“He…who stretches out
the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in.” (Isaiah 22)
At least two things are beyond dispute in the mainstream
scientific community with respect to the cosmos. It is first of all recognized that in the Big
Bang the entire cosmos (all space, time, matter, and energy) had an absolute
beginning out of nothing approximately 13.7 billion years ago. It is also recognized that the cosmos has
been expanding ever since that beginning, much like a balloon that is being
blown into by a child. Prior to the 20th
Century neither of these were either acknowledged or even anticipated by the
scientific community. Yet they were
anticipated repeatedly in the Holy Bible.
Ever since the scientific community distanced itself from the
influence of the church, scientists had held that the cosmos is stationary and
eternal. But as a result of recent
scientific discoveries their old dogmatic position is now overthrown. It was the authority of the Holy Bible alone
which had declared several thousand years earlier that our universe had a
beginning (Genesis 1:1) out of nothing (Hebrews 11:3). And as I will further describe in the next
paragraph, it was also the Bible alone that anticipated the ongoing expansion
of our universe. Let me here clarify two
things about the Big Bang: First of all
the Big Bang is not an explanation of
beginnings. It is instead a description of what happened from that
beginning. So it is merely a description which demands reflection on the only plausible explanation for that beginning. Second, it follows that the Big Bang does not
support atheism. Atheism is utterly
incapable of accounting for the absolute beginning of the cosmos. To the contrary the Big Bang points
inescapably to the personal, intelligent, and omnipotent Creator of the
universe.
In addition to the absolute beginning of the universe out of
nothing, the Bible also repeatedly, yes repeatedly, states that the cosmos is
in continual, constant expansion in like manner to the description in my
opening paragraph. No other biblical
expression, with respect to creation, is used nearly so often. The following eleven Biblical references
include five separated authors over a span of centuries who all speak of the
Lord “stretching out the heavens.”
Job 9:8; Psalm 104:2; Isaiah 40:22; 42:5; 44:24; 45:12;
48:13; 51:13; Jeremiah 10:12; 51:15,
and Zechariah 12:1
Connecting these
passages to present cosmological discovery does not involve wrenching them out
of their original context. To the
contrary, the consideration of cosmology in relation to the Creator is the
single context of every passage. Each
verse reflects the clear intentional revelation (2 Timothy 3:16) of the God who made the
heavens and the earth. The Bible is
vindicated as God's revealed word in this matter.
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