Interplanner
Well-known member
The astronomy behind 'Count the stars' which was spoken to Abraham by God in Genesis 12 is helpful for understanding how his seed would come into existence.
There is a theory that there was a 'white hole'--a mass of light-- that was created and then spread out. Some Psalms and Isaiah passages refer to the universe being stretched out. Day 1's light might have been that white hole without the existence of our local sun yet, and then our local sun was positioned from that diffusion on Day 3.
The point is that God can speak these things into existence. There are no mechanical or physical limitations that can be put on his creative work; all angles and rates are on the table.
'Count the stars' was to be a way of showing infertile Abraham that he would have millions of descendants. When we come to the NT we find that the millions pivot on Christ, on being in him. The Seed is Christ--one person, but the seed in the sense of many people exist through Christ, Gal 3.
It would make sense that the millions of stars that came into existence were a typological image of what would happen in the Gospel. There is a hint of this in 2 Cor 4:6, where 'let light shine out of darkness' is quoted and used as a foundation for the fact of all the people who now believe the Gospel.
The arguments against a very old universe can then be placed in support of this type of creative act by God. Certainly those things will 'calculate' out to have a very long existence, but that doesn't rule out the instant work of God. There are several counterarguments, anyway, against a very long existence even in astronomy, such as the fact that many galaxies are still S shaped rather than concentric. The S shape does not last very long.
The term used in Rom 16: about the influx of the nations (those who had faith among the nations) is also that it was simply spoken: by decree, by order, by command in the sense of a royal or administrative action. Paul had in mind God speaking things into existence again.
There is a theory that there was a 'white hole'--a mass of light-- that was created and then spread out. Some Psalms and Isaiah passages refer to the universe being stretched out. Day 1's light might have been that white hole without the existence of our local sun yet, and then our local sun was positioned from that diffusion on Day 3.
The point is that God can speak these things into existence. There are no mechanical or physical limitations that can be put on his creative work; all angles and rates are on the table.
'Count the stars' was to be a way of showing infertile Abraham that he would have millions of descendants. When we come to the NT we find that the millions pivot on Christ, on being in him. The Seed is Christ--one person, but the seed in the sense of many people exist through Christ, Gal 3.
It would make sense that the millions of stars that came into existence were a typological image of what would happen in the Gospel. There is a hint of this in 2 Cor 4:6, where 'let light shine out of darkness' is quoted and used as a foundation for the fact of all the people who now believe the Gospel.
The arguments against a very old universe can then be placed in support of this type of creative act by God. Certainly those things will 'calculate' out to have a very long existence, but that doesn't rule out the instant work of God. There are several counterarguments, anyway, against a very long existence even in astronomy, such as the fact that many galaxies are still S shaped rather than concentric. The S shape does not last very long.
The term used in Rom 16: about the influx of the nations (those who had faith among the nations) is also that it was simply spoken: by decree, by order, by command in the sense of a royal or administrative action. Paul had in mind God speaking things into existence again.