In my last post I discussed creation of the universe and why evidence and logic require the universe had to have been created. It is not eternal or the product of God's imagination. In this post I'll speak to the universe’s coherence or unity. The word continuity is closer to where this post ends. In truth, the next two posts took me places I hadn't originally intended. Sometimes studying Scriptures the Spirit reveals far more than we expect. These two posts go to that place. It is a location very strange as the Spirit sometimes reveals things extraordinary.
The opening verse in Genesis implies the unity of the constitution of the universe. Apart from Genesis this fact is not obvious. Indeed the reverse seems to be true on the basis of philosophical speculation. For Greek philosophy, especially that of Aristotle, held that a complete difference in nature existed between terrestrial and celestial matter and motions. Earthly matter and the physical was tainted and corruptible, its motions were executed in straight lines and hence were temporal. Celestial matter (separate from this world) on the contrary was refined and incorruptible, there motions were circular, eternal, spiraling, elliptical, cyclical. This is why the Greek mindset of a Jesus only having come as a spiritual manifestation (Docetism) was much more desirable and easier to stomach to Hellenistic Jews. Sadly, Docetism allowed for denying the humanity Christ, therefore denying the Resurrection. The Devil loved that heresy.
Although the earth-centered theory prevailed for two thousand years, it was eventually challenged by the vortex theory of Rene Descartes. The identity of matter in the stars with that of the earth has been proved by spectroscopy and the theory of gravitation. These fields of study have been affirmed many surprising things. The deflection of rays of starlight when passing the sun and the lengthening of waves of light originating in the intense gravitational fields of the sun and at least other stars. Just as was theorized by Einstein. Something once thought impossible.
Genesis 1:2-3 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
Whether the earth “was” without form and void in the beginning or “became” so is impossible to decide since the verb “to be”. In truth it is irrelevant. In Hebrew as in other languages "to be" also has the meaning “to become.” Regardless, the Spirit of God hovered like a hen brooding over the fluid mass and molded the earth into shape. Then came physical light for until matter/atoms are organized into suitable radiating mechanisms light cannot be emitted from them as photons. Matter is antecedent to physical light not light to matter. So the order of Creation is scientifically accurate.
The geocentric or earth-centered system was set forth by Hipparchus (150 B.C.) and completed in detail by Ptolomy (130 A.D.) also of Alexandria. It was then passed on to the scholars of Europe and was held by them until the Copernican doctrines finally prevailed. For about sixteen hundred years the Ptolemaic astronomy (geocentric) was accepted by the world of scholarship, and it was officially adopted by the Papacy as Galileo learned to his regret when he sought to establish the Copernican sun-centered (heliocentric) views.
The book of Genesis was composed some fifteen hundred years before the Ptolemaic system came into existence. But when the Septuagint Greek version of the Old Testament was made about 280 B.C. in Alexandria the idea of earth centered systems held sway.
How little progress the ideas of Copernicus, which were published in 1543, had made in a century is evident from the persecution of Galileo in 1642 for promoting them. As the King James Version of the Bible was issued in 1611, it is clear that the translators did not question the still current Ptolemaic doctrines which did not completely vanish until Newtonian astronomy in 1687 prevailed in the publication of the great “Principia”…hence the use of the word firmament in Genesis 1.
Genesis 1: 6-8 And God
said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide
the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters
which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament:
and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning
were the second day.
Genesis 1:14-17 And God said, “Let there be lights in
the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be
for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights
in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And
God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser
light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the
firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth…”
The Hebrew word “רָקִ֖יעַ/raqia” which is translated “firmament,” is now more properly translated “expanse, extended surface or plane”. The meaning of the Hebrew word for heaven is “uplifted.” When beholding at night the widespread starry heavens, one realizes how accurate the words “expanse” and “uplifted” are to express the sublime magnificence of the scene.
Two additional comments may be made. In the tenth verse it is declared: “And God called the dry land Earth.” This assertion is a simple definition of the future meaning of the word “Earth.” In the first nine verses “earth” refers to the planet; but in the tenth it becomes restricted to the dry land as distinguished from the great waters. Throughout the rest of the chapter and the Old Testament, unless the contrary is stated or implied in the context, the word “earth” refers to the land surface of the world or to its inhabitants. Thus the “ends of the earth” are its coastlands, and it so appears in modem translations. Geographically and geologically accurate terminology by modern expectations.
Much controversy and claims of error arise around the statement in verse 16: “And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.” This last clause, notwithstanding the fact that the words “he made” and “also” are not in the original Hebrew but are supplied by the translators, has been taken to imply a later creation of these several bodies, despite the knowledge that they are all included in the first verse. If scholars and critics had studied the Hebrew text instead of the early English translations (specifically the KJV) no controversy could have arisen. The word translated "made” is not the word “create.” Among the possible meanings of the Hebrew word for “made” can also be “constituted” or more specifically “appointed.”
To use a modern illustration, when a new state is formed, an already existing city is constituted or appointed to be its capital. In ancient Israel the same word is used to indicate that certain cities were appointed or separated (בָּדל/badal) to be “cities of refuge” (Deuteronomy 4:41). So the verse obviously means that the already existing sun, moon and stars already existed but now had new functions conferred upon them, the sun being appointed to rule the day and the moon and the stars to rule the night. The Hebrew psalmist, not being concerned with a modern liberal translators consternations makes this meaning clear in Psalm 136: 8, 9
Psalm 136:7-9 “…to him
who made the great lights, for his steadfast love endures forever; the sun to
rule over the day, for his steadfast love endures forever; the moon and stars
to rule over the night, for his steadfast love endures forever….”
In view of these simple grammatical and etymological facts it is impossible to see these statements as anything but completely accurate scientifically and etymologically.
While there are some disagreements chiefly with regard to the use of the word "day,” and what is meant by the length of these ‘days’ or timeframes, these are likely arising from our ignorance not only of the mode of creation but also of its elements of time. The preponderant pattern of Scripture having studied intensely for nearly two decades is that is trustworthy in what it speaks about and 99% of the time the conflict about 1% of the text is usually based in human ignorance of the text. It must be remembered that the word “day” has many meanings in English as well as in Hebrew. In Hebrew there are about twenty meanings in Hebrew dictionary that I have printed in the 1990’s. Probably the advancement of science will throw some future light upon the subject of which our present knowledge leaves us in ignorant darkness. Perhaps time hasn’t always unfolded at the same rate since creation. The theory of uniformitarianism states that this might not be the case.
Uniformitarianism, also known as the Doctrine of Uniformity or the Uniformitarian Principle, is the assumption that the same natural laws and processes that operate in our present-day scientific observations have always operated in the universe in the past and apply everywhere in the universe. It refers to invariance in the metaphysical principles underpinning science, such as the constancy of cause/effect, space/time but has also been used to describe spatiotemporal invariance of physical laws. Although it is an unprovable postulate that cannot be verified using the scientific method, some consider that uniformitarianism should be a required first principle in scientific research.
Galileo hit on a pertinent fact when he quoted Cardinal Baronius when, in defense of his scientific views, he declared that the Bible was not intended to inform us how the heavens go, but how to go to heaven. While it is true that the Bible is not a textbook of science if its scientific statements are found to be false, it invariably will difficult to believe in its divine inspiration because if they can be found in error…everything else in the Bible can too. That includes the spiritual and theological truths. That is why the Bible is inerrant both in theological statements and scientific. I'll challenge all comers to prove that statement wrong theologically and philosophically.
So, although the Bible never specifically says that the Earth is the center of the Universe, in a spiritual manner...it most certainly is. Spiritual…is the essence which science can neither prove or disprove because it is another realm of knowledge completely (metaphysical). What the Bible does assert about the physical is that the Earth is round (Isaiah 40:22) and hangs on nothing (Job 26:7) and it asserts that Jesus came here once for all and nowhere else to save the lost (Hebrews 10:10, Luke 19:10). These verse and statements are foundational not only for the Christian faith but also our understanding of the physical world we live on.
Isaiah 40:22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in…
Job 26:7 He stretches out the north over the void and hangs the earth on nothing.
Hebrews 10:10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Luke 19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
No comments:
Post a Comment