There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. (John 1:6-10)
He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:11-13)
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’” And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. (John 1:14-18)
Jesus said, "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me." (John 5:39) We've studied all of the New Testament, except for Revelations. Now, we're going to go back to the very beginning, and study what all lead to God [being] manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory. (I Timothy 3:16)
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.(Genesis 1:1-5) Creation or evolution big bang theory? We have to answer this question for ourselves before we can move forward with the rest of the study.
Science does not always contradict scripture, and it doesn't have to in this case either. A lot of research has been done for decades, ever since Albert Einstein made the prediction of gravitational waves as part of his theory of general relativity. "Scientists worldwide are even more convinced of the Big Bang theory after an announcement Monday by a team of American scientists. Led by astronomer John M. Kovac, the team said that it had found conclusive evidence for the existence of gravitational waves — gigantic ripples in the fabric of space-time that are caused by the sudden movement of large masses, sort of like the ripples that are created when a stone is thrown into a body of water. ...with the waves indicating that there was a time when what would become the universe — a concentrated ball of light — “exploded” into something bigger when it was only about a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth (10 to the minus 35) of a second old."*
This announcement made in March 2014, that "...researchers had discovered further evidence of the “Big Bang” theory “isn’t going to make anyone who wasn’t a believer in God into one, or vice versa,” Professor Nathan Aviezer of Bar-Ilan University told the Times of Israel. “But one thing the announcement does do is make it clear that the universe had a definite starting point — a creation — as described in the Book of Genesis,” said Aviezer. “To deny this now is to deny scientific fact.”"*
"For believing Jews, the story of the Big Bang resonates perfectly with the story of creation told in Genesis, Aviezer said. “Without addressing who or what caused it, the mechanics of the creation process in the Big Bang match the Genesis story perfectly. If I had to make up a theory to match the first passages in Genesis, the Big Bang theory would be it,” said Aviezer. According to Genesis, the universe was created from a ball of energy and light that appeared suddenly from nothingness — exactly the same ball of energy and light described in the Big Bang theory. Throughout the centuries, creation ex nihilo was considered impossible, but today it is taken as scientific fact, said Aviezer."*
"In his book, “In the Beginning,” Aviezer quotes a wide range of scientists (“and I make sure never to quote religious scientists,” he added), including Paul Dirac, a Nobel laureate from Cambridge University and a leading physicist of the twentieth century. “Dirac said very clearly that the Big Bang theory means that ‘it is certain that the universe began at a definite time through an act of creation,’ and Dirac is a big atheist.” One doesn’t have to believe in God to accept the Bible’s point of view on the Big Bang, Aviezer said. “It’s an example of Divine irony that it took atheistic scientists like Dirac and all the others to point out the truth of the Torah. At this point I think we can say that creation is a scientific fact.”*
"Piran is not convinced. “I am by no means a Biblical scholar, but it seems to me that you can’t just take one passage and ignore the rest. What is described in the formation of the heavens and the earth, not to mention the Biblical account of where life came from, of course has nothing to do with science,” he said. For Aviezer, however, those issues are not relevant to the Big Bang itself. “What happens in the rest of creation is another question,” he said. “It’s the Big Bang – the explosion of a highly concentrated chunk of energy that appeared out of nowhere to create the universe – that is being described when God says ‘let there be light.’..."* (read more of the article by David Shamar in the Times of Isreal, "New Big Bang evidence supports Biblical creation, says Orthodox physicist")
We spent so much time referencing this article to help us see that science does not have to contradict creation, but it can compliment it by filling in some of the gaps that God didn't go into much detail in in the scriptures. "God said..." and we who are Christians believe it because He said it; but science can help us understand some things better also. As the author of the article quoted, "it seems to me that you can’t just take one passage and ignore the rest." And we can not! We have to study and believe the entire Word of God, but nothing's wrong with using scientific evidence, not theories, to help explain certain things.
The big bag theory is still a theory because as quoted, scientist still feel “What happens in the rest of creation is another question,” but as they continue their research and study, just as their scientific evidence about gravitational waves lead Dirac, an atheist physicist to say, "...the Big Bang theory means that ‘it is certain that the universe began at a definite time through an act of creation,’" science will continue to prove what happened in the rest of creation also. But for now, we have what happened in the rest of creation recorded in the rest of this first chapter of Genesis, which we will continue in our next study...
Science does not always contradict scripture, and it doesn't have to in this case either. A lot of research has been done for decades, ever since Albert Einstein made the prediction of gravitational waves as part of his theory of general relativity. "Scientists worldwide are even more convinced of the Big Bang theory after an announcement Monday by a team of American scientists. Led by astronomer John M. Kovac, the team said that it had found conclusive evidence for the existence of gravitational waves — gigantic ripples in the fabric of space-time that are caused by the sudden movement of large masses, sort of like the ripples that are created when a stone is thrown into a body of water. ...with the waves indicating that there was a time when what would become the universe — a concentrated ball of light — “exploded” into something bigger when it was only about a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth (10 to the minus 35) of a second old."*
This announcement made in March 2014, that "...researchers had discovered further evidence of the “Big Bang” theory “isn’t going to make anyone who wasn’t a believer in God into one, or vice versa,” Professor Nathan Aviezer of Bar-Ilan University told the Times of Israel. “But one thing the announcement does do is make it clear that the universe had a definite starting point — a creation — as described in the Book of Genesis,” said Aviezer. “To deny this now is to deny scientific fact.”"*
"For believing Jews, the story of the Big Bang resonates perfectly with the story of creation told in Genesis, Aviezer said. “Without addressing who or what caused it, the mechanics of the creation process in the Big Bang match the Genesis story perfectly. If I had to make up a theory to match the first passages in Genesis, the Big Bang theory would be it,” said Aviezer. According to Genesis, the universe was created from a ball of energy and light that appeared suddenly from nothingness — exactly the same ball of energy and light described in the Big Bang theory. Throughout the centuries, creation ex nihilo was considered impossible, but today it is taken as scientific fact, said Aviezer."*
"In his book, “In the Beginning,” Aviezer quotes a wide range of scientists (“and I make sure never to quote religious scientists,” he added), including Paul Dirac, a Nobel laureate from Cambridge University and a leading physicist of the twentieth century. “Dirac said very clearly that the Big Bang theory means that ‘it is certain that the universe began at a definite time through an act of creation,’ and Dirac is a big atheist.” One doesn’t have to believe in God to accept the Bible’s point of view on the Big Bang, Aviezer said. “It’s an example of Divine irony that it took atheistic scientists like Dirac and all the others to point out the truth of the Torah. At this point I think we can say that creation is a scientific fact.”*
"Piran is not convinced. “I am by no means a Biblical scholar, but it seems to me that you can’t just take one passage and ignore the rest. What is described in the formation of the heavens and the earth, not to mention the Biblical account of where life came from, of course has nothing to do with science,” he said. For Aviezer, however, those issues are not relevant to the Big Bang itself. “What happens in the rest of creation is another question,” he said. “It’s the Big Bang – the explosion of a highly concentrated chunk of energy that appeared out of nowhere to create the universe – that is being described when God says ‘let there be light.’..."* (read more of the article by David Shamar in the Times of Isreal, "New Big Bang evidence supports Biblical creation, says Orthodox physicist")
We spent so much time referencing this article to help us see that science does not have to contradict creation, but it can compliment it by filling in some of the gaps that God didn't go into much detail in in the scriptures. "God said..." and we who are Christians believe it because He said it; but science can help us understand some things better also. As the author of the article quoted, "it seems to me that you can’t just take one passage and ignore the rest." And we can not! We have to study and believe the entire Word of God, but nothing's wrong with using scientific evidence, not theories, to help explain certain things.
The big bag theory is still a theory because as quoted, scientist still feel “What happens in the rest of creation is another question,” but as they continue their research and study, just as their scientific evidence about gravitational waves lead Dirac, an atheist physicist to say, "...the Big Bang theory means that ‘it is certain that the universe began at a definite time through an act of creation,’" science will continue to prove what happened in the rest of creation also. But for now, we have what happened in the rest of creation recorded in the rest of this first chapter of Genesis, which we will continue in our next study...
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