La ciencia no puede descubrir nada que Dios no ha creado
"Si escuchas atentamente la voz de Jehová tu Dios, e hicieres lo recto delante de sus ojos, si se presta atención a sus mandamientos y guardares todos sus decretos, No traeré sobre ustedes ninguna de las enfermedades que envié sobre los egipcios, porque yo soy Jehová, tu sanador ".
Éxodo 15:26
"Y vio Dios todo lo que había hecho, y era muy bueno ".
Génesis 1:31
George Washington Carver era un esclavo negro americano que utilizó su gran mente para tirar de él de la esclavitud, convirtiéndose en uno de los más grandes científicos de los Estados Unidos. Él llevó a cabo más de 1,000 patentes para el uso de la sola de maní. Cuando se le preguntó cómo podía pensar en 1,000 maneras de utilizar el maní le respondió que él llevó a cabo el maní en la mano y dijo:, "Dios, Usted ha hecho toda planta que da semilla, y dijiste que eran buenos.1 What did You make the peanut for?"
Prácticamente todos los astronautas que se ha aventurado en el espacio, ha regresado a la Tierra hablar del Creador, asombrado por la magnificencia del cosmos. Rey David y el Rey Salomón no eran sólo los grandes líderes políticos, pero amaba la ciencia2 and worshiped the Lord of Creation. Para los Judios, creación fue la primera revelación de Dios. Pablo dijo que es el material
mundo que se revela con tanta elocuencia los atributos invisibles de Dios que nadie tiene excusa para no verlo.3 Paul argued with the mystics of his day that God is not only the God of the unseen world but also of the seen.4 It could be argued that modern science as we know it came from the biblical view that God created everything there is and He created it with laws by which it works. El descubrimiento y la comprensión de las leyes que nos pueden llevar a una mejor calidad de vida.
Hoy, sin embargo, muchos cristianos odian la disciplina de la ciencia, pensando que es el campo de batalla para refutar la existencia de Dios. Otros creen que es el plano inferior del material y no tan importante como el reino espiritual. Algunos, de hecho creo que es una falta de fe para buscar y utilizar los descubrimientos científicos. Estas ideas están muy lejos de las enseñanzas del Antiguo Testamento, el fruto de la iglesia primitiva, y la raíz de ambos, Jesús y los mensajes de Pablo. La comprensión del mensaje de Cristo no se basa en un fundamento bíblico clara del mundo material es más oriental y místico de lo que es bíblico.
A medida que el Evangelio viajó por el mundo en el primer 1800 año, que llevó el mensaje de "la limpieza es la piedad" con él. La mejora del saneamiento y la salud acompañan el concepto de la salvación. Las prácticas de saneamiento de los Judios en las plagas negros de Europa eran tan superiores que algunos pensaban que tenían artes "mágicas", cuando, de hecho, no eran más que seguir practicando lo que Dios le había enseñado en los libros de Moisés. ¿Cómo se compara esto con un "cristianizado" el sur de África que se enfrenta a cerca de la extinción a causa de la enfermedad? Cuando algunas de las cuestiones morales más importantes del siglo 21 se pide que en el ámbito de la ciencia, lo que hace la casi ausencia de una visión bíblica clara forewarn?
Vamos a empezar a tener una idea de lo que estaba enseñando a Moisés:
Deuteronomio 23:9-14
9 Cuando usted está acampado en contra de sus enemigos, mantenerse alejado de todo lo impuro.
10 Si uno de sus hombres es inmundo a causa de una emisión nocturna, él debe salir fuera del campamento y permanecer allí.
11 Pero a medida que se acerca la noche es para lavarse, y al atardecer se puede regresar al campamento.
12 Designe un lugar fuera del campamento donde se puede ir a hacer tus.
13 Como parte de su equipo tiene algo que cavar con, y cuando a aliviar a sí mismo, cavar un agujero y cubrir tu excremento.
14 Porque el Señor tu Dios se mueve en su campamento para protegerte y para entregar a tus enemigos para que. Su campamento debe ser santo, por lo que no va a ver en medio de ti nada indecente y se aparte de ti.
Las Escrituras son muy a la tierra y hacer frente a la vida en su forma más básica. Dios trata con todas las dimensiones de su creación. Temas que te hacen sentir incómodo y se llevan a cabo para comprender el sentido común. Este párrafo en Deuteronomio comienza por tratar las emisiones nocturnas. No escatimaremos los hombres y vaya que, y tomar versos 12-14 que avergüenza a todos por igual.
Dios ha traído una gran liberación para Isralites más de dos y medio millones de dólares y los esclavos extranjeros. Ellos han experimentado el milagro de la división del Mar Rojo. Ellos han estado comiendo el maná milagroso cayó del cielo sobre una base diaria. Pero todavía tenían que usar el baño. Se podría decir que esta escena en el desierto es la yuxtaposición de las enseñanzas de Dios en el mundo material. Él puede invadir nuestra creación y hacer lo que ninguno de nosotros entiende, pero la norma diaria es trabajar con las leyes naturales por las que se hizo su creación a funcionar. En estos versículos Dios está enseñando higiene básica.
The principles are fairly straightforward. The community is to take responsibility to make provision for the daily need of all its citizens to urinate and defecate. En segundo lugar, the citizens were to take personal responsibility to follow those guidelines. Thirdly, the waste was to be buried, as opposed to put in the water or left on top of the ground. Fourthly, the highest motivation possible is used – God’s presence. Dios, por medio de Moisés, is teaching public health. He is teaching sanitation and preventive health measures. The same God who did the impossible for His people by parting the Red Sea wants to teach them about His material world and the laws by which it works and He wants them to take responsibility for what they have learned. He is discipling them.
The Unclean Scriptures
When I was growing up, the “unclean” scriptures were taught allegorically as parallels for sin. I was glad that I hadn’t lived in Old Testament days because walking through the streets shouting, “I am unclean,” and spending a day outside the camp seemed fairly heavy treatment for minor infractions. From this allegorical treatment one got the notion that perhaps women were more unclean than men. I think this was drawn from the teaching that the mother was unclean for more days after the birth of a female child than after the birth of a male child.5 This concept of women being more unclean became tied to the idea that Eve sinned first and, por lo tanto, women are more prone to deception than men. Altogether, it was a grim scenario for women. Sin embargo, the “unclean” scriptures are not allegories, they are historical and, es más importante, they were pragmatic guidelines given by God for community health.
This list of everything in the books of Moses, which would make you unclean, is quite revealing:
- Touching anything taken as spoils of war – Deut. 13:15-16
- Touching a human bone or grave – Num. 19:16
- Touching or being in the presence of a dead body – Num. 19:11
- Touching the discharge of a woman’s period – Lev. 15:19,25
- Touching the discharge of a man’s semen – Lev. 15:2,16
- Touching a man with a bodily discharge or his spit – Lev. 15:7-8
- Touching the bed or saddle touched by a man with a bodily discharge – Lev. 15:4,9
- Touching the nocturnal emission of a man – Deut. 23:10
- Touching human uncleanness, meaning urine or feces – Lev. 5:3
- Touching anything that touched any of these things – Lev. 7:21
- Touching the bed or chair that a woman with her period had touched – Lev. 15:20-21
- Touching or having a skin rash or outbreak on the skin – Lev. 13:2-3
- Touching or being exposed to mildew – Lev. 13:59
- Touching the blood of the sacrifices, if you were a priest – Lev. 16:14
This list teaches us many things. Primero, it would appear that men are more likely to be unclean than women. En segundo lugar, it seems that the poor priest is going to be the most unclean of all. Thirdly, none of this is about matters of the heart. It is about hygiene. God is teaching community health and prevention. When He says, “If you obey my laws you will have none of the diseases of the nations that surround you,” He is not giving some formula for spiritual magic. He is teaching the prevention of transmittable diseases. And He is teaching this nearly 3,800 years before man will discover the germ. Not until the late 17th Century would we learn that there are invisible microbes and viruses that can be transmitted from one thing to another and cause disease. We would not understand clearly until the 1990’s that the most viral transmitters of these invisible enemies are bodily fluids. It has taken the AIDS epidemic to reveal the extent of God’s advanced understanding.
En 80 percent Christianized Africa, one out of four people, possibly even one out of three, are dying of AIDS. What would the statistic be if we added in all the other infectious diseases taking lives in that region? Where is the biblical influence that produced the healthiest, most scientifically advanced nations of the world? Recordar, when the gospel came to Europe, Europeans were the “filthy pagans” that the advanced middle easterners weren’t sure they wanted to mingle with. Where did antiseptic Switzerland, Germany, and Scandinavia come from? The minds and then the cultures of these peoples were transformed by a gospel that not only dealt with the conversion of the soul; the gospel they received was a gospel that dealt with all of life. It was a gospel that brought physical health as well as communion with God.
George Kinoti says, “Africa is plagued by numerous diseases. The most important are infectious diseases, which are both curable and preventable. An obvious example is malaria, which causes untold suffering in Africa and claims something like a million African lives a year. Malaria was once a major disease in the warmer parts of Europe and the U.S.A., but improvements in the living conditions led to its disappearance.”6 Two-thirds of the world is crying out for this gospel. Who will go? How will they know if someone does not tell them?
Healing
A young mother of two children under four sat across from me in a New Zealand restaurant. She had just discovered that a dreaded lymphoma cancer had reappeared in her body just months after thinking she had been cured. The prognosis was not good. She looked at me and asked, “What do you think of healing?” Everything in me wanted to give popular charismatic or evangelical answers such as, “By His stripes you are healed; claim it and believe for it.”7 I wanted to give her the happy ending version, but I had been studying the Bible too long, and I knew that is not all that it teaches. Scripture does not teach that if we believe in Christ we will never get sick, that if we believe, we will be healed or that we will never die! You can find individual scriptures that would seem to mean that, but that is not what they mean because they make nonsense out of many other scriptures. Jesus died and Paul had a physical ailment that God did not heal even though Paul prayed three times.8 Lazarus was raised from the dead and then he died again.
With a heavy heart I said to my friend that the Bible makes it clear that miracles are possible, but they are exceptions, not the rule. Miracles are spectacular interventions of God for His own unique purposes but they will never be the norm. We may always pray and ask God for healing, but the gospel message is that in death the enemy of our souls is finally defeated, not that we will not die. We live in a fallen world and disease is a reality. Our mortal bodies are wasting away. We can learn to live more wisely and deal with disease with prevention and cure, but we will all die. Then what is our hope? Our hope is that, through His death, Christ has overcome the evil one. At the very moment that Satan feels he has conquered us, the point of death, we are given an immortal body not corrupted by sin. The cross has removed the sting of death, not death itself. Job reveals to us that the enemy of God can sorely try us with crisis and illness, but Job also reveals that Satan cannot take our life when we belong to God. The issue is more when will we die, not if we will die.
The thinking of many Christians today is that there should be no suffering, there should be no death, we should have heaven now. Quoting Dr. Kinoti again, “religion…enables many to evade reality. Christians…sometimes use their faith as a narcotic to evade the pain, the ugliness, the difficulties, the concrete reality of the world in which we find ourselves.”9 The author is speaking specifically about African believers. But this is not only an African problem. This is one of the great problems in evangelical, pentecostal, and charismatic thinking in the last century and a half. We have drifted towards a belief that salvation delivers us from living in the material world. And it does not.
As I left the restaurant with my suffering friend I longed to say something that would comfort, and that was true. I put my arm around her and said, “Here is what I do know. If you live, you will be pure gold through this trial. If you die you will go into His presence and be perfected into His likeness. Either way, you cannot lose!” The week I was preparing this chapter I attended her funeral… knowing I had given her the comfort of His Word.
Worship And The Material World
All through scripture, creation draws the hearts of God’s people to Him. David was stunned by the God who created the innumerable stars. Solomon tried to grasp understanding of the seasons and the God who created the rotation of the planets. Paul expected man to understand the existence and attributes of God simply by considering the creation around him. Creation captures God’s awesomeness. In the era of Cathedral building, Europeans were mystified by the nature of space. They could not yet define the molecular structure of all things, and so air was mysterious and awesome. They incorporated this into their worship by getting architects and engineers to invent new building technology to convey the awe and wonder of God’s creation in their cathedrals. They understood that science and worship could work hand in hand. Millions still visit these great monuments every year.
God is not at war with His material world. Science is, of all the domains, the most limited because the scientist cannot discover anything that God has not created. Certainly scientists can have theories that are not based in fact. But scientists cannot create new laws or new truths in the cosmos; they can only discover them. Today many Christians believe, or at least behave as if by virtue of our faith, we are alienated from all science. This can be a grave danger. In the 16th Century the church and science were at odds with each other. Galileo and others had begun to postulate that the world was not flat but round. The theology of the day was built around a flat earth concept, and it supported the idea that heaven was up, and hell was down, and that man and the earth were at the center of the universe. The first proponent of this concept of a round globe was executed for heresy, teaching against the doctrines of the church. The second, Galileo himself, was put under house arrest.
Por supuesto, in this instance, science was right and the theological interpretation of the day was wrong. God knew the truth all along. He was not thrown by our discovery. Science’s discovery of some fact in His universe does not destroy the validity of scripture or challenge God’s truth. This discovery simply led to a clearer understanding of what God meant by man being the center of the universe. It created the possibility that man was central to God’s plan, but not necessarily central in cosmic geography. We did not yet know that up y down are relative terms relating to gravity. What these concepts mean outside our planet is quite another issue. God is not shaken by scientific discovery. He is not alienated from His material world; He uses it to reveal Himself and man is still discovering Him in it.
When I saw the Hubble telescope’s pictures of the birth and death of stars, I was awestruck! The color, the power, the majesty in the creation of just one tiny star! Explosive plumes millions of miles high. Who cannot worship the God of creation when they see and discover such things? I was humbled to think that I live in the first generation that God has graced with such a view of what He has made, the awe of His power, the beauty of His universe in every detail. King David was overwhelmed by the innumerable stars. He saw God revealed in the shear scope of what he could see. The Hubble telescope was aimed at a black spot at the end of the handle of the Big Dipper. This spot was ten times blacker than anything we can see with the naked eye. The telescope viewed this black spot for ten days, absorbing light from deep space. When astronomers looked at the picture that the telescope sent back, they counted ten galaxies, all larger than ours, in the one black spot. Who cannot worship at the thought of His grandeur? Who cannot marvel at the Creator God? And yet today, with split thinking being the norm amongst Christians, if you heard of the Hubble telescope’s discoveries at all, it was in the light of how the money could have been used for evangelism.
Resumen
Are you beginning to get the picture of what we have lost in scripture? Are you seeing the tragedy of keeping God so boxed in? What else is God going to reveal to us in His universe? What other advanced understanding of the material world is He waiting to impart to us for the prevention of disease? God is the same yesterday, today and forever. God has not changed; we Christians have lost our understanding of God. He wants to restore us, to revive us through the revelation of Himself in the material world. Will we let Him?
We have looked at one small passage dealing with sanitation. There is so much more: teaching about ecology and our responsibility to steward His creation, about cures, about the priestly role in primary health care, about the pharmaceutical properties of plants. When you finish this study in the Bible you must conclude that God loves science.
ESTUDIO DE AYUDA:
Themes to consider when studying and coloring science in scripture: salud, nature, hygiene, medicine, engineering, tecnología, ecology, animal kingdom.
The domain of science reveals: The Creator
The primary attributes of God revealed in science: Order and power
Dios gobierna este dominio a través: The laws of nature
El color usé: Blue
TRABAJO PROFESIONAL MISIONES DE DECLARACIÓN:
To discover and use God’s laws for the blessing of all people, pursuing a higher standard of living, better health, and better stewardship of all God’s natural resources. Grandes temas incluyen:Prevention of disease, discovery, and stewardship.
NOTA PARA TODOS LOS CREYENTES:
God is not afraid of science or discovery. Neither should you and I be. For me, a balanced approach to biblical healing is:
- Confess all known sin.
- Bind the enemy.
- Do everything medically known that may be helpful.
- Pray for a miracle.
- Put yourself in the loving hands of the Father; He knows best.
I believe I can support all of this from the Word of God. I would ask God to reveal to His science professionals a cure, just as He revealed preventives of infectious disease to Israel. Which do you think is the greater lasting witness: a miracle for an individual or a cure for everyone? Perhaps we cannot fairly ask that question as both reveal God. Are you praying for both revelations – miracles and cures – for the nations?
Are you prepared to refuse skepticism about all science and let God speak to you through what He is allowing us to discover? Man is fallen and tends to corrupt anything that can be corrupted. Por supuesto, cloning could lead to trying to duplicate humans. But cloning and DNA research could also lead to a cure for many common diseases. Can we not see this discovery as the hand of God extended to us in mercy? The story of the tower of Babel is often used to discuss the evils of technology. But the sin of Babel is really political imperialism; the tower was just the symbol. What we see in scripture is that when the technology got out of hand, God destroyed it by confusing the people.
What is the point for us then? Don’t fret about new discoveries and developments. If they threaten God’s plan, He will deal with them. If He is allowing the discovery, our question should be, "Dios, how do you want to use this to glorify Yourself?"Los cristianos hicieron con el descubrimiento de los tipos móviles y la impresión y, por consiguiente, siguen siendo los mayores editores de material impreso. Pero, tendemos a dejar de lado la tecnología de la Internet como demoníaca. Lo que ha cambiado? Dios? No, los cristianos tenemos. Enajenación del descubrimiento que Dios está permitiendo que sólo puede resultar en la disminución de los propósitos de Dios. Vamos a trabajar de nuevo para recibir todo el consejo de la Palabra de Dios en este maravilloso escenario de la ciencia y su revelación de material.
UNA NOTA A LA CIENCIA PROFESIONAL:
Cuando hablé sobre este tema en Urbana, Illinois, un ingeniero de saneamiento, cuyo hermano era un misionero, se acercó a mí con lágrimas. Toda su vida la obra de su hermano había sido aplaudido como un llamado espiritual. Este hermano se había hecho sentir menos importantes debido a su profesión no espiritual. Él me dijo:, "Nadie me ha dicho que lo que hago es importante para Dios, también. "Yo estaba en 40 por ciento10 Christian Togo some time ago and saw that people had taken to spray painting, "No orine aquí!"" No orine aquí!"En las paredes de sus casas y negocios. Pensé "Gran! La mitad del evangelio de saneamiento. "Pero, ¿quién les enseñará la otra mitad ... ¿dónde deben orinar? Hace una gran tribu de gitanos pentecostal varios veranos llegaron a Suiza para celebrar servicios curativos y de evangelización. Levantaron una carpa gigante muy cerca de mi casa y utilizar el estacionamiento de nuestra carrera forestal y por supuesto el ejercicio de sus automóviles y remolques. Los dos pequeños aseos del supuesto ejercicio y sus baños remolque no eran, obviamente, adecuado a las necesidades de un grupo tan grande. Dado que los servicios evangelísticos de la semana fueron en, los senderos del bosque se hicieron cada vez llenos de heces y papel higiénico. Al principio, usted puede estar airado y piensa que esto es una estupidez, pero tenemos que ser más compasivo. Usted ve, estas queridas personas habían enseñado que Jesús ahorra y Jesús sana, pero nunca se les había enseñado lo que la Biblia enseña sobre el saneamiento.
Como profesional en el ámbito de la ciencia, Tiene una alta vocación. Ustedes son los descubridores y mayordomos de la creación material de Dios. Estáis llamados a conocerle de una manera especial, como se revela en las cosas que él ha hecho. Estáis llamados a usar ese conocimiento para bendecir a las personas, comunidades, y las naciones. No hay vocación en el Reino de Dios es de segunda clase. No hay dominio de la revelación es más o menos importante que otro; todos ellos son creados por Dios para revelarse. El pastor tiene un trabajo y tiene otro. Los misioneros ora se muestren dignos de su llamamiento y lo que debería. Dios hace Su relación de "causa y efecto" con el hombre más evidente en este dominio. Él utiliza sus leyes naturales que nos humildes y revelar su asombroso poder y sabiduría. ¿Es usted uno de George Washington Carver de Dios? ¿Está llamado a tener en la mano algo de la creación de Dios y decir:, "Dios, usted hizo esto y dijo que era bueno. ¿Por qué hiciste esto maní, átomo, ADN celular, planeta, bug, árbol?"El cielo no es el límite. Revelación de sí mismo de Dios se extiende hasta los más lejanos confines del cosmos. ¿Hasta dónde es que? Tal vez Él te usará para revelar que a nosotros y nos herirá con asombro nuevo. Usted es parte de la estrategia de Dios para discipular a todas las naciones.
1. Génesis 1:11-12
2. 1 Reyes 4:33
3. Romanos 1:20
4. Colosenses 1:16
5. Levítico 12:1-5
6. Kinoti, Ibid., página 7
7. Isaías 53:5
8. Corintios 12:8
9. Kinoti, Ibid., página 3
10. Johnstone, Ibídem
