Thursday, September 3, 2009
Christopher Columbus and the Faithfulness of God-
Those were days of hunger on the island of Jamaica, in the month of February, in the year 1504. Christopher Columbus and his men were dying of starvation. Their ship could sail no further so Columbus sent a canoe for help, but relief would not arrive before June. The Indians of the island had given them some food in the beginning, but they gave the explorers less and less as time went by. The men faced starvation as the weeks passed.
Then Columbus turned to an astronomy book he had with him, which listed the motions of the stars and planets. An eclipse of the moon was to occur on the 29th day of February. Columbus warned the Indians that the moon would be blotted out that night. They laughed, but when the eclipse began, they trembled with fear and respect and brought food to Columbus and his men. They survived and returned to Spain, having remade the map of the world.
Is was not merely a book of astronomy that saved the life of Christopher Columbus. It was God the Designer, who not only created the heavens, but also synchronized their motion. This was God, whose faithfulness had made the astronomy book possible by His precise guidance of the planets.
As Columbus relied on God’s faithfulness in regulating nature, so we can trust in God’s faithful revelation in the Bible. Christ said, And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.
Christ was telling us that the Bible (which He called “the law”) is completely reliable. Is as dependable as the motion of the heaven He created.
From Darwin to Design p. 27,28