Ask Mr Bible

How many false philosophies does the first verse in the Bible refute?

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen. 1:1).

● It refutes atheism, for creation is the work of God’s hand.
● It refutes evolution, for the universe was created and did not evolve.
● It refutes materialism, for the universe did not always exist.
● It refutes polytheism, for there is only one God.
● It refutes pantheism, for God is apart from and independent of his creation.

When did the Holy Spirit first appear on earth? Many erroneously believe he originally came at Pentecost in Acts 2, but here he is seen at the very beginning of creation.

“And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2).

However, a comparison may be seen between Gen. 1 and Acts 2: In Gen. 1 the Holy Spirit is seen hovering over the waters, infusing it with life and energy. In Acts 2 He did the same with the 120 believers assembled in Jerusalem.

Who created the universe?

● According to David, the Father created all things.

“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork” (Psa. 19:1).

● However, John declared the Son did it.

“All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:3-4).

● Finally, in other passages, the Holy Spirit is said to have performed the initial act of creation. What are we to believe? The answer is, of course, that all three persons in the Trinity had a part. As an illustration let us consider an important executive who determines to build a spacious and expensive home. He, thus, employs an architect to design the necessary plans for this home. The architect then secures a competent contractor to follow his blueprints. In this illustration the executive is the Father, the architect is the Son, and the contractor is the Holy Spirit. The following verses, then, refer to the work of this Divine Contractor.

“Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth” (Psa. 104:30).

“The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life” (Job 33:4).

How many heavens are there? The word heaven in Gen. 1:1 is plural in the Hebrew. Actually there are three heavens mentioned in the Bible and in the beginning God created all three.

● First heaven: home of the birds and clouds—“The leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all: the beasts of the field had shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof, and all flesh was fed of it” (Dan. 4:12).

“Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?” (Matt. 6:26).

● Second heaven: home of the sun, moon, and stars—“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork” (Psa. 19:1).

● Third heaven: home of the angels and departed saints—“I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven” (2 Cor. 12:2).

Why is December 24, 1968 significant in regards to these three heavens?

Answer: This date marked the first occasion in human history when three American astronauts succeeded in leaving the first heaven and reaching the moon.

Bottom line: If the world continues another 1000 years, no space craft will ever be invented to take someone to the third heaven, for Jesus himself once said:

“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

How vast is our universe? It is so vast that it takes a beam of light (which travels some 700 million miles per hour) over 100,000 years just to cover the distance across our galaxy called the Milky Way. But our galaxy is only one among many billions in the known universe. To illustrate the size of our universe, consider the following four examples:

● Paper stack model
Let us say the thickness of a sheet of paper represents the distance from the earth to the sun (some 93 million miles).

To represent the distance to the nearest star we would need a stack of paper 71 feet high.

To cover the diameter of our Milky Way galaxy would require a stack 310 miles high.

To reach the edge of the known universe would demand a pile of paper sheets 31 million miles high.

● Orange and grain of sand model
Here an orange would represent the sun.

A grain of sand is the earth, circling the orange at a distance of 30 feet.

Pluto, the most remote planet in our solar system, is another grain of sand, circling the orange at ten city blocks away.

Alpha Centauri, the nearest star, is 1,300 miles away from the orange.

● Hollow sun illustration
If the sun were hollow, 1.3 million earths could fit inside.

A star names Antares, if hollow, could hold 64 million of our suns.

In the constellation of Hercules there is a star which could contain 100 million stars like Antares.

The largest known star, Epsilon, could easily swallow up several million stars the size of the one in Hercules.

Bottom line: In the fullness of time the mighty Creator of this vast creation sent His beloved Son to a tiny speck of matter called earth to die for the sins of their inhabitants!

How many stars are there in the universe?

The latest scientific answer is a number 1 followed by 22 zeroes. Interestingly enough this mind boggling number is also the estimated total count for all the grains of sand on earth.

Bottom line: In Psa. 147:4 and Isa. 40:26 we are told that God has both numbered and named each star.

“He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names” (Psa. 147:4).

“Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth” (Isa. 40:26).

But more glorious than all this is the statement that this same omnipotent and omniscient God “healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds” (Psa. 147:3).

How minute is our universe? Simply stated, it is as unbelievably small as it is big. Consider the following:

● All material in the universe consists of atoms. Atoms in turn are made up of three “building blocks,” which are protons, neutrons (which two go to make up the center of an atom called the nucleus), and electrons (which circle the nucleus as our earth does the sun.

● On the tip of a ballpoint pen are so many atoms that if they were carried by an army, marching four abreast, an atom to a man, it would take over 20,000 years for a march-past.

● It would take 25 trillion protons laid side by side to span a linear inch.

● There are as many protons in a cubic inch of copper as there are drops of water in the oceans of the world or grains of sand on the seashores of our earth.

● The size of an electron is to a dust speck as the dust speck is to the entire earth.

● The space between an electron and the nucleus is 10,000 times as great as the size of that nucleus. For example, if the outer shell of electrons in an atom were the size of the Houston Astrodome, the nucleus would be the size of a Ping-Pong ball in the center of that stadium.

Question: If most of the atom is empty space, why does a table top offer so much resistance when you push at it with your finger? Answer: The surface of the table, like the tip of one’s finger, consists of a wall of electrons, belonging to the outermost layer of atoms in both objects. Both the speed and force attraction of these electrons thus prohibit your finger from going through the table as a fast-moving bicycle wheel would prevent you from placing your finger through the spokes.

● Sometimes Christians feel they too, like the above objects are small and utterly insignificant in this vast universe.

This no doubt was what the Psalmist was thinking when he said—

“I … am as a sparrow alone upon the house top” (Psa. 102:7).

But not so! Hear the words of Jesus—

“Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows” (Luke 12:6, 7).

“But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence” (1 Cor. 1:27-29).

How much energy exists within our universe?

The protons and neutrons within the nucleus of an atom are held together with a density of one billion tons per cubic inch. This is around 40 pounds of energy between each proton.

● This energy force is stronger than regular gravitational forces by a factor of one followed by 38 zeros. How big is this number? It is over 100 trillion times larger than the number of all the grains of sand on earth’s seashores.

● German physicist Otto Gail has calculated that a single drop of gasoline, if totally utilized in an automobile, would be sufficient for 400 journeys around the world (a trip involving ten million miles).

● Albert Einstein estimated the total amount of energy released from one ounce of water could easily lift 200 million tons of steel one mile above the earth.

● The various stars and galaxies were created by the conversion of energy into mass. It has been determined that the amount of energy used in the creation of only one gram of matter (1/450th of a pound) is equal to 2.5 times the amount of energy generated by Niagara Falls in one entire day. This would be ten million kilowatts.

So much for the power and energy displayed in creation. Now consider the power and energy of its creator:

“Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him … Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? … Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing … Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to [them that have] no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (Isa. 40:10, 12, 15, 28-31).

How complex is our universe? Here we refer to life itself. The wonders of the atom and the glory of the galaxies are but drab Tinkertoys when compared to the miracle of living organisms.

● The smallest insect on this earth is made up of millions of living cells. There are some 75 trillion such cells in the body of an average man. But each individual cell is unbelievably complex. It has been demonstrated that the simplest living cell is vastly more complicated than the most sophisticated giant computer on earth.

● Each cell is a world brimming with as many as 200 trillion tiny groups of atoms called protein molecules. It is a microuniverse in itself.

● The largest molecule is called the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). The DNA strand carries the hereditary information from the parent to the offspring in all living things. It contains the genetic code and determines whether you will turn out to be a man, mushroom, dandelion, or dinosaur.

● The total length of the DNA strand in one cell is six feet. If all the DNA strands in the body were bunched up they could fit into a box the size of an ice cube. But if unwound and joined together, the string could stretch from the earth to the sun and back more than 400 times.

● Each of the 75 trillion cells in a man’s body contains the information found in all other cells. Thus, a cell in a man’s little toe has all the data in its DNA for making another man physically identical to himself.

● If the coded DNA instructions of a single human cell were put into English, they would fill a 1,000-volume encyclopedia.

● During cell division, two strands of DNA (called the double helix), which have been interwoven around each other in ladder-like fashion, separate to form a new cell. It is believed that the rotation during this unwinding occurs at the rate of more than 75 turns a second. This would be somewhat like attempting in a split second to uncoil and separate a huge cathedral packed from top to bottom with twisted and intertwined microphone cord. After the double helix is separated it then duplicates itself into a new cell. This duplication is so accurate that it would correspond to a rate of error of less than one letter in an entire set of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

In light of all this, surely the praise and petition of David is appropriate here:

“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well … Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psa. 139:14, 23, 24).

How important is it to believe in a literal creation as effected by the personal hand of God?

Jesus himself would answer this during his conversation with Nicodemus:

“If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?” (John 2:12).

Bottom line: The Savior here seems to be warning that if we question or deny the first few chapters in the Bible relating to “earthly things,” that is, creation, we may later have difficulty in accepting “heavenly things,” such as the New Birth (in mind here in John 3), the inspiration of the Bible, the resurrection of Christ, etc.

Why did God create the earth on the first day but waited until the fourth day before establishing the sun, moon, and stars?

Two possible reasons are suggested for this, one dealing with priority, the other with prevention.

● Priority: God created the earth first because it was the most important in his mind. It was upon planet earth that he planned to create on the sixth day a creature made in his own image. This creature, man, would live on earth, and not the moon. Then, plans had already been made in the fullness of time for the second person in the Trinity to wrap human flesh and bone about him and come to the planet earth. Finally, it will be upon the earth, not Pluto or Venus, that the King of kings shall someday touch down upon the Mount of Olives to establish his millennial kingdom.

● Prevention: Almost without exception every ancient civilization has worshiped the sun. But God wanted his people to worship its Creator, namely, himself. Thus, he informs us that life and light existed before the sun, and that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17).

Also Read . . .

• Okay, Did We Proceed From a Muddy Glob or From the Hand of a Mighty God? (Part One)
• The Man Who Would Be King
• How Can Luke 2 and Genesis 35 Be Favorably Compared?
• Think of It! He Served Both as Priest and Lamb at the Same Time!
• The First Eleven Support the Remaining 1178

Tags: Albert Einstein, Antares, Atoms, Creation, DNA, Double helix, Energy in our universe, Father, First heaven, Galaxy, God the Creator, Heavens, Holy Spirit, Milky Way Galaxy, Moon, Otto Gail, Protein molecules, Second heaven, Size of Universe, Son, Stars, Sun, Third heaven, Universe

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