Genesis 1:14-19 “Then God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; (15) and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so. (16) Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, the stars also. (17) God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, (18) and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. (19) So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.”
The fourth step in the Genesis account of creation is given to us in the above quoted passage of scripture, which is the account of God’s creation of our solar system. The stars are mentioned on this day because they also contribute to the light on the earth, which is why the earth’s surface never experiences complete darkness, even when the moon is not shining. This is another reason why we can see from scripture that the earth was always central to God’s creation; for the sun, moon and stars were all created to give light on the earth. We need to make a comment here about the creation of the stars, which in this passage is mentioned only in passing. So why is that? The reason is because the stars actually began to form long before God created the sun and the moon. So when did God create the stars? They in fact began to form after day two of the creation account, and continue to form even to this day. Scientists have estimated that the first stars began to form four hundred million years after the Big Bang event, which agrees with scripture, for although God created the universe on the second day, He only formed the stars after that creation event. It was in fact through the study of the stars that scientists made the most important observation that led to the development of the “Big Bang theory”, for in observing the galaxies and stars in the universe; they discovered that in every direction, the galaxies in the universe were moving away from us. This led them to conclude that the universe is constantly expanding and could therefore be traced back in time to an originating single point. This discovery plus other evidence, led to the theory that the universe began as a very dense, very hot, point in space and expanded out in all directions from that point, i.e. the origin of the Big Bang.
From the time that the first star was formed until today, new stars have continued to be formed while older stars have died. All of God’s physical creation works in the same cycle, i.e. new life begins, matures and then dies, and the cycle then begins again. God Himself has stated that the universe will grow old and eventually be done away with (Psalm 102: 25-26). This truth also agrees with scientific evidence, which has shown that stars range in age from anywhere between 12 million years old to approximately 14 billion years old. What is also evident from scientific research is that the rate of new star formations has been slowing down as the universe gets older, just as God said it would. Measuring the age of the stars and galaxies is another way for scientists to determine the age of the universe. They do this by looking at the age of the oldest galaxies that are in the universe, and link that to the age of the universe. There is some logic to that reasoning, in that it is safe to say that the universe cannot be any younger than the oldest galaxies that are in it. And so, because the oldest galaxies are estimated to be 14 billion years, that is equated to the age of the universe. As mentioned in the above passage, it was on creation day four that as part of our solar system, God created both the sun and the moon. Scientists estimate that our solar system is approximately 4.5 billion years old. They have been able to come up with this estimation based of their aging of lunar and meteor rock samples. Because of the stability of these platforms from which the samples were taken, it is more than likely that their estimates are relatively accurate. The problem arises with their aging of the earth however, because they use the same techniques to age the rocks on the earth, which they have also found to be approximately 4.5 billion years old. The problem with dating the rocks on the earth however is that the earth’s crust that exists today is not the same crust that existed 5 billion years ago for example. The reason for that is because the tectonic plates that make up the earth’s crust are constantly changing. In other words, as the plates move over one another, older crust is forced back into the earth’s core where it is melted and thus recycled in the earth’s magma. And new crust is formed through volcanic activity that takes place between the various plates in the earth. And so, because of the constant renewal of the earth’s crust, unlike the moon, it is not possible to determine the earth’s age through rock samples on the earth’s surface. And so, although scripture shows the earth to be far older than the universe, i.e. 14 billion years, we have no idea just how old the earth actually is. In determining the age of the earth, scientists continue to play catch-up with the bible, for they have discovered recently that the water on the earth is in fact older than the sun.[1] We know that to be true from scripture, because the water on the earth was there before both the sun and the universe were created.
Michael E.B. Maher
[1] Dr Natalie Starkey, New Scientist article 2014
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