Page 140 - Apologetics Student Textbook (3 Credits)

Hygiene

In Deuteronomy 23:12-14, Moses instructed the Israelites always to
bury human waste products. Today, of course, with centuries of
experience behind us, we know that this is an excellent sanitary
hygienic practice. But the common course of action in Moses day, and for centuries to follow, was to
dump waste products in any convenient place.

History has recorded the folly of this kind of action. In Europe, during the Middle Ages, Black Plague
swept over the continent on two different occasions, slaughtering more than 13 million people in the
process. Europeans routinely dumped waste of all kinds out their windows and into the public streets
where decomposition took place and microorganisms flourished.

One of those microorganisms the one we know today as Yersinia pestis grew in the waste products and
contaminated the fleas associated with those waste products. The fleas, using rats as their hosts,
subsequently traveled into the people’s houses. Once inside a dwelling, the fleas then jumped from the
rats onto the humans, biting them and infecting them with the plague organism. As this cycle was
repeated over and over, millions perished. Yet if the people simply had obeyed God s injunction, as
given by Moses to the Israelites, all of the death and horror of two separate epidemics could have been
avoided. How did Moses know to instruct the Israelites regarding such public health hygiene laws, when
none of the nations surrounding God's people enlisted such practices and would not for centuries?
Of course, there are still a lot of people claiming that we read too much into these passages (the Hebrew
is pretty unique here), that the texts were written much later than we believe, that this was common
knowledge at the time, or that it was just a lucky guess.

But all these claims only express that they don't like to look at evidence that could contradict their belief
system - while they have no problems accepting a scientifically unproven and even unlikely theory like
evolution theory. Occasionally, however, people's eyes get opened by looking at the fact, they get
curious and check the Bible out -- and then the Word speaks to them by itself.

Hasn’t evolution has pretty much proven that the world can exist without a God?

Evolution today is being challenged by true scientists. Evolution has certainly not proven anything about
the existence of God or whether the world can exist without God. Remember, science must be
observable, repeatable, and measurable. While God can be observed through His creation, He cannot
be put in a test tube and be measured. God is beyond measuring. And His power cannot be fully
comprehended. Actually, according to the Word of God, the world could not continue to exist without
God’s hand holding it together.

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Colossians 1:16-17 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for
him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
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