The Theological Foundation of the Biblical Science Research Center

The Biblical Science Research Center is a Christian research institution committed to the authority of Holy Scripture, the lordship of Jesus Christ, and the pursuit of truth for the glory of God.
We believe that the study of the created world cannot be separated from the revelation of the Creator. Scientific investigation is possible because the universe was designed, created, ordered, and continually sustained by the triune God revealed in the Bible.
The following statement summarizes the theological convictions that govern the mission, research, teaching, and publications of the Biblical Science Research Center.

1. The Triune God

We believe in one living and true God, eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The three persons of the Godhead are one in essence, equal in power and glory, yet personally distinct.
God is eternal, self-existent, infinite, unchangeable, all-knowing, all-powerful, perfectly holy, righteous, loving, wise, and good.
He alone is the Creator, Sustainer, Ruler, and Redeemer of all things.
All creation exists from Him, through Him, and for Him.

2. The Authority of Holy Scripture

We believe that the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments are the inspired Word of God.
The Bible was written by human authors under the sovereign direction of the Holy Spirit. It is therefore truthful, trustworthy, authoritative, and without error in all that it affirms.
Scripture is the supreme and final authority for faith, doctrine, morality, history, and the interpretation of God’s created order.
Human reason, scientific theories, religious traditions, philosophical systems, and cultural convictions must all be judged by the Word of God.
Because God is the ultimate source of both Scripture and creation, the book of God’s Word and the book of God’s works cannot truly contradict one another when both are rightly understood.
Where human interpretations of nature conflict with the clear teaching of Scripture, human interpretations must be reconsidered.

3. Creation

We believe that God freely created the heavens, the earth, and all that exists by the power of His Word.
Creation did not arise independently, eternally, or through unguided natural processes. It exists because of the deliberate will, wisdom, and design of God.
The universe is neither self-created nor self-sustaining.
God created distinct realms and creatures according to His purpose. He established order, boundaries, functions, relationships, and environments suitable for life.
The created world therefore possesses genuine structure, intelligibility, regularity, and purpose.
These qualities make scientific investigation possible.
We affirm the historical reality and foundational importance of the creation account recorded in Genesis.

4. Divine Design and Purpose

We believe that divine design precedes creation.
God did not create without knowledge, purpose, or plan. Before bringing the world into existence, He possessed perfect wisdom concerning the nature, function, relationship, and goal of everything He would create.
The order observed in the universe reflects the wisdom of its Creator.
Biological organisms, physical laws, chemical systems, astronomical structures, and ecological relationships display coordination, functionality, information, and interdependence because they originate in the purposeful counsel of God.
Creation is therefore not merely a collection of objects. It is an integrated order in which individual components operate within larger systems according to divinely appointed purposes.

5. Divine Providence

We believe that God continually upholds, governs, and directs all creation by His providence.
The universe does not continue to exist by its own independent power. God preserves all creatures and ordinarily governs them through consistent patterns that human beings describe as natural laws.
The regularity of nature reflects the faithfulness of God.
Scientific inquiry depends upon this providential consistency. Observation, experimentation, prediction, measurement, and engineering are meaningful because creation is governed by an orderly and faithful Creator.
God is not absent from natural processes. His providence is the foundation of their continued existence and reliability.

6. Humanity Created in the Image of God

We believe that God created human beings, male and female, in His image.
Human beings possess unique dignity and responsibility before God. They were created to know Him, worship Him, represent His rule, cultivate the earth, and exercise faithful stewardship over creation.
The human ability to reason, communicate, investigate, classify, calculate, design, and discover is grounded in the image of God.
Human knowledge is possible because the rational Creator made human minds capable of understanding genuine aspects of His rationally ordered world.
Nevertheless, human knowledge remains finite and dependent. Human beings never possess exhaustive knowledge and must receive truth with humility.

7. The Historical Adam and Eve

We believe that Adam and Eve were real historical persons specially created by God.
They were the first human beings and the covenantal ancestors of the human race.
Adam was formed from the dust of the ground, and Eve was formed from Adam. They were created righteous, without sin, and in fellowship with God.
The biblical teaching concerning the origin, dignity, unity, fall, and redemption of humanity depends upon the historical reality of Adam and Eve.
They must not be reduced to literary symbols, mythological figures, or representatives of an already existing human population.

8. The Fall and the Entrance of Death

We believe that Adam, acting as the representative head of humanity, disobeyed God’s command and fell into sin.
Through this historical act of rebellion, sin, condemnation, corruption, suffering, and death entered the human world.
The Fall affected the whole person and brought disorder into humanity’s relationship with God, with other human beings, and with the created order.
Because of sin, human reasoning is morally and spiritually distorted. People suppress the truth, misuse creation, and interpret reality in ways that seek independence from God.
The problem of human knowledge is therefore not merely intellectual. It is also ethical and spiritual.
True restoration requires reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ.

9. The Historical Global Flood

We believe that the Flood described in Genesis was a real, historical, worldwide judgment sent by God upon the ancient world because of human wickedness.
God preserved Noah, his family, and representatives of land-dwelling, air-breathing animals in the ark according to His covenantal purpose.
The Flood brought catastrophic changes to the earth and must be taken seriously in the interpretation of geology, paleontology, ecology, climate history, and the distribution of organisms.
The biblical Flood account is not merely a local memory, moral parable, or symbolic myth. It is an essential part of the revealed history of the world.
Scientific models of earth history should therefore evaluate present evidence within the historical framework provided by Scripture.

10. The Unity and Dispersion of Humanity

We believe that all nations descend from the common human family preserved through Noah.
After the Flood, humanity again rebelled against God at Babel. God judged this rebellion by confusing human language and dispersing peoples across the earth.
The diversity of languages, cultures, and nations exists within the deeper unity of the human race.
No ethnic group, nation, culture, or civilization possesses greater inherent human worth than another. All people bear the image of God, share in Adam’s fall, and need salvation through Jesus Christ.

11. Jesus Christ

We believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Trinity.
All things were created through Him and for Him, and in Him all things hold together.
He became truly human without ceasing to be truly God. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, lived a sinless life, fulfilled the law, proclaimed the kingdom of God, and revealed the Father perfectly.
Jesus Christ died on the cross as the substitutionary sacrifice for sinners. He bore the judgment of God, satisfied divine justice, and accomplished redemption for His people.
He rose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven, reigns at the right hand of the Father, intercedes for His people, and will return visibly and gloriously to judge the living and the dead.
Christ is not only the Redeemer of human beings. He is also the Creator, Sustainer, Lord, and ultimate goal of the entire universe.
Every field of knowledge finds its coherence in Him.

12. Salvation by Grace

We believe that salvation is entirely the work of God’s grace.
Fallen human beings cannot save themselves through moral effort, religious practice, intellectual achievement, scientific knowledge, or social progress.
God the Father chose a people in Christ before the foundation of the world. Christ accomplished their redemption through His life, death, and resurrection. The Holy Spirit applies this redemption by giving new life, producing faith and repentance, uniting believers to Christ, and preserving them to the end.
Sinners are justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
Good works do not earn salvation. They are the fruit of salvation and the evidence of living faith.

13. The Holy Spirit

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity.
The Holy Spirit inspired the Scriptures, convicts the world of sin, gives spiritual life, unites believers to Christ, sanctifies the church, distributes gifts, and empowers God’s people for faithful witness and service.
The Holy Spirit does not lead believers away from Scripture. He illuminates the Word He inspired and conforms God’s people to the image of Christ.
True spiritual knowledge and faithful scientific work both require intellectual humility, moral integrity, and submission to truth.

14. The Church

We believe that the church is the people of God, the body of Christ, and the temple of the Holy Spirit.
The universal church consists of all who are united to Christ by faith. It is expressed visibly through local congregations in which the Word is faithfully preached, the sacraments are rightly administered, discipline is responsibly practiced, and believers worship and serve together.
The church is called to proclaim the gospel, make disciples of all nations, defend the truth, care for those in need, and bear faithful witness in every area of life.
Christian scholarship and scientific research should serve the church by strengthening confidence in Scripture, equipping believers, answering objections, and encouraging faithful stewardship of creation.

15. The Cultural Mandate and Human Vocation

We believe that God’s command to exercise dominion over the earth remains an important aspect of human vocation.
This dominion must not be understood as exploitation, destruction, or autonomous human control. It is a delegated stewardship exercised under God’s authority.
Agriculture, science, engineering, medicine, education, technology, craftsmanship, and responsible cultural development are legitimate expressions of humanity’s calling when practiced in obedience to God and love for one’s neighbor.
Scientific work is therefore not spiritually neutral. It may be used faithfully for service and worship, or rebelliously for pride, oppression, and destruction.
Christians are called to bring every intellectual and practical endeavor under the lordship of Jesus Christ.

16. Science and Christian Faith

We believe that genuine scientific investigation and biblical faith are not enemies.
Modern science arose and flourished in a world shaped significantly by convictions concerning creation, order, human rationality, and divine faithfulness.
Science depends upon assumptions that are intelligible within the biblical worldview:
• the universe exists objectively;
• nature possesses stable order;
• human senses and reason provide meaningful access to reality;
• mathematical relationships describe genuine features of creation;
• truth is coherent;
• and repeated investigation can yield reliable knowledge.
Scientific knowledge, however, is always human, limited, and subject to correction.
Theories and models must not be treated as unquestionable authorities. They must be tested by evidence, examined logically, evaluated according to their assumptions, and interpreted within a coherent worldview.
We reject both anti-intellectualism and scientific autonomy.
We affirm rigorous research under the authority of God.

17. Operational and Historical Science

We believe that a meaningful distinction should be made between operational science and historical science.
Operational science investigates processes that can ordinarily be observed, measured, tested, and repeated in the present.
Historical science seeks to reconstruct past events that cannot be repeated directly.
Historical research may use legitimate scientific evidence, but its conclusions necessarily depend upon assumptions about past conditions, rates, causes, chronology, and the interpretation of present evidence.
For this reason, claims concerning origins and ancient history should not be presented as though they possess the same kind of direct experimental confirmation as repeatable laboratory findings.
Biblical revelation provides indispensable eyewitness testimony from the Creator concerning the origin and early history of the world.

18. The Unity of Truth

We believe that all truth belongs to God.
There is no final conflict between truths properly discovered in creation and truths properly understood from Scripture.
Apparent conflicts arise because human observations may be incomplete, scientific models may be mistaken, biblical interpretation may be careless, or philosophical assumptions may distort the evaluation of evidence.
The proper response to an apparent conflict is neither to abandon Scripture nor to ignore evidence.
It is to reexamine interpretations carefully, humbly, and faithfully.
Because God does not contradict Himself, truth possesses genuine unity.

19. Academic Integrity and Intellectual Humility

We believe that Christian researchers must pursue truth with honesty, courage, diligence, fairness, and humility.
Research data must not be manipulated to support predetermined conclusions.
Evidence must be reported accurately.
Sources must be represented responsibly.
Opposing positions must be described fairly.
Uncertainty must be acknowledged.
Hypotheses must not be presented as proven facts, and scientific models must remain open to correction.
Commitment to Scripture does not excuse careless research. On the contrary, belief in the God of truth requires the highest standards of intellectual integrity.
Christian scholarship should be characterized by both conviction and humility.

20. The Return of Christ and the Renewal of Creation

We believe that Jesus Christ will return personally, visibly, and gloriously.
He will raise the dead, judge all humanity, defeat every enemy, and bring God’s redemptive purposes to completion.
Those who belong to Christ will enter everlasting life, while those who remain in rebellion against God will face righteous judgment.
God will renew creation, remove the curse, and establish the new heavens and the new earth in which righteousness dwells.
The future of creation is therefore neither endless decay nor autonomous human progress.
Its final destiny is determined by Jesus Christ.
Christian scientific work is carried out in hope, knowing that creation belongs to Christ and will ultimately be liberated from corruption under His reign.

Our Confessional Commitment

The Biblical Science Research Center stands within the historic Christian faith expressed in the ecumenical creeds of the early church and more fully articulated in the Reformed confessional tradition.
We affirm the theological heritage represented especially by:
• the Apostles’ Creed;
• the Nicene Creed;
• the Definition of Chalcedon;
• the Westminster Confession of Faith;
• the Westminster Larger Catechism;
• and the Westminster Shorter Catechism.
These confessional documents do not possess the authority of Scripture. Their value lies in faithfully summarizing and defending the teaching of Scripture.

Our Mission

On the basis of these convictions, the Biblical Science Research Center exists to:
• defend the truth and authority of Scripture;
• develop scientific research within a biblical worldview;
• examine creation through engineering, historical, theological, and scientific analysis;
• distinguish empirical evidence from philosophical interpretation;
• challenge naturalistic assumptions in origins research;
• equip churches, pastors, students, educators, scientists, and families;
• encourage Christian participation in science and technology;
• and direct all knowledge toward the glory of God.
Our purpose is not merely to oppose naturalism.
Our purpose is to recover the proper foundation of science.
Science is possible because the universe was designed by God, created through Christ, ordered by divine wisdom, sustained by providence, and made knowable to human beings created in God’s image.
Therefore, we study creation in faith, conduct research with integrity, receive knowledge with humility, and offer our work in worship.
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.