The Bible and the Word of God are two interchangeable terms. The term Bible comes from the Greek biblos and Latin biblia, meaning books. That is, there are 66 individual books that comprise the Bible. But more importantly, it is the contents of these 66 books which not only astonishes humanity, but it shows the divinity and perfection of God who revealed Himself to us. The apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, “And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13).

But some may dispute that the Bible is the Word of God, that it is divine and perfect and without error. They may even try to prove that it is not true based on scientific facts. But what does the Bible or the Word of God have to do with science? God did not intend His Word to be an encyclopedia of scientific facts, but rather, an explanation of His plan for the nation of Israel and the redemption of those who would trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. For example, the “sun rises and then sets” is a phenomenon mentioned in Ecclesiastes 1:5. However, it is distinct from “the earth revolves on its axis from west to east once in twenty-four hours, thus producing day and night,” which is a scientific fact.[1] Thus, we see that science, even though it is true to the physical universe, does not conform to the Word of God. This is not to criticize science itself. Our physical universe is an aggregation of scientific facts. But the Word of God conforms to the message that God Himself is proclaiming, and a scientific fact or a collection of scientific facts are not part of that message.

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[1] Stowe, C.E., Origin and History of the Books of the Bible (Harford, CT: Hartford Publishing Company, 1868), 29.