Bible Cosmology (1)

For several years now, I’ve been thinking about how the Bible writers viewed this physical world. The most common word to express this branch of knowledge is “cosmology”. By dictionary definition, it is “a branch of astronomy that deals with the origin, structure, and space-time relationships of the universe.” Reaching out over several blogs, I hope to cover the Bible view of the cosmos— its view of “pre-beginnings”, beginnings, heaven, earth, underworld, and endings.

From my vantage point, as I look back on some of the debates I’ve heard over the years, they were really nonsensical, when we take into account the ancient writers’ views of the world. A second problem is that churches sometimes raise particular views of science or technology to the level of dogma. A young person then has to accept it or hit the road. This should not be. A Christian should never become closed-minded about the inter-relationship of science and scripture. The analogy of God’s two books is still appropriate—there is the Book of His Word, namely God’s revelation of Himself to us; and there is the book of nature, namely what we can study and learn about His creation. To the believer, these may seem to conflict at times but we don’t know everything. We should keep working at finding resolutions; it may even be part of our assignment to “subdue the earth”.

To some, this may seem to smack of liberalism. In my defence, what started me on this track was looking at all these Scripture references not as figurative but as literal. A recent book raises the question—or perhaps throws out the challenge— about “how the Bible can present a flat-earth cosmology and yet remain free of error.” Perhaps these blogs will throw some light on the matter.

To my mind all Scripture interlocks—details tie in with one another, they mesh like well-made gears. One example is “The Math of Solomon’s Sea”, shown elsewhere in the blog.

Another interlocking example is the entirety of Psalm 145. This is an acrostic, each verse starting with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. However, in verse 13b, the letter Nun is missing. The NIV rightly restores this verse, saying, “Your dominion endures through all generations.”

Other examples would include all the prophecies of the Messiah. For instance, if the Messiah is David’s son, why does David call him Lord? (Luke 20:41) Another example is the many-dimensional claim by Jesus to Deity when He says,”Before Abraham was, I AM!” (John 8:58)

I’ve tried to take this interlocking view, where supposedly incompatible facts can be resolved, as I look at all the Scripture references I can find that bear in any way on the old writers’ understanding of the universe. Including Old and New Testaments, I found over 200 such references, some clear and unmistakable, some oblique. My purpose is to compare scripture with scripture or, in other words, put them together so they interlock, much as a Sudoku puzzle does.