Subatomic Spandex

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Subatomic Spandex
In Defense of the Faith
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Wendy Wippel

Good news and bad news. At the moment my brain seems stuck on the minute mechanisms of the universe’s creation, so if you didn’t groove on last week’s piece you won’t groove on this one either. Good news? If you did groove on last week’s you’ll probs like this one just as much. (Or maybe even better…)

It was the second day of creation, and then God said,
“Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. (Genesis 1: 6- Cool

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At least that was what He said in the New King James Version.  New International Version?

God said, "Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water”, and He called the Vault ”sky".

Other versions describe the thing that God creates in this verse (the firmament or vault) as a canopy, a horizon, an expanse, or just space.

So who to believe?

In a situation like this, every Bible Scholar’s Prime Directive is to go back and look at the Original languages.

And when you look up the Hebrew word translated “firmament”, vault, etc, it’s based on a root word that means to stretch out, to expand. So apparently what the Bible is saying in these verses is that what was created in the initial fraction of a second of creation (the length of time from the beginning of creation to the creation of light being defined by cosmologists as less than a tenth of a second) essentially consisted of a continued stretching of the initial components of creation.

An expansion of the starting materials until He had created a vault, an expanse, a "space".

So I guess it’s just coincidence that after the creation of light-- according to the scientists, for all of time since, the heavens continue to expand.

And, actually, the rate of expansion continues to increase!

But we don’t have to just take the words of Genesis at proof. God confirms that he himself stretched out a place called the heavens in many other places!

It is I who made the earth and created mankind on it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts. Isaiah 23:11

But God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding. Isaiah 45:12

O Lord my God, You are very great:
You are clothed with honor and majesty,
Who cover Yourself with light as with a garment,
Who stretch out the heavens like a curtain. Psalm 104:1-2

He alone stretches out the heavens _ and treads on the waves of the sea. Job 9:8
The LORD wraps himself in light as with a garment; _ he stretches out the heavens like a tent. Psalm 104:2

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. Isaiah 40:22

This is what God the LORD says _the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out, Isaiah 42:5

This is what the LORD says _ your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the LORD, _ the Maker of all things, _ who stretches out the heavens, Isaiah 44:24

It is I who made the earth _ and created mankind on it. _My own hands stretched out the heavens; _ I marshaled their starry hosts. Isaiah 45:12

My own hand laid the foundations of the earth, _ and my right hand spread out the heavens; Isaiah 48:13

that you forget the LORD your Maker, _ who stretches out the heavens _ and who lays the foundations of the earth, _that you live in constant terror every day _ because of the wrath of the oppressor, _ who is bent on destruction? Isaiah 51:13

But God made the earth by his power; _ he founded the world by his wisdom _ and stretched out the heavens by his understanding. Jeremiah 10:12

He made the earth by his power; _ he founded the world by his wisdom _ and stretched out the heavens by his understanding. Jeremiah 51:15

The LORD, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the human spirit within a person, declares: 2 ÒI am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Zechariah 12:1

That’s twelve times. And I know there is one missing (I can’t find it, but I will….).

It would seem the Almighty feels like He has a point to make with this. Well, He has to, as the onslaught against His existence among the intelligentsia never gives up.

Hawking has said that, "the science of the universe has eliminated any need for a creator".

BTW: not by a long shot, true.

Carl Sagan said that “There was nothing left for Creator to do.”

Since he’s dead now, I’m guessing he knows better.

In honor of the upcoming Olympics, What’s the score?

Bible: 1

Big bang? 1 as well.

Scientists can ultimately do nothing but echo what God said from the start. Like Kepler said, scientists “think God’s thought after him".

Scientists and Scripture are on the same team.

Hopefully, someday the guys in the white lab coats will figure that out.