Prescience #2 - Circumcision

In class yesterday, a student asked if a person needed to be circumcised to be a Christian.  I had to ask, "Is this a serious question, or did you just want to say circumcision?"  I had hoped that we had covered this when discussed what grace is and how one is justified in God's sight!  Oh well. 

So, we took a break from starting our new chapter on "The Means of Grace" and read Romans 4.  The question was answered and resolved.  We are credited as righteous in God's sight, not based on any merit of our own or any outward sign such as circumcision, but on faith in the declared promises of God (fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ!). 

But this brought up another prescience issue within the Bible.  God's people were circumcised!  Today, in America at least, almost every male is circumcised regardless of a family's religious views, because it's more sanitary and hygienic than not being cut.  I'm not sure exactly when we came to this conclusion, but we have!  The Isralites likely didn't know this perk to circumcision when they followed God's command, but God sure did.  Another sign of prescience in the Bible. 

Sorry, no pictures for this post. 

Prescience #1 - Dietary Restrictions

As defined by William J. Cairney in Evidence for Faith prescience is "the occurrence, in Scripture, of accurate statements reflecting in-depth knowledge of scientific concepts far before mankind had laid the technological base for such things to be known."


Cairney points out of course that prescience in the Bible isn't an end in itself.  Such evidence only increases our knowledge of Scripture and appreciation for the God revealed in the Bible.

Cairney first focuses on the dietary laws in Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.  The unclean animals in addition to not being eaten, weren't even supposed to be touched if it could avoided at all costs (Leviticus 11:24-28).  Pigs were on the top of the "unclean" list.  The downer to the Jews is that they were readily available to be eaten and were of course tasty and tender.  The upside is that pigs, or swine, "harbor several disease-producing microorganisms easily transmissible to man" (Cairney, p.132 of Evidence for Faith). Such micro-organisms are tapeworms.  Disseases such as Trichinosis, Erysipelas, and Typhoid are all caused by micro-organisms that pigs carry. Some of these diseases are contracted by eating under-cooked meat, but others can be contracted simply by touching an infected animal or carcass.

Other "unclean" animals are marine animals without fins or scales, usually bottom-feeders; they eat fecal matter to put it nicely.  Rodents were unclean - enough said.  But they would have been accessible and likely tender, but they're naturally carriers of some of the nastiest diseases man has ever faced.  Don't eat, don't touch, and surely you don't want to be bitten!

Better wash your hands!

Turtles and lizards were on the "naughty" list too.  Young kids who have these animals as pets sometimes get Salmonella!  Yay!  If they're taken from stagnant water or contaminated water, they're a source of diesease inducing micro-organisms.

Basically, all the "unclean" animals can lead to disease in handling and eating if not properly kept.  The clean animals were quite chill in this regards.

Cairney also shares how some of the laws for keeping and growing plants also spared one's self from disease-causing micro-organisms. 

Exodus15:26 is a promise from God that if they follow these dietary laws he won't bring diseases upon them. 

So how did Moses know this?  He didn't have a microscope!  Most of this knowledge was only gleaned in the past 100 years.  Was he that observant?  Did the Egyptians know that much?  Maybe some other advance culture brought the info in to Moses?  Aliens perhaps?  Or the God of the Bible who created all things and didn't need a microscope to know which animals carried micro-organisms which caused diseases told Moses which animals not to eat and which ones were cool to consume and handle.