Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20080210.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Genesis: Explaining The Foundations Of History
Part I: Explaining The Creation Of The Universe, Genesis 1-2
C. Explaining The Steps Of The Universe's Creation
3. Explaining God's Filling The Emptiness With Life
b. God's Filling The Heavens To Give Light And Mark Time
(Genesis 1:14-19)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

Dr. D. Russell Humphreys who holds a Ph. D. in physics from Louisiana State University and who views Genesis 1 literally noted in his book, Starlight and Time (1994, p. 9) that wherever he speaks in favor of special creation, " . . . an extremely common question which many people ask is this: 'If the universe is so young, how can we see light from stars that are more than 10,000 light-years away?'"

This question arises from the idea that the answer must be made in accord with current natural laws, the only realm allowed by uniformitarian evolution . However, opposite current natural laws, Genesis 1 literally asserts God repeatedly miraculously made the universe: by His word He created daylight three solar days before the sun, by His word He made dry land and plants in a single solar day and by His word He created birds before dinosaurs, etc.!

Nevertheless, there IS a reasonable answer to the question of starlight and time even in terms of current natural laws, one that still supports the literal interpretation of Genesis 1: Humphreys appealed in his book to Einstein's theory of General Relativity that holds time is distorted by gravity; this idea gives room for God to create the universe in six solar days "in the earth's reference frame ("Earth Standard Time," if you like)" while the "[star]light has ample time in the extra-terrestrial [sic] reference frame to travel the required distances," Ibid., p. 13, brackets ours. Humphreys suggests that as God stretched out the heavens to form deep space on day two of creation (Gen. 1:6-8), the immense speed of this action greatly affected time in space versus time on stationary earth, easily accounting for distant starlight being visible on earth the fourth day when He made the stars, Ibid., p. 9-128. (Some 'progressive [theistic] evolutionists' who hold to long ages of creation have seen Humphreys' book as a threat to their stance, and so have critiqued it, but he has answered each criticism, citing notable authorities such as Nobel Laureate cosmologist Steven Weinberg ["Starlight Wars . . ." in www.answersingenesis.org.])

Whether or not Dr. Humphreys' view is correct, regarding Genesis 1:14-19, we need to ask the RIGHT QUESTIONS such as: "DID God MIRACULOUSLY create the stellar bodies? If SO, WHY, and is there EVIDENCE for this MIRACULOUS activity?!" (We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "DID God MIRACULOUSLY make the stellar bodies? If SO, WHY, and is there EVIDENCE He that did it MIRACULOUSLY?!"
  1. Genesis 1:3-31 explains how God's CREATIVE ACTS SOLVED the NEEDY STATE of Genesis 1:2 (as follows):
    1. The unfinished world God had called into existence out of nothing (Hebrews 11:3) was NEEDY, being formless, empty and cloaked in darkness over its surface of deep waters, Genesis 1:2 NIV, ESV.
    2. Thus, God addressed the darkness need by creating light in Genesis 1:3-5, He addressed the formlessness need by creating the structures of heaven, sea and dry land in Genesis 1:6-10, and He addressed the emptiness need by filling these structures in Genesis 1:11-31.
  2. In SOLVING the EMPTINESS, as Romans 1:18-20 claims, at Genesis 1:14-19, God exhibited His attributes of ETERNAL POWER and DIVINE NATURE in creating STELLAR BODIES:
    1. Genesis 1:14-19 shows God's eternal power in making stellar bodies!
      1. Until the fourth day of creation, Day and Night existed apart from the sun, moon and stars, cf. Genesis 1:3-5 with Genesis 1:14, 19!
      2. Then, by God's mere spoken Word, the sun, moon [and planets] with the stellar bodies came into existence, Genesis 1:14-15, 16.
      3. As a space probe that studied the Cosmic Background Radiation indicated the stellar universe is at least 156 billion light-years wide (Creation, Sept.-Nov., p. 7), and realizing it has billions of galaxies with billions of stars in each galaxy, one is impressed with the POWER of God's mere spoken Word to cause it all to exist!
      4. God exhibits His Word's power to sustain it, too: for example, a Voyager spacecraft found Saturn's two small moons, Janus and Epimetheus, orbit so closely to each other that nearly every four years they revolve around one another and switch orbits! "This is extraordinary, and requires a very unlikely delicate relationship between mass, speed and distance." (Wayne Spencer, "Revelations in the Solar System," Creation, June-Aug., 1997, p. 26-27)
    2. Genesis 1:14-19, in its context, shows God's divine nature in the creation of the stellar bodies, showing Him to be holy and gracious:
      1. In making the stellar bodies, God was separate from pagan gods:
        1. In the Genesis 1:14-16 text, the creation of sun and moon take precedence over the stars that are mentioned as an afterthought!
        2. The literary and historical contexts of Scripture reveal this format critiques pagan theology: (1) passages like Deuteronomy 4:15, 19 reveal Israel's pagan neighbors worshiped the sun, moon and stars, and viewed the stellar universe as "powers controlling men's destinies," Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, ftn. to Deuteronomy 4:19. (2) Also, Day and Night existed apart from current natural laws the first solar day of creation (Genesis 1:3-5) three solar days before the sun, moon and stars were created to reveal GOD was the ONE TRUE CREATOR of sun, moon and stars, that these were NOT to be revered or served as gods, Genesis 1:3-5; 1:14-19! (3) For this reason, passages like Deuteronomy 17:2-5 strongly opposed pagan astrology and astral worship! God is SEPARATE from the FALSE PAGAN gods of the HEAVENS.
      2. In making the stellar bodies, God revealed His GREAT GRACE toward man in immense contrast to pagan beliefs (as follows):
        1. Genesis 1:14-16 claims God created the sun, moon and stars [that in this context would also include planets] to give man light and equip man to mark time in service to man!
        2. This view of man's lofty role in the universe contrasts with paganism that subjects man to the gods of nature, making him serve them as a slave, B. K. Waltke, Creation and Chaos , p. 65!
        3. Thus, upon realizing God made billions of galaxies of billions of stars along with the sun, moon and planets in the sky as SERVANTS of MAN so he could have light and mark time on the earth reveals God's abundant grace toward man, Ps. 8:4-6!
  3. [In our conclusion notes, we report on evidences in support of pure creation versus uniformitarian evolution on the origin of the stars.]
Application: May we (1) BELIEVE the GOSPEL of CHRIST in His WRITTEN WORD and TRUST in CHRIST as SAVOR for eternal life, John 3:16. (2) Then, may we SEPARATE from all pagan beliefs that revere or heed the stellar bodies (via astrology, etc.) and (3) REJOICE in God's UNMERITED FAVOR toward us as revealed in His creation of the stellar bodies!

Lesson: God showed the GREAT POWER of His SPOKEN WORD in using it MIRACULOUSLY to created the stellar universe, revealing also His SEPARATION from PAGAN gods and His GRACE toward man!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

The following illustrations testify to God's creation of the stars:

(1) Dr. Jason Lisle, who holds a Ph. D. in astrophysics from the University of Colorado at Boulder, noted in an Answers article last fall ["The Stars of Heaven Confirm Biblical Creation," Answers, Oct.-Dec. 2007, p. 79-80] that "The properties of stars . . . confirm the biblical teaching that these objects were supernaturally created. Stars are made almost entirely of hydrogen and helium . . . The . . . mass from all this gas gives the star a gravitational field much stronger than earth's . . . [and] prevents the gas from dispersing into space.

"Secular astronomers believe that stars form from the collapse of a nebula . . . an enormous 'cloud' of extremely low-density hydrogen and helium . . . If there were a way to compress such gas, then its own gravity would keep it together -- a star would form. However, such compression would be very difficult . . . because gas has a tendency to expand, not contract . . . if a gas cloud were to begin to be compressed, it would drastically increase its pressure, magnetic field, and rotation speed . . . these . . . would strongly resist any further compression. The compression . . . would be stopped long before any star could form.

"Therefore, many creation scientists are convinced that stars cannot form spontaneously under normal circumstances. And despite claims to the contrary, we've never seen a star forming . . . "

The presence of billions of stars in vast numbers of galaxies of various colors, sizes and shapes with no adequate explanation as to how ANY ONE STAR came into existence by current natural laws testifies to their origin by God's supernatural power!

(2) Andrew Rigg reported in "Young galaxies too old for the big bang," Creation, June-August, 2004, p. 15, that astronomers at the University of Texas, using "the 4-metre Blanco Telescope in Chile" found "37 mature, bright galaxies that seem to be lined up in a string" that is "300 million light years across" located "at the most distant edge of the universe." Big bang (evolutionary) cosmologists are stunned at this find, for according to "evolutionary timescales", this big a string of mature galaxies should not have had time to form that far away! (Ibid.)

Like Genesis 1:14-19 reveals, God MIRACULOUSLY created the stellar bodies by His MERE SPOKEN WORD! That leads us to worship and heed Him above all false deities, and to REJOICE in His great GRACE to us in Christ Jesus our Lord.