually read the text. Drawing on the Book of Job (often called the oldest book of the Bible), Pastor James W. Knox argues that Scripture contains striking anticipations of discoveries people label “modern,” and that many confident critics simply haven’t grappled with what the passage is claiming. Along the way, we retell Harry Rimmer’s memorable story of leading scientists trying to answer Job’s forty questions and realizing how quickly expertise runs out when the questions move from technology to first causes.

Then we dig into three big ideas from Job 38: the unanswered riddle of where we were when earth’s foundations were laid, the mystery of life and consciousness that even embryology cannot fully pin down, and the provocative line about the “morning stars” singing, connected to physics, wavelengths, and the relationship between light, color, and sound. We close at the shoreline, asking what truly holds the sea inside its boundaries and what that means for a biblical worldview rooted in the power and authority of God’s Word.

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Transcript

Welcome And Broadcast Purpose

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Welcome to the Preaching the Cross Radio Podcast, featuring the radio ministry of Pastor James W. Knox of the Bible Baptist Church of DeLant, Florida. Our prayer is that these half-hour Bible study programs will bring the lost to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and enable the saved to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Savior. Now here's your host, Pastor James W. Knox. All right, thank you for that kind word of introduction. Thanks to each and every one of you for tuning in today to the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast. I'm Brother James, and I greet you once again in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. I'm so happy that you've tuned into the program today, and I believe that you will be too. I am certain that this series of studies that we are presenting

Why We Study Bible And Science

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on the Bible as science, you are finding not only informative, not only a blessed challenge and encouragement to you in your Christian life, but I believe that you're finding it a very interesting uh study as well. I know that I'm certainly enjoying uh reviewing uh these materials with you and talking about these things with you on the broadcast. And I believe as you listen today for the next half an hour that God will really stir and challenge your heart as we we rationally and reasonably and sensibly consider the Word of God, not the arguments against it by those that have never read it, not the accusations made against it by those who know nothing about it, but as we carefully search the scriptures together, we find that all the objections of modern science do nothing more than condemn the one raising the objections because they uh they show the objector, they show the critic of the Word of God, to be so lacking in rational thought process, to be so lacking in uh genuine uh information, that it's just it's almost pitiful that these uh these men could raise up their voices in the way that they do against the word of God. Now, we're going to begin on the program today a a section of our study in which we will show that there is indeed uh found within the pages of the Holy Bible those phenomena, those discoveries that uh characterize modern science. We'll show you that modern science isn't modern at all. We'll show you that uh these startling discoveries of man in this century in the realm of science are old news to those of us who have the Word of God and believe it. Now, we have given you already in this study a sufficient number of illustrations to obviate the possibility of coincidence in the anticipation of the scientific discoveries of our generation by the writers of the Bible. We're going to make a case now, uh make the case more conclusive,

Job As Ancient Evidence

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by citing an amazing number of such instances from one single chapter of the Bible in the book of Job. That's impossible that unless new evidence from archaeological sources should be discovered, and I don't believe it will, that we'll never be able to establish the question of the exact date of the writing of the book of Job, but as we taught you in our radio study of that book, Job is undoubtedly the oldest piece of literature on the face of the earth. There is nowhere to be found in any library or any museum a book that can be proven to outdate or to predate the book of Job. Job was a real person. He suffered real disasters, and he had a real experience in God's dealings with men. In the course of his earlier pronouncements, Job made a statement concerning God that expressed unlimited confidence in his wisdom and power. Chapter 9, verse 2. He said, How can a man justify himself before God? That was his question. If he'll contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand. This perhaps the most marvelous tribute to the unlimited knowledge of God that is found in the entire Bible. The student who cannot answer one question in a thousand would of course confess his tremendous inferiority to the teacher. Later, irritated by the contentions of his dubious friends, Job, apparently turning from his former position, made a complaint before God, made an appeal to him. In the twenty third chapter, he said, Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his feet, I would order my calls before him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know the words wherewith he would answer me, and I would understand what he would say unto me. To put it in the bold, blunt, plain diction of modern speech, Job, disgusted with men, said he would like to have a chance to argue this matter with God face to face. Apparently he had for a moment forgotten his previous assertion that if God should give him an examination, he couldn't

Scientists Try Job’s Forty Questions

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answer him one question in a thousand, now he's ready to try. Harry Rimmer tells a story. Fine scientist of his generation, a great Christian scientist, and we're indebted to him for a lot of this material. He was at a scientific convention, he was seated around the table with a dozen and maybe fifteen men, representing various interests in this particular field of research. And when the luncheon was over and the program had been discussed, with that good-humored uh type of conversation that marks these conventions, uh, several of the other men were having similar fun because of the antiquitated or antiquated and childish ideas of inspiration that uh Rimmer held to. They were making fun of him, giving him a hard time. And since the fun was good-natured, and you know it's true that a calf with plenty of rope will hang itself, he went on and joked with him and laughed with him, and surely enough, the argument hadn't gone along very far before one of them had suggested that it would be amusing and interesting if they could compare their learning in this generation with the current knowledge of those biblical writers. Well, Rimmer was more than happy to seize that opportunity. He said, Maybe you remember an ancient patriarch by the name of Job. In one of his outbursts, he said to his friends, No doubt ye are the people, and wisdom shall perish with you, and it's too bad Job couldn't have known you gentlemen, he said. He could have said the same thing without any element of sarcasm. You men must know everything to criticize and condemn the word of God, and one of them said, Well, at least we know a lot more than Job did. Well, the trap was sprung. I wonder. I wonder how these scientists could make out. Job said he'd like to argue his case before God, and the Lord was listening, and God showed up and gave Job an exam consisting of forty scientific questions, and he couldn't answer one. Not one. And this would be a good chance, be a good opportunity to see how much more these scientists knew than Job knew in his day. There was an eager response, and uh the men said they would like to take the exam. And so they they got a Bible, and the writer Rimmer said, I'll read the questions, and you write out your answers. I think you wouldn't even know where to find the questions. But let's agree for the sake of convenience that since there are 40 questions, we'll allow ten points to each question. If a man gets a question right, he gets ten points. 400 would be a perfect exam. Each question is in two divisions, so if you get half the question right, you get five points, and we'll allow that. So the conditions were agreed upon, the exam was taken. The smartest man, the smartest man at that table, made thirty-five points out of a possible four hundred. These are the top scientists, the leading scientists of the day. That might be interesting to conclude that we owe a great deal to the marvelous advance of learning in the last 4,000 years, on the ground that this learning has taught us three and one-half things out of 40 that Job didn't know. That conclusion would not only be unkind, but it would be incorrect. We've learned much that Job didn't know, but the fact still remains that in the 38th chapter of Job there are forty magnificent anticipations of the physical science with which we deal today that were utterly beyond the power of Job even to phrase or express. When Job said, I'd like to argue my case with God, the Lord evidently was listening, for the 38th chapter of Job begins with the words, Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind. And said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man, for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. There's an element of humor in the very introduction. Job said he'd like to argue with God, and God said, Alright, I'll give you an exam. Job said, I'm ready, start the

Earth’s Foundations And The Mystery Of Life

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questions. And here's the first one. Number one. Where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? How do you like that question? The centuries have rolled away since that question was asked of Job, and indeed they have multiplied themselves in the millenniums that have been born and died. Yet no man today can answer that first question which God asked Job any better than the prophet himself answered in his day. The science of embryology is indeed a recent advance in man's learning. It is not too much to say that there was no real embryology before the twentieth century. There is a treatise on embryology written by Solomon in the year 1790. It's a fascinating entertainment to compare that ancient text with the known and established facts of the science of embryology in our generation, which means the most advanced scientific textbook on the subject in 1790, 200 years later, is just a joke. Yet with all our advancing wisdom, there is no man today who can answer that question that God asked Job, where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Now the wisdom of India contends for eternal life without beginning and without ending. According to their teachings, this life is reincarnated through successive eons of time and many births and deaths. Other schools of thought, while not calling themselves reincarnationists, hold that since soul life or spirit life is indestructible, there are perhaps a certain number, a certain limited number of spirits that go through cycles of living, appearing on the planet again and again. Many men of science hold that matter, including life, is indestructible. Be that as it may, you're still at a loss to say at what point and where and when our personalities entered into the stream of eternal existence. Now we understand through Bible theology that when a man accepts Jesus Christ as his Savior and is regenerated, he then becomes an integral part of the stream of everlasting life. That stream has no beginning and no ending. When a mountain rill flows into the Mississippi River, the waters of that stream are so incorporated with the substance of the river that no man can separate one from the other. The mountain stream still lives in the vaster life of the majestic river. After the mountain rill is entered to the major stream, no man can later pick out a specimen of water and say from which of the many feeders that particular specimen came. As the father of waters rolls grandly by the sight of old New Orleans, it is simply the mighty Mississippi, composed of innumerable, uncountable individual drops. It is one cohesive stream. Regardless of his infinite sources, it has been amalgamated into one uniform body. So when the individual by regeneration is united to the life of God, he becomes part of eternity. And he cannot say when his life began nor when it will end. Metaphysically speaking, then, to our everlasting life, there is neither beginning nor ending. But again, in the science of embryology, there is no living authority who can say whence the quickening life comes that brings conscience existence into the cell mass that is called the fetus. The major mystery in this complicated science is the coming of that life which is called soul or spirit, and which animates the mass of biological substance with intelligent entity comprehension and the functions of will. No man, no man can understand this mystery. Nor can any man say with certainty, I was not in existence when the foundations of the earth were laid. You can't say where this life was derived. You can't say from what point its existence is dated. Perhaps the greatest mystery of the laboratory today is the enigma of life. You can say that you have life, you can say that you lose life. Life you lay down here goes on somewhere, somehow, in heaven or hell. We may have had it before, no man can prove this contention either way. So what I'm saying is simply this with the superior knowledge of this 20th century after Christ, we look back into the twentieth century before Christ, and we hear Job in humility say before God, I do not know. And modern science, which criticizes and condemns the Word of God, modern science, which boasts to be so advanced that we have no more need for the Bible, you know what their answer is? The same answer Job gave four thousand years ago, I don't know. The other half of that question, the first question, is equally impossible for man to answer. What are these foundations of the earth that are here mentioned? We talked about this earlier in our study. You might know the size of the globe on which you dwell. You might have been able to compute its specific weight. If you had had a hook whereupon to hang a ball of the size and weight of the earth, it would take in round numbers three hundred million miles of one-inch steel cable to bear the weight of this suspended globe. That is, of course, provided you had something or someplace whereupon to hang it, that would be strong enough to hold it up. Now, when Rimmer presented this question to those great scientists that took the exam, as they pondered this question and then suggested

When Stars Sing: Light And Sound

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that they pass on to the next one, their embarrassment was already beginning to set in. The second question that day was this, found in verse 7 of the same chapter. When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. Now, here's what we want to know. How did Job know that at the dawn of creation the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? At one time it was futilely attempted to evade this question by suggesting that this was poetic imagination on the part of Job. Of course, stars don't sing, man said. But that notion will no longer obtain in the generation in which we live. For through the marvels of modern physics, we have learned many things about the tonal value of light. Light and color and sound are fundamentally the same. There are rays of waves of some tangible substance pulsating across or through space. Some of these beats reach the eye as light. Some reach the eye as color. Some reach the ear as sound. The mathematics and the physics of light and sound are now so closely interrelated that in the laboratories of research you may see almost fabulous demonstrations of the unity of nature, the nature of light and color and sound. There are rays of color so slow and so long that the eye cannot see them. All of these long rays are grouped from the infrared down. There are other rays of colors so fast and so short that the eye cannot apprehend them. These group form the ultraviolet upward. We have photographic plates and optical apparatus which will capture these rays and make them serve the human eye. Now, exactly as there are color rays that cannot reach the eye, so there are also sound waves which do not reach the ear. All of you remember looking in a catalog when you were a boy at the dog whistle that supposedly a dog could hear and man could not. I still don't know about that. But recent experiments have convinced the physicist that every ray of light, as well as every shade of color, has a definite phonetic value. The light of the sun or the light of the stars speeding through space carries with it a note of sound. If our ears were tuned to hear these melodies, we too could enjoy the music of the stars. Job was scientifically and academically correct when he said that the morning stars sang together in the instance of creation, for where light is, sound always accompanies it. That's been proven by the physicist of this century. Job knew that forty, five hundred years ago. Now, there used to be, back in the middle part of this century, there was a color organ that operated in the dining quarters of the Radio Center in New York City. Upon the dome above the diners and the dancers, soft and marvelous colors blended and crossed each other in ceaseless play as the notes of an organ caressed the ear. These brilliant rainbows were occasioned by transmitting the sounds of the organ into the equivalent color value of each note of the scale. This value is constant. The phonetic value and the color value of a given note never vary. So as the light rays blend their colors in a fantasy of brilliant splendor, the melody of these same physical rays enchant the ear in an equally delightful harmony of sound. Job knew about this. You're all familiar with the phenomenon of talking film. Movies. Upon the inanimate strip of film there are forms or divisions of pictures. By the side of these frames there is a jagged, serrated line, which is commonly called the sound track. When this film is set in motion before a light source in a projector, one beam of light passes through the picture and the sound track. This beam of light casts upon the screen the animated action of the scene. This same beam of light, by the aid of the modern lamp called the photoelectric cell, is transmuted into sound. So the one light source brings to the eye of the beholder all the movement and action of the film, while at the same time it brings to his ear the conversation, the melody, the song, the accompaniment of a philharmonic orchestra. That's remarkable. Now I think it would be would be stretching things to suggest that Job knew this. But when the stars were created and their light rays of varying lengths swept out across the void of sidereal space, they blended into a harmony which might be apprehended by the ears attuned to the shorter wavelengths than the ears of humanity. We can't be sure about this, but we know of a certainty. We know of a certainty that either Job anticipated all this marvelous knowledge, or else the Holy Spirit of God directed Job to ask God for an argument so that God could present these truths that are beyond our power to comprehend. 4,500 years ago, Job and God were discussing modern physics. How do you explain that? Let's

Who Sets The Sea’s Boundaries?

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see if we got time for one more question that God put to Job on the program today. If we could uh I'll just paraphrase it for you, for the sake of simplicity. What's the mysterious force that holds the sea within its bounds? The entire wording of this question in our King James Bible is magnificent. Job thirty eight, who hath shut up the sea with doors? When it break forth as if it had issued out of the womb? When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and the thick darkness the swaddling band for it. Now in the course of the question, Job draws a picture of the magnitude and might of God that is never exceeded in any of the pages of the Bible. The Almighty is here depicted as a midwife, who officiated at the birth of the sea. In the graphic imagery of this statement, God is pictured as sitting down and taking upon his lap the newborn ocean. With one hand he grasped thick darkness to make a flannel band for the new baby's tummy, and with the other he seized the clouds and wove them into a flannel knight to cover its little form. Carefully he concludes its imagery by saying that God then broke up for it his decreed place and set doors and bars and said, Hitherto shalt thou come but no farther, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed. Now, I am glad for the obedience of the ocean. When God put it in the cradle of the deep and said, Now stay there, the obedient but mighty infant remained in that bed to this present day. Unlike our children who quickly seek to leave the cradle and romp about the floor, the ocean has stayed put. Once in a while it may seem a bit restless as it murmurs against these bars. You may have seen a hurricane or a great storm or something like that, but uh the uh the sea may surge, and the waves may break across these shoreline with great force and fury, but they return right quickly to the place where God put them. Now, what is it that holds the sea in place? This question no man can answer. You may speak learnedly about the effect that the sun, the moon, and the stars have upon the tides of the sea. You may use great swelling words to speak of the effect of the law of gravity and shroud your ignorance in verbosity, but the simple fact of the matter is that the force which controls the sea is still beyond the understanding of men, though we've often tried to solve its mystery. In times gone by there have been occasions when the sea burst forth from its bounds, overstepped its bonds, and devastated regions. There are traditions of continents submerged and empires and dynasties wiped out, but while the sea is calm and remains within its boundaries it's the friend of man. Who holds these powerful forces in subjection? Men have often pondered this mystery and some weird answers have come to us from antiquity. The ancient Persian teaching was that the earth was flat and shaped like a warrior shield, and all around the edge of this shield they postulated the range of mountains, which their cartographers called the mountains of Caif. The purpose of this rectangular range of mountains was to hold the sea in place on this flat earth, lest it flow off the edge and the ocean become dry. Many other weird theories were advanced by men of past generations. But Job never made these wild guesses. He recognized the power of God and he's content with a statement of deity when God said I set bars and doors, I said thus far and no farther God took God at his word or Job took God at his word. Now let me ask you something does modern science have any better explanation you've never heard one I've never read one there isn't one you can't explain the boundaries and borders of the sea you can't explain the orderly course and fashion of the sea currents and tides any better than the Bible explains it in Job chapter 38 that God not only created it but holds it together by the word of his power amen and

Trusting Scripture And Where To Listen

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amen. So my friends we've seen again on the broadcast today as we have seen throughout this course of study that the Bible is not only accurate when it speaks scientifically but was scientifically accurate in ways that scientists have only begun to discover. Have no fear when you put your faith and your trust in the written word of God your faith is on a solid foundation. Your trust is in that which is sure and certain and you will never be disappointed if you trust the word of God. Amen and amen thanks for tuning in today join us every weekday for another episode of the Preaching of the Cross Radio podcast for hundreds of hours of in-depth expository Bible teaching please visit our YouTube channel James W. Knox Sermons our sermon audio page Bible Baptist Land or our website Bible baptisttoland.com until next time and throughout eternity may Jesus Christ be praised