Our Father’s Loving Design: Part 2, Genesis 1 and True Science

In Part 1, Our Father’s Loving Design, we saw three vital truths to understanding the world around us: God is good always, all that is in the heavens and the earth reflect His design, and all good things today are through Jesus Christ.

True Science

I have studied the sciences over the years and worked in medicine, social work, horticulture, animal husbandry, and meteorology. I have enjoyed hours in the ocean amid a myriad of brilliant sea creatures and hiked mountains filled with wild flowers and wildlife.

I Timothy 6:17,20,21:
Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.
O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain [empty] babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:
Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen.

Rather than enjoying all that our Father has given us richly to enjoy, some babble on with theories that are empty of good sense. Such people become “professors” of error.

“Science” comes from the Latin word that means “to know.” All true science seeks to know what the Creator has done. An honest observer will see the “living God” in His works that surround us. The high-minded and prideful will deny Him and oppose the truth, leading only to “science falsely so called.” We go to God’s Word to discover true science.

The first chapter of Genesis describes the origin of every science known to man. It explains in detail how the Creator put everything together that we enjoy today. Here is a little about the Sciences from the Book of Genesis. Scriptures are taken from the James Moffatt translation.

DAY ONE

Genesis 1:2-5:
When God began to form the universe, the world was void and vacant, darkness lay over the abyss; but the spirit of God was hovering over the waters, God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness; God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night. Evening came and morning came, making one day.

Here is the foundation to energy and matter. Light shined in the darkness. Light involves the sciences of optics and spectography. How does light have qualities both of waves and photons, energy and matter? How does light from far-away stars show us their composition?

DAY TWO

Genesis 1:6-8:
Then God said, “Let there be a Vault between the waters, to divide them’; so God made the Vault, dividing the waters under the Vault from the waters above the Vault, and God called the Vault heaven. Evening came and morning came, making the second day.

The Vault includes the heavens and all within. There is water above and below. Does that refer to the clouds and moisture suspended above the earth? Does it refer to giant frozen sources of water that have been discovered floating in space? Whatever the case, this involves the sciences of astronomy, astrophysics, meteorology, climatology, and many others.

DAY THREE

Genesis 1:9-13:
Then God said, “Let the waters below the heaven be gathered into one place, to let dry land appear.’ And so it was. God called the dry land Earth, and the gathered waters he called Sea. God saw that it was good.
And God said, “Let the earth put our verdure, plants that bear seed and trees yielding fruit of every kind, fruit with seed in it.’ And so it was; the earth brought forth verdure, plants bearing seed of every kind and trees yielding fruit of every kind, fruit with seed in it. God saw that it was good. Evening came and morning came, making the third day.

The Creator did everything in proper order. After creating light and matter, he set a Vault to separate the waters above and below it, providing a place for living creatures to fly. Then he made land and sea to provide a place for life. The Sea involves the sciences of oceanography, navigation, climatology, tectonics, seismology, and new areas still undiscovered.

God’s Word has been the source of great discoveries in the sea. American naval officer and oceanographer Matthew Maury (1806-1873) was a Christian who loved reading his Bible and had no doubts about its accuracy. And this led him to some remarkable discoveries in science.

Beginning in 1842, Maury devoted 19 years to study the winds, clouds, weather, and ocean. While reading the Bible, the words of Psalm 8 aroused his interest, for it speaks of “the paths of the seas.” Maury set out to find these paths that the Creator spoke of.

Using old ships’ logs, he compiled charts of wind and sea currents. He floated “drift bottles” just below the ocean’s surface to avoid wind interference. Each bottle contained instructions how anyone who found one washed ashore could return it.  Maury used the location and date of the returned bottles to develop charts of ocean currents. Thus the “paths of the seas” were known and greatly helped sailors and navigators.

In 1855, he wrote the first textbook on modern oceanography, and later prepared charts of the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean between the United States and Europe, leading to the use of undersea cables.

The Earth offers so many scientific fields of study. The New Testament Greek word for earth, ge, and other Greek terms give us the names of many of these sciences: geography (earth writing), geometry (earth measuring), geology (earth speaking or study), and geotectonics (earth building). Earth science is very popular in schools today and includes volcanology, seismology, ecology, minerology, chemistry, and potamology (science of rivers).

Genesis says that once the Creator saw that the Earth and Sea were good, He spoke plants into being. Plants provide food and oxygen for animals. Note how these life forms are developed from basic to complex, from static to moving. And even the plants themselves were brought forth in order—first lower orders and then the majestic trees. And each has seed, as the Authorized Version says, “after its kind.”

This word for “kind” in the Greek Old Testament is genos. Each plant fit into a specific genetic class. Only plants of the same kind, genos, could reproduce. That is the basis of modern genetics. Once again, a man who wanted to better understand the Bible developed this science.

Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk, developed a new theory of inheritance in the 1860s based on his work with pea plants.  He believed that heredity was the result of specific units of inheritance, so that each unit (what we call a gene) independently affected offspring. He proposed that inheritance of a trait depended on passing on these units, with each individual inheriting one gene from each parent (pairing two genes).

Mendel carried out breeding experiments in his monastery’s garden to test inheritance patterns. Using his results, he theorized that genes can be made up of three possible pairings of heredity units (factors) with either all dominant, all recessive, or a mixture of both. He believed that the interaction between two factors determined the physical trait that showed itself.

His “Law of Dominance” accurately predicted that two organisms with different traits would produce offspring showing the trait of only one parent.  If the dominant factor was present, the dominant trait would show, and the recessive trait would only be seen if both factors were recessive. His pioneering work, with a strong belief in divine insight, laid the foundation of modern genetics.

Other sciences that spring from the amazing world of plants include: horticulture, botany, agronomy, agriculture, and floriculture.

DAY FOUR

Genesis 1:14-19:
Then God said, “Let there be lights in the Vault of heaven to separate day from night, to mark out sacred seasons, the days and the years; let them shine in the Vault of heaven, to shed light on the earth’; and so it was. For God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, the lesser light together with the stars to rule the night; God set them in the Vault of heaven to shed light upon earth, to rule the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. Evening came and morning came, making the fourth day.

Here we see the Creator speaking into being the Sun, the Moon, stars, and planets (from the Greek, planētēs astēr, meaning “wandering star”). Modern science has made great strides in studying this aspect of God’s creation. Astronomy, astrophysics, physics, helioseismology, mathematics, calculus, and planetary science continue to make new inroads to understanding what God has done. Did a devout Christian help develop much of modern astronomy?

Galileo Galilei, who lived from 1564 to 1642, pioneered much of modern astronomy, mathematics, and physics. He believed that the Bible was God’s Word, and that true science must acknowledge the Creator. He said, “God is known by nature in his works, and by doctrine in his revealed word.”

Another great science regarding the heavens is Biblical astronomy. This uses linguistics, history, astronomy,  archaeology and Biblical studies to see the original purpose and meaning of God’s creation in the heavens. Genesis 1:14 says these luminaries were set “to mark out sacred seasons, the days and the years.” The original star names are indicated by some ancient languages and the twelve constellations (the zodiac) tell of the coming Messiah. This is a vast field of study with many discoveries in our day. See the blog “The Heavens Declare the Glory of God” for an initial look at this subject.

DAY FIVE

Genesis 1:20-23:
Then God said, “Let the waters teem with shoals of living creatures, and let birds fly over the earth under the open Vault of heaven.’ So God formed the great sea-monsters and every kind of living creature that moves, with which the waters teem, and also every kind of winged bird. God saw that it was good, and God blessed them; “be fruitful,’ he said, “multiply, and fill the waters of the sea; let the birds multiply on earth.’ Evening came and morning came, making the fifth day.

I love to swim in the ocean near our home. Just this week I was floating among the kelp beds and saw beautiful golden Garibaldis and bright green rockfish.

I have also enjoyed seeing sharks off the east coast of Grand Cayman Island and spent countless hours amid the clownfish and anemone of Guam’s coral shelf. I remember giant clams growing at an aquaculture station on the island of Palau.

God saw that his creation in the seas was good, and He was right. Ocean life is amazing! And God told them to multiply and fill the waters. They’ve done that.

Ocean life gives us sciences including marine biology, freshwater biology, ichthyology, and marine botany. Inventions like the bathyscaphe, bathysphere, aqualung, and other submersible devices have opened whole new worlds of science. The “great sea-monsters” mentioned in Genesis do exist. I still remember the “shorts” at our local theater before the main film—often with amazing underwater photography by Jacques Cousteau and others.

Not only did the Creator design life that could use gills and other means to thrive in the water, He designed birds to soar within the skies. The Bible is replete with avian life and God uses birds to describe so many positive qualities (protection under the wing, guileless like a dove, individual worth like a sparrow).

Modern sciences in this category include ornithology and even aeronautics—the Wright Brothers observed birds and noticed that when they soared into the wind, the air flowing over the curved surface of their wings created lift. Check out the wing next time you are flying on a commercial jet and see that curve!

DAY SIX

Genesis 1:24-31:
Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth every kind of living creature, animals, reptiles, and wild beasts.’ And so it was. God made every kind of wild beast, every kind of animal, and every kind of reptile; and God saw that it was good.
Then said God, “Let us make man in our own likeness, to resemble us, with mastery over the fish in the sea, the birds of the air, the animals, every wild beast of the earth, and every reptile that crawls on the earth.’ So God formed man in his own likeness, in the likeness of God he formed him, male and female he formed both. And God blessed them; God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, mastering the fish in the sea, the birds of the air, and every living creature that crawls on earth.’ God also said, “See, I give you every plant that bears seed all over the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; be that your food. To every wild beast on earth, to every bird of the air, and to every living creature that crawls on the earth, I give all the green growth for food.’ And so it was. God saw all that he had made, and very good it was. Evening came and morning came, making the sixth day.

A lot happened on that day! The Creator brought forth every kind of living creature, animals, reptiles, and wild beasts—including man. And He gave people dominion over all plants and animals. He also gave plants as food for man and other living creatures. When all was done, God saw that it was “very good.” That is the basis of true ecology, understanding how the Creator made things so very good, and then caring for what He gave us.

Some basic sciences that study living creatures include biology and zoology. Specific sciences study different groups and classes: primatology, mammalogy, animal husbandry, invertebrate biology, and entomology (insects). The Bible describes the life cycle of an insect, the locust, in Joel 1:4 as lopping, swarming, leaping, and devouring.

Sciences that study man include anthropology, anatomy, physiology, psychology,  archaeology,  and sociology.

Man was given mastery over sea creatures, air creatures, and land creatures (animals, wild beasts, reptiles that crawl). Man was be fruitful, multiply, subdue the earth. For food he was given seed-bearing plants and fruit trees. Even the wild beasts, birds, and crawling creatures could eat of the green growth that God provided.

In our next blog, we will see the great overall design of the Creator’s work in Our Father’s Loving Design: Part 3, Foundational Principles of God’s Design.

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