BIBLICAL BRIEFS 19
Many people are of the opinion that the Bible should be read with a far more modern and contemporary view than which was the case with the old world paradigm, in which former scribes (with their apparent lack of scientific insight in relation to what we have today) made their contributions to the Bible. Asaph says in Ps. 75: 3 – “While the earth and all its inhabitants melt away, it is I who keep its pillars firm.” At the time when Asaph wrote this statement, he was not aware at all of the fact that the earth is elliptical and not flat, that the earth rotates around the sun, and so forth. But Asaph was inspired by the Spirit of God the Creator to write this (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:21), and in this case, God himself is speaking. God by no means has a pre-scientific writing style nor an old-fashioned thought paradigm – in fact, He “is the same yesterday and today and forever”(Heb. 13: 8). People who tend to argue according to the question posed, diminish Him to their carnal thoughts, and this is earthly, unspiritual and demonic (Jam. 3:15). “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spritually appraised.” (1 Cor. 2:14). Scientifically we know that the earth hangs suspended in the expanse; it’s not a flat plain and therefore it definitely does not stand on nor is supported by pillars. In fact, Job (26: 7) also states: “(He) hangs the earth on nothing”. Then, it could be asked, what does 1 Sam. 2: 8 refer to in stating: “for the pillars of the earth are the LORD’S, and He set the world on them”? Throughout Scripture, pillars are of important symbolic significance. In Amos 9: 1 it is shown that the Lord is standing beside the altar of the Jewish temple, commanding that the pillars be smitten until the earth begins to shake, clearly a signification of the old dispensation coming to an end. This is the most significant last reference regarding a pillar in the Old Covenant. In the New Testament there are only four references to pillars, and they are unanimous in respect of their symbolic meaning (Gal. 2: 9; 1 Tim. 3:15). The pillars in the former human natural temple have now been replaced with believers who together form the tabernacle of God on earth! Rev. 3:12 clearly secures this meaning: “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.” These pillars (those who “overcome”) thus symbolize those who serve as pillars of the new earth. There is no tension between science and the Bible – God is the author of both! The problem rather occurs on the level where people mostly read the Word in a literal way in stead of submitting themselves to what Scripture requires of them, to sometimes be read in a different way.
Dr. Tom Gouws
