Doctrine of Days
Science
and the Word of God
Scientific Laws and the Universe
Doctrine of
Days
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Word format)
Introduction
The Hebrew word yom,
meaning- ‘day,’ is used in the Bible in three ways. The
word h(me/ra (hemera) is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew
yom. A ‘principle of interpretation:’ The context
of the Scripture always determines the meaning of the word
or phrase in question.
Body
1. The day which is
shorter than twenty-four hours.
A. The “day of
salvation” describes that moment when an individual
believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 6:2 tells
us that it is God who say’s, “At the acceptable time I
listened to you, and on the day of salvation I helped you.”
Paul then goes on to say in the same v., “behold, now is
‘the acceptable time,’ behold, now is ‘the day of
salvation.’”
B. The “Day of Christ”
refers to the Rapture of the Church which will be
instantaneous, “in the twinkling of an eye.”
1) 1 Corinthians 15:52
says, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the
last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound [cf. 1
Thessalonians 4:16], and the dead [in Christ] will
be raised imperishable, and we [living Church Age
believers] shall be changed [a)lla/ssw (allasso),
from allos- ‘another;’ means- exchange one
thing for another, transform; our immediate context
{vv. 50-57} supplies what is to be exchanged, and what we
are to be transformed into: from ‘perishable’ to
‘imperishable,’ ‘mortal’ to ‘immortal,’ a physical body for
a resurrection body].”
2) Paul used this phrase
twice in his letter to the Church at Philippi. First, in
Philippians 1:10, where he say’s, “so that you may
approve the things that are excellent, in order to be
sincere and blameless until the Day of
Christ.” Then in Philippians 2:16, “holding fast
the word of life, so that in the Day of Christ I may
have cause to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil
in vain.”
C. The “day of wrath”
occurs when the unbeliever is judged by Jesus Christ at the
Great White Throne Judgment and cast into the Lake of Fire
{Rev. 20:11-15}.
Romans 2:5 says, “But
because of your stubbornness [resulting from arrogance;
sklerotes lit. means- ‘hardness;’ it indicates
that stage of reversionism where because of one negative
decision after another so much scar tissue has accumulated
in the soul that objective thought and evaluation of
Truth is no longer possible] and unrepentant heart
[unwillingness to ‘change your mind’ about the Person of
Jesus Christ] you are storing up wrath for yourself— in
the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous
judgment of God.”
2. The day which is longer
than twenty-four hours.
A. The “Day of
Redemption” refers to the believer in eternity in a
resurrection body. Paul uses this phrase in Ephesians 4:30
where he say’s, “do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by
whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”
B. The “day of the
Lord” can have one of two meanings depending on the
context:
1) The combined period
including the Tribulation, Second Advent, and Millennium,
approximately 1,007 years; or
2) Any one segment of the
Tribulation, Second Advent, or Millennium {Isa. 13:6; Joel
1:15; 2:1; Zech. 14:1; 1 Thes. 5:2; 2 Pet. 3:10}.
C. The “day of God”
refers to eternity. In 2 Peter 3:12 the apostle Peter,
addressing believers in Asia Minor under intense pressure
and persecution, wrote that they ought to be “looking for
and hastening the coming of the day of God, on
account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning
and the elements will melt with intense heat!”
3. The twenty-four hour
day, which is a solar day.
A. The six days of the
earth’s restoration which were literal twenty-four hour days
{Gen. 1:3-31}.
B. The Sabbath, a special
day of rest and worship in the dispensation of Israel. In
Exodus 20:10 the Lord commanded the nation of Israel saying,
“but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the LORD your God
[shabbath- ‘cease and desist work, rest and
relax’]; {in it} you shall not do any work, you or your
son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or
your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.”
C. The Lord’s Day {not the
Sabbath} in the dispensation of the Church is Sunday, the
first day of the week. The apostle John recorded, that he
“was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day [the day of
Christ’s resurrection], and I heard behind me a loud
voice like {the sound} of a trumpet,” Revelation 1:10.
D. Living ‘one day at a
time’ in the spiritual life of the Christian. Paul wrote in
Romans 14:5-6, “One man regards one day above another,
another regards every day {alike.} Let each man be fully
convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day,
observes it for the Lord.…”
E. The “all the day”
concept of learning doctrine daily— Psalm 119:97.
1) Psalm 119 is a textbook
on living in the Word of God, every second, every
moment, every hour of every day. The writer of the 119th
Psalm is a captive on the slave-march to Babylon after the
siege and destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC.
2) V. 97 begins the mem
( m ) section of this acrostic poem. The mem
pictures water; and no one can appreciate more keenly than a
desert people how precious is water. It is the difference
between life and death.
The mem represents
not only life-giving salvation, but the cleansing of
confession and the refreshment which comes from the study of
the Word. All spiritual thirst is quenched in
Christ, who said in John 7:37, “If any man is thirsty,
let him come to Me and drink.”
3) As the captive turns
his burning soul to thoughts of the mem, he
immediately recalls one of the first Psalms he learned as a
child: Psalm 1. At this gateway to the book of praises, God
makes a promise to every thirsty soul. He say’s,
“How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of
the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the
seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the
LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night.
And he will be like a tree {firmly} planted by streams of
water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf
does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers,”
Psalm 1:1-3.
4) In Psalm 119:97 this
Jewish captive of the Chaldeans cries out to his God, “O
how I love Your law [he uses ’aheyv, a
word that speaks of the love of a husband for a wife, of God
for His chosen people, about the love of a very close
friend, someone with whom he is comfortable and compatible;
he feels this way about the Word because it is God’s
Word; the point is that God has one basis for evaluating our
love for Him— our attitude toward His Word and our
application of it to life; cf. principles below]! It is
my meditation [‘meditation’ comes from a word that means
‘to say something over and over again;’ hence- reflection,
devotion, study] all the day
[this young man knows that he must come back to the living
water of the Word time and time again for nourishment, for
refreshment, and for strength].”
a. If we truly love
Him, we will cling to and dedicate ourselves to His Word.
b. If we have no
dedication to the written Word, then we have no real love
for the Living Word.
Science and the Word of God
(click here to view in Word format)
1. The pre-chaotic
earth was the headquarters for Satan during the angelic
revolt.
2. The fall of Satan
and the resultant Angelic Conflict led to the desolation of
planet earth.
A. The earth became
an empty wasteland {tohu- waste, desolation + vohu-
empty, void}; there was no life.
1) Genesis 1:2 says,
“And [a disjunctive clause, lit.- but] the
earth was [Hebrew verb hayah in the Qal perfect-
‘became’] formless and void [tohu wavohu
depicts the result of divine judgment], and darkness was
over the surface of the deep [in judgment God
extinguished the lights of the universe, the ‘arena’ of the
Angelic Conflict].…” An absence of light means an
absence of heat.
2) In Isaiah 45:18 the
prophet writes, “For thus says the LORD, who created the
Heavens [bara means- bring into existence by
divine command; creatio ex nihilo; used twice in
Genesis 1 to indicate the distinct creation of both the
universe and the human soul from nothing] (He is
the God who formed the Earth [verb yatsar is used
for forming something as a potter molds clay; describes the
restoration of the earth after the chaos of Genesis 1:2]
and made it [asah generally means- ‘make;’ here,
lit. ‘restored it from existing material’], He
established it and did not create [bara]
it [originally] a waste place [tohu],
{but} formed [yatsar] it to be inhabited).…”
B. For an unknown period
of time, the earth was covered by an ice pack. The ice pack
resulted from the darkness freezing the waters because of a
complete absence of heat— Genesis 1:2.
3. Neither science nor the
Bible provides precise data for determining the age of the
earth. Methods such as carbon and radiometric dating for
measuring geologic ages are based on widely divergent and
speculative interpretations of data which cannot be
verified.
4. The very reason for the
Bible is to communicate God’s plan, purpose, and will
{including certain spiritual phenomena} to mankind.
Occasionally, Scripture alludes to or comments on what we
classify as scientific subjects, e.g., in Psalm 8:7-8; and
Job 14:9 and 11. The principle: The infallibility of
Scripture extends to every subject touched in the Bible, not
just spiritual truth.
5. The Bible was not
designed to be a scientific textbook. Actual scientific
data recorded in the Bible is limited, but accurate.
6. No conflict exists
between what the Bible says in the original languages and
the correct interpretation of natural phenomena by
such sciences as cosmology, biology, geology, astronomy,
chemistry, anatomy and anthropology.
7. God originates and
sustains all the laws and phenomena which science seeks to
categorize and classify.
8. Whenever scientific
speculation contradicts the Bible, such speculation is inaccurate.
Two principles:
A. Whenever a conflict
exists between scientific explanations or interpretations
and what the Bible says, the Bible is always right!
B. Whenever a conflict
exists between an historical interpretation and what the
Bible says, the Bible is always right! In other words,
where the Bible comments on science, science must
agree with the Bible; the Bible is not required to
agree with science.
Scientific Laws and the Universe
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1. The preservation of the
universe and the earth including the human race, animal and
plant life, and the stability of our environment and
atmosphere, depends exclusively on the omnipotence
and immutability of Jesus Christ.
A. In Colossians 1:16-17
Paul said, “For by Him [Lord Jesus Christ] all
things were created, {both} in the heavens and on earth,
visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or
rulers or authorities— all things have been created by
Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in
Him all things hold together.”
B. Hebrews 1:3 tells us,
that Jesus Christ “is the radiance of” God the
Father’s “glory and the exact representation of His
nature, and upholds all things by the word of His
power.…”
2. The term ‘scientific
laws’ is a misnomer. Scientific laws, as such, do not exist
because science neither advances nor enforces these laws.
E.g., in chemistry each time certain elements are combined,
certain results always occur. This phenomenon is more
accurately termed a divine law, not a scientific
law.
3. So-called scientific
laws are based on the statistical assumption that the
universe, which operates according to a fixed norm, will
continue to do so. Science can observe, classify, describe
and apply these normative operations, but it is powerless
to control them. A distinction must be maintained between
illegitimate scientific speculation and the legitimate
observation and classification roles of science as part of
the naming task God gave Adam.
Notice how in Genesis
2:19-20 Moses said, “And out of the ground the LORD God
formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky,
and brought {them} to the man to see what he would call
them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that
was its name. And the man gave names to all the cattle, and
to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the
field....”
Principle: Only God
{specifically, Jesus Christ} in His sovereignty can
guarantee the continuation of these phenomena.
4. The universe with its
current laws of operation will not always exist as it does
at the present time.
A. Peter in 2 Peter 3:10
say’s, “But the Day of the Lord [which refers here
to the end of the Millennium, and therefore the end of human
history] will come like a thief, in which the heavens
will pass away with a roar and the elements will be
destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works
will be burned up.” And in v. 12 he adds, “looking
for and hastening the coming of the Day of God [a
reference to eternity], on account of which the heavens
will be destroyed by burning and the elements will melt with
intense heat!”
B. The apostle John spoke
in Revelation 20:11, of how he “saw a Great White Throne
[for the judgment of unbelievers after the end of
human history] and Him who sat upon it [ / Lord Jesus
Christ], from whose presence Earth and Heaven fled away,
and no place was found for them.”
5. Known ‘scientific laws’
and phenomena which man has been able to observe, classify
and apply depend entirely upon the faithfulness of God.
Jesus Christ at the present time ensures the perpetual
function of every bona fide scientific law— Colossians
1:17.
Again, in 2 Peter 3:4-5,
Peter quotes the false teachers as “saying, ‘Where is the
promise of His coming [‘His return’ at the 2nd
Advent]? For {ever} since the fathers fell asleep, all
continues just as it was from
the beginning of creation.’ For when they maintain this
[false teachers of ch. 2-3], it escapes their notice that
by the Word [logos] of God [Jesus Christ:
Jn. 1:1-3] {the} Heavens existed long ago and {the} Earth
was formed out of water and by water.”
6. The reason for
preserving the universe is to resolve the Angelic Conflict
in human history and to bring “many sons into glory,”
Hebrews 2:10.
7. When God destroys the
present universe at the end of the Millennium {2 Pet.
2:10-12} only those indestructible things of eternal value
will survive:
A. Our salvation through
faith alone in Christ alone. Paul said in Romans 8:38-39,
“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any
other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the
love of God [the motivation for the sacrifice of His
perfect Son in our place], which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord.”
B. The infallible Word of
God.
1) Isaiah 40:8 says,
“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our
God stands forever.”
2) Jesus said in Matthew
24:35, “Heaven and Earth will pass away, but My words
shall not pass away.”
C. The divine historical
record of believers who lived in the light of Bible
doctrine— Psalm 69:28; Philippians 4:3; and Revelation 3:12.
V. 12 of Revelation tells
us, that “He who overcomes [the believer who
executes God’s Protocol Plan, the hero of faith in the
Angelic Conflict], I will make him a pillar in the temple
of My God [the mature believer will have the record of
his life inscribed forever on a pillar in the heavenly
temple; the ‘temple of God’ is the eternal record center in
the future; it provides the historical textbook of the
true heroes of history in the same manner that Egyptian,
Greek, Assyrian and Babylonian temples had the great deeds
of great people {like rulers, warriors and leaders of men}
inscribed on their pillars], and he will not go out from
it anymore; and I will write upon him [1] the name of
My God, and [2] the name of the city of My God, the
New Jerusalem, which comes down out of Heaven from My God,
and [3] My new name [which is ‘King of Kings and
Lord of Lords, the bright Morning Star;’ the three names are
a ‘coat of arms’ of heavenly glory for the Spiritual
Warrior— the Order of / Morning Star].”
D. Eternal blessings, both
those conveyed to winner believers and those forfeited by
loser believers. 1) We see from 1 Corinthians 3:13-14,
that “each man’s work will become evident; for the Day
[of judgment for believers; Bema Seat: 2 Cor.
5:10] will show it, because it is {to be} revealed with
fire; and the fire itself will test the quality of each
man’s work. If [when: 1st class
condition] any man’s work which he has built upon it
[foundation of faith in Christ: v. 11] remains, he shall
receive a reward.”
2) Ephesians 1:3 says,
“Blessed {be} the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the
heavenly {places} in Christ [the very position of
our ‘spiritual blessings’ makes them immutable].”
3) In 1 Peter 1:3-4 Peter
writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be
born again to a living hope through the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead, to {obtain} an inheritance
{which is} imperishable and undefiled and will not
fade away, reserved in Heaven for” us.
E. The resurrection body
of every believer. In 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 Paul say’s,
“So also is the resurrection of the dead [believer].
It is sown a perishable {body}, it is raised an imperishable
{body}; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is
sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a
natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a
natural body [‘and there is,’ you’re in it], there is
also a spiritual {body.}”
He goes on in v. 50 to
“say this, ...that flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the
imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery [something
never before revealed until the CA]; we shall not all
sleep but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in
the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet; for the trumpet
will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable and we
shall be changed. For this perishable must put on
the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.
But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable,
and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come
about the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in
victory.’”
8. Jesus Christ holds the
universe together by the power of His Word— Hebrews 1:3.
Simultaneously, He postpones eternity to give the human race
ample opportunity to appropriate the grace of God.
2 Peter 3:9 says, that
“The Lord is not slow about His promise [v. 4; 2nd
Advent: the return of the Righteous King to take vengeance
on His enemies], as some count slowness, but is patient
toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for
all to come to repentance [a change of mind about
Jesus Christ].” This opportunity begins at the
moment of faith in Christ and continues throughout the
believer’s life in order to resolve the Angelic Conflict and
glorify God for all eternity.
