The Bible Echo, vol. 12
June 28, 1897
“The Science of Salvation. (Continued.)” The Bible Echo 12, 26, pp. 202, 203.
(Continued.)
DO NOT misunderstand me. I am not making an attack on other sciences. I am not saying that all other sciences should be ignored, and counted as unworthy of any attention. No: I am saying that this is greater than all of them; and that whatever we study in them must be studied in subjection to this which is greater than they. All others must take a secondary place to this one. Would any man be strictly scientific to put his best and highest thinking on a science, when he had the highest possible authority that there was a higher one at his hand? Would that be scientific?—No. Then any man who does not put his highest thinking and all his powers, upon this science first of all, and allow it to lead all other sciences, is not scientific. And he is not wise either; for this science is salvation. It is eternal life. Suppose I put all my life on other sciences, to the neglect of this, do I get salvation? do I get eternal life?—No. How long in such a case will I have to study the other sciences?—At most only a few years. Then my work upon these sciences will be done forever, and I shall never have a chance to study them any more. But if I take this one first of all, and let the others take the inferior place until I get this one secure, then I will have a chance to study the others to eternity. Ah, is not that the wise course then? Is not that the only scientific and sensible course?—Certainly it is. Very well, then, let us be scientific. BEST June 28, 1897, page 202.1
Now let us look a little further. In that first passage that we looked at about the angels, it began with the prophets, thus: “Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, and prophesied of the grace that should come unto you,” when they testified beforehand of the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. BEST June 28, 1897, page 202.2
By the prophets, then, was brought forth in writing this science of salvation, this product of God’s thinking on the subject of salvation. This book of science, this science of salvation, came by the prophets. And did they know anything about the other sciences?—Yes. We can find this in a number of places—more than we have time now to notice. But we will look at two or three points, that we may see that they did have a knowledge of these. BEST June 28, 1897, page 202.3
AN ASTRONOMICAL STATEMENT
In the fifteenth chapter of first Corinthians there is a scientific statement that was made about seventeen hundred years before it was discovered by science. It was there all these ages, but the scientists in whose field it was did not know it by the process of their thinking. It is the statement of a truth in astronomy. Whoever believed the statement in the Bible knew it all the time, of course, even though he never heard the word astronomy; but the science of man did not know it, and discovered it only after seventeen hundred years, when it was found to be scientifically correct. The passage is 1 Corinthians 15:41:— BEST June 28, 1897, page 202.4
“There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.” BEST June 28, 1897, page 202.5
That was not known one hundred years ago, because about that long ago a man who considered himself considerable of an astronomer, and was so considered amongst his fellows, criticised that statement as being incorrect, and as being an evidence of the ignorance of Bible writers; because he thought that the Bible writer thought that one star differs from another star in glory, in brightness, instead of in distance. That is the statement of this critic about it. His idea was that the only reason why one starts to us brighter and more beautiful than another, is that one is nearer to us than another, so that we get more of its light. But to-day in all the realms of science it is known to be the truth that there is as much difference in the stars themselves, in their grandeur and beauty and varied tints as in the flowers upon the earth. So that if we could see the flowers on the earth set before us in a grand field, with all their glory and variety of tints, and then could see the stars of the heavens as plainly as we see these, we should see one just as variegated and beautiful as the other. This is known now; but it was not known when that passage was written to the Corinthians. BEST June 28, 1897, page 202.6
Now, I ask, was not that a scientific statement, was it not the statement of a truth in science, the day that Paul wrote it and sent it to Corinth, just as certainly as it is now? The discovery that science made that it was the truth did not make it the truth, nor did it add a particle to its weight as the truth. Their discovery simply showed that they had found out something that was true, but which they did not know before, because they did not believe the Bible. If they had only read that in the Bible, and believed it and accepted it, that point in science they would have known long before any scientists had discovered it. BEST June 28, 1897, page 202.7
GRAVITATION AND THE BIBLE
There is another science comes in here. Sir Isaac Newton one day was sitting under an apple tree. An apple fell from a branch near him. Many times apples had fallen from trees before. He had sees apples fall from trees before. But that day he was in a meditative mood, and he began to think. Why did that apple fall. It must be because the earth had some influence on it to draw it to itself. The earth being larger than the apple, would draw it to itself when it came loose from the tree. He said, If I take that apple, and throw it as high as I can, it falls again to the earth. Then if it was the influence of the earth that brought it this little distance, when I throw it as high as I can and it comes back again, that it proof that the influence of the earth reaches that far away from the earth, and holds to itself and brings it back. If I could throw it a mile high, and it should come back, then it would be plain that that influence reached a mile away to bring it back. Then, he said, If that is the truth, that influence ought to reach to the moon. I wonder if it does reach to the moon? I will go and see. He went tc his house and sat down there, took the astronomical calculations upon the orbit of the moon in its place, and worked a long series of figures. But they didn’t fit. He tried it over and over again, but they didn’t fit; he couldn’t get that influence to reach to the moon. BEST June 28, 1897, page 202.8
He laid the thing aside for about ten years, if I remember correctly, before he took it up again. One day there was published a new calculation of the of the moon, correcting some inaccuracies in former figures. When that was pub- fished, Newton said, I wonder whether that will supply what I want. He got the figures, went to work, and worked a long series of figures that you and I would be astonished at, of course. But he came down at last within two or three figures of the end, and he saw that it was going to fit. He was so overwhelmed with the wonderful fact that he could not finish his figures. The pen dropped from his hand, and be had to ask a friend to carry it out for him. The friend did so, and Sir Isaac Newton had demonstrated a scientific fact, or rather, a new science, called gravitation. And he has been immortalised ever since. BEST June 28, 1897, page 202.9
That was indeed a great thing. Yet that was in the Bible twenty-five hundred years before Sir Isaac Newton discovered it in nature. Here it is. Isaiah 40:12:— BEST June 28, 1897, page 203.1
Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven with a span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure. and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in balance?” BEST June 28, 1897, page 203.2
Who set the balance of the universe?—God. Isaiah stated it nearly twenty-five hundred years before Sir Isaac Newton discovered it. It was a scientific fact then. It was a scientific truth all the time, and, ea; no more scientific because Newton discovered it. No; scientists simply learned something they did not know before, but which had stood in the Bible all those ages. BEST June 28, 1897, page 203.3
Gravitation is simply the balancing of the universe. It is that principle, that law, as scientists would say, by which the balance of the universe is maintained. That is, each body is the universe influences every other body, and is balanced with it. Not only each body, but each particle of matter in the universe, attracts and influences every other particle of matter in the universe. BEST June 28, 1897, page 203.4
In the physical world that is simply the corresponding fact to what the Bible teaches in regard to the matter of life. You cannot touch anybody or anything without its being known throughout the universe. A sparrow does not fall without your Father, and that sparrow does not fall without its fall being felt throughout the universe. This is simply a corresponding fact with that. BEST June 28, 1897, page 203.5
And there is a spiritual fact here also corresponding to these two. BEST June 28, 1897, page 203.6
“Whither shall I go,” asks David, “from Thy presence? or whither shall l flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me.” Psalm 139:7-10. BEST June 28, 1897, page 203.7
When you and I think a right thought, is it discerned anywhere else? We think a wrong thought. What is a wrong thought?—Sin. Where does the sin begin, then? In the thought. Is my sin discerned any place else in the universe besides myself? Who discerns it?—God, by His Spirit. Yes, there is not a spiritual fact in our universe that is not discerned, is not felt, or a thought for good or ill that is not known. Do you not see then that gravitation as a divine science? Sir Isaac Newton simply discovered a truth in the universe which corresponds to other truths of the universe. BEST June 28, 1897, page 203.8
A. T. JONES.
(Concluded next week.)