Nature is rationally intelligible because the universe is a rational system. Every aspect of nature is regulated by the immutable laws of the cosmos (CÓSMOS means “order”). It is possible to do science because predictable Laws of Nature can be pre-supposed with mathematical precision.* For example, ASTRO·NÓMY is the law of the stars (NÓMOS means “law”). From remotest times, scientists have called the logical discipline of laws on the physical world the “LÓGOS.”
In all branches of science, Lógos defines the nature and principles of knowledge: physio·lógy, geo·lógy, zöo·lógy, bio·lógy, gynæco·lógy, techno·lógy, cosmo·lógy, metéoro·lógy, psycho·lógy, patho·lógy, archæo·lógy, ánthropo·lógy, and lógic.
LÓGOS (Λόγος translated “THE WORD”)
To ancient philosophers, LÓGOS (THE WORD) was the governing principle of the cosmos. In Scripture, the term LÓGOS does not describe a rational force of nature or an abstract idea. THE WORD is a Person, with a mind and a will. Every thing that came to be, came to be through the Word of God (Lógos).
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made….” [John 1:1-3.]
According to the Bible, time, space, mass and energy (matter) had a beginning. The Word of God was the personal agent of creation.
“…the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of the things which do appear.” [Hebrews 11:3.] “He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.” [Job 16:7; between 2,350 and 1,750 B.C.]
The Word (א ר מ י מ) has the power of being.
“…the Word of our God shall stand for ever… It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth… the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth….” [Isaiah 40:8, 22, 28; 712 B.C.]
In Hebrew Scripture, THE WORD OF YHWH** is the personal name of the Law-Giver.
“By the Word of the LORD were the heavens made… for He commanded, and they were created….” [Psalm of David 33:6, 9; c. 1,050 B.C.]
THE LONGEST WORD
Scientists have learned the longest word that has ever been discovered. The human genome is 3.1 billion letters of genetic information, with a four-letter alphabet, in exact sequences, encoded in precise locations. DNA/ RNA code is written in a language that uses three-letter words. A single letter out of place in the sequence can degrade the genome (errors in the codons can damage, delete, scramble, duplicate, or relocate existing information). The order and density of information in the instructions for human DNA are mind-boggling.
Every letter is in the right order, like a computer program.
Information is not part of matter.
Information in the cells of living organisms is a non-material entity (neither mass nor energy). Our cells are human processing machines. Cellular machines can transmit the information in the structures; but they cannot generate it. You cannot get information from mass and energy. CONCLUSION: The universe is intelligence-based. Chemistry and physics cannot explain the meaning of genetic language. The moment you see letters, you know there is a mind involved. The Sender of the information required for life is worthy of worship.
“For in him (Lógos) we live, and move, and have our being….” [Acts 17:28.]
The pioneers of modern science were Bible scholars.
For more than 1,000 years in Europe, it was illegal for common people to read Scripture in their native tongues. After the sixteenth century, modern vernacular translations were smuggled across Europe. As a result, men became scientists. Why? They believed in the Law-Giver. The scientific discoveries and inventions that followed changed the world.
Charles Babbage’s mechanical computer.
Bible scholars such as Newton, Barrow, Kepler, Galileo, Pascal, Faraday, Boyle, Joule, Kelvin, Ampère, Pasteur, Napier, Bernoulli, Euler, Riemann, Wallis, and Clerk Maxwell expected to find law in nature — accessible to the human mind in the language of mathematics. The great scientists believed God had established a rational, coherent, comprehensible universe. They formulated Laws of Nature to describe how it works.
SCIENCE is systemized knowledge.
The Law-Giver is OMNI·SCIENT.
“The heavens declare the glory of God… night unto night sheweth knowledge.” [Psalm of David 19:1, 2; c. 1,063 B.C.]
By Crackler.
“I now write unto you… that ye may be mindful of the words… spoken before by the holy prophets… Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers …willingly ignorant, that by the Word of God the heavens were of old….” [II Peter 3:2-5.] “…all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” [Colossians 1:16, 17.]
Scripture says the omnipotent power of the LORD is evident to all people. According to the Bible, God has revealed the truth of His being to everyone:
“Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead….”*** [Romans 1:19, 20.]
The Word was made flesh to accomplish redemption.
The Messiah is the Word of God incarnate. The Father sent his only begotten Son to be the Saviour of the world (Christ is the Greek form of the Hebrew Messiah):
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us… full of grace and truth… No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared Him.” [John 1:14, 18.]
The human nature of the Lord Jesus Christ is the tabernacle of the LORD (the image of the invisible God):
“For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” [Colossians 2:9.]“Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high….” [Hebrews 1:3.]
After the Lord Jesus (Messiah) conquered death and ascended to heaven, he sat down at the right hand of the Father (LORD) as our Great High Priest. David’s Messianic Psalm (c. 1,050 B.C.) is the prophetic record of the conversation between God the Father (LORD/ YHVH) and God the Son (Lord/ Adonai):
“The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand… Thou art a priest forever… the LORD is gracious and full of compassion… He sent redemption unto his people… holy and reverend is his name….” [Psalm of David 110:1, 4; 111:4, 9; c. 1,050 B.C.]
END NOTES:
* The phrase “The Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” is in the Declaration of Independence. In 1776, the foundation of the government of the Republic of the United States of America was laid on the principle of un-alienable, natural rights – endowed to each individual by the Creator.
** YHWH means I AM; God’s personal name Yahweh is related to the verb to be: “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM… this is my name for ever….” [Exodus 3:14, 15; c. 1,531 B.C.] According to the “Targum” (Chaldee paraphrase of the Books of the Chronicles, Rabbi Joseph), THE WORD ( א ר מ י מ , meymera) and THE WORD OF YHWH (meymera dayeya, א ר מ י מ י י ד, meimera daiya) were always used personally, as a Person acting. [Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, England, 1831.] http://bibleapps.com/clarke/2_chronicles/1.htm
*** The Godhead is a tri-une fellowship: The FATHER, the SPIRIT and the WORD of the LORD can be found throughout both Testaments of the Bible. The Word of the LORD was with the LORD from the beginning.
“The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.” [Proverbs 8:22, 23; Solomon; c. 1,012 B.C.] “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” [I John 5:7.]
Quotations from Scripture are from the Masoretic Text/ Textus Receptus (Received Text).
Copyright Notice. All creative works copyright © January 2018 by Denise Rhyne. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
The following is from “The Laws of Nature” by C. S. LEWIS, Essay #8, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics, 1940-1963; PDF, edited by Walter Hooper:
“The laws of physics… decree that when one billiard ball (A) sets another billiard ball (B) in motion, the momentum lost by A exactly equals the momentum gained by B. This is a law. That is, this is the pattern to which the movement of the two billiard balls must conform. Provided, of course, that something sets ball A in motion. And here comes the snag. The law won’t set it in motion… however far you traced the story back you would never find Laws of Nature causing anything … in the whole history of the universe the Laws of Nature have never produced a single event. They are the pattern to which every event must conform, provided only that it can be induced to happen. But how do you get it to do that? How do you get a move on? The Laws of Nature can give you no help there… the Laws of Nature explain everything except the source of events. But this is rather a formidable exception… They explain everything except what we should ordinarily call “everything.” The only thing they omit is—the whole universe.”
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