Genesis and the Big Bang (Part 5)

(Gen 1:3), “Then God said…”  God spoke the creation into existence, as is written ten times in the first chapter of Genesis, “God said.”   The creation remains in existence by the word spoken at the beginning.

“By the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water…By His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men,” (2 Pet 3:5-7).   

(Gen 1:3), “…Let there be light’; and there was light…”  The statement that light came prior to the formation of matter was thought to be inaccurate 150 years ago.  Conventional wisdom held that matter must exist to produce light.  However, the development of Einstein’s famous equation (E=MC²) demonstrated that matter and energy could be interchanged.

Believers have sometimes questioned the source of light before the creation of the sun and stars.  According to the Big Bang model, the original light came from the extremely high energy at the moment of creation that vaporized everything into light.  In the beginning, the universe was extremely hot, perhaps 1 x 10³² degrees Kelvin, too hot for any solid material to exist.  At the core of the universe, the high temperature and pressure reduced all matter to pure energy.  All was light, but this light was too bright (above gamma ray frequency) to be observed by the naked eye if witnesses had been present.  After approximately 300 minutes, the expansion of the universe cooled the average temperature down to approximately 100,000,000 degrees Kelvin.

As details of the Big Bang model were formulated, scientists theorized that some of the original light of creation was never converted into matter, but remained as light in the form of radiation.  All light has a corresponding temperature and the predicted temperature was 5° K, close to absolute zero.  In 1965, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, working at Bell Labs in Crawford Hill, New Jersey on an unrelated project, observed this Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) using a shoehorn antenna originally designed to communicate with the first satellites in space.  Penzias and Wilson measured the temperature of the radiation to be 3.5° K, confirming a critical prediction of the Big Bang theory.  Their discovery won the duo a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1978.

Genesis and the Big Bang (Part 4)

(Gen 1:2), “…and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving on the waters.”  Only after the expansion of the universe had proceeded, did the initial light of creation separate from darkness.  “At 10^-43 seconds, scientists believe the universe had a diameter of 10^-24 centimeters.  At that instant, a unique, one-time force-a sort of antigravity- developed.  This force…caused an expansion of the universe at a rate far in excess of any rate prior to, or after…that inflated the universe to the size of a grapefruit” [1]  This “inflation” of the universe was first formulated by Alan Guth at M.I.T in 1979.  Although still widely debated, there currently appears to be more support for the theory than against it.  Some have equated this event to the act of a top billiard player breaking a rack of billiard balls.   

 

Astrophysicist have no explanation for what force, referred to as an “inflationary epoch”, could have acted on this super black hole to cause its expansion.  The acting force seems to defy our current understanding of black holes.  Dr. Gerald L. Schroeder, Ph.D., author of the book Genesis and the Big Bang, finds an explanation in scripture for the force behind the inflation of the universe, “the Spirit of God was moving on the waters.” 

This darkness is identified by scientists as “a super black hole” from which neither light nor matter can escape.  It is not merely light that God created, but also darkness, “The One forming light and creating darkness,” (Isa 45:7).  The relatively recent discovery of “black holes” demonstrates that darkness in not just the absence of light, but a physical part of the universe that was part of the “creation process”. 

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[1] Genesis and the Big Bang, Gerald L. Schroeder, Ph.D, 1990 Edition, page 93

Genesis and the Big Bang (Part 3)

(Gen 1:1), “…the heavens and the earth.”  “The first verse of Genesis is a general statement meaning that, in the beginning, a primeval substance was created, and from that substance the heavens and the Earth would be made during the subsequent six days.” [1]  First God created the materials used for the construction of the universe.  Then God set about arranging the materials in an orderly manner during the six days of creation.

After this initially creating of the building blocks of the universe, all subsequent creation comes from the existing elements reflected in the use of verbs: “asa’ (make, fashion), “haya” (happen, come about), “dasha” (sprout, bring forth, florish), “natan” (set, put, place, give, or appoint), and “yasa” (go out from, come out from, bring forth, produce, or spring forth).

(Gen 1:2), “The earth was formless and void…”  Torah Club 5 (First Fruits of Zion) postulates an implied action that occurred before the giving of light, “the earth was formless and void.”  Since the LORD God is infinite and limitless, a place did not exist before the beginning for a finite creation to dwell in the presence of an infinite God.

“To make something that isn’t God, God had to create a non-God space.  Therefore, the first step of creation required formlessness and void that resulted from the concealment of His presence.”[2]

In short, "formless and void” was the created “non-God space” unformed and unfilled where the LORD God elected to limit Himself in order to bring the creation into existence.  The Hebrew “tohu bohu” refers to the earth as “an unproductive and uninhabited place.” 

“Some 500 years ago, the cabalists theorized that at the instant of creation, God, filling all eternity, contracted.  Within that contraction, the universe expanded.” [3]

A person might say that the LORD God humbled Himself, limiting the glory of His infinite nature in order to bring creation into existence.  Rabbi Yochanon once said the following appropriate to the creation story,

“Wherever you find the greatness of the Holy One, blessed be He, you will also find His humility.” (b. Megillah 31a)[4]

As the universe expanded, so did space and time into the vacuum once only occupied by the LORD God, continuing the contraction that began at creation.  Scripture hints of a future time seen by John when this process will be reversed, “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them,” (Rev 20:11).  The contraction of the existing universe will usher in an age when the LORD God will fill the vacuum of the contracting universe, “When all things are subjected to Him…so that God may be all in all,” (1 Cor 15:27).

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[1] Genesis and the Big Bang, Dr. Gerald L. Schroeder, Ph.D., 1990 Edition, page 50

[2] Torah Club – Volume 5, First Fruits of Zion, 2011 Edition, page 5

[3] Genesis and the Big Bang, Dr. Gerald L. Schroeder, Ph.D., 1990 Edition, page 59

[4] Ibid, page 5