Tuesday, June 23, 2026

It is the 23rd of June 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

Let’s talk Science and Religion… well, I don’t care for either of those two terms very much- but you know what I mean… “Science” comes from the root word “to know”- to know what? Well, in modern parlance, it means to know stuff about the physical, or natural world (you perhaps took “physics”, or you know that the old-timey “Scientists” were called “Natural Philosophers”).

 

Religion- well, in our case, we mean the Christian faith as revealed in the Word (that is, the person and the book). And in the modern West, we get a rather strange idea sometimes that these two things have long been antagonists… once again, blame the Modernist/Fundamentalist controversy. Or maybe you have heard (here, perhaps) the story of Galileo and Copernicus. But the real story is that the majority of thinkers throughout time and space who have taken Christian theology and natural philosophy seriously have seen a harmony between the two. New information might come to light, which changes how we think about the world- but it was very common to read of God’s “two books”- that is, the book of his revealed word to us and the book of nature- as Romans 1:20 tells us- that we can understand God through what has been made.

 

And today I want to introduce you to a long-overlooked character in church history- falling between the stools of theologian or scientist… he was, in fact, one of the earliest Christian Paleontologists- and if you know my oldest son, you know I had to do this episode.

 

He was Johann Jakob Scheuchzer, born in 1672 in Zürich- in fact, I pass his birthplace every year on my GTI tour when we go to the Grossmunster. His father was the town physician, and his mother was the daughter of the principal of the local school. He received an excellent education in the German lands and the Netherlands. He would return to Zurich to work and teach, but kept up extensive correspondence in this new Enlightenment “republic of letters”. He would be a member of the Royal Historical Society and publish on both of God’s “books”. To understand him best is to know his massive and remarkable “Copper Bible”. [I’ll ask Gillespie to put a link in the show notes to a digitized version, or you can go to the unofficial transcript at 1517 for a link: https://archive.org/details/tomus-3.2/Tomus_1.1/mode/2up]

 

Its official title is the Physica Sacra- or “Sacred Physics/Natural Sciences” and includes his years of study in both the natural world and theology, especially his fascination with what the Old Testament might tell us about how we can understand the various rock formations and skeletons that were being unearthed and analyzed at a dizzying pace.

 

It is a 4-volume work that begins with Genesis 1:1 and includes 760 copperplate engravings (hence “copper bible”) to illuminate 760 bible verses and how they show a harmony between the natural world and the Bible.

 

Because he was working at the very beginning of the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution, he can be found in error at some points- this does not negate his importance- if you never want to be proven wrong, never write anything down… or, take it for granted that you can know as much as anyone in your context can and do your best to be factual. For instance, he was obsessed with the account of Noah and the Flood. He believed that the strata found by scientists and early paleontologists such as himself were evidence of a global flood. His Herbarium Diluvianum- or Herbarium of the Flood was a collection of the various fossils he collected. In it, he claimed that one fossil, which he called the “Homo diluvii testis,” was proof of a human killed in the flood. In the next century, the famous Georges Cuvier would note that this was not a pre-flood wicked human, but an ancient salamander. Nonetheless, this ancient salamander today is called the Andrias Scheuchzeri in honor of Johann Jakob Schuechzer.

 

Scheuchzer would live and work in his hometown of Zurich until his death on the 23rd of June in 1733. A man known for his knowledge of both of “God’s Books” and printing of the Epic “Copper Bible,” Johann Jakob Scheuchzer was 60 years old.

 

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and back in Revelation, the 2nd chapter, and the words to the church of Smyrna:

To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:

These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. 9 I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10 Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.

11 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 23rd of June 2026, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who is also the namesake for several extinct reptilian species. He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who knows that whenever Johann Jakob Scheuchzer goes out, he hears the people shout….no, wrong guy… I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.