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President Dondi Costin welcomed students back to campus for the spring semester at the first Chapel service Jan. 9. Costin said, “You were made for a mission; God designed you for a purpose.” He said part of why students are at 51���� is to find their purpose.

He introduced speaker Dr. James Merritt who is pastor of Cross Pointe Church in Duluth, Ga., and a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Merritt said, “If this book [the Bible] indeed is God’s word, it must therefore be true in everything it touches on and everything it says, because God is a God of truth. That would include not just theology, but things like history and science. If the Bible is God’s word that should also be true in the area of science.”

“Science and scripture are friends, not enemies,” said Merritt.

He made his point in three ways:

1. Believe in the sacred authority of the Bible
   He said, “If the Bible is truth and wherever it speaks it speaks truth that should be true in the area of science.”
2. Believe in the scientific accuracy of the Bible
   He pointed out that the Bible begins scientifically. “Science looks at the universe in five areas: time , space, matter, power and motion.” Genesis 1:1-2 says: “In the beginning [that is time] God created [that is power] the heavens [that is space] and the earth [that is matter] … and the Spirit of God was hovering [that is motion] over the waters.”
3. Believe in the spiritual answers of the Bible
   Merritt said you can find everything you need to know about Jesus in the Bible.

In closing, Merritt said, “It doesn’t take rocket science to get into this book and discover for yourself that when you do, you will unearth the truth and that truth will set you free.”