"O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called" (I Timothy 6:20).

Those who take the Bible to be literal truth are often accused of wanting to roll back scientific progress. It is supposed that holding revealed truth above any man-made theories makes for a backward society.

Nothing could be further from the truth. It is only the use of metaphysical speculation as science (Greek word for "knowledge" in our text) that Christians oppose.

Bible believers are as eager as anyone to study the natural world and to understand how we can utilize this knowledge to improve our environment. Indeed, such activity was commanded by God in His first communication with man: "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth" (Genesis 1:28). To have dominion over something in nature implies study and understanding.

It is no accident that the scientific revolution took place after the reformation in the Christian world. Classical scientists, like Johannes Kepler, set out to "think God's thoughts after Him." The work to discover medical advances and labor-saving inventions that followed are also commended by God: "I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions" (Proverbs 8:12).

Even the accumulation of pure knowledge of the natural world is appreciated by students of the Scriptures: "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out a matter" (Proverbs 25:2). Our respect of God is only heightened by pursuing science and seeing how much we still do not know. DW