Title: 13
Author: Joe Griffin
Last saved by: Paul J. Davey
Company: GDC

Clanking Chains

		08-01-22.CC02-848 /

The Cosmologist’s Gordian Knot: First Cause; the Universe: the Big Bang & 15-Billion Years or the Lord’s Command & Instant Creation?  An Expanding Universe

•	Therefore, both the big bang model and the testimony of Scripture agree that there was a beginning.  Some supporters of the former admit the implication of a creator while those who support the latter consider it proof of a Creator (Genesis 1:1; Colossians 1:16-17).
•	The significant difference between the big bang model and the testimony of Scripture is that the former proposes that the universe required billions of years to arrive into its present state while the latter professes that both the heavens and the earth were created in a moment of time.
•	If Jesus Christ was able to create the heavens and the earth, then He was also capable of creating them “up and running.”  According to the big bang model it took billions of years for stars, planets, and moons to accumulate into galaxies.  But the testimony of Scripture argues with this.
•	Let’s review several key verses:
Genesis 1:1 -	In the beginning God created [ Qal perfect of ar*B* baraʼ which expresses a completed action that instantly brought into existence that which did not previously exist, namely: ] the heavens and the earth.
Isaiah 45:18 -	Thus says the Lord, who created [ ar*B* baraʼ: to create from nothing ] the heavens—God Himself Who formed the earth and made it.  He established it and did not create it [ Qal perfect of baraʼ: a completed action which produces a state of being ] a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited—, “I am the Lord, and there is none else.”
Isaiah 42:5a -	Thus says the Lord, Who created [ ar*B* baraʼ: to create from nothing ] the heavens and stretched them out [ hf*n* natah: figurative; the universe is spread out as a tent for the earth which indicates an expanding universe ] …
Psalm 148:1 -	Praise the Lord!  Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise Him in the heights!
v. 2 -		Praise Him, all His angels; praise Him, all His armies!
v. 3 -		Praise Him, sun and moon; praise Him, all stars of light!
v. 4 -		Praise Him, highest heavens, and the waters that are above the heavens!
v. 5 -		Let them praise the name of the Lord, for He commanded [ the Piel of hw*x* sawah: intensive for the verbalization of the order for matter, energy, space, and time to commence in a completed state ] and they [ those areas of the creation mentioned in verses 1-4 ] were created [ the Niphal of ar*B* baraʼ: passive; these areas received the action of being created from nothing ].
Colossians 1:16 -		For by Him [ ™n, en plus the instrumental of means of aÙtÒj, autos: by means of Jesus Christ ] were all things created [ constative aorist passive indicative of kt…zw, ktizō: instantly ] in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers—all things were created [ intensive perfect passive indicative of kt…zw, ktizō: in its present state ] through Him [ di£, dia indicating agency ] and for Him [ e„j, eis indicating purpose ].
v. 17 -	And He [ Jesus Christ ] has existed eternally before all things [ the angelic race and the universe ], and by Him [ ™n, en plus the instrumental of means of aÙtÒj, autos: by means of Jesus Christ ] all things hold together [ intensive perfect active indicative of sun…sthmi, sunistēmi: literally: to stand together with; to join parts together to into a whole ].
•	The gist of the big bang theory is that at the “beginning” all the matter and energy of the universe was contained in one small concentrated mass.  If this were true then the universe already existed in a “collapsed” state [Kant’s “infinite universe”].
•	There had to be a first cause for this collapsed mass to expand outwardly into what we call the universe.  Further, we are left with the need for a first cause for the original “concentrated mass.”
•	The cosmologists, with the most sophisticated equipment ever devised, are still at a loss to explain the exact details of the big bang and especially of how long ago it occurred.
•	With the aid of the Hubble space telescope the age of the universe has been “narrowed down” to an estimate of “between13.3 billion to 15.9 billion years” (Ross, 367).
•	This is predicated on assumptions arrived at by measuring the “burning rate” of stars and, by judging from their color, determining the time required to reach that state from the “beginning” of the big bang.
•	A brief description of how astronomers “believe” the universe took shape and how long it took is found in the:
National Geographic Deluxe Map Collection: The Universe.  (Washington: National Geographic Society, 2007):
Looking back in time for origins.  Supercomputer calculations simulate the structure of the early universe.  Great chains of protogalaxies are believed to have been stimulated by concentrations of as yet unidentified dark matter that resulted from the big bang.  Nearly a billion years elapsed from the dawn of time until the first galaxies formed.  Hydrogen and helium from the big bang were transformed by the nuclear reactions in stars and supernova explosions into all the other chemical elements now found on Earth.
•	 Now here is the question that emerges from all of this: Which is true?  The instantaneous creation of the heavens and the earth attested to by numerous passages in the Bible or from a big bang emanating from a preexisting ball of goo that took one billion years to even get around to forming galaxies?
•	The age of the universe could well be in the billions of years.  It also could well be in the thousands.  But from the creation words, baraʼ, ex nihilo, and ktizō, we are dogmatically informed that the “heavens and the earth” were created up and running.
•	If the Lord could create the entire operation from nothing then He most assuredly could create the stars at any given stage of development He desired, if for no other reason than to confound His critics and to challenge the faith of His followers.
•	The Lord could have chosen to start with a big bang.  But this is not what the Record says.  What it says is: Jr#a*h ta@w= <y]m^•*h^ <yh!ýa$ ar*B* tyv!ar@B=, Bereʼshith baraʼ ʼElohim hashamayim weʼet haʼares: “In the beginning God, from no previously existing materials, instantly created the universe including the earth.”
•	At what apparent “age” the various heavenly bodies were brought into existence is unknown to us and the cosmologists.  But Scripture is clear that it was not an evolutionary process but a completed act.
•	Obviously, this is a debatable question today.  Cosmologists and astronomers have their Big Bang while Bible believing Christians have their Big Violà.
•	The Bible even agrees with the principle of an “expanding universe” as seen in:
Isaiah 42:5a -	Thus says the Lord, Who created [ ar*B* baraʼ: to create from nothing ] the heavens and stretched them out [ hf*n* natah: figurative; the universe is spread out as a tent for the earth which indicates an expanding universe ] …
•	 The verb natah indicates that once created from nothing the universe is being “stretched out”:
Botterwick, G. Johannes, Helmer Ringgren, and Heinz-Joseph Fabry (eds.).  Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament.  Translated by David E. Green.  (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998), 9:382:
hf*n* [natah].  Spread, Extend.  “Spread a tent” refers in the first instance quite concretely to pitching camp.  The spreading of a tent can be used figuratively for God’s spreading out the heavens especially in Isaiah.  God’s creative power is underscored by the statement that he “stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads (nata) them like a tent to live in: (Isaiah 40:22; also 42:5; 44:24; 45:12; 51:13).  The same idea appears elsewhere: Jeremiah 10:12; 51:15; Zechariah 12:1; Psalm 104:2; Job 9:8.
•	Eventually science must come around to agreeing with the Bible since the Bible is true.  What is true must agree with reality.  And the reality of the case is that God is the Creator of the universe including the earth (Genesis 1:1) and that creation was accomplished in response to the verbal command of Christ (Psalm 148:5) which instantly brought into existence “all things” up and running (Colossians 1:16-17)  and “designed to be inhabited” (Isaiah 45:18d), spread out as a tent (Isaiah 42:5), not a “waste place” but perfect (Isaiah 45:18c) and maintained by the omnipotence of Christ (Colossians 1:17).
•	All of these facts are absolutes, conveyed to us by means of the Holy Spirit who is described in our verse as the “Spirit of Truth.”
John 15:26 -	“When the Energizer/Mentor comes, whom I will send to you for your advantage from the source of the Father, the Spirit of Truth …

© 2007 by Joe Griffin Media Ministries.  All rights reserved.	www.joegriffin.org