<Any physical theory is always provisional, in the sense that it is only a hypothesis: you can never prove it. No matter how many times the results of experiments agree with some theory, you can never be sure that the next time the result will not contradict the theory. On the other hand, you can disprove a theory by finding even a single observation that disagrees with the predictions of the theory. As philosopher of science Karl Popper has emphasized, a good theory is characterized by the fact that it makes a number of predictions that could in principle be disproved or falsified by observation. Each time new experiments are observed to agree with the predictions the theory survives, and our confidence in it is increased; but if ever a new observation is found to disagree, we have to abandon or modify the theory. At least that is what is supposed to happen, but you can always question the competence of the person who carried out the observation.*1
This is the scientific method as stated by Stephen Hawking. If the academic world actually lived by such sentiments than there would be need no to write a book in defence of God and his revealed truth; unfortunately, this isn’t the way “higher education” always works. John Lennox, a colleague of Richard Dawkins at Oxford, referenced a disturbing attitude in his book, God’s Undertaker…
<…In his review of Carl Sagan’s last book, the Harvard geneticist Richard Lewontin makes it abundantly clear that his materialistic convictions are a priori {meaning prior to proving through examination}. He not only confesses that his materialism does not derive from his science, but he also admits, on the contrary, that it is his materialism that actually consciously determines the nature of what he conceives science to be: ‘Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is the key to an understanding of the real struggle between science and the supernatural. We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs…in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment…to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated.’*2
Many universities have shoved the masses into this very precarious corner. They’ve actually built their whole temple of “knowledge” on the slippery supposition that there is nothing supernatural. If some of these “intellectuals” would conduct their research on the front lines of fruitful missionary outposts or even at the places in the world where dark magic is still practiced, their edifice would crumble…
<The spirits arrived again, only this time riding a fire burning at the base of the poteau mitan. The hounsis was mounted violently -- her entire body shaking, her muscles flexed -- and a single spasm wriggled up her spine. She knelt before the fire, calling out in some ancient tongue. Then she stood up and began to whirl, describing smaller and smaller circles that carried her like a top around the poteau mitan and dropped her, still spinning, onto the fire. She remained there for an impossibly long time, and then in a single bound that sent embers and ash throughout the peristyle, she leapt away. Landing squarely on both feet, she stared back at the fire and screeched like a raven. Then she embraced the coals. She grabbed a burning faggot with each hand, slapped them together, and released one. The other she began to lick…and then she ate the fire, taking a red-hot coal the size of a small apple between her lips. Then, once more she began to spin. She went around the poteau mitan three times until finally she collapsed into the arms of the mambo. The ember was still in her mouth {the woman was not harmed in any way; this is a description of a supernatural Haitian ceremony witnessed by a Harvard scientist}.*3
In this book we are going to survey the proof of supernatural realities in a way that doesn’t require travel to exotic lands; we are going to view the divine finger which is evidenced in the written Word of God. Our study has a simple, five-point outline. First, since deep agnosticism and crass materialism are currently the norms in academic circles, we are going to point out some of the major flaws in these theories. Second, having taking these modern stumbling-blocks out of the way, we are going to investigate the Bible as to its authenticity and overall reliability. Third, having proven the historicity of the Scriptures themselves, we shall then examine in detail the extensive prophetic passages that were fulfilled with the coming of Jesus Christ nearly 2,000 years ago. Afterwards we will consider the divine patterns that are displayed in nature and the Scriptures, while the final section will discuss what the Bible predicts for the future.