God’s Omniscience: A Future Perspective; Part 2
In Part 1 we examined several Messianic and national prophesies (Topics 1 and 2, below). Each passage described events that would be fulfilled hundreds of years later. Only an omniscient, all-knowing God could foresee specific people, nations, and other details centuries in advance of their dated occurrence.
In Part 2, we will examine several scriptural examples of early medical laws and general scientific facts that also demonstrate God’s omniscience:
- The Messianic prophesies;
- General, national, or political prophesies;
- Old Testament medical practices; and,
- General scientific facts.
The approximate date of each prophetic disclosure and its corresponding, modern-day discovery date are also provided. As noted in Part 1, God’s omniscience is evident in many aspects of His creation. For this blog, I limit the examples simply to those you can review and study through Biblical texts.
Old Testament Medical Practices1
God delivered a profuse number of laws to Moses and the Israelite Nation during their 40-year sojourn in the wilderness. Several of the laws dealt with healthy living—a necessity for the rough and desolate terrain in which the Israelites occupied. Examples follow:
Cleanliness / Disinfection1 (Written 1400 B.C.). Today, we simply take for granted that pathogens are associated with something that dies, and we dispose of it accordingly. That was not the case 3000 years ago. God’s detailed instructions from around 1400 B.C. on how to limit one’s exposure to pathogens was surely one of the first set of instructions on cleanliness.
Leviticus 11:31-33
“These are to you the unclean among all the swarming things (lizard, mouse, etc)… whoever touches them when they are dead becomes unclean until evening. Also anything on which one of them may fall when they are dead, becomes unclean, including any wooden article, or clothing, or a skin, or a sack – any article of which use is made – it shall be put in the water and be unclean until evening, then it becomes clean. As for any earthenware vessel into which one my fall, whatever is in it becomes unclean and you shall break the vessel…”
Pediatric Health1 (Written 1400 B.C.) To be a male Jew meant to be circumcised. God commanded Abraham and his generations to follow this practice (Genesis 17:9). But God also knew that an infant could bleed to death until his own blood-clotting agents were developed. We understand today that this occurs in most infants by the eighth day following birth.
Genesis 17:12
“And every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations…”
Quarantine1 (Written 1400 B.C.) In a similar manner to cleanliness, the quarantine of a sick individual preserves the health of others around him/her. It protects the larger population, especially in underdeveloped countries where leprosy and other viciously contagious diseases are common.
Leviticus 13:31
“But if the priest looks at the infection of the scale, and indeed, it appears to be no deeper than the skin, and there is no black hair in it, then the priest shall isolate the person with the scaly infection for seven days.”
General Scientific Facts2
Scripture throughout the Old Testament casually mentions scientific insights that greatly pre-date their discovery by man (generally within the last two centuries). The accuracy of these statements provides uncanny glimpses into God’s omniscient character. I previously shared verses from Job 38:31-32 that reference astronomy, and specifically, the influence of gravity upon the stars in the Pleides constellation, and the non-influence of gravity upon the Orion constellation [see “Science: Friend or Foe (Part 2)”]. We’ll consider a few examples from other disciplines of science below:
Meteorology (Written 950 B.C.). The ancient Greeks had wind and rain figured out (400 B.C.). They were controlled by their specific gods—one for each quadrant of the sky. Scientists determined in about 1940 that the global circulation pattern was amazingly complex. Two major circulation patterns covered the globe (Figure 1). One course runs longitudinal, north to south to the equator, and then returns again to the north. The other course is surface cyclical and rotates along the latitudes. God spoke through Solomon in a similar fashion about 1300 years earlier.
Ecclesiates 1:6
“Turning toward the south, then turning toward the north, the wind continues turning along; and on its circular courses the wind returns.”
Astronomy (Written 1400 B.C.) Again, the Greeks had it figured out. It was another of their gods, Atlas, that held the earth on his shoulder. Other cultures believe the earth hung upon a giant hook. Not so, says the Bible.
Job 26:7
“He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth upon nothing.”
Hydrology (written 1400/950 B.C.). How does it rain? If you had asked that question to most cultures 3000 years earlier, the answer would almost invariably be, “by the favor of their gods.” The Central American Olmec Indian culture (1300–400 B.C.) believed that their rain god “Chac” created lightning when he threw down his axe and that it rained when he bled. Today, we know that rain is a product of the hydrologic cycle (Figure 2). The cycle includes evaporation, atmospheric water storage, precipitation, and eventually, river transport back to the oceans. Consider these two Scriptures:
Job 36:27-29 (Written 1400 B.C.)
“For He draws up the drops of water; they distill rain from the mist, which the clouds pour down, they drip upon man abundantly.”
Ecclesiates 1:7 (Written 950 B.C.)
“All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; to the place from which the rivers come, there they return again”
Geography (written 1400 B.C.). Within two years (1820 and 1821), F. Bellinghausen and W. Parry discovered vast expanses of frozen seawater—the South and North Poles, respectively. However, God had already suggested that the oceans do, indeed, become “hard like stone” several thousand years earlier:
Job 38:30; (Written 1400 B.C.)
“From whose womb has come the ice? And the frost of heaven, who has given it birth? Water becomes hard like stone, and the surface of the deep (oceans- JRC) is imprisoned (congealed-JRC).”
* * *
Hopefully, Parts 1 and 2 of this blog have expanded your awe and confidence in our omniscient God. We examined His all-knowing nature by relating multiple prophecies and various commands and scientific comments back to Scripture. His omniscience, however, extends beyond Scripture and into Creation, and it leads various scientists, and some atheists, to God. His power and Divine Nature are truly evident in “what has been made.” Those observations are the topics of future blogs.
1S.I. McMillen, M.D.; None of These Diseases, (2000); Spine Books
2Believer’s Portal; List of Bible Prophesies Fulfilled, (BP-Pub-1; March 6, 2018);
https://believersportal.com/list-bible-prophecies-fulfilled/
Figure 1. Two global atmospheric patterns are recognized today—a longitudinal (N-S) circular pattern,
and a latitudinal cyclical pattern.
Figure 2. A pictorial summary of the hydrologic cycle.
