The Bible, The Source of all Wisdom?

[Gregory Matthews]

We have had some discussion of the place that extra-Biblical sources have in our knowledge base.  Some seem to say that there is no reason to look outside the Bible, at least on subjects that are part of the Biblical record.  Some have seemed to have very little interest in any extra-Biblical writings that give us information as to geography, culture and more during the Biblical times.

Well this morning (July 23, Saturday) I noted an interesting article by Istvan Szapudi, in the August, 2016 issue of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.  It discussed the possibility that  supervoids exist in space.   Such have been thought to exist since 2004.  Buit, they have been thought to be no more than about 20 times the width of our full moon in size.  But, Szapudi, and others, believe that there may be a supervoid that is 1.8 billion light years across!

This interested me.  This issues arises out of our knowledge base of cosmology. The Bible is clearly interested in cosmology and has something to say on this subject.  So, I thought that it might be of interest to see what the Bible had to say about supervoids.

I took a look at both Young's and Strong's listing of the Biblical words.  Neither credited the Bible with ever using the word "supervoid."   What?  The Bible seems not to have anything to say on this aspect of cosmology.

Get real folks:  The Bible does not have a direct comment to make on every aspect of our being.

   

[Tom Wetmore]

The founders of our Church very early on recognized this fact, and confronted the issue of Scriptural silence to answer a question and in fact formulated a rule to guide them in making decisions on questions that came up where there wasn't clear Scriptural authority, or a clear "Thus saith the Lord".  I will have look for the quote, but for now I will paraphrase it.  Essentially they determined that in the absence of a clear directive, we have freedom to use the brains God gave us and to decide and do what makes sense.  It was a matter of pragmatically moving forward.  In that context, such questions are not matters of moral choice, but practical decisions based on the best evidence at the time but that are not carved in stone.  

[Buzzards]

Ahhhhhh, But the Wise Man Saith

The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;
 

To know wisdom and instruction;
to perceive the words of understanding;
To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;

To give subtilty to the simple,
to the young man knowledge and discretion.

A wise man will hear, and will increase learning;
and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge:
but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

My son, hear the instruction of thy father,
and forsake not the law of thy mother:
For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head,
and chains about thy neck.

Only those that have a firm foundation in Scripture will have the discretion to discern secular things as well

[Rossw]

What I see here is a firm foundation in the secular to discern religious things.

[Rossw]

6 hours ago, Tom Wetmore said:

The founders of our Church very early on recognized this fact, and confronted the issue of Scriptural silence to answer a question and in fact formulated a rule to guide them in making decisions on questions that came up where there wasn't clear Scriptural authority, or a clear "Thus saith the Lord".  I will have look for the quote, but for now I will paraphrase it.  Essentially they determined that in the absence of a clear directive, we have freedom to use the brains God gave us and to decide and do what makes sense.  It was a matter of pragmatically moving forward.  In that context, such questions are not matters of moral choice, but practical decisions based on the best evidence at the time but that are not carved in stone.  

What Christian related issue would this apply to? It's obvious I wouldn't use the Bible to fix a car but it isn't intended to do that. And, the car has no relevance to my spiritual understanding. Cosmology may have the implication of causing confusion in understanding Genesis but how do we decide to interpret the information gained from cosmology? If the observable evidence the universe is billions of years old how do we reconcile that with the Bible because the two ideas seem to be contradictory? Pragmatism will only take you so far then faith must take priority. The pragmatist would say the universe IS billions of years old but what is that person REALLY putting their faith in?

[Gregory Matthews]

 

 

Rossw:  Many would say that the story of the creation of the Earth in the first few chapters of Genesis deals the Earth and not the Universe. They would say that those early chapters only state that In regard to the Universe  God created everything else and it was good.  They would not say that Genesis depicts the creation of the Universe at the same time as the creation of the Earth.  On this basis a statement that the Universe is billions of years old is not in conflict with the Bible, as understood by these people.

[Rossw]

Unfortunately this will push the discussion in the wrong direction but Genesis must refer to the earth ANDthe universe.

¹⁴ Then God said, “Let there be ^[s]lights in the ^[t]expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; ¹⁵ and let them be for ^[u]lights in the ^[v]expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. ¹⁶ God made the two ^[w]great lights, the greater ^[x]light ^[y]to govern the day, and the lesser ^[z]light ^[aa]to govern the night; He made the stars also.¹⁷ God placed them in the ^[ab]expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth,¹⁸ and ^[ac]to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness;

[Gerr]

If by "wisdom " you mean as defined by the Bible- "the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom", then no other book can come close.