One of the most eminent scientists of recent years, in concluding a book which gives a brilliant account of the attempts to explore the mysteries of the universe, makes the following statement: "So, at least we are tempted to conjecture today. Yet who knows how many more times the stream of knowledge may turn on itself? And with this reflection before us we may well conclude by adding—what might have been interlined into every paragraph—that everything that has been said and every conclusion that has been tentatively put forward is quite frankly speculative and uncertain. We have tried to discuss whether present day science has anything to say on certain difficult questions, which are perhaps set forever beyond the reach of human understanding. We cannot claim to have discerned more than a very faint glimmer of light at the best—perhaps it was wholly illusory, for certainly we had to strain our eyes very hard to see anything at all! So that our main contention can hardly be that the science of today has a pronouncement to make: perhaps it ought rather to be that science should leave off making pronouncements: the river of scientific knowledge has too often turned back on itself." The wisdom of this writer in thus guarding his statements on matters which must even now be regarded as unsolved is fully recognized.
The uncertainty with which he, as one of the great authorities, was impelled thus to speak, in his honest recognition of the limitation of man's intellectual vision, also serves to emphasize the folly of many less instructed, who are ready to hail every theory as though it were proved, and to "depart from the faith" by refusing the Word of God because it does not appear to coincide with the tentative and unproved theories of men.
There are, however, matters of the first magnitude of which it is possible to speak with great certainty, and these are found in the Holy Scriptures, where are recorded the words which "holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."
The Christian faith is not "conjecture" or "tentative" or in "speculative" or "illusory." It has an unmistakable pronouncement to make, upon the authority of the Word of the living God, and upon "the immutability of His counsel," for "it is impossible for God to lie."
Sir Ambrose Fleming, a renowned British scientist, said: "We must not build on the sands of an uncertain and ever-changing science but upon the rock of the inspired Scriptures, which do not comprise the guesses of fallible minds, but utterances of holy men of God who spoke by the Holy Ghost."
Friends, listen to the witness of some of these "holy men of God." They speak with delightful certainty.
Solomon, who was wiser than all men, said, "Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge, that I might make thee KNOW THE CERTAINTY of the words of truth; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee?"
Luke the evangelist wrote, "It seemed good to me... to write...that thou mightest KNOW THE CERTAINTY of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed."
Job the patriarch said, "I KNOW that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth."
Paul the Apostle said, "I KNOW whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day."
John, the beloved disciple, said, "We have KNOWN and believed the love that God hath to us. GOD IS LOVE."
Let the authoritative "pronouncement" of the Apostle Paul be accepted and believed: "Be it KNOWN UNTO YOU... that through this Man (Christ Jesus) is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him, all that believe are justified from all things."