A Mature Universe

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A Mature Universe

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“I knew God existed.  I felt him inside of me.  I knew Jesus as my savior; no one else could have brought me out of such deep despair.  But I was also an astronomer, and I knew intimately just how big the universe was.  I know stars are born and they die each day.  I know there are billions (10⁹ or 1,000,000,000) of galaxies, each with billions of stars.  I know the galaxies are expanding from an enormous explosion 13.7 billion years ago, the Big Bang.  I know that galaxies themselves evolve and even collide in events that last more than a billion years.  I understand, at least partly, the beauty and complexity of the physics and mathematics that describe the fabric of space-time and the incredible balance between matter and energy that exists at the quantum level.”

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Deborah S. Shepherd, B.S. Physics; M.S. Physics; M.S. Astronomy;

Ph.D. Astronomy; former Astrophysicist with NASA;

post-doctoral scholar at Caltech; tenured Astronomer with NRAO;

current M.Div. Student at Fuller Seminary

-quoted in Fuller Magazine, 2014, Issue #1, p. 64

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“In the Beginning God”

America’s Duke Ellington featured Genesis 1:1: “In the Beginning God” in his 1965 sacred concert in San Francisco.  Ellington highlighted these first “six syllables” of the Bible rhythmically, instrumentally, and vocally.  With great reverence his baritone emphatically sang, “In the beginning God.  No heaven.  No earth. No nothing.”  The choir enunciated the name of every book in the Bible underscoring God’s written revelation to His people.  “Sacred music,” Duke stated, “is the most important thing in my life.”  He frequently spoke of having read the entire Bible four times.  Duke Ellington, 1899-1974, was designated by “the top jazz critics of Europe and America” in 1967 as the “world’s best composer,” and “top arranger with the finest band and finest recordings, new and old.”

Uniformitarianism-1790; “Big Bang” Theory-1950

Prior to general acceptance of the “big bang” theory in the early 1970s, uniformitarianism predicated strictly on natural observable processes had prevailed since the early 1800s.  The “big bang” theory, no less than uniformitarianism, begins with matter and ends with matter thereby constituting an a priori denial of the biblical concept of creation ex nihilo.

But even scientists bog down when they try to imagine what it might have been like at the point before the First Instant, that split second behind the Big Bang: they can’t conceive what might have preceded that moment.  The reason they can’t is that man is unable to conceive of nothingness: that could never happen in the material universe which, they say, exists apart from God and therefore is eternal.  But nothingness is exactly the impossible situation that God had at the beginning–which is why he resorted to a miracle to make the universe (Vogan, The Bible Explains Creation, p. 75).

Apparent Age

While scientists calculate spatial distances between celestial bodies based upon “light years” and the known speed of light, and project the age of the universe on that basis, those spatial distances may have little or nothing to do with the age of the universe.

Vern S. Poythress, Ph.D. Mathematics and Ph.D. New Testament, is currently Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia.  In Redeeming Science: A God-Centered Approach (2006), Poythress expressed puzzlement concerning Institute for Creation Research founders, Dr. Henry M. Morris and Dr. John C. Whitcomb, who highlighted Adam as having the “appearance of age” while failing to apply the apparent age factor to the entire universe (p. 105).  This writer is puzzled as to how Poythress could have read Morris’s and Whitcomb’s Genesis Flood and Morris’s Genesis Record and come to such a conclusion.  These books speak for themselves:

A common opinion is that the very distance of the far galaxies testifies that the universe must be billions of years old.  Since these galaxies are known to be some few billions of light-years away, by definition it has taken that number of years for their light to reach us; therefore they are at least that old, so the argument goes.

But this contention of course begs the question.  It constitutes an implicit denial that the universe could have been created as a functioning entity.  If creation has occurred at all (and the principles of thermodynamics require this) then it is reasonable that it would have been a complete creation.  It must have had an “appearance of age” at the moment of creation.  The photons of light energy were created at the same instant as the stars from which they were apparently derived, so that an observer on the earth would have been able to see the most distant stars within his vision at that instant of creation.  There is nothing unreasonable either philosophically or scientifically in this, although it does contradict the uniformitarian assumption (The Genesis Flood, p. 369).

Adam was created as a full-grown man, the trees were created as full-grown trees, and the whole universe was made as a functioning entity, complete and fully developed, right from the beginning.  The “apparent age” that might be calculated in terms of present processes would undoubtedly be vastly different from the “true age” as revealed by the Creator. (The Genesis Record, p. 63).

The Charge of Divine Deceit

Some have insisted that to create a universe with an “appearance of age” would represent the worst kind of deceit.  Dr. Henry M. Morris dismisses such a charge in that the “concept of creation of apparent age” is simply “a necessary accompaniment of genuine creation” (The Genesis Record, p. 63).  Such a charge may suggest, however, that God is somehow beholden to a scientific community that chooses to operate on false assumptions.  To be sure, God “maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:45).  Intellectual arrogance, on the other hand, no less than religious arrogance,  betrays a kind of self-deception born of spiritual blindness (John 8:47; Rom. 1:18-22).  Jesus stated that “it seemed good” to the “Father, the Lord of heaven and earth,” to “hide” the mysteries of the Kingdom from the “wise and prudent” and to “reveal them unto babes”  (Matt. 11:25-26).  Creation ex nihilo certainly relates to “the mysteries of the Kingdom,” for apart from faith, it would be unthinkable (Heb. 11:3)!

The Apostle Paul heralded God’s purpose in redeeming men through a cross as to “destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent” (1 Cor. 1:19).  He was quoting from Isaiah 29:14.  Note the two verses which immediately follow Isaiah 29:14:

15 Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?

16 Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?

If science is to be redeemed, therefore, is it not logical, that professional arrogance will have to give way to the foolishness of the cross?  If, on the other hand, the scientist is spiritually akin to Marconi, and approaches his work and accomplishments with a true godly perspective, he will boast, not in his own accomplishments, but in God’s, as Marconi boasted following the first transatlantic message: “Behold what God hath wrought!”

Poythress and others point to the creation of the time-defining sun, moon, and stars on the fourth day to suggest that we should not be literally bound to the clock in our understanding of creation week.  According to Poythress, those first seven days of Genesis 1, are best understood as analogous to our clock-oriented days (Exod. 20:11), but not necessarily identical with them.   Does Genesis 1 present a literal description of the six 24-hour days of creation, or a literary description of creation in terms comprehensible by humankind?  The Psalmist wrote,

“Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.  For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.” (Psalm 33:8-9)

. . . came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them.

3 And said, Verily I say unto you. Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. (Matt. 18:1-5).

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Sources

Drew, Robert, Producer. On the Road with Duke Ellington: A rare visit behind the scenes with an American jazz legend. Documentary.  Filmed just six years before Duke Ellington’s death and at the peak of his career.  DVD.

Fuller Magazine. 2014. Issue 1. Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California

Shepherd, Deborah S. Curriculum Vitae  http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~dshepher/vitae/vitae.pdf

Lloyd, Thomas.  The Revival of an Early “Crossover” Master Work: Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts. http://static.squarespace.com/static/53c82529e4b09ce5b334798a/t/ 53d285f7e4b0da367438ba1d/1406305783695/Ellington+article+-+final+version.pdf

Morris, Henry M. and John C. Whitcomb. 1961. The Genesis Flood: The Biblical Record and its Scientific Implications.  Philadelphia: The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Morris, Henry M. 1976. The Genesis Record: A Scientific and Devotional Commentary on the Book of Beginnings. Baker Book House: Grand Rapids, Michigan

Poythress, Vern S. 2006. Redeeming Science: A God-Centered Approach. Crossway Books: Wheaton, Illinois

Vogan, Charles R.. 1996, 2007. The Bible Explains Creation. Ravenbrook Publishers a Subsidiary of Shenandoah Bible Ministries. www.Ravenbrook.org

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About the Writer

David Clark Brand is a retired pastor and educator with missionary experience in Korea and Arizona. He and his wife now reside in Wooster, Ohio, where they first met at a Presbyterian youth conference in 1958. They have four grown children and seven grandchildren. With a B.A. in the Liberal Arts, an M. Div., and a Th.M. in Church History, Dave continues to enjoy study and writing. One of his books, a contextual study of the life and thought of Jonathan Edwards, was published by the American Academy of Religion via Scholars Press in Atlanta.

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