Hubble Deep Field Image
Many Christians accept the Bible as always being literal which is why they never eat pork, shrimp, or catfish.
Many Christians read the Bible for its meaning, not for its literalism. In Genesis 1, we read that the universe was created in six days. There is no definition of a day.
In the scientific world, there are facts and theories. It is a theory that the universe began in what we now call a Big Bang. It is also a theory that the event occurred about 13.5 billion years ago.
What is a theory? Simply put, it is an idea about what might be true. Isaac Newton had a theory that for every physical action there is an equal and opposite reaction. After testing and finding that it is always true, it became his First Law of Motion.
The reason the Big Bang is still a theory is lack of enough proof. The existing proof is mostly mathematical and way-way beyond my college algebra.
Where does that leave the Bible? Actually, in a good spot.
When God began to create heaven and earth—the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water—God said, “ Let there be light”; and there was light. JSB
This describes the first 340,000 years of the Big Bang. The mass of sub-particles that eventually became atoms formed a hot soup so dense and hot that even light could not escape.
God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, a first day. JSB
As we look at these two descriptions of the first day/first 500 thousand years, what is the important difference? The word Genesis is the first Hebrew word of the Bible. It means Beginning. The third word is Elohiym, God. And in between is created.
Science can discover the details of how God created the universe, but only God can create the universe. We have no clue, and only a few guesses, about where all the matter in the universe came from. We now know there are trillions of galaxies that we can see, with no way to know how many more there might be. Our Milky Way Galaxy has several billion stars of which our sun is on the small side of average.
We have also observed several hundred planets spinning their way around other sun/stars. We continue to discover more objects in our own solar system. There are at least 190 moons, though none around Mercury or Venus and only one around Earth. Ours is the fifth largest.
And God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. JSB We often take this to mean that we could stand next to God and He would have a face with two eyes, two ears, a nose, neck, chest, arms, legs, probably wearing blue jeans. Or not. More likely the image is not physical but spiritual, or perhaps sentient.
With Jesus as our guide, we know that love is at the root of God’s image. He is a lover of justice and He expects us to do things His way.
In the 1950’s, a scientist announced that he was close to creating life. He had a brew of amino acids and other elements that make up living creatures. He intended to hit it with a lightning bolt, and it would come alive. We are still waiting.
Turns out, life involves the Breath of God.
God was busy with creation. No wonder he decided to rest one day.
Be righteous and do good.
Mike Lawrence
Mike Lawrence Books 