The Heavens Declare the Glory of God, Part 1

Ed LaBelle

7:00 PM, November 28, 2017

HCBC Apologetics Ministry

“The Heavens Declare the Glory of God” - PART 1

- Psalm 19:1a

Using Science to Share the Beauty and Majesty

of God’s Creation

Outline PART 1:

• How the “conflict” between Science and Faith is impacting

young Christians

• What does the Bible say about the Creation of the heavens and

earth?

• Review Bible verses related to creation and the heavens.

• How can we use cosmology/astronomy to talk about the God

who created the heavens and earth and each one of us?

PART 2:

• The Psalm 19 Astronomy journey

• Discuss the Psalm 19 educational focus

Look to the Heavens and See the

Glory of God!

“Christianity does not start with

“Jesus saves you from your sins”

Instead it starts with “In the

beginning, God created the

heavens and the earth.”

- Francis Schaffer

“No philosophical theory which I have

yet come across is a radical

improvement on the words of

Genesis, that ‘In the beginning God

made Heaven and Earth’.”

C.S. Lewis

Apollo 8 astronauts Jim Lovell, Frank Borman, and Bill Anders read Genesis 1:1-10 to a

worldwide audience during the first ever Earthrise seen by humans as they orbited the Moon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_8_Genesis_reading

http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/

Pew Research Study – 2015

About half of current religious “nones” who were raised in a

religion (49%) indicate that a lack of belief led them to move

away from religion. This includes many respondents who

mention “science” as the reason they do not believe in

religious teachings, including one who said “I’m a scientist

now, and I don’t believe in miracles.” Others reference

“common sense,” “logic” or a “lack of evidence” – or simply

say they do not believe in God.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/08/24/why-americas-nones-left-religion-behind/

Pew Research Study – 2015

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/08/24/why-americas-nones-left-religion-behind/

Generational replacement is plunging!

Generational Replacement Helping Drive Growth of

Unaffiliated, Decline of Mainline Protestantism and

Catholicism

Silent

Generation

Baby

BoomersGeneration X

Older

Millennials

Younger

Millennials

(born 1928-1945) (born 1946-1964) (born 1965-1980) (born 1981-1989) (born 1990-1996)

Christian 85% 78% 70% 57% 56%

Unaffiliated 11% 17% 23% 34% 36%

Top 5 Reasons the Religiously Unaffiliated

Ranks Are Growing (2015)

1. Hypocrisy

2. Intolerance

3. Science

4. Suffering

5. Sacrifice

https://americanpastorsnetwork.net/resource/stumbling-blocks-to-faith/

3. Science

• One of the raging debates as of today is about the

relative merits of science and faith.

• Was man created by God in his own image…or did

man evolve from a cosmic blast?

• How old is the earth?

• Is there life beyond our world?

https://americanpastorsnetwork.net/resource/stumbling-blocks-to-faith/

Barna Survey - 2011

https://www.barna.com/research/six-reasons-young-christians-leave-church/

Why Young Christians Leave the Church

Why Millennials Are Leaving the

Church

Furthermore, the research shows that many

science-minded young Christians are

struggling to find ways of staying faithful to

their beliefs and to their professional calling

in science-related industries.

https://www.barna.com/research/six-reasons-young-christians-leave-church/ - September 27, 2011

What Can We Do About It?

• Use science to show the beauty and majesty of

God’s creation

• Emphasize that the same God who created

everything from subatomic particles to galaxies also

created them

• Show them that there is harmony between scripture

and science i.e. dual revelation

“God is Truth. There is no incompatibility between science and religion.

Both are seeking the same truth. Science shows that God exists.”

Derek Barton, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1969

Photo: Daniel Schumacher

Dual Revelation – God’s Two Books

GENERAL

REVELATION Romans 1:19-20

John 1:3

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/galex/pia15416.html http://www.healingscripture.org/the-bible-inspired-of-god/

GOD’S

TRUTH Theology

involves

interpretation

Science

involves

interpretation

BIBLE NATURE

SPECIAL

REVELATION 2 Tim 3:16-17

Since God is the author of

both His World and His Word,

they will ultimately be in

agreement when each is

properly interpreted

“Confessio Belgica”

Belgic Confession (1561)

We know God by two means:

• First, by the creation, preservation, and government

of the universe, since that universe is before our eyes

like a beautiful book…

• Second, God makes himself known to us more clearly

by his holy and divine Word

Psalm 19:1-4a

• 1The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the

work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night

after night they reveal knowledge. 3 They have no speech, they

use no words; no sound is heard from them. 4 Yet their

voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the

world. https://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2012-alignment.html

Dual Revelation

• Young people and millennials today are very

scientifically savvy

• We can use dual revelation as a way to start

conversations with them about God

• We can show that His heavens can be used for

evangelism by using His World and His Word to

produce an interpretation (or model) that is consistent

and non-contradictory.

A Brief Explanation of the

Big Bang Theory

The Static Eternal Universe

https://www.aip.org/commentary/aip-launches-centennial-exhibit-theory-general-relativity

Einstein called his two theories General Relativity and Special Relativity.

http://www.universetoday.com/90862/the-expanding-universe-credit-to-hubble-or-lemaitre/

https://www.decodedscience.org/georges-lemaitre-discovered-the-expansion-of-the-universe/5588

Edwin Hubble

(1889-1953)

Georges Lemaître

(1894-1966)

LeMaitre & Hubble’s Discovery: the universe is expanding!

(The Big Bang Theory)

The Expanding Finite Universe

Cosmic expansion is proven by science!

















Scripture Looks to the

Heavens

http://iamthewordthecomforter.blogspot.com/2013/08/god-father-jesus-son-and-holy-spirit.html

God Created The Visible World

Hebrews 11:3 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.

The Creation of the World

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA08617

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The

earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of

the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the

waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

(Genesis 1:1-2)

The Bible’s first lines reveal the cause of the Big Bang!


http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA12259 2017

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with

God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the

beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without

him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was

life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light

shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not

overcome it. John 1:1-5

The Creation of the World 4 And God saw that the light was good.

And God separated the light from the

darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and

the darkness he called Night. And there

was evening and there was morning, the

first day. (Genesis 1:4-5)

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/fomalhaut.html

Roughly 68% of the universe is dark energy. Dark matter makes

up about 27%. The rest - everything on Earth, everything ever

observed with all of our instruments, all normal matter - adds

up to less than 5% of the universe.

Psalm 139:11-12 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for

darkness is as light to you.


https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=1L40Hzgr&id=1176FE9BFB5F04B2CA11247AE7CE1C662CC6D918&thid=OIP.1L40HzgrnSCCNfk27NdA3QEsDz&mediaurl=http%

3a%2f%2fwww.nasa.gov%2fsites%2fdefault%2ffiles%2fthumbnails%2fimage%2fpia20176_main.jpg&exph=2506&expw=3090&q=nasa+dark+matter&simid=608041416794377776&selectedI

ndex=0&ajaxhist=0

A new study

publishing this week

in the Astrophysical

Journal by Gary

Prézeau of NASA's

Jet Propulsion

Laboratory,

Pasadena, California,

proposes the

existence of long

filaments of dark

matter, or "hairs."

Stretching Out The Heavens

Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from

the womb, “I, the LORD, am the maker of all things, Stretching out the

heavens by Myself. And spreading out the earth all alone…

Doesn’t that sound a lot like cosmic expansion?

Isaiah 44:24

Job 9:7-8 7 Who commands the sun, and it does not rise; who seals

up the stars; 8 who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the

waves of the sea; https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10128

Stretching Out The Heavens

The Physical Laws Are Fixed

Jeremiah 33:35

“Thus says the LORD: If I have

not established my covenant

with day and night and the

fixed order of heaven and

earth”

The four fundamental forces

are gravity, electromagnetism,

the weak nuclear force and the

strong nuclear force.

The “physical laws” are fixed – what scientist call

uniformitarianism http://the-mysterious-universe.blogspot.com/2011/10/4-fundamental-forces.html

God Sustains The Universe

Hebrews 1:3

3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact

imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the

word of his power. God sustains the universe by the power of His word

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/from-a-million-miles-away-nasa-camera-shows-moon-crossing-face-of-earth

Earth Is In The Goldilocks Zone

Hebrews 1:10

“You, Lord, laid the

foundation of the earth in the

beginning, and the heavens

are the work of your hands;

Earth’s orbit around the Sun

resides in what is called “the

Goldilocks zone.” It’s in the

just right location for water to

exist in all 3 phases and for

life to take hold.

God placed the Earth in a “just right” solar system https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/from-a-million-miles-away-nasa-camera-shows-moon-crossing-face-of-earth

EPICEarthMoonVideo.mov

The Planets “Sing”

• Job 38:7 “On what were its (the Earth’s) footings set,

• or who laid its cornerstone - while the morning stars

sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQL53eQ0cNA

NASA has discovered that the Sun and each planet has it’s own unique sound.

They sing!

Science and the Bible Agreement

• Things that are seen are made of things that are unseen -

Hebrews 11:3

• The universe had a beginning – the Big Bang Theory and

Genesis 1/ John 1

• Darkness is a substance – Genesis 1:4-5

• God sees everything including darkness – Psalm 139:11-12

• The universe is expanding –LeMaitre’s and Hubble’s

Discovery and Job 9:8, Isaiah 44:24

Science and the Bible Agreement

• The fundamental constants are unchanged from the

beginning of the universe – uniformitarianism and Jeremiah

33:25

• God sustains the universe by the power of His word –

Hebrews 1:3

• Earth exists in a “Goldilocks zone” – Hebrews 1:10

• The Sun and planets make unique sounds – Job 38:7

Having a Conversation

Where to start the conversation?

In the beginning!

• Start with the question “Why is there something rather

than nothing?”

• “Would you agree that if something exists now, then

something must have always existed?”

• “Have you ever heard of the Big Bang Theory?


• According to the Big Bang Theory, the universe has not

always existed therefore something else must have

always existed.

• Look for agreement, “Would you agree that something

else existed before the Big Bang?”

• That something else must exist outside the

space/time/matter limitations of the universe to cause it

to come into existence – The First Cause

• That something else must have always existed


• That something else must be extremely powerful to

bring the material world into existence out of

nothing

• That something else must be all-knowing

• That something else must be really big (in an

immaterial spiritual sense)

• Christians believe that something else isn’t a thing

but a being, a some-One: the GOD of the Bible


John Darms having a discussion at a Psalm 19 Astronomy event.

“Everyone who is seriously engaged in the pursuit of science becomes

convinced that the laws of nature manifest the existence of a spirit

vastly superior to that of men.”

Albert Einstein

Reasons to Believe

“Where Science and Faith Converge”

• Founder by astrophysicist Dr. Hugh Ross in 1986. RTB’s

staff includes scholars in astronomy, biochemistry,

molecular biology, philosophy & theology who bring

scientific evidence for Christianity to light

http://www.reasons.org/about/

SixDay Science FAITH IN SCIENCE | SCIENCE IN FAITH

• Founded by astrophysicist Dr. Sarah Salviander to

present the harmony between science and the

Christian faith.

https://sixdayscience.com/about-us/

Conclusion of Part 1

Conflict? What Conflict?

• "The perceived conflict between religion and

science belongs much more to the current

millennium than any time in the past"

• Dr. Denis Alexander, Emeritus Director of the

Faraday Institute for Science and Religion at St

Edmund's College, the University of Cambridge

• Dr. Alexander is an evangelical Christian who

works as molecular biologist and an author on

science and religion

• He is also an editor of Science and Christian Belief

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Denis_Alexander_2012_cropped.JPG

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Science_and_Christian_Belief.jpg


I believe that the “conflict” between faith and science

is artificial and is perpetuated by two groups of

people:

– Christians with a nominal understanding of Science and

how Science can be used to explain how God performed

his creative works

– Secularists/Naturalists who have a dislike for religion

and who believe that Science has superior explanative

power to religious belief. Scientists study how the

universe works and they believe that Science will

eventually explain everything

“I have concluded that we are in a world made by rules created by an intelligence.

Believe me, everything that we call chance today won’t make sense anymore. To me

it is clear that we exist in a plan which is governed by rules that were created,

shaped by a universal intelligence and not by chance.”

Michio Kaku, physicist

https://www.facebook.com/ModernRationalChristianity/

“They [science and religion] can be in harmony, but only if rational

people on both sides engage in honest debate.” Michio Kaku, physicist


“Christianity and Atheism are alternative grand unified theories for reality. Over the course of my

life, I have discovered that Christianity has more explanatory power than its rival account. Where

do the laws and regularities of nature come from? My secular colleagues tell me that they just are.

It is a radically unsatisfying answer! We would never accept that answer for any other question

that ...we ask in science, and yet for the most fundamental question we can ask, atheism asks us

to surrender our reason to nothingness.

Father Nicanor Austriaco



Christians who are scientists and Christians in

science-related fields should use their knowledge as

an evangelical tool to show the glory of God

– Physics

– Chemistry

– Medicine

– Biology

– Genetics

– Zoology

– Etc.

Christ is counting on you!

Spiritual

The Heavens Declare the Glory of God, Part 1