J.D. Mitchell
[Originally published as Water Into Wine]
According to the late Dr. Henry Morris, the Bible contains 90 miracles of creation and 127 miracles of providence, for a total of 217 miracles. Secular science rejects all miracles, so it is not surprising that most secular scientists have a difficult time accepting any aspects of the accuracy, authority, or inerrancy of God’s Word.
This commitment to atheistic naturalism is well expressed by the famous quote of geneticist Richard Lewontin who wrote in 1997:
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 its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a 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 counterintuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door. The eminent Kant scholar Lewis Beck used to say that anyone who could believe in God could believe anything. To appeal to an omnipotent deity is to allow that at any moment the regularities of nature may be ruptured, that miracles may happen.2
Lewontin is not writing about true science here. He is not writing about knowledge gained in truth. He is not talking about the proper use of the scientific method. Rather, he is talking about “science, falsely so-called.”
From Lewontin’s quote we can see the overriding philosophical bias against Genesis specifically, and the Bible in general, that the purveyors of science, falsely so-called, have accepted. This way of thinking has taken over most institutions of higher learning, and consequently, has brainwashed many of the last half-dozen generations of college students.
At the same time, you can see that Lewontin admits his science has a high tolerance for, “patent absurdity, extravagant promises, and unsubstantiated just-so stories.” One would think that true science would work hard to not tolerate those types of things.
I often use the quote, “People can and do believe in anything.” So, I think it is clear that believers of the Bible are not the only humans susceptible to believing untruths, and it is the height of arrogance for atheists to apply this to Bible believers in the way Lewontin does here. Anyone can be fooled into accepting untruths, even scientists. Some of the most dangerous untruths ever foisted upon man are those promoted by science, falsely so-called. A couple of the biggest examples being millions of years and evolution.
The Christian is not concerned by a rupture of the regularities of nature, since he logically understands that the Creator of everything certainly would have the ability to enter into His creation at any time according to His will.
The Miracle of Water into Wine
In John 2:1–11, the apostle that Jesus loved wrote about a wedding where Jesus performed his first public miracle. (The reader may want to read this passage again at this time, if not completely familiar with it.) This miracle was a miracle of creation. This miracle required him to intervene in nature by creating something and doing something completely outside of nature. His actions overrode the laws set up in the beginning where God injected uniformity into the creation. Specifically, Jesus circumvented the laws of thermodynamics.
The action of turning water into wine is the same type as used by the Creator at the time of the creation of the world.
How would his actions look scientifically? In figure 1 we see a stick and ball model of our current best understanding of what water fundamentally looks like, where the white balls represent hydrogen atoms and the red ball represents an oxygen atom. This is H2O.
Wine can be represented similarly. Wine is about 86% water by volume and 12% alcohol by volume. The other 2% of wine consists of small amounts of glycerol, organic acids, carbohydrates, minerals, etc. The alcohol in wine is normally what is called ethyl alcohol. Ethyl alcohol is also known as ethanol.
Here we see that ethyl alcohol has white balls (hydrogen) and a red ball (oxygen), the same kind as water. However, also notice the two black balls. The black balls represent carbon atoms, and our model of alcohol is chemically shown as CH3CH2OH. Alcohol is what is known as a hydrocarbon.
To turn water into wine, Jesus had to create carbon atoms and then create an entirely different substance from the water. These models provide us with a representation of the miracle that is clear to see. Not only did he do these things, John tells us that the wine he created was top quality.
The atheist will discount the record of this happening and will attempt to reject it as a miracle. But, the Biblical Christian must appreciate not only this miracle, but all that our Savior can do and has done for us, often outside the uniformity of the creation. The miracle of water to wine, the miracle of our salvation, 215 other miracles recorded in the Bible, along with other unrecorded miracles, compel us to praise God and give him all the glory.
Footnotes
- The Defenders Study Bible, Morris, Henry M., World Publishing, Inc. 1995, Appendix 9.
- New York Review of Books, Lewontin, Richard, “Billions and Billions of Demons,” January 9, 1997.
