Skit: Daniel tries to Understand Science

About 606 BC Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem and took some Jewish princes to Babylon for schooling. Babylon was the most important center of learning in that era. Four of the youths, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, made up their minds not to defile themselves with the king’s food. These young hostages chose not to compromise even in the matter of Moses’ dietary laws. The result was that God gave them wisdom - not their pagan teachers. Proverbs 2:6 “For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity.” (The word “stores up” can mean to hide by covering over.) The other students did not receive this wisdom because it is hidden from those who do not fear Him. The fear of the Lord is to walk in integrity. The willingness to obey is an essential part of finding true wisdom.

Babylonian science was religious, since they believed the planets were gods. Marduk, the primary Babylonian god, represented the planet Jupiter. It is likely that Daniel’s teachers were priests of Marduk. Babylonian priests used a portable sighting device inscribed with standard sized angles to measure the position of the planets. They also measured angular motion along the sun’s path as a measurement of time. Using their measuring system, they could mathematically predict the positions and dates for astronomical events. Every time we divide a minute, hour or degree into sixty parts, we are following the measuring system of the Babylonians. The ability to measure space and time and manipulate these with mathematics were the beginning of science.

Nebuchadnezzar had a vision of a great metallic image. The golden head of the image represented Nebuchadnezzar himself, the supreme authority over scholarship, religion and government. Daniel explained that the various metals represent a sequence of four kingdoms followed by a fifth inferior mixture. He explained that the entire image, including the past, will be crushed at the same time. The only way you can destroy the past is by destroying its heritage. This suggests that the ideas and values passed down from these four kingdoms will be destroyed when Christ sets up His kingdom.

As an elder statesman, Daniel served under Cyrus the Persian. Cyrus gave ethnic groups the right to practice their own religion and administer their own local laws. In contrast, Assyria and Babylonia deported entire nations to destroy their cultures. Cyrus, the first multiethnic politician, honored the religion of his captives, rebuilt their ruins and protected their rights.

The Western world-culture is an imitation of four pagan systems. When the Greeks conquered Persia, Alexander adopted Persian politics. Greek geometry and astronomy also imitated the Babylonian system of measurement. When the Romans conquered Greece, they imitated the schools of the philosophers, along with the politics of the Persians. We, in turn, imitate the Roman government and its lawyer-court system. Although these ancient civilizations declined, they were reborn (renaissance) when the Europeans began imitating the Romans and their predecessors. For example, science was reborn when the Europeans began to study the writings of the Greek philosophers. During the last century, the Persian policies of uniting ethnic groups have been the principal means of world unity. The Persians minted money that allowed them to regulate labor and promote trade between diverse peoples. Daniel predicted that in the final era, unity will fail, just as clay and iron do not adhere.

Imagine that Daniel and his three friends could return to study science in a Western school. What follows is an imaginary discussion between Daniel and a Christian.

Daniel: We are astonished at your science. No prophet of Israel ever thought scientifically. Who invented this system of thinking?

Christian: The Greek philosophers did. They began debating a system of natural knowledge during Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. After two hundred fifty years of debates, they invented logic and science. Fifteen hundred years later, their ideas returned as the foundation for Western science.

Daniel: No ancient people ever imagined anything like science. We will study the Scriptures for guidance on your science.

Later!

Daniel: We find the New Testament agrees fully with the Scriptures of Israel. We looked up “philosophy” and found that Colossians 2:8 warns of slavery through philosophy and the “elementary principles” of the world. We found the same word in Galatians 4:3 where Paul, an Israelite from Tarsus, said that as a child he also was held in bondage to the “elementary principles” of the world. What are these elementary principles? Did Paul go to a school taught by these philosophers?

Christian: The Greeks used this word for the simplest, most basic ideas. Strabo wrote that, during Paul’s youth, Tarsus had the most advanced schools of philosophy and learning in the world. We still use the Greek system in our schools because they freed us from myths and established science.

Daniel: Since the Scripture says the elementary ideas of philosophy enslave, and you admit that the philosophers founded science, we cannot agree that science can liberate minds.

Christian: No! No! Christians use science to establish the truth of the Bible. Science is a valid system for measuring and analyzing evidence with mathematics.

Daniel: It has been our experience that Scripture authenticates itself and that God gives wisdom to those who do not tailor His Word to fit the world’s system. We will search the Scriptures for additional understanding about these elementary ideas of philosophy.

Later!

Daniel: We found that Peter predicted the thinking of the last days in II Peter 3:4. Since you told us that the philosophers invented your way of thinking, we translated this text the way the Greek philosophers used these words. Using their word meanings, it reads, “Since the ancestors slept (died), the nature of everything is and has been continuously remaining the same in being or relation, from the time substance was formed, which is the first principle.” A first principle is an elementary idea that controls how you think. Peter says that this is the most important thing to know about the mockers of the last days.

You are certainly in the last days, since Peter’s prophesy is fulfilled. It is this elementary principle that controls the way you think. We have concluded that the Scripture has not changed, but this little idea has changed how you interpret it. Our observation is that you do not know how to think like the prophets of old. We searched to find who changed the way people think. We found that the philosopher you call the father of science, the pagan Aristotle, invented this little idea and said it was an assumption. After much study, we have concluded that the ancient way of thinking is supported by the New Testament, since it says that gold corrupts (I Peter 1:18). The Greeks used the word corruption for change without annihilation or substantial change. Peter even says that gold is presently corrupting itself.

Christian: Everyone knows that gold is the most stable element. Perhaps Peter meant that someday gold will corrupt.

Daniel: The grammar of I Peter 1:7 is clear that gold is continuously corrupting itself in the present.

Christian: No one has ever measured any changes in gold, so it must mean something else.

Daniel: Why is it that you accept the literal words of the Scriptures about salvation, but what it says about physical things must fit your scientific way of thinking? Do you not know that God can do things that your science cannot measure? Paul even explains how matter decays in Romans 8:19-22. Everything in creation submits to an orderly frailty. An orderly submission means that this corruption is not haphazard, but follows rules. He used the same word for “corruption” that Peter used. One of the Greek philosophers defined this word as “change into another constitution.” Twice in this text, Paul uses compound Greek words for “together” to describe this decay. Things that change-together, do so as a relationship. Such changes are not measurable locally with instruments. Even mathematics cannot analyze together-changes, since every aspect of reality shifts together.

The prophets believed that everything is decaying: matter, time and even the size of the earth. Have you read what Israel said to Pharaoh, that the very days of the years of his life were few and evil compared to the days of the years of the life of his fathers? We believed that the days themselves changed for the worse as part of a complex relationship. Did you ever wonder how Jacob drove his flocks with suckling lambs from the Euphrates to the mountains of Gilead in 10 days? We had no problem with this because we did not imagine that time was a separate thing but part of a decaying complexity. Even the pagans believed this, as is seen in their poems, because this was the “first principle” of our age.

Christian: That is foolishness. We know that matter does not change because we measure constants that are the same, even to the most-distant parts of the universe.

Daniel: Paul of Tarsus said “Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become foolish that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, ‘He catches the wise in their craftiness’; and again, ‘The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are useless.’” I think your statement about foolishness is very revealing. Perhaps because you will not embrace foolishness, you cannot see how God triumphs over science. Do you not preach the cross as God’s provision for salvation, which is foolishness to the world? Why do you insist that what the Bible says about the physical universe must meet the standards of the world’s science? Is it because you don’t want to seem foolish in the eyes of the world? If you will not embrace foolishness with respect to the wisdom of this age, you deceive yourselves.

We noticed that when a sphere changes size, your constant π stays the same, although every measurement changes-together. Things defined in terms of a relationship, remain the same when the relationship shifts together. Your physical constants are defined in terms of various aspects of the matter-relationship, so they stay the same when the underlying reality shifts.

If matter is a relationship, why do you divide it into separate “things” like time, mass and energy. No experiment can actually separate these into independent things. Your quantum experiments produce “non-locality” and “quantum weirdness.” These are clear evidence that matter is not made of independent things - but a complex relationship. Moses’ book makes it clear that in the beginning God made a relationship with light when he made substance. In Job 38, God even calls your atoms: “houses of light.”

We notice that you Christians struggle with the scientific evidence for billions of years. There is a simple Biblical answer, but you must think like the prophets of old to see it. What you call atoms are not made of separate unchanging things, but a decaying relationship. The redshift of distant starlight is simple evidence that atoms have shifted as a relationship. We notice that the New Testament agrees that only a few generations separate us from Adam, yet the earth is very old. It repeatedly says that Christ came at the end of the long ages. It even says that your time is short. These things are not contradictory if you think like the prophets of old. The whole of reality, including time, deteriorates together because matter itself decays in an orderly way.

Haven’t you read in Isaiah where God said He is stretching out the earth and everything on it? I still remember my Hebrew. The verb shows that this is a continuing action. The Scripture teaches that the earth was smaller and it continuously increases in size. Psalms 136:6 even says that the stretching out of the earth is in the seas. Deep under the ocean is a great expansion joint passing through all the seas. There is much evidence for these things, but you cannot see them because you insist that the Scripture must conform to the rules of science. No wonder Paul warns that these elementary ideas of philosophy take-away freedom. You cannot even imagine how to take the Scriptures literally on this subject.

Christian: We use instruments on satellites to measure the earth. None of our instruments shows that the earth is getting larger.

Daniel: I repeat that together-changes cannot be measured with instruments locally. We do not mean that instruments do not measure reality. They cannot, however, measure the component of change that is due to the decay of matter - since even the instruments and the measuring units are affected. You can see the evidence for it in the distant stars, however. What telescopes show in the distant heavens is exactly what the ancient prophets said, but you cannot see it because you try to force the whole universe to fit the elementary ideas of these pagan Greeks.

Christian: But science works.

Daniel: Of course it works. God uses the wisdom of the world to defeat it. What is the highest achievement of your science? Is it not the mathematical precision with which your science can predict near term events? This is the very thing He uses to prevent them from understanding beginnings or measuring the universe. When they apply these mathematical laws, that work here and now, to the distant-past or the far away universe, it produces nonsense like dark matter and dark energy. It is not God who deceives, but their elementary idea that substance does not change as a relationship.

Christian: Christians are conservatives. Talking this way is not helpful to the cause of Christianity.

Daniel: What about the cause of the Messiah? The prophets predicted that religions will cease and everyone will worship Messiah in the kingdom. The visions in my book predict the destruction of this world system. Messiah is coming - and the political, technological and scientific systems of the world will not survive the time of Jacob’s trouble.

We found an interesting prophetic passage in II Corinthians 10:3 - 6. “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.” Satan blinds minds so that they cannot see the glorious light of the gospel. He builds powerful intellectual arguments against the knowledge of God. The battle is not with swords that cut flesh, but with the word of God, the sword of the Spirit. With this powerful weapon you can destroy speculative ideas against the knowledge of God. Notice the prophetic part. The ideas of the disobedient will be conquered “whenever your obedience is complete.” The grammar shows that this vindication of the right happens at some specific point when the possibility of full obedience is filled up.

We find that you fundamentalist Christians are very careful to study and obey the Scriptures. However, you unknowingly embrace the very things the Scriptures warn about - the elementary ideas of these philosophers. You are not even aware that you are doing this, since it is part of your way of thinking. This elementary idea is the foundation for your whole way of thinking. Your scientific way of thinking prevents you from believing literally what the Bible says about the changes to the physical earth and stars.

The God of Israel is a victorious warrior. If you would complete your obedience in this one area - you would see the triumph of our God. It is our experience that God gives wisdom to those who do not compromise in even the smallest details. God’s powerful weapon can tear down the fortresses of scientific reasoning. Remember Jonathon and his armor bearer and David and his sling. The might of the enemy is not a consideration, because your weapon is the most powerful ever forged. Do not be afraid of them.

I urge you to search the scriptures on this matter. We understand that adults almost never change their world view, but by applying your excellent methods for studying the Bible to this area, you can change the way you think. The truth is simple and can be understood even by uneducated believers. Simply believe literally what the Bible says about physical substance. Then declare that science’s elementary assumption is false - based on the literal words of Scripture. Oh sure they will mock you, and even persecute you. Even Christians will distance themselves from you. Stand on the literal words of the Scripture - and Satan’s great intellectual fortresses will begin to crumble. The triumph of our glorious Savior will exceed your greatest expectations. There is much evidence from the universe that supports the way we prophets of old thought. You will be able to interpret this evidence simply and without pride, once you break free from the elementary ideas of the Greeks.

John wrote of great reward to those who get the victory. This will bring great honor to our glorious Savior. He is coming soon to triumph over this humanistic system. During the millennium, the organized system of the world will be no more. They will be like the chaff before the wind. Children in that age will not learn to think scientifically. Then we will shout with joy and praise His righteous judgments that bring down the great pride of man. It is then that the saints will possess the kingdom of truth, righteousness and justice.

last revision April 2, 2004

Back to Main Page