Today, untold multitudes of young people will make the most important decision of their lives. Their decision has nothing to do with drugs, sex, school, occupation, or marriage. As important as it is to make wise decisions concerning any of these life situations, they are all minor compared to the decision of whether to believe or not to believe in God. The choice of believing in God is made especially difficult in this day and age because of the perceived difference between the story of creation in the Bible and scientific evidence. Only God knows how many souls will reject His written Word today because they have come to believe it is in conflict with sound scientific evidence.
When I was a lad in the eighth grade in Creston, Ohio, an elderly lady would come to my school and teach from the Bible. I remember sitting at my desk thinking, “There is no way the universe and everything in it could have been created in six, twenty-four-hour days. If the Bible is wrong about creation, how can I trust anything else that is written in it?” How many times each day are similar stories taking place? Whatever the number is, it is too many. Science and the Bible must be reconciled for the sake of our young people and other potential believers who are being pushed away from Christianity.
The Bible tells us that God created the heavens, the earth, and living things (including man) in six days. On the seventh day, He rested. However, scientists claim that all space, time, and matter came into existence as the result of an incredibly large explosion around 15 billion years ago. They believe that life evolved, gradually, over billions of years. Can these vastly different views of creation be reconciled? Not if the Bible is interpreted literally. If a literal interpretation of the Bible is the only correct way to understand God’s written Word, then we would be required to hate our mother and father (Luke 42:26), murder our children for speaking back to us (Matthew 15:4), and pluck out our eyes or cut off our feet to prevent sin (Matthew 5:29-30).
Literal understanding of God’s written Word is a starting point, not the ultimate truth. Literal understanding in our minds keeps our spiritual understanding from drifting too far. When seeking hidden biblical knowledge, our anchor (literal understanding) must be given enough rope (spiritual understanding). Spiritual understanding takes us beyond literal interpretation. Literal interpretation is judged by our five senses; touch, smell, hearing, taste, and sight. Our physical senses bring us literal interpretation. Faith brings us to deeper, spiritual understanding.
Let’s examine the word “light” as used in Genesis 1:3, “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” Literal interpretation of light in this verse makes us think of sunlight or electromagnetic energy from the sun. However, scientific evidence suggests that electromagnetic energy was not the first thing created.
How can we bridge the gap between the literal interpretation of the Bible and scientific evidence? Must we deny one to accept the other? No, we simply need a little rope for our anchor; that is, we need to allow ourselves to find a deeper, spiritual meaning for the light that appears in Genesis 1:3. We need to search the Scriptures for interpretation rather than relying solely on our physical senses for understanding.
In the Scriptures, we find other examples of light in the Bible.
Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.
(Colossians 1:12)
Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen nor can see: to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen.
(I Timothy 6:16)
Paul tells us of the time that Jesus spoke to him. No doubt, Paul was speaking of a kind of spiritual light.
At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me.
(Acts 26:13)
The Bible is full of non-physical light. We can see that God is a type of light.
This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
(I John 1:5)
We can see clearly that the light spoken about in Genesis 1:3 may very well have been something other than physical in nature. What was this light? If not sunlight as we know it, feel it, and see it, what was this first light? While the examples I have given do not prove what the light of Genesis 1:3 was, they do prove that the light does not have to be physical in nature. Genesis 1:3 is in conflict with scientific evidence if we insist on a literal interpretation of the word “light,” but if we use a literal and then a spiritual interpretation of this word, the gap between biblical understanding and scientific evidence disappears.
Light, darkness, waters, firmament, gathered waters, dry land, grass, herb, and trees are among some of the words in the Book of Genesis for which we need to find spiritual meanings for if the Bible and science will ever be made to agree. There are those who find it distasteful to search the Scriptures and add spiritual meaning to God’s Word. I wonder how they deal with sayings like “We must be born again” (John 3:3), “Eat my flesh and drink my blood” (Mark 14:22-24), and “Hate thy mother and father” (Luke 14:26).
Each of us has a choice as to how we interpret God’s Word. Choose wisely.
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