Is There Water In Space?

Biblegems #276

Question: Genesis 1:6 seems to indicate that there is a body of water in space, if it is taken literally. Hasn’t this watery canopy over the earth been disproved, demonstrating Genesis should not be understood literally?

Here’s the passage in question:

Gen. 1:6-8 And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day. (NIV 2011)

Actually, the concept presented in Genesis 1:6 is far more exotic and intriguing than a water canopy surrounding the earth. Taken literally, combined with the further information provided in Genesis 1:7-8, 14-18, here is a more accurate description of the universe at its birth from a biblical perspective.

Day one saw the beginning of time: “In the beginning…” (1:1). Next, the basic matter of the universe came into existence as a shapeless blob of water containing the elemental ingredients of “the heavens and the earth.” Then God began agitating this newly created material—a process described in verse two as “the Spirit ”— (Hebrew: ruach, which also translates as “breath,” or “wind,” depending on the context) —“hovering” — (Hebrew: rachaph, which also indicates “shaking,” or “agitating,” depending on the context) — “over the surface of the deep”  (1:2). The “deep” was a common Hebrew term for a large body of water. Completing day one of creation, God also provided light, independent of a physical source (1:3-4). So the blob of water and elements were agitated into a rotation equivalent to that of the current earth spinning on its axis, providing a dayside and nightside—“the first day” (5).

Genesis 1:6-8 picks up this account on day two with what appears to be an explosive separation of the watery mass into two parts. One portion of this mass is propelled outward from the other, creating a massive “vault” (or “expanse”) between them. This vast expanse is usually translated as “sky” or as “the heavens,” but verses 14-18 make it abundantly clear that the entire expanse we loosely describe as “space” is what Genesis has in view.

The time frame involved in stretching the vastness of space relative to earth seems to be no more than forty-eight hours (days two and three of creation). Populating this expanse with stars, solar systems and galaxies was virtually instantaneous, "set" in place from the region of earth within the twenty-four hour  period (far beyond the speed of light) of day four (1:14-18). 

Some fascinating facts emerge from this. First, the most fundamental building block of life (chemically speaking) that is found on earth—water—should also be discoverable throughout the universe. It should come as no surprise to find indications of water on comets, asteroids and planets. Second, while we do not know how much water was ejected outward on day two of creation, we do know that the universe has an outer limit. And even if space is still expanding, water will be at its outer boundary like the thinning skin of an expanding balloon.

Scientists frequently express shock and surprise when elements common to the earth, including water, are discovered on the moon, Mars, asteroids or distant planets.

         2Pet. 3:5-6a But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water.

What is “forgotten” is that Genesis is God’s revelation to humanity as to how and, more importantly, why He brought the universe and mankind into existence. That’s why…

         Heb. 1:2 …in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.

The Origins Of Writing

Biblegems #258

Question:  According to Scripture, how far back in history do we find evidence of writing, and how does this compare with the secular estimation?

This question is of vital significance. For the ability to read and write is at the very heart of how God often reveals Himself:

         2Tim. 3:16  All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…

Most secular scholars, as well as many theologians, once believed that Moses could not have written the first five books of the Bible because (in their view) writing did not exist at that point in history (approx. 1400 B.C.).

Today it is commonly accepted that writing appeared around 3500 B.C. in Sumer in the form of cuneiform. The surprising thing about this appearance of writing between 5,000 – 6,000 years ago is that it was already well developed, showing up in Egypt and the Indus Valley. Biblically, that puts written communication at the very dawn of creation and the human race.

Scripture records five separate occasions where Moses was instructed by God to write down key events and instructions (Ex. 24:4,7,14; 34:27; Nu. 33:1-2; and Dt. 31:9, 24). Jesus himself authenticates Moses’ authorship of the first five books of the Bible (i.e., “the Law of Moses,” or, Heb.:  Torah):

         Luke 24:44  He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”

Where did Moses get his information from in writing down the history of his forebears, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and from their ancestors all the way back to Adam and Eve? Each generation of the Hebrew people preserved the genealogies of their ancestors, all the way back to the first human couple. Moses eventually compiled these ancient histories and organized them in the book of Genesis. This would include the creation of the universe as God had described it to Adam and Eve.

The original sources Moses used to record these successive “generations” can still be seen in Genesis, beginning with Genesis 2:4: “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth….” The book of Genesis is then organized under the headings of “the generations of Adam” (5:1), “…of Noah” (6:9), of Noah’s sons (10:1), “…of Shem” (11:10), “…of Terah” (11:27), ”… of Ishmael” (25:12), “…of Isaac” (25:190, “…of Esau” (36:1, 9), and “…of Jacob” (37:2). This means that Genesis contains the records of actual people and events written down by the people who witnessed them.

Adam and Eve were created as fully mature adults, capable from day one of articulate communication. They lived to be nearly one thousand years old, knowing their children’s children to the tenth generation.  As their descendants grew to maturity and moved out into the world, developing villages, tribes and cities, communication over distances necessitated the development of written language. And through this miracle of language transferred to written form, God has continued to speak to mankind:

         Ps. 139:16  Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Contradicting Creation Accounts?

Biblegems #255

Question: Genesis states that all vegetation was created on day three and Adam on day six (Gen. 1:11-12; 1:26-27). Yet Gen. 2:5-7 seems to contradict this by teaching that vegetation was created after man. Why the apparent discrepancy?

The confusion stems largely from difficulties in translating some generalizations from Hebrew to English. Below, my translation aims at reducing the confusion.

Gen. 2:5 [So there was a time] before any shrubs appeared on the earth and before any grass of the fields began to grow (because the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth and there was no man to work the ground, (6) but a mist came up from the earth that irrigated the entire surface). (7) So the Lord God formed the man from the earth and breathed life into his nostrils and the man became a living soul.                                                                

Genesis 2:1-4 provides a conclusion for the order of creation events in chapter one.

Verses 5-7 introduce a shift in focus away from the order of creation in general to the creation of Adam and Eve in particular. They set the scene for Adam and Eve’s role as caretakers of earth, beginning in the Valley of Eden (2:8-17).  The scene is also set for how destructive Adam and Eve’s disobedience will prove to be to God’s creation. The “shrubs” and grain fields (“grass of the fields,” v. 5) God freely provided for their pleasure and their food, irrigated by a perpetual mist, would shrivel up, grow weeds and thorns and require constant effort against hostile elements as a result of their sin:

Gen. 3:17-19  …“Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

Even the lack of rain in those early days is noted, because rain was not yet a necessity. Later, rain would become a much-needed blessing:

         Ps. 147:8  He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills.

It would also become a source of devastation:

         Gen. 7:17, 24  For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth.   The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.

Genesis 2:5-7provides a segue from the “why” and “how” of creation (chapter 1) to the tragic impact of Adam and Eve’s sin (chapter 2). Together, they reveal God’s total sovereignty over His created universe as He provides both judgment for sin and salvation from what would otherwise be eternal consequences of that judgment.

         Rom. 6:22-23  But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.