The present topic has resulted in many books and articles. It is not my intention to go into all the aspects that undoubtedly deserve attention, but to set out the broad lines of how we should relate the two and understand the relationship that does the most justice to the Scriptures as well as the natural sciences.¹

Interpreting Scripture⤒🔗

There are four basic truths or principles that should be kept in mind.

• In the first place, the Word of God is clear or perspicuous. This means that believers who read the Bible are not dependent on specialists, be they in science or theology, in order to understand the basic message that comes to them there. When the child of God reads and studies Scripture, humbly submitting himself to the Word and asking for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, then the Word is a light on his path, a lamp before his feet (Psalm 119:105). Believers are able to judge and are called upon to judge any interpretations of Scripture that are suspect (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:15; 1 John 2:20). This clarity of Scripture does not imply that there are no difficulties in interpretation or perplexing passages. It therefore also does not deny the need for the scholarly study of Scripture.²

• In the second place, God's Word is self-sufficient and self-authenticating. It does not need our reasoning's and proofs to show that it is trustworthy and true. As we confess in Article 5 of our Belgic Confession: "We believe without any doubt all things contained in them (i.e. the holy Scriptures), not so much because the Church receives and approves them as such, but especially because the Holy Spirit witnesses in our hearts that they are from God, and also because they contain the evidence thereof in themselves; for, even the blind are able to perceive that the things foretold in Him are being fulfilled."

• Thirdly, God's Word explains itself and is its own interpreter. Behind the many books of Scripture is the one Author, namely God. This means that there is a basic unity underlying all of Scripture. One part of the Bible can therefore be used to explain another part. If there are difficulties in understanding parts of Genesis, then relevant information found elsewhere in the Old Testament or New Testament can and should be used.

• Finally, God's Word has the last say. If there is a real contradiction between what men say and what God says in His Word, God's Word must be maintained and the word of man must be put aside.

Is the Bible a Scientific Textbook?←⤒🔗

It is often said that the Bible is not a scientific textbook. This is true. It would be misusing Scripture to utilize it as if it were, for instance, a modern handbook on biology or physics. The Bible does not speak in a scientific way but uses the language of everyday experience. This means, for instance, that when phenomena in space are spoken of, geocentric language is used, that is, the language of the everyday orientation of those living on this world. For example, to say that Joshua's words, "Sun, stand still!" (Joshua 10:12) prove that the sun rotated around the earth is proving too much.

This is everyday language which should not be pressed. We today who imagine that the sun is stationary still speak of sunrise and sunset. We do not say, when there is a beautiful sunset, "what a beautiful turning of the earth!" We speak geocentrically, in the language of our daily experience. Similarly we cannot prove that the world is round on the basis of Isaiah 40:22, which reads: "It is He who sits above the circle of the earth…" The circle probably refers to the horizon. Scripture speaks according to our geocentric orientation.

However, to deny that the Scripture is a scientific textbook does not mean that it does not give facts that need to be considered by scientists. It certainly does! He who does not consider the contents of Scripture ignores facts. Also scientists need to consider Biblical data, for they are true and need to be considered in scientific endeavours; facts such as creation, the fall into sin, and the world-wide flood. Wherever the Bible touches upon topics of scientific interest it is reliable. The fact that "all Scripture is inspired by God" (2 Timothy 3:16) means that it can be trusted for whatever it teaches. The Bible can never function as simply a source of data. No. It stands in a class all by itself. It is normative, also for scientific endeavour.

"Laws of Nature"←⤒🔗

The Scriptures must provide the largest framework for scientific endeavour. Although science works with certain "laws of nature," these laws must never be absolutized. Only God is sovereign. He created these "laws" and He can therefore "break" them if He so desires. For example, in geology, a basic principle is that natural processes continue at a constant rate. They have always gone at a certain rate and will continue to do so also into the future. However, since God created and rules over this world, we can never absolutize and make autonomous the particular processes that are at work and the rate at which they operate. For these processes as such do not have the final say. In Deuteronomy 29 we read for instance that God reminds His people that He had led them through the wilderness for forty years. Now according to the natural laws of nature and processes we are familiar with, that would have meant that Israel would have gone through many clothes and sandals. The regular "wear and tear" of daily life would have seen to that. However, God said: "your clothes have not worn out upon you and your sandals have not worn off your feet" (v.5). God, who alone is sovereign, overrode those "laws of nature." He can do this whenever He pleases.

For this reason, to take geology as an example, one can never simply assume that the present is the key to the past by studying the rates of erosion and rock formation. One needs to remember as well that in the beginning God created everything with the unavoidable appearance of age. One needs to remember the catastrophe of the world-wide flood which could also result in certain data appearing to be older than would have been the case under a more uniform rate of erosion, sedimentation, etc. One needs to work with these Biblical data. Now sometimes it is said that God would have been acting in a deceptive manner by making things look older than they actually are. But God is not being deceptive by, for instance, creating man and the trees (bearing fruit!) with the appearance of age, for God has told us in His Word that He has done so!

Scripture and Science←⤒🔗

The importance of taking full account of what the Word of God says when doing scientific work is underlined when one realizes that science can say nothing sure about origins. By definition science can only be sure about data and processes that can be reproduced and tested. Science can therefore say nothing about the act of creation as a scientifically verifiable fact. That is beyond the competence of science.

Scripture never conflicts with facts. God does not contradict Himself in His Book of Creation and His Book of Special Revelation. We need to remember that if we are to understand rightly we are to read the Book of Creation through the glasses of the Scripture. The one means, the Book of Creation, is not understandable without the other, the Book of Special Revelation. That is because our minds have been darkened by sin and we cannot truly understand creation without the Bible.

Although there actually cannot be a conflict between the books of nature and revelation, conflict does arise when scientific theorizing is influenced by a denial of the Word of God. The theory of evolution, along with all the presuppositions that inform it, is a good example of this. Conflict between the books of creation and special revelation can also arise if Scripture is wrongly understood. If one insists that Scripture does not allow you to believe that the earth revolves around the sun instead of vice-versa, then one goes further than Scripture (cf. the seventeenth-century struggles around Galileo). However, although mistakes in understanding Scripture have occurred and are possible, we should not now relativize all interpretation of Scripture, but we should be careful that we do not go further than Scripture does. Christian endeavours in science, carried out on the basis of Biblical presuppositions and within a scriptural world view, can never come into conflict with Scripture. Secularized science can. "But then we have in essence a conflict, not between science and faith, but between unbelief and faith."³

One's understanding of Scripture may never be subjected to the condition that it must fit the current scientific theory. Faith must never be put over against rationalism as if it is some sort of contest. Scripture has the first and the last say! We accept it in faith and do not need "proofs" from science or any other discipline that it is true. After all, science is only man trying to understand God's creation. It therefore has a modest place and its theories are only that and nothing more.⁴

This last point can be underscored by listening to the words of some well-known scientists.⁵ The scientist-philosopher Karl Popper noted: "We keep in science getting a more and more sophisticated view of our ignorance." In a similar vein, F.A. Hayek is quoted as saying: "It is high time that we take our ignorance more seriously. We have indeed in many fields learned enough to know that we cannot know all that we would have to know for a full explanation of the phenomena." And finally R.A. Alberty, Dean of the School of Science at M.I.T., said:

The more we know about the universe, in a way the more we do not know about it … Every time a scientist makes a discovery, he realizes that there are ten more things he doesn't know.