King
James Cosmology
3b
The Golden Age of Discovery and Revelation
One can easily visualize the Dutch eyeglass makers of the last
chapter goofing around with reading stones and lenses in their
makeshift laboratories. One day one of then likely grabbed a lens
in one hand and another lens in the other and was looking through
them both and saw the same blurry sight they all had seen before,
but then something different happened. The Dutchman held one close
to his eye and the other farther away and happened to hit the
sweet spot of convergence—the point of focus where all became
clear. It was hard to hold the lenses in the precise spots needed
to duplicate this "focus," but when it happened the sight was
amazing; it made distant objects appear closer! Another
enterprising soul made a tube to hold the lenses and block the
extraneous light and they had the world's first working telescope.
In the meanwhile, Johannes Kepler was a student of Tycho Brahe and
eventually replaced him as the "imperial mathematician." Here is a
quote from www.faithfulscience.com,
"...After experimenting with various possible shapes
for the planetary orbits, and many failed attempts, Kepler
finally discovered that the observed planetary motions could be
described with unprecedented precision by supposing that the
planets move in elliptical orbits around the sun
[instead of perfect circles]."
With Kepler's model showing the planets move in elliptical orbits
he was able to precisely predict the location of the planets at
any given time. Something that was not possible with the Ptolmaic
model. The same year Kepler published his findings, news of the
new invention now known as the "telescope" spread around the
scientific community in Europe like wildfire. The Italian Galileo
Galilei got wind of the new "spyglass" (it's interesting that the
inventors "marketed" the device for spying on one's neighbors),
and after seeing some written plans decided to make one of his
own. While building his new telescope he improved the design and
instead of pointing it toward his neighbors, he pointed it to the
heavens. In that same year he made some observations that rocked
the scientific world like few things have since creation!
One new sight he beheld was the rough and bumpy surface of the
moon. Man from time immemorial (at least from Aristotle) has
insisted that the moon was a perfect heavenly body with no ugly
mountains or valleys to deform its pristine surface. Since it was
not subject to the curse God placed on earth, it must be perfect.
Galileo's telescope proved them wrong. He said he found the,
"surface of the moon to be not smooth, even and
perfectly spherical,...,but on the contrary, to be uneven,
rough, and crowded with depressions and bulges. And it is like
the face of the earth itself, which is marked here and there
with chains of mountains and depths of valleys."
Similar to the "imperfect" moon revelation, Galileo saw "spots" on
the sun. According to the Aristotelian ideal of a perfect cosmos,
spots on the sun simply did not fit. How could God's perfect
creation have these "imperfections"? Galileo also determined the
sun was rotating.
Another sight Galileo was the first to see were the moons of
Jupiter. He saw four specks of light in line with the planet and
they moved in relation to it every night. He inferred that these
must be moons and they orbited Jupiter just like earth's moon
orbits it. This also destroyed the long held Ptolemic Geocentric
view that everything in the universe orbited only the earth.
A fourth new sight was the phases of Venus. As another said,
"Venus was observed to go through a sequence of phases
similar to the Moon. This could not be explained in the
Ptolemaic model but could be accounted for by either the
Sun-centered Copernican model or the Earth-centered Tychonic
model that had the other planets orbiting the Sun as it orbited
the Earth. Galileo rejected Tycho's model as an unnecessary
hybrid and used the discovery to consolidate his support of the
Copernican model."
One other great revelation the Lord allowed Galileo to see was
when he pointed his spyglass into the Milky Way, he saw that it
was not just a huge cloudy or milky part of the sky, it was
actually filled with more stars! Much too many to count. This new
fact posed the question as to why there were objects in the
heavens that were invisible to the natural man; invisible for
millennia until this new "telescope" was invented. Why was God
hiding things from His creatures?
The old ways and thoughts that man had held since creation were
crumbling before their eyes in 1610 when Galileo published his
findings. Some claimed Galileo's telescope was "trickery" or "of
the devil" and he would prove to them in daylight by letting them
look at buildings and trees that the glass did not change
anything, it only made distant objects appear closer. Everything
in the heavens Galileo saw in 1609 anyone today can see with a
good pair of binoculars or small telescope. He can now easily see
heavenly details that were hidden from man since Adam.
Galileo's discoveries got him in "hot water" with the "scholarly
community" and the religious establishment—the Roman Catholic
Church. The Roman Catholic court system (Inquisition) ruled that
Heliocentrism was heretical and ordered Galileo to abandon it. He
didn't and was eventually sentenced to house arrest for the rest
of his life.
A Time of Revelation
The early 17th century seems to be an extra dense time period of
revelation and discovery. Consider the time line,
- 1603 - King James of England is coronated
- 1603 - King James commissions the translating of an
Authorized Version of the Bible
- 1607 - English settlers looking for "New England" discover
the James River in Virginia and found Jamestown.
- 1608 - The telescope is invented by Dutchman.
- 1609 - Galileo discovers several unknown revelations in the
heavens
- 1609 - Kepler reveals two of his laws of planetary motion.
- 1611 - The Authorized Version of the Bible was published.
The Lord had more revelations to reveal in the 17th century, and
some of the most enduring and far-reaching were those given to "a
deeply introverted character" named, Isaac Newton.
The Reluctant Genius
Newton was born prematurely on Christmas Day 1642, a few months
after his father died. When he was three his mother remarried, but
Newton's new father did not want a stepson so he was left behind
with his grandparents when his parents moved away. Little Isaac
was scarred by their abandonment of him and later said he thought
of burning their house down around them. He spent a lot of time in
solitude pondering things.
Initially Newton was a poor student in school. The mundane courses
the school taught did not much interest him. Eventually, he became
a better student and entered Trinity College in Cambridge. In 1665
the dreaded Black Death once again entered London and spread fear
throughout the city and all England. Cambridge University closed
it doors and sent the students out of the city hoping the squelch
the spread of the disease. Newton went back home and spent much of
the next two years in solitude working on his experiments,
mathematics, physics, and whatever else interested him.
The Black Death or Bubonic Plague took a severe toll
on London. It was first found near the docks and shipyards and
quickly spread throughout the city. At its height it was killing
more than 6000 people a week. The stench of death was
everywhere. No one knew the cause. It was speculated it was
carried by animals such as dogs and cats so a campaign was
initiated to eradicate the city of these vermin. Every dog, cat,
or other animal was killed by any means available, but it was
impossible to find and kill all the rats. London was a rat
infested city, they were everywhere and were pretty much
considered unwelcome but permanent residents. Little did the
Londonites know but the rats were in a sense the carriers of the
plague, not of the disease itself but of the tiny insect that
did carry it, the flea. Over an 18 month period within 1665-66
over 100,000 people died in London alone. Around one fourth the
population.
While the plague raged in London, Newton was safe in his country
home with plenty of time to think. What gazing out into a field
near his home he saw an apple fall from a tree. Its fall raised
several questions in Newton's probing mind, "Why did the apple
fall?" "Why did it fall straight down and not waver to the right
or left?" "Does this pull towards the earth go all the way up into
the heavens?" While alone to his thoughts Newton used inductive
reasoning to formulate the basis of the three laws of motion that
bare his name yet today. He was 23 years old.
Newton's revelations about gravity have held true in the
subsequent centuries and are the basis for all modern physics.
After around 5600 years of Bible history the Lord finally allowed
a man to discover some of the basic laws and principles that
govern the universe He created. Arguably, these laws, more than
any other discovery, are responsible for the great Industrial and
Scientific Revolution that began soon after. Building upon the
discoveries of Galileo, Kepler, and other "giants," Newton laws
started "nailing down" the framework of just how the physical
universe works. With them he was able to explain all known
movements of the planets with much greater accuracy and detail
than any Geocentric model, plus Newton's Heliocentrism could
predict the location of unknown celestial bodies. One key proof of
this is the discovery of the planet Neptune.
Newton Put to the Test
Using Newton's laws of motion and gravitational theory,
astronomers found slight disturbances in the orbit of Uranus
(discovered in 1781). These disturbances caused the observers to
predict that there was another planet past Uranus that was
affecting its orbit. In 1846 Johann Gottfried Galle discovered
Neptune precisely where Newton's laws said it should be. As Robert
Carter said,
"This was perhaps the greatest achievement of the
Newtonian system, and ranks as one of the greatest achievements
of experimental science. The perturbations of Jupiter and Saturn
on Uranus are greater than that of Neptune and it was only by
applying Newtonian gravitational theory to the situation (by
factoring out the effects of Jupiter and Saturn) that Neptune
could be discovered. What is even more amazing is that Uranus,
with an orbital period of 84 years, had not even completed
one orbit of the sun before it was used to find Neptune!"
Carter continues by showing how Neptune could have never been
discovered using any Geocentric model,
"Absolute geocentrism could never have predicted
Uranus and Neptune from orbital mechanics. Remember, both the
Ptolemaic and Tychonian models are kinematic: they
merely describe how planets are observed to move. Any observed
deviations are just tacked on to the model—what’s another
epicycle here or there? Only under a dynamic model
[Newton's Heliocentric model] with forces causing motions, can a
deviation from predictions have any real meaning."
Thus Geocentrism can only deal with bodies as they are observed.
It cannot predict anything previously unknown.
At this point sly Geocentrists will often claim Newton
spoke of how Geocentrism could be possible in his model. As
"proof" they will bring up an unpublished proposition called
"Proposition 43" where Newton said the Geocentric system could
work if the proper forces existed to counteract the gravity of
the sun, but this is a BIG IF! Of course, any contention is
possible if one can conjure up the forces to cause it. All
Newton was saying is Geocentrism is theoretically possible IF
some force unknown to him was available. Geocentrists try to
claim these magic forces do exist among the stars and travel
through the mysterious ether to effect the sun and planets (See
chapter on science). How convenient. See this
page for more details
Geocentrism Abandoned by Scientific
Community
Since the Ptolemaic model was proven untenable by Kepler and
Galileo, the Tychonic system was then embraced by some
Geocentrists. Since it was a hybrid, compromise system that had
all the planets orbiting the sun and the sun in turn orbiting the
earth, it could account for the phases of Venus and other
observations which doomed the Ptolemaic model. Over the succeeding
generations more and more Geocentrists abandoned all models of
Geocentrism for the Heliocentric model until it became dominate.
By the 19th century (especially when Friedrich Bessel made the
first successful measurements of annual parallax for a star in
1838), Heliocentrism was the accepted system. Although the
transition was slow, deliberative, and took the better part of
three centuries, Geocentrism as a cosmology has been essentially
abandoned by the scientific community.
Of the 6000 years of recorded history, it took around 5400 of
those years for most of humanity to realize the earth was round
and not flat, and it took nearly 5800 years for the majority of
astronomers to conclude the earth revolved around the sun instead
of vice versa. The Lord kept these revelation to Himself for the
vast extent of human history.
The Discoveries Continue
Newton's laws unifying ideas about the motions of the stars,
planets, and the earth broke the ground for many subsequent
discoveries the Lord allowed to be made. Furthermore, discoveries
in other areas of science were occurring as well. Michael Faraday
is one of the most prominent. He was "widely regarded as the
greatest experimenter of all time. His work involved showing that
magnetism could produce electricity, and discovering benzene,
among many other things."
James Clerk Maxwell is another great scientist. He "discovered the
four fundamental equations of electricity and magnetism, and
predicted electromagnetic radiation at a certain enormous speed.
Light was measured to have that speed—300,000 km (186,000 miles)
per second—showing that light was electromagnetic radiation.
Without the discoveries of Newton, Faraday, and Maxwell, we
wouldn’t have much of the knowledge and technology we have today.
"Practically everything involving moving parts, electricity, and
magnetism can in part be attributed to the work of these three
men."
What is little reported by the scientist community today is all
three men were avowed creationists and believed in the God of the
Bible. As another said, "
"By today’s standards [Newton, Faraday, and Maxwell]
would be regarded as ‘fundamentalists’. Newton wrote more on
theology than he ever did on science, believing the Bible to be
God’s Word. Faraday was a member of a very conservative offshoot
of the Church of Scotland, the Sandemanians. The Sandemanians
were known for their plain interpretation of the Bible...Maxwell
was widely read in theology. He interacted with many of the best
theological minds of his day, always as a solid evangelical
Christian."
These three men were the heroes of a soon coming scientist who
unfortunately did not share in their religious convictions—Albert
Einstein.
Is it Really Relative?
Einstein's theory of relativity was first proposed in 1905 and
according to even creation scientists it is "the most
experimentally vindicated theory of gravity in existence. It has
not ‘disproved’ Newton’s laws, but has absorbed them within a
larger framework, being a more accurate description under certain
conditions." Where Newton's laws show the effects of gravity
without defining its source or cause, Einstein's theory actually
defines it as a warp in what he calls space-time. His theory is
called "relativity" because it states there is no fixed frame of
reference in the physical universe. Everything is moving relative
to everything else, thus there can be no such thing as an absolute
center or fixed location.
This idea of relativity is another bane of
Geocentrism. If everything in the universe is only moving
relative to something else then the whole concept of Geocentrism
is moot. Yes, Geocentrists can truthfully say that their
"coordinate system" of the universe can be a valid frame of
reference according to relativity, but since all motion is
relative any "coordinate system" can be valid. Once could just
as accurately say the sun, moon, a house, or a person's big toe
is the center of the universe and everything else revolves
around it. Geocentrism looses all its uniqueness with relativity
so its adherents deny the whole idea...but only to a point.
Although Geocentrists vociferously reject general relativity, they
often appeal to its concepts to defend Geocentrism when pressed.
For example, when someone challenges the Geocentrists contention
that the universe is spinning around the earth and reminds them
that from near the orbit of Neptune and beyond it must be moving
faster than the speed of light, the Geocentric will reply that the
motion is relative to the earth, not between the distant
stars. That is, they claim the universe is one huge spinning
object and the stars are not moving within that object so they are
not moving relative to each other. Thus they appeal to relative
motion to support a claim while at the same time insisting they
deny relativity. Typical inconsistent behavior. For more details
on the Geocentrists blatant inconsistency see this
page and this
one.
The Increasing Rate of Revelation
Daniel 12:4 is an oft quoted passage when discussing end-time
events and prophecies,
"But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the
book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro,
and knowledge shall be increased."
The context is the prophecies the Lord had just given to Daniel.
He speaks of how the words will be sealed to the time of the end
when many will run "to and fro" and "knowledge will be increased."
Some of the old commentators claim the increase in knowledge
refers to the revelation of the words of the prophecies, and
certainly that has application. But the verse also seems to
indicate that the time of the end will be characterized by a
general increase of knowledge and humans will be traveling more
frequently upon the earth. This is something today's society has
definitely seen.
According to the “Knowledge Doubling Curve” someone worked out, up
until the year 1900 human knowledge doubled around every century.
By 1945 it was doubling every 25 years. Today it doubles about
every year and when the "Internet of things" comes fully online it
may double every 12 hours!
Transportation has also increased dramatically. Until around 1830
man could only travel as fast as he could walk, ride an animal, or
sail on a ship. Now with "trains, planes, and automobiles" he can
travel at speeds from 50 to over 500 miles per hour and more
Anyone who has been in a busy airport has seen "many" running "to
and fro." Within the last 200 years the Lord has allowed man to
learn and discover a great multitude of things and there is no
sign at present He is going to slow the knowledge revelation down.
If the Lord wanted to slow or nearly stop the
"progress of man" it would be simple to do. A massive
Electromagnetic Pulse from the sun or a few man-made nuclear
explosions would quickly render much of man's technology as
useless. When practically everything electronic has been fried
by the massive pulse, the internet, cell phones, computers,
automobiles, etc., etc., would be useless pieces of junk. Then
humanity would be forced to revert back to the basics of life to
survive. It has been estimated that if such a scenario occurred
only in the United States, there would be from 100 to 200
million Americans dead within a year. Most from starvation and
disease.
This is just one way the Lord could slow the increase in
"knowledge" down. Certainly there are many others.
It must be remembered that the increase in knowledge does not
necessarily mean there is an increase in absolute truth. Paul said
man is "ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of
the truth." Actually, for many the current knowledge seems to work
against truth. Many today claim to be atheists or agnostic, and to
be agnostic is to say one doesn't know or have knowledge. Man
has knowledge about natural things but little about the truth of
God and His son Jesus Christ. So if the increase in knowledge the
Lord is allowing mankind to acquire is not helping man learn more
of God and His truth, the Lord may be allowing it to further the
coming time when man will be judged!
The Lord is Complimentary—to a Point
At least a couple times the Lord somewhat complimented man for
his ability to discern natural things,
And he said also to the people, When ye see a cloud
rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower;
and so it is. And when ye see the south wind blow, ye
say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass. Ye
hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth;
but how is it that ye do not discern this time? (Luk 12:54-56)
He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It
will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It
will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O
ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but
can ye not discern the signs of the times? (Matt 16:2-3)
Notice how the Lord says man can "discern the face of the sky and
of the earth." Man is quite perceptive in reasoning out the
patterns and sequences of the physical world. Here the Lord is
speaking about how people could discern the weather merely from
observation. (This is actually one of the very few instances of
the Lord acknowledging any positive ability of fallen man).
Nevertheless, any compliment is short-lived since the Lord rebukes
the very same people for not being able to discern the "signs of
the times." The natural man can discern natural things, but he has
a very hard time discerning spiritual things. Even Christ's own
disciples could not discern why He had to suffer and die (Matt
16:21-23).
Since Einstein there has been a massive amount of new natural
knowledge discerned; everything from the atomic structure of
atoms, to antibiotics, DNA, transistors, and silicon chips. Man's
knowledge now goes far beyond the weather. No matter how far out
in space man looks, there is always more to be found. No matter
how close he magnifies the most minute object, there is always
more that is unseen. The vastness and complexity of God's creation
should lead a person to seek Him, but most reject the purpose of
God's physical revelations to man (Rom 1:20) and in spite of their
beloved knowledge, they have no truth.
A "Whale" of a Progression
Before we end this chapter it is interesting to look at a
potential progression of knowledge that can be found in the King
James Bible. It is a revelation from the general to the specific
dealing with biology. When one reads the account of "Jonah and the
whale," it is often overlooked that there is no "whale" mentioned
in the story. The text says "the LORD had prepared a great fish to
swallow up Jonah" (Jonah 1:7). It is not until one gets to the
Lord's reference to Jonah in Matthew that we see that this "great
fish" is called a "whale" (Matt 12:40). Modern biologists and
Bible skeptics will quickly insist these terms are
"contradictory." They inform us that a whale is a warm-blooded
mammal and NOT a cold-blooded fish. Fish and whales may live in
the same environment, but they are no more alike than a mouse is
like a lizard.
Bible "scholars" are quick to tell us that the original words for
"great fish" and "whale" both simply mean "great fish." However,
Thayer says the Greek word "ketos" can mean "a sea-monster, whale,
[or] huge fish." So what can we derive from this? Actually, it is
pretty simple when one considers how the Lord progressively
reveals truths. Today we know a whale is not technically a fish,
but who knew that 2500 years ago? At the time of Jonah, and even
the time of Christ, men knew very little about the nature or
biology of sea creatures. There is limited record that some knew
that whales, porpoises, etc. were in some ways different from most
other "fish," but they were still generally considered "fish." The
term "fish" can be a generic reference to any water creature. How
many times have children seen a picture of a whale and said
"Daddy, look at that big fish." But in 30AD (or 1611) the Lord was
more specific. He used the word"whale" instead. "Whale" greatly
narrows the type of sea creature referred to. In 30AD it is
unlikely most knew the difference between a whale and fish but by
1611 the distinctions were more known. Today we know the
differences much better. Thus to the Israelites of Jonah's day and
also those of Christ's, "whale" was used in a generic sense
referring to a general sea creature, but today it can refer to a
specific family of sea animal which is actually a mammal.
Did the Lord make a mistake in calling a "fish" a "whale" in
Matthew 12? Is He "insulting our intelligence" or "talking down to
us" by referring to the whale as a "fish" in Jonah 1:7? Nonsense.
The Lord was simply referring to the creature in the common
vernacular of the time. As we mentioned, "fish" can be used as a
generic term for basically any sea creature just like sunset is a
generic term for the end of the day. Neither term describes the
precise or actual details of what is seen or happening.
Of Birds and Bats
Another interesting case is in Lev 11:13-19 where the “bat” is
found in a list of "fowls" or birds. Biologists today will be
quick to insist the bat is not a fowl but a mammal. In fact, a bat
is more like a common mouse than a raven or crow. However, this is
not an error or even an issue. The Lord was again using "fowl" or
bird in a generic sense referring to any creature with wings and
which flies. People today when speaking of flying an airplane may
say they are "putting a bird in the air." Again, who knew the
difference between flying fowls and mammals in 1500 B.C.? The
biological classifications we use today did not come into practice
until the 18th century so it is silly to hold today's
classifications to people who lived 3500 years ago.
Some may contend, "Why did God not tell them there was a
difference and that bats were not really birds." Simple, He didn't
care what they understood about the differences between bats and
birds and thus accommodated their existing knowledge. Remember, he
is the one that classified a bat as a fowl at the time, "And
the LORD spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying unto them...."
This is no different than the Lord speaking of "sunrise" and
sunset. He is simply accommodating the appearance of things from
man's perspective: bats look like birds and the sun looks like
it is moving.
Summary of Progressive Knowledge
In these last two chapters we have seen how the Lord progressively
reveals both spiritual and natural truths. In both cases He chose
to reveal these facts a little at a time and didn't seem to care
that for large spans of time man was believing things that were
not actually true. On the spiritual side, since the Lord revealed
very little about life after death and other matters until Christ
came along, most Old Testament saints had little reason to believe
they were conscious after death until their judgment nor did they
have a clear promise of everlasting life until Daniel.
Concerning the physical universe, the Lord kept a lot hidden there
as well. With only his five unaided physical senses, man can only
see a very minute scope of God's creation. Adam saw the earth and
many of its animal inhabitants plus the sun, moon, and a few
stars, and that was about it. God did not reveal the vastness of
his creation including the countless number of stars and galaxies,
nor did He reveal the microscopic universe that exists in a single
cell or molecule. God was not concerned that man often assumed
things that were not true and "facts" that were fallacies. For
centuries mankind thought the earth was flat, the earth was center
of the physical universe, that only the male carried the human
"seed," and a host of other fallacious things, but the Lord
accommodated their faulty beliefs without in any way verifying
them or declaring them as truth. The Lord is always true and
cannot lie, but that does not mean He can't accommodate the
weaknesses of His naive creatures without confirming their errant
beliefs.
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