The Shadow Of Light

In the first chapter of the Bible, God's very first recorded words were "Let there be light" (Gen 1:3 NIV). In Hebrew, it says, "Light, become!, and light became!" In that single finite moment, before time began, the infinite God spoke the Universe into existence. He created it from a ball of energy and light that appeared suddenly from nothingness. The first light pervaded everything, filling the entire Universe. God is the Creator of light and the darkness, but they cannot exist together, so they function at separate times.

"Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it" (Isa 42:5 ESV)

The Hebrew verb translated "created" is "bara" and is defined as "bringing into existence something new, something that did not exist before" (See Gen 1:1; 2:3; 2:4; Ps 148:5; Isa 40:26; 42:5; 45:18). The Universe was made out of something that cannot be measured or detected.

"By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible." (Heb 11:3 NIV)

The Bible asserts that Jesus is who created the Universe and was active before its creation.

"For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together." (Col 1:16-17 NIV – see also Prov 8:22-31; Isa 45:5-22; John 1:3, 17:24; Eph 1:4; 2 Tim 1:9; Titus 1:2; 1 Peter 1:20)

God "…created the heavens and stretched them out..." (Isa 42:5 NIV). The Universe's characteristic stated more frequently than any other in the Bible is that it was "stretched" out and continues to expand. It is Jesus who is responsible for the cosmic expansion (See Job 9:8; Ps 104:2; Is 40:22; 44:24; 45:12; 48:13; 51:13; Jer 10:12; 51:15; Zech 12:1).

"He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in." (Isa 40:22 NIV)

The Big Bang

It is believed by many scientists that the entire Universe came forth from a vacuum state which underlies everything within it and is the foundation of existence for all things because virtual particles are both spontaneously emanating and being absorbed back in continuously without end.

Every event has a cause. Within a concentrated ball of light that appeared out of nowhere during a rapid and cataclysmic explosive expansion or "inflation," all energy, space, and time came into existence together in what is known as the "Big Bang." This happened in only about a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth (10 to the minus 35) second of time! It then immediately started to cool, leaving behind a faint pattern of temperature fluctuations on the edge of the observable Universe. Before the Big Bang, there was no time or space.

God created the laws, measurements, and equations of physics and designed them to guarantee an ever-expanding universe at precise rates of time to make physical life. The Bible states emphatically that the Universe and the Earth were created over four days rather than millions of years, when God spoke it into existence (Gen 1:1-14). The Earth and solar system are young and not old.

The Light of the Sun

God created the Sun to emit light that travels at a speed of 186,282 miles per second! That is 11,176,920 miles per hour! The Sun is considered a yellow dwarf star that travels through space at a rate of 150 miles per second and makes a revolution around the home galaxy of the solar system and the Earth, called the Milky Way Galaxy, every 225 million years! Scientists do not know precisely how far out the solar system extends or definitively understand what keeps the Sun shining its light.

Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) studied sunlight and discovered that it could be broken down into a rainbow of colors by a prism. Dutch physicist Christiaan Huygens (1629–1695) viewed light as an impulse moving in all directions and theorized that light moves as a wave within a three-dimensional space. No wave of light is actually pure white. The Sun can produce light of many different waves made up of brightness and colors that vibrate at various angles. They will appear white once detected and processed by the human eye.

The Sun provides virtually all the heat and light and other forms of energy necessary for sustaining life on Earth, as well as the energy for the entire solar system! Yet, the Earth receives only half a billionth of the energy that leaves the Sun. It has been estimated that the amount of matter found in the Sun could provide enough energy to fuel billions of years of atomic reactions!