Meteorology and the Bible

[tomwindsor]

Meteorology and the Bible by G.Thomas Windsor


There are various examples in Scripture related to the field of meteorology that give evidence of Divine inspiration. Some of these are in what ancient writers described thousands of years ago. Things that they couldn't have known or that aren't self evident. These truths have only been discovered in modern times .

Some of the more well known are as follows:

The hydrological cycle (evaporation /transportation /condensation of water around the globe)
Job 36:27-28 " For he maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapor thereof: Which the clouds do drop [and] distill upon man abundantly. "; he that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD [is] his name. (KJV)

Eccl. 1:7 "All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again."
Jeremiah 10:13 " When He utters His voice, There is a multitude of waters in the heavens:
And He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth."

Also Amos 9.6 " he that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth"

The concept that air has weight

Job 28:25 "To make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters by measure. "(KJV)
Also in Job 37 "by watering he wearieth (to make heavy ) the thick cloud: he scattereth his bright cloud"

The Jet Stream circuit

The large "rivers" of winds that circle the globe are described in Ecclesiastes 1.
It states, "the wind .. blows round and round on its circuits... " )(NET)
Ecclesiastes 1:6 (KJV) "The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits."


The "Whirlwind" in Scripture

Relating to the jet stream, let us go to a more detailed look at the subtle atmospheric characteristics the Bible makes reference to that wouldn't be discerned by visual observation in ancient times. These are some lesser known evidences of inspiration. The Scripture speaks so much about whirling winds when they are actually statistically very rare to behold (even for those living in highest probability areas.)

In the natural world, whirlwinds/tornadoes are devastating. These violent rotating columns of air can lift up almost everything in their path, scattering vast amounts of materials far distances down wind.

There are spots on the globe where favorable terrain, etc., helps create this dynamic as in the central States of the US. The Middle East is also such an area. Certain other major factors create this weather ; simplistically stated, colder drier air slams into very humid warmer air. Next, the turning and veering in the direction of the winds at differing heights creates the rotating columns (" the pillars of cloud " to use another biblical term) and explosive updrafts .
These are essential in the formation of the mesocyclone.

(see illustration)

So we have two main factors A- rotation and B- updraft

The principle of rotation

Job 37:12 " The clouds go round in circles, wheeling about according to his plans,
to carry out all that he commands them over the face of the whole inhabited world, v-13.
(NET)
In another translation it states " And it is turned round about by his counsels: that they may do whatsoever he commandeth them upon the face of the world in the earth ( kjv. )"

The large scale movement of air takes the shape of a meandering river.
Although winds generally move in a linear direction, they also contain many circuitous swirling movements. Also, amongst the movement of bodies of air, countless eddies are produced like in a turbulent flow of water .

The earth's wind streams have areas of clockwise rotations and counterclockwise rotations on many scales.
On a continental view, one could have a very large upper level cyclonic area of the atmosphere that can form mesocyclones (a rotating "supercell" thunderstorm) at lower levels. These can spawn tornadoes which themselves can have within them multiple vortices. These all wheel around, from the massive pinwheel of a hurricane hundreds of miles across in size, to the swirling dust-devil in a hot farmer's field.

The Bible makes a connection with the whirlwind in a repetitive them of whirling wheels and chariots (Jeremiah. 4:13; Daniel. 11:40; Isaiah 5:28; Zechariah. 6:5; Psalm 104:4; Isaiah 66:15 .)


The principle of updraft

Typically, these thunderstorms have visible large-scale cloud rotation, even if it doesn't produce an actual tornado that touches the ground. The people at that time when the Scripture was penned didn't understand the rapid updraft in severe storms. However, they wrote of Elijah having been taken up in the whirlwind into heaven. 2Ki.2:11 - "As they were going along and talking, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire .... And Elijah went up by a whirlwind to heaven. "

Also, in the updraft portion of a severe storm a trained eye can observe clouds lifting upwards and infolding upon themselves as it rotates around.
Ezek. 1:4
And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire."
Speaking of this whirlwind it states in the Greek, "I beheld (pneuma) a wind (exairon) lifting up." In the Hebrew it can also translate to "touching itself around," as "in a circle.")
This is incidentally probably one of the earliest historical accounts of a mesocyclone.

The " rolling " of the heavenly winds

When there is a turning or a veering in the direction of the winds at differing heights (low level winds and the upper jet stream winds,) this creates a "rolling " effect in the clouds of the thunderstorm which is thought to spawn tornadoes at the surface. So we have horizontal and vertical turning in the atmosphere .

This rolling of the atmosphere helps produce a spiraling updraft .

The Bible also speaks of this effect as in Revelation 6 (see also Isaiah 34): " 13.....even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. 14And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together" (KJV.)


It is interesting that another passage may speak of this concept. When God delivered his people at the Red Sea (remember the pillar of cloud) it was described in this way: "The crash of thy thunder was in the whirlwind,..." (Psm. 77.) Other translations state "The thunder of your (God's) chariot wheels resounded; your lightning lit up the world; " (NAB.) In another translation it states "the voice of thy thunder in a wheel.... ". (D.R. B.)
Here the psalmist uses the Hebrew word for "wheels" (GalGal) by an analogy and metaphor in describing the storms in the heavens and again portrays the heavens as in a rolling dynamic.


Nature is transcendent

God uses the natural physical heavens and winds to teach us of the heavenly spiritual world. This metaphor for the spirit is used more than any other in the Bible. The Old testament prophets saw these and other storms as revelations and manifestations of His glory. The physical heavens (with its clouds and the winds) is the shadow of the true realities. The creation that God made to show us for "The heavens declare his glory" (Psm.19 . )



About the author --- G.Thomas Windsor is a storm chaser and does weather photography.
<www.windphoto.com>

[Cross.eyed]

Welcome to the board tomwindsor, nice article.

I had read some of this a few years ago in The Signatature of God by Grant Jefferys (spelling ) and as you stated, the authors couldn't have known this. It's amazing how much evidence there is for the existence of GOD, and yet some still want to cling to their naturalistic explanations while dismissing what the Bible says.

I once started a search in the Bible to see what else there could be in the manner of the ancients being unable to "know", but I never got it finished. However I do have some notes and if I can find them, I'll post what I have.

Your piece about mesocyclones is one that I missed, ( among others I'm sure ) thanks for the post- very informative.

[tomwindsor]

Hi ,
Thanks for the input ,

The Scripture is filled with many other references that apply to meteorology .

If you search the word ," storm , rain , thunder , lightning , sky wind " etc, it yields over 500 verses , not included a few hundred more with the word "heaven" that relates to the first heaven . There may be some spiritual metaphor/poetry but doesn't nullify that the prophets spoke underlying truth about our physical world . In the OT, our Lord chose to reveal himself in "storm theophany "metaphor . This manner , at that time was to teach us of greater concepts . Nahum 1 - v.1:3 The Lord said " His way is in the whirlwind and storm " ... God's working is directly portrayed and described by a storm analogy.

These verses certainly have far more meaning beyond weather science, but they are true for the Lord ultimately created nature . There are also various New testament verses that come to mind.

The Lord Jesus words :

54He said to the crowd: "When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, 'It's going to rain,' and it does. 55And when the south wind blows, you say, 'It's going to be hot,' and it is. 56Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don't know how to interpret this present time? (NIV)

The coming of His Spirit is compared to , "the rush of a mighty wind " (Acts 2:2.)

The devils servants (false teachers) are like "clouds without rain blown about by the wind "(Jude 1:12,) "as they seek to undermine the faith of others so they will be blown about by every wind of doctrine" (Eph. 4:14.)
Conversely, the inspired writers and those who spoke God's word were "carried along (like the wind) by his Spirit (1 Pet.) Hebrews speaks of the tempest on the mountain and the apostle Paul spoke of a "nor'easter "storm at sea (Acts )

Below is also an another example of how the Scripture happens to match what we now know in modern science .

We cannot determine the path of the wind

The Lord said "the wind blows where it wills. You here the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or wither it goes, so is everyone born of the spirit "( Jn.3 )
Granted , in the case of Jesus certainly we cant say "he couldn't have known " about weather science

Yet Even 2700 years ago , Solomon wrote by God's wisdom , " you do not know the path of the wind ....(Eccl.)". ... . (John 3)

We now know the atmosphere is one of the most complex chaotic systems in nature ( involving vicious mathematical feedback loops and non-linear equations ) . Predicting the weather ( even with super-computers /trillions of calculations per second , we still can't predict where the wind will ultimately go .

We can very well predict the path of the sun and moon (years in advance down to the minute as in the case of eclipses ) ! , but not the path of a parcel of air next week , as our Lord testified . These words still ring true today .

May you have a blessed day ,
Tom
( Upwardcall.net )

[MarkyMark7]

Nice article

[Cross.eyed]

This is my notes from The Signature of God by G. Jefferys :

Job-28:24-26 ..."To establish a weight for the wind, and apportion the waters by measure.
When He made a law for the rain and a path for the thunderbolt."

In this statement the Bible reveals that the winds are governed by their weight, a fact that scientists have only determined in the last century. Meteorologists have found that the relative weights of the wind and water greatly determine the weather patterns.

This passage also reveals the fact that there is a scientific connection between lightning, thunder,and the triggering of rainfall. A slight change in the electrical charge within a cloud is one of the key factors that cause microscopic water droplets in the clouds to join with other droplets until they are heavy enough to fall to earth. In addition, we know now that a powerful electrical charge as high as 300 million volts in a cloud sends a leader stroke down through the air to the ground. In one fiftieth of a second later, a second more powerful return stroke travels back up to the cloud following the path through the air opened by the leader stroke.

The thunder occurs because the air within this channel or path has been vaporized by superheating it to fifty thousand degrees f. by the lightning. The superheated air expands outward at supersonic speed creating the noise of thunder.

No human could have known this without the divine revelation of God.

The History Channel aired a special a few years ago on this very subject which closely matched the figures and language of Jefferys.

[Cross.eyed]

More notes from The Signature of God :

Job 26:7 "He stretcheth out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing."

Only a century ago scientists believed that the earth and stars were supported by some kind of ether. Yet Job accurately stated that our planet moves in its orbit through empty outer space. A discovery by astronomers recently revealed the area to the north of the axis of our earth toward the polar star is almost empty of stars in contrast to the other directions.

There are far more distant stars in every other direction from our earth than in the area to the far north of our planet. This relative emptiness in the direction to the north of our solar system is not visible to the naked eye.

It is only as the result of very careful observation by telescopes that scientists have recently proven that Job was correct.

Psalms 19:5-6: In his song of praise King David declared that the sun traveled in "his circuit unto the ends of it."

During the last few centuries many Bible critics denounced this statement as inaccurate because they claimed the Bibles statement declared that the sun moved in an orbit around the earth. However the Bible never made that claim.

Recent discoveries by the Hubble Telescope confirmed the accuracy of the scriptures when they proved that the sun actually moves through space in a circuit covering an enormous orbit that lasts over two hundred and sixty million years.

[Robert Byers]

Thats a great idea to show not only how the bible got it right but how if the bible was written by mere men trapped in the ideas of their times there would be heaps of errors to list. yet like other subjects in the bible of history, geology, biology, geography etc there is no errors that been proven. A impossibility if the bible was written by mere men.
This article and concept should be shown to Christians kids and everyone.
We always have the truth and logic on our side.
robert Byers
Toronto,Ontario

[Cross.eyed]

Thanks for your comments R.B.and a belated welcome to the board !

Here is a little more from The Signature of God by G. Jefferys;

Job 38:16-"Have you entered the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in search of the depths?"

In this verse the Bible refers to the existence of springs of water flowing beneath the depths of the sea. It is only in the last thirty five years or so (edit: mine)that underwater exploration of the oceans has revealed a remarkable phenomenon of numerous huge springs of fresh water pouring out of the ocean floor.

Job 38:29-"From whose womb comes the ice? And the frost of heaven, who gives it birth? The waters harden like a stone, and the surface of the deep is frozen."

(edit:mine)Is it possible that the author, living in Saudi Arabia or Egypt, could have known about polar ice caps? Or perhaps the Mediterranean Sea could have frozen over? How could anyone in ancient times have known there was frost in heaven?