Perhaps the most universal view of the earth in ancient times was that it was a living entity. The ancients believed that the earth was alive.

There is nothing more basic to man’s need to understand than the world around him. Before mankind launched studies into the distant galaxies or the more distant universe or bored into the miniscule mysteries of micro biology he was fascinated, and not slightly overwhelmed, with an understanding of the earth and all of its mysteries. Clouds and rain, oceans full of water, violent weather, floods and earthquakes – all these things affected him. And it hasn’t been that long ago – in many cases only a few hundred years - that an understanding of earth science was still largely in the realm of mystery. We live in an enlightened period of history when compared with understandings in the ancient (and sometimes not so ancient) past.

In this message I want to continue our series called God’s Word – the Bible – A Most Remarkable Book. In the previous two lessons we have considered the Bible in light of astronomy and medicine. Since the Bible is an ancient book, our line of inquiry has been to see if it possesses any degree of wisdom above and beyond the primitive understanding of the ancient cultures and religions that existed in the days in which it was written. If the Bible is the word of God you would expect that the Divine Being who inspired it would know what He is talking about when He mentions the nature of the world around man – even if that is not His main purpose. He would not be affected by the limitations and primitive understandings of ancient man. And indeed we have seen that the Bible is alone among ancient writings in two areas of consideration: 1) It does not make the same blunders that were universal among ancient writers and 2) In a number of areas it shows a remarkable knowledge that was well beyond the ability of its ancient human writers.

This morning we’ll consider the Bible and earth science. Earth science is the study of things on, in, above, and including the earth – in the sky, in the depths of the ocean, and on the surface and under the ground. Did the ancients understand these things? Do the so-called "inspired" religious documents of antiquity exhibit any knowledge greater than the common understandings of the days in which they were written? Does the Bible deal with references to the earth and our surroundings in an accurate way, even showing knowledge beyond the ability of its ancient writers?

In the two previous messages I have separated the views of the religious writings of the world’s major faiths from the general views of ancient man. I did this not because they were any different, but simply to make the point that there was little difference. In this message I will combine the two due to our limited time – and the fact that, with the exception of the Bible, there is very little difference between religious and non-religious understanding in ancient times.

Perhaps the most universal view of the earth in ancient times was that it was a living entity. The ancients believed that the earth was alive. In ancient Egypt, for instance, though the dwellers along the Nile River were advanced in mathematics and architecture, their view of the earth was that all living things partook of a living earth. Even such inanimate objects as stones, minerals, air, water, and fire were considered to be alive. The ocean was understood to be "breathing" as its tides rose and fell. Earthquakes were interpreted as animated movement of a living earth. Though there were a few challenges to this view along the way, the dominant view of the ancients was that the earth was some sort of living being. Even in relatively later times and cultures this view persisted. The great Greek Philosopher, Plato, for instance, believed that the earth had a soul, possessed intelligence, and was capable of self-movement.

The earth was thought to grow by the ancients, just as a living being grows. Even in modern times, as late as the 18^th century A.D., mountains were believed by some to grow like plants.

With this as a background, it isn’t hard to understand why so many in ancient times worshipped the earth and viewed it as deity. The Egyptians were probably the first to reach this conclusion. In their oldest surviving documents, earth, sky, and water were all deified. The Nile River was thought to be the bloodstream of a god.

With the earth considered deity among the ancients, such things as plowing, digging wells, and mining, thought to wound the earth, had to be atoned for with appropriate sacrifices – sometimes even human sacrifices. Harvesting certain plants was understood to hurt the earth. Plowing was forbidden on certain days because the earth was supposedly sleeping.

Earthquakes were thought in some ancient civilizations to be caused by the living earth expressing its displeasure. In some cultures earthquakes were interpreted as the dead in the underworld, fighting to get to the surface. In many ancient cultures, certain animals were thought to hold the flat earth in place and keep it from falling through a void beneath it. In Japan the animal was a fish or a spider. In Slavic countries it was thought to be four whales. In India, some thought the supporting animal was a snake or elephants.

With these ideas prevalent it isn’t hard to understand why some began to ask what held the elephants in place. This gave rise to the Hindu belief that the job of supporting the elephants was held by a large mud turtle. What supported the turtle, you ask? The turtle swam in a sea of milk, of course! This idea seemed to satisfy the ancient Hindus as no one pushed any further – probably because they could observe animals that swam through liquid without being "supported." Interestingly, no one seemed to speculate that the earth might be supported by "nothing," as we have seen in the Bible.(1)

The Greeks who are often considered to have advanced beyond these kinds of superstitions actually didn’t get very much farther along. Aristotle considered earthquakes to be caused by the breath of the earth – maybe a cough or a sneeze. Other Greek writers showed nothing more advanced.

As to things under the earth, the ancients believed that metals grew and propagated themselves beneath the ground. The ancient Greeks thought that gold veins running under the surface of the earth grew like roots on a tree and originated from seed. Other elements were said to be the result of the wedding of two different elements, influenced by the stars and planets. The sun was believed to be instrumental in the making of gold. This view persisted even to modern times, as recently as the 18^th century A.D., where it was believed that warmer areas on the earth produced more gold than the cooler ones.

Water was thought to be responsible for the formation of rocks and stones. Some believed that smaller stones were the offspring of larger parent rocks. In ancient times, mountains were considered to be alive. It was not uncommon for people of antiquity to worship mountains. Some ancients believed in the existence of super mountains. In the case of the Hindus there was Mount Meru, thought to be thousands of miles high, located at the center of the earth. Nighttime darkness was interpreted as the sun moving behind one of these mountains.

The huge and foreboding oceans of the earth were believed by the ancients to be alive and often were attributed with deity. Appropriate sacrifices, of course, had to be made. Ancient Egyptians believed water to be the eternal element and the deity that gave birth to all other gods. The Babylonians agreed. The Persians believed that all water originated at the head of the Persian Gulf. The ocean floor was thought by the ancients to be smooth and sandy, lacking any unusually geographic features. This idea persisted right up until 1900 A.D. Some believed the oceans to be rather shallow. Others thought that the depths were infinite.

Weather, and more specifically violent weather, was interpreted by the ancients according to the same worldview that ascribe the earth with life. Lightening and its accompanying thunder brought a terrifying awe to ancient people. In Egypt, Babylon, Canaan, Persia, Assyria, India, Greece, Rome, and the Scandinavian countries, lightning bolts were considered to be missiles hurled by the gods. The particular names of these imagined fire throwers differed from culture to culture. In Egypt it was Seth, in Canaan it was Baal-Hadad, in India it was Indra, in Greece it was Zeus, in Rome it was Jupiter, in Scandinavian countries it was Thor. The Chinese believe that lighting itself was divine. Lightning was seen as a female deity while thunder was thought to be its male counterpart. Things struck by lightning were understood to be targets of displeasure of the gods in some cultures. In others, shrines and altars were erected and the lightning touched sites were revered. Some parts of Roman culture did not allow the rebuilding of houses struck by lightning because of this sacred view.

As rain often brought renewal to parched areas and washed away smoke and haze, it too was thought to be a deity to be worshipped. There was mixed understanding as to the nature of rain and where it came from but nothing prior to the seventeenth century A.D. even approximated the truth. In dry areas where rain was especially appreciated, ancient people tried to produce it by rituals of mimicry. Water was sprinkled on the ground or tossed into the air in hopes of producing rain. Loud noises were made on drums and by rolling rocks to produce the sound of thunder. Sparklers and bright flashes of light were concocted to mimic lightning. Others tried to get the attention of the gods of the rain by tossing impurities into springs, tying frogs to a stake with their mouths propped open, and forcing young women to plow the fields in the dead of night with no clothes on.

The Greeks attempted to explain rain on a natural basis but their theories were way off. Some believed that rain that fell from the skies turned miraculously into soil. Aristotle believed that the mountains soaked up air and transformed it into underground water. Seneca rightly described wind as air in motion, but then proposed that it was set in action by the literal breathing of the living earth.

The ancient, non-biblical religions incorporated many of these misunderstandings of the earth right into their writings. The Hindus considered all the objects of nature to be alive and thus, legitimate objects of worship or sacrifice. Ancient Buddhist writings taught a flat earth with a mountain at the center which was supposedly 84,000 leagues high. Earthquakes in Hindu writings were explained by the tramping of large animals. Small tremors were said to be underground beings knocking on their roofs because they were lonely. Rainbows were considered to be the tail or body of a great dragon. Taoist and Confucian texts are full of the same kinds of errors. Zoroastrian ancient writings encouraged the worship of fire and incorporated many on the same views we’ve already mentioned. The Japanese Shinto scriptures recommend magical tricks to bring on rain and ward off eclipses of the sun. Storms, wind, rain, thunder, and fire are all seen by Shinto as living entities. Earthquakes were considered to be caused by great monsters that lived underground.

To sum all this up, the ancients didn’t know much about the nature of the earth and its components. In some cases these kinds of errors persisted right up into modern times, just a few hundred years ago. Ancient, non-biblical religious writings shed no light on the situation. In fact, ancient non-biblical writers brought these errors right over into their scriptures.

As I have told you before, the Bible isn’t a book of science. However, it is reasonable to believe that if its contents are the product of writers influenced by a superior being who supposedly created all things, then that superior knowledge ought to show up in the writings. It ought to avoid making these blunders of merely human writers of antiquity and, in some cases, it ought to at least refer to concepts that are ahead of its time. Is this what we find in the Biblical writings? Indeed it is!

The writers of the Bible do not follow their ancient contemporaries in perpetuating these faulty understandings. Perhaps the greatest area to note in the realm of earth science is that the Bible does not ascribe life or deity to the earth or to nature. It alone avoided this huge mistake. Anyone who reads it with an open mind will be amazed at its rationality, even by today’s standards. The mythology, the superstition, and the outrageous postulations seen universally in other ancient writings are simply not there. This, tacked on, as it were, to the other considerations we’ve seen regarding astronomy and medicine, press far beyond any explanation of luck or coincidence. There simply had to be guidance beyond the ability of man – divine guidance.

The Bible reveals nature and natural things as part of the creation of a God much greater than any or all of them. Man, as the crown of this creation, is encouraged to take control of nature as the steward of nature’s Creator.

We read in Genesis 1:28 that from the beginning, God said to man,

This is a remarkable statement when you place it against the dark backdrop of most of mankind’s ancient understandings. They held most of nature in such fearful awe that they fell down and worshipped it, submitting themselves to nearly every living thing and act of nature. The God of the Bible told man to subdue nature, not worship it! Man was to be over the other these created things, not bowing beneath them!

In the Bible, events of nature are presented not as the moody activity of fickle "gods" who are alternately loving or cranky, but as part of the regular, cyclical rhythms set in motion by the Creator. For instance, Genesis 1:14-18 say,

These words, spoken from earth’s perspective, define the stars in the heavens not as gods or living things, but as created objects made for the benefit of man. The sun and moon are called simply "lights" placed in the heavens closest to the earth for the benefit of man to give a regular cycle of night and day, to define time, and to provide the various seasons we depend upon.

Those of us in North America are perhaps familiar with the practice of ancient people regarding the winter solstice. When winter came, ancient people would become fearful that the sun god was leaving them. Appropriate worship and sacrifice was called for. Evergreen foliage was brought indoors. The "Yule log" was burned. Offerings were made to encourage the sun God not to leave. You might recognize a few of these things as some of the baggage found in some modern Christmas celebrations.

Contrast this with the statement made by Moses and ascribe to the God of the Bible after the flood in Gen 8:22:

Words like these don’t raise eyebrows today but when you put them up against the ideas of ancient people terrified that they would be left in the depths of winter by a god who threatened to abandon them, you realize that they were way ahead of their time!

Consider a well-known passage in Psalm 19:1:

As ancient Egyptians and Babylonians looked up at the heavens from earth, what they saw terrified them so much that they fell down to worship it. Intricate schemes like astrology were devised to understand these "gods" who lived above the earth. Anything they didn’t understand was interpreted as an omen of good or evil. In sharp contrast to this, the Bible told man that what he saw was simply the work of God to be studied (since it told of His glory) admired, and managed.

The Bible avoids the errors of belief in a living earth, deification of nature, astrological influence over man and nature, demonological influence in nature, incorrect understanding of earthquakes, storms, oceans, mountains, wind, lightning, and many other physical phenomena.

Consider for a moment the advance of science itself. I’ve shown you how steeped the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Chinese, and early Greeks were in superstition that caused them to worship and fear nature. Because of this basic misunderstanding, they were much more interested in appeasing what they feared and believed to be opposing them than in studying it and subduing it for their benefit. It isn’t that ancient man wasn’t smart or capable. Man’s creativity and ability to advance is seen in these ancient cultures in such things as architecture and mathematics. But their fears oppressed them when it came to the study of the earth and the things in, on, and above it. The Bible alone stands as an encouragement of man to go forth in an orderly universe set that way by an orderly God and harness it for his own good or, said even better, make it serve him. Listen to the Psalmist in Psalm 8:4-6:

The Bible often gets a bum rap today for being the cause of the destruction of delicate ecosystems and the balance of nature, as though in its commands for man to subdue the earth, it puts forth a "rape, pillage, and burn" philosophy. People who suggest such things are simply ignorant of the Bible. For instance, the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 24:1,

Man is presented by the Bible, not as one to greedily rape and pillage the earth, but as a responsible steward of the property of another. Yes, man can be quite destructive of the earth these days, but it isn’t because of the Bible. Man is supposed to be a wise manager. This wise management of nature for the benefit of man can be seen, for example, in the farming regulations given to the ancient Israelites.(2) They were to farm their land for six years, then let it lie fallow for the seventh. This primitive "resting" the land isn’t used today because we have artificial fertilizers. But it would be a sound practice if it were still used. Beyond that, far from being a "rape and pillage" philosophy, it reveals a sensible respect for God’s earth and man’s role in working it responsibly.

Moving on now from knowledge that was in sensible harmony with nature and nature’s God to knowledge seen in the Bible ahead of its time, a man named Alfred Wegener published a book in 1912 that put forth the idea that the great land masses of the earth today were at one time all joined together. Wegener’s theory gave birth to a discipline of earth science called "plate tectonics." At the root of this discipline is the postulation that the earth’s original land mass was once unified into one continent. This concept, not even 100 years old, is widely accepted today, but it shook the discipline of earth science to its core.

Wegener’s writings were remarkable, but they aren’t the oldest on the subject. Three thousand years before Wegener, a writer of the Bible penned some words on this subject. Moses, in his description of the creation, wrote in Genesis 1:9, "Then God said, ‘Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear’; and it was so."

If the waters were once gathered into one place, then the land would also be in one place. How did Moses know that?

Until relatively recent times, man believed that the great oceans of the world had flat, sandy bottoms, much like our deserts. This assumption came, no doubt, from standing on sandy beaches and extrapolating by imagination that what was not seen was much the same as what was seen.

Not until the voyage of H.M.S. Challenger in 1873 was there any documentation by scientific means that there are actually huge canyons in the depths of the sea. Even then the scientists aboard Challenger didn’t quite understand what they had found. They made a single sounding and found a depth of 4500 fathoms, but for some reason they chose to ignore the implications of these findings, which were published in a 30,000 page report. Another quarter of a century would pass before oceanographers began to understand the implications and speculate that the depths of the ocean floor might be different than previously thought. And even then oceanography didn’t really get off the ground until the 1940s. Even though the depths of the ocean were vastly misunderstood until our modern era, the Bible contains three passages that speak of recesses or "canyons" of the deep. 2 Samuel 22:16 speaks of the "channels" of the sea. The word used often refers to the valley of a stream. Job 38:16 speaks of the "recesses" of the sea. Psalm 18:15 refers to the "valleys" of the sea. These are remarkable statements for a day when there was no equipment available for making such an accurate comment.

A number of Bible writers refer to the "springs" of the sea and the "fountains" of the deep.(3) This was written, of course, in a period where the only water that could be seen entering the oceans was from rain or rivers.

Ancient man, though fascinated by the sea, spent most of his time near the shore, fearing the monsters and terrors that surely existed farther out. Consequently, the only movements of the seas that could be observed were the tides and the breaking waves of the shore. Yet the Bible in ancient times spoke of the "paths" of the seas.(4) Today we know that there are great ocean rivers or currents that make their way through the oceans.

We spoke earlier about ancient man’s misunderstandings of the origin and purpose of rain. The hydrologic cycle was not fully understood until modern times, yet Ecclesiastes 1:7, written 930 years before Christ says:

This is a remarkable statement of foreknowledge.

There are many more things we could say in this area of study. I could spend a Sunday morning on each of the items I have mentioned and even add to the list. But we’ll need to quit for now.

Ancient man did not understand the world around him very well. Ancient religious writings outside the Bible reflect the same misunderstandings. Only the Bible, it too an ancient book, lacks these errors and goes even further in revealing things before they were known. The Bible is the inspired word of God.

Footnotes: Please use your back button to return to your place.

1. Job 26:7
2. See Exodus 23:10-11; Leviticus 25; Deuteronomy 15:1-11 for examples of this.
3. Job 38:16; Gen 7:11; cf. 8:2; Proverbs 8:28
4. Psalm 8:8

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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