Scientists agree that the universe is expanding. However, many Christians struggle with how that applies to the beginning of time and belief in creationism.
In the early twentieth century, astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered that the galaxies are moving away from each other, meaning the universe is expanding. This theory is known as Hubble's Law, or the Law of the Expanding Universe. If the universe is currently expanding, that means that at some time in the past, the universe had a beginning.
Many Christian scientists, theologians, and others argue that science and the Bible are compatible in this area. For example, those who adhere to the Big Bang theory say that matter did not exist before this momentous event. When the Big Bang happened, time began, matter began, space began. Christians also point to a moment when time, matter, and space began: Genesis 1 recounts the whole thing.
Many scientists who would rather dismiss creationism don't like this idea. If the universe is infinite and eternal, there is nothing for a god to create. But if the universe had a beginning, then it follows that something or someone caused it. In the 1930s, Arthur Eddington, a mathematician and the most distinguished British astronomer of his day, called the thought of a beginning "repugnant" and that of an expanding universe "preposterous." He later said he hoped a "loophole" could explain the beginning of the universe without a supernatural Creator. Not likely. The heavens truly do declare the glory of God (Psalm 19:1).
The Bible, the earliest part of which was written around 1400 BC, over 3,000 years ago, includes the concept of the expansion of the universe multiple times. Here are some of the relevant verses:
Isaiah 42:5: "Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out…"
Isaiah 44:24: "… I am the LORD, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens…"
Isaiah 45:12: "I made the earth and created man on it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host."
Jeremiah 10:12: "It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens."
Jeremiah 51:15: "It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens."
This old poetic phrase, "stretched out the heavens" bears quite a resemblance to the scientific theory of an expanding universe.
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