“O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen” (1 Timothy 6:20-21).
“Follow the science” has become a popular mantra during the debate about masks and vaccines. Putting COVID aside, let us consider the mantra in relation to righteousness.
“Follow the science” when it says the earth came about from a massive explosion called the Big Bang? Oh no, one says, I won’t follow that, because God created the earth, and by faith I believe in God. But will you follow science when it says each day in the six days of creation was eons of time? Now there’s a compromise wherein one who professes to believe God can say that he believes that it was six days, but “’day’ in Genesis 1 was figurative.” Hang on a minute! What in the Bible would give that idea? Nothing. But “the science” sure is hard to refute, one might say. So now one re-interprets six days in light of so-called science. Where is one’s faith now? May I suggest he has as much faith, or arguably more, in the reports of scientists as in the God-breathed words of the Bible. “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished” (Genesis 1:31-2:1). Our faith must be in the word of God. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).
Will you “follow the science” about homosexuality? The report from scientists in the 90’s said there was a “gay gene” causing some people to be homosexual. But do you believe the word of scientists on this, or do you believe the word of God? Someone says he will believe both, because “how can I refute science? I will find a way to believe both.” But wait. I just read an abstract in the National Library of Medicine that the results of the study that led to the report of a “gay gene” were never replicated and that the reality of it remains hypothetical. “Ah,” someone says, “maybe I can believe just what the Bible says after all.” Where was that person’s faith all along? Was it in the unalterable word of God, or was it just as much or more so in so-called science? “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites…will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). Our faith must be in the word of God. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
Will you “follow the science” about drinking alcohol? In years past, science reported that drinking alcohol, red wine in particular, had many health benefits, and moderate drinking was beneficial and recommended. Is your faith in the word of the scientists, and if so, do you believe it above the word of God? How will you order your life – based on the word of science, or upon the word of God? But wait; there’s more. Reports surfaced saying the cardiac benefits of red wine were also found in grape juice. Is God’s wisdom suddenly more acceptable to some when science does not conflict with it? How about just following God’s wisdom all along? “Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup…” (Proverbs 23:31). Our faith must be in the word of God! “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
In just recent days the American Medical Association has recommended that the sex designation be removed from “the public facing portion” of birth certificates because “assigning a sex using a binary variable…perpetuates a view that it is immutable.” Someone says, “Well the idea that a male can be a female or a female can be a male or even some third option is absurd.” It is absurd…until people are conditioned to be comfortable with it, and then they may no longer consider it outrageous. Will you “follow the science” on this one? The real question is this: Where is your faith? Is it in the word of men, or is it in the word of God? God’s design from the beginning is male and female, “male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27). Our faith must be in the word of God! “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
Let us not put our faith in science or any other medium but solely in the word of God, and let us then order our lives by that Word. We will be judged by the things that are written in the word of God, not by the so-called science of men. When we read the heaven-sent Bible, let us be as Paul said regarding a heaven-sent message he received: “I believe God that it will be just as it was told me” (Acts 27:25)
– Larry Jones