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

Genesis and the Big Bang (Part 2)

(Gen 1:1), “God…”  “As the study of events following the Big Bang is extended mathematically to earlier times (using the Lambda-CDM concordance model), the size of the universe shrinks toward zero and, inversely, the temperatures and density increase toward infinity…This condition of infinities is referred to as a singularity and singularities cannot be treated by conventional mathematics…The conditions of time zero elude us…Although there is a theoretical solution in the world of physics to this problem of the beginning in terms that are perceivable by humans, there is no solution.” [1]  Just as any value divided by zero is “indeterminate”, so also are the properties of the universe where infinite matter is contained in a volume approaching a size of zero, i.e., a singularity.  “Infinity cannot be dealt with quantitatively and so cosmologists cannot describe the conditions of our absolute origin in real terms.” [2]

Scripture defines God as the “singularity”, the force behind creation, “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:3), and “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things have been created through Him and for Him.” (Col 1:16).  The universe came into existence by: The Word of God (John 1:1-3), and was ordained by the Will of God, (Rev 4:11).  God existed before the creation, “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together,” (Col 1:17).  Other verses often referenced include: (Prov 8:22-31)(John 17:24)(Eph 1:4)(2 Tim 1:9)(Titus 1:2)(1 Pet 1:20)(Rev 4:11).

A few scientists still hold to a position that the universe is an oscillating system where the effects of gravity slow down the expansion and ultimately cause the universe to contract to a point where the Big Bang will be repeated in the future.  This position is a steady-state form of the Big Bang where the universe always existed, and therefore, does not require a creator.  To date (2015), scientists have not identified sufficient mass in the universe or other forces to promote a contraction.  In 2011, the Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt, and Adam Riess, “for the (1998) discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe.”  Rather than slowing, the expansion of the universe is accelerating.  That finding caught the scientific community by surprise.  If there is a beginning, the cosmos was initiated by a causal Agent operating beyond space and time.  According to Dr. Gerald L Schroeder,

“A Big Bang followed by an unending expansion of the universe tells us that there was a beginning and that, at a minimum, there is a place for a Beginner.” [3]

(Gen 1:1), “…created...”  The Hebrew word used at the beginning of Genesis for “created” is “bara” (Gen 1:2, 2:4)(Psa 148:5)(Isa 40:26), which is understood as bringing something new into existence out of nothing.  The word only occurs four times in scripture.  While man is capable of creating from materials that already exist, only God is capable of bringing into existence a creation from nothing, as the Hebrew writer stated, “The worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible,” (Heb 11:3).  The Bible stands alone in declaring that God created the universe out of nothing and that space and time only come into existence at the time of creation.

“By contrast, those sacred books with no clear connection to the Bible claim that a god, gods, or forces created the cosmos within space and time, which, they say, have always existed.  The Bible stands apart in declaring that space and time are not eternal but rather, suddenly came into being by an act of God, a Being completely independent from – that is, transcendent to or outside of -- space, time, matter, and energy.  The importance of this unique doctrine cannot be overstated.  It sets biblical revelation apart from all other so-called revelatory writings.” [4]

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[1] Genesis and the Big Bang, Dr. Gerald L. Schroeder, Ph.D., 1990 Edition, page 66

[2] Genesis and the Big Bang, Dr. Gerald L. Schroeder, Ph.D., 1990 Edition, page 63

[3] Genesis and the Big Bang, Dr. Gerald L. Schroeder, Ph.D., 1990 Edition, page 79

[4] Genesis and the Big Bang, Dr. Gerald L. Schroeder, Ph.D., 1990 Edition, page 28

Genesis and the Big Bang (Part 1)

THE BIG BANG THEORY OF CREATION

The “Big Bang” theory has come to exist in our generation as the predominate theory for the creation of the universe.  The first direct scientific evidence for the Big Bang dates back to 1916 when Albert Einstein noted that his equations of general relativity predicted an expanding universe, as opposed to the prevailing theory of a steady state universe.  Even Einstein did not initially accept the implications of his equation, so he introduced a “cosmological constant”, a fudge factor, to prevent his equation from converging to a finite beginning of the universe.

In 1929, Edwin Hubble observed that the velocities of galaxies result from a general expansion of the universe.  In 1946, George Gamow calculated that nothing less than the universe expanding from a near infinitely hot condition could account for the present abundance of elements.  In 1965, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson observed the background radiation predicted as a remnant from the energy at the origin of the universe that was not converted to matter.  At present, the Big Bang is the “Standard Model”, the generally accepted theory for the creation of the universe. The Big Bang theory, and many of its supporting details, were described in Genesis over 3500 years ago, long before science theorized and modern technology demonstrated.  In the words of Dr. Gerald L. Schroeder, Ph.D (MIT), an Orthodox Jewish physicist and author of Genesis and the Big Bang,  

“It is remarkable that the theistic description, which was developed millennia before, and therefore in isolation from the current scientific description, so closely matches the broad perception of current cosmology and paleontology.  It is not that theology responded to modern scientific discovers.  Theology presents a fixed view of the universe.  Science, through its progressively improved understanding of the world, has come to agree with theology.” [1]

“In 1992, science historian Frederic Burnham commented that belief in God is ‘more respectable today’ among scientist than at any time in the last hundred years.” [2]

(Gen 1:1), “In the beginning…”  The book of Genesis goes out on a limb to postulate a radical idea; the universe had a beginning and a finite age.  “No other ‘holy book’ makes such a claim on its own.  The concept appears elsewhere only in those books that borrow from the Bible, such as the Quran and the Mormon writings.” [3]

Scripture took this position over 3500 years ago, long before the advent of modern technology capable of supporting or countering this position.  One thousand years later, Aristotle and the Greek held universe to be eternal without beginning and end.  At the beginning of the 20^th century, the position of most scientists mirrored that of the Greeks; the universe had no beginning, but eternally existed in a steady state condition.  Forces that could be observed in the universe, such as gravitational and electromagnetic forces, were constant and could be used to explain the past and predict the future.

By the beginning of the 21^th century, most scientists have come to accept the “Standard Model”, which supports a beginning and a finite age of the universe.  Under the Standard Model, the universe did not adhere to the observed laws of the universe at the very beginning, for some infinitely small amount of time, perhaps 1 x 10^-35 seconds.  After this initial period of time, the current observable laws of the universe came into effect.  

More to come - Scott

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[1] Genesis and the Big Bang, Dr. Gerald L. Schroeder, Ph.D., 1990 Edition, page 160

[2] Navigating Genesis, Dr. Hugh Ross, 2014 Edition, page 17

[3] Navigating Genesis, Dr. Hugh Ross, 2014 Edition, page 27