But notice in the above picture something is missing; we have stopped short of a very necessary and telling ingredient: The universe. Let’s go back to the Bible:

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Ge 1:14-17: Here carefully pay attention to God’s description of His creation. He put lights in the firmament. These lights are the sun, the moon, and the stars. That info makes a big difference:

What we learn from this is, since the firmament contains the sun, moon, and stars, the waters above the firmament surround the universe! The universe is not infinite – but the space above the upper waters (the Deep) is infinite. And since the sun, moon, and stars are what God used to establish time (Ge 1:14-18), the area above the upper waters is timeless – it is eternity. Therefore only those with everlasting life can go there. Mortality is a slave to time; therefore mortal beings are restricted to this universe.

 

Let’s remember the info in Ge 1:7,8 as we look at Noah’s flood in Ge 7:10-12: The windows of heaven were opened. Because of Ge 1:8,9,17 we can use the words heaven and firmament interchangeably. So for clarity let’s say: The windows of the firmament were opened so the fountains of the great Deep could rain down upon the earth and flood it completely. And now that the earth is flooded, let’s use the interchangeability of words in Ge 1:2 to make Ge 7:18 say: “…and the ark went upon the face of the Deep” in order to stress where the floodwaters came from.

 

This would not contradict Ge 8:2,3 because our scenario says: The Deep, which had rained down through the windows of the firmament of heaven, stopped and later returned from off the earth to whence it came.

 

Our universe is contained in a huge bubble of water the Bible calls the Deep. That doesn’t come from modern science; it comes from God’s word.

 

THE FIRMAMENT

Let’s take a brief look at “dark matter” in order to see how a Bible believer might use discernment when he reads the daily newspaper. The Big Bang theory so popular with scientists says a ball of matter exploded, driving the matter outward. But the outward-traveling bits of matter did not continue to expand and get farther away from each other. Instead, some of them got close enough so gravitational attraction could pull them into swirling galaxies. All stars are in galaxies. The galaxies are far away from each other. So far, in fact, that all the stars we see at night are in our own Milky Way Galaxy. In between galaxies science always thought there was nothing – no stars, “no nothing;” just the void and vacuum of outer space.

 

But that didn’t sit well with scientists because if the Big Bang did happen, all of that outward-traveling matter would not have collected into galaxies with nothing in between. In fact, it is stretching it to say that even 10% of the matter would have randomly collected into galaxies. That leaves 90% of the matter in the universe missing out there somewhere. And that makes the theory look pretty weak. So they said there must be huge clumps of matter out there that we can’t see…and they called it dark matter. But even if there is dark matter out there, many remained unconvinced about the Big Bang theory.

 

Then along came the C.O.B.E. Project, which you probably read in the news provided “confirming evidence” of the Big Bang theory. In essence, scientists aimed sensitive radiation-detecting equipment out in space between galaxies to see if they could find anything in the void. And, out in the “void” or “vacuum” of space between galaxies, they recorded a faint wavy line. (A flat line would mean nothing was there.) They decided the wavy line was not the heat signature of some unknown substance, it had to be evidence of leftover heat from the Big Bang explosion and from the huge clumps of dark matter (and its accompanying “dark energy”). Therefore, the Big Bang theory has been “validated.” And from their Reasonable scientific perspective you and I can see how they’d think they are on the right track. And their error doesn’t bother us at all; they can bark at the moon all they want. But you and I have an advantage over scientists because you and I are not prohibited by the rules of philosophy from letting the Bible guide our thoughts.

 

To Bible believers it looks like all they did was discover the heat signature of the firmament.

 

All matter emits radiation – heat radiation, since nothing exists at a temperature of absolute zero. Think of a fishbowl or a birdcage, for example: Everything in it – fish or birds – has detectable radiation. And even if we can’t see the water or the air they still emit radiation because there is something there. So we don’t say the space between the fish and birds is a void or vacuum, because that space is not nothing…it is something. And we don’t call that radiation-emitting-but-invisible stuff dark matter (or the leftover heat of the Big Bang), because we’ve already called it air and water.

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OK, what’s the point? The point is you and I knew all of this stuff about the universe long before the Big Bang theory and the C.O.B.E. Project:

 

God made the fish and the birds. So they really exist – they aren’t nothing, a void, or a vacuum. And God made the water and the air. So they also really exist. Why do they exist? Because God created them. What did God do with the birds and the fish? He put them in the invisible air and water.

 

God also made the sun, the moon, and the stars. So they really exist – they aren’t nothing, a void, or a vacuum. And God made the firmament. So it also really exists. Why does it exist? Because God created it. What did God do with the sun, moon, and stars? He put them “in” the invisible firmament (Ge 1:17). So all these years while scientists have been barking at the moon and telling us the sun, moon, and stars were in nothing, a vacuum, a void, you and I just rolled our eyes and thought, “Will they ever learn?” And when the C.O.B.E. Project “discovered” that there is a low-level heat signature of something out there between the stars and galaxies, you and I just rolled our eyes in disgust because scientists said it was primordial heat from the Big Bang and from dark matter – instead of heat from the firmament…and they thought it validated the Big Bang instead of the Bible.

 

Then scientists launched the Gravity Probe B Project, which further proved the sun, moon, and stars are not in a void – they are actually “in” something…just like the KJV’s Ge 1:17 has been saying all along. (Modern Bible version committees (like the NIV, NASV, and the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ NWT), thinking scientists were right about the “void” of space, changed the word “firmament” to “expanse.”) Gravity Probe B discovered that as heavenly bodies move and rotate they warp and drag space and time as if space-time is something like an invisible air or liquid! And when scientists explained this mind-boggling phenomenon in layman’s terms were they smart enough to call it the “firmament”? No, they called it “honey”! “Imagine the Earth as if it were immersed in an actual substance – such as honey,” they said. “We now know that as the planets rotate they cause the ‘honey’ around them to swirl and to distort both space and time.” In other words, just as birds and fish cause the air and water that God put them in to swirl when they move, so do heavenly bodies cause the firmament that God put them in to swirl when they move. Scientists, theologians, and other unbelievers have always been wrong when they foolishly dared to disregard the literal truth of Thus saith the Lord.

 

We think of space as three dimensional, so its being distorted doesn’t seem as fantastic as the fact that Time itself (and thereby mortality) is linked to and distorted along with the firmament. This physical dark universe inside the Deep requires the artificial lights that God put into the firmament. And the physical life we have inside the Deep is mortal because it is not only tied to Time, but – we now know – to the firmament…which only exists inside the Deep. And if mortals leave the firmament by going beyond the Deep into the realm of eternity, they perish…just as fish die without water and as birds die without air. When this earth is consumed by fire (2 Pe 3:7,10-12), will the firmament – and therefore time – be consumed, too? If the firmament/time passes away this fiery universe inside the Deep will become part of eternity – which the Bible calls the lake of fire. Outside of the Deep/firmament/time is eternity, where the Lord is preparing the new earth.

 

Could it be that God hath chosen the firmament that scientists dismissed as foolishness to be the very thing to confound them? And if the firmament is part of time/mortality/physical life, when you consider that flesh and blood mortals cannot see or enter the spiritual Kingdom of God (Jn 3:3,5; 1 Co 15:50), and when you consider the blindness that the Bible says is linked with mortality/carnality (Ro 8:7,8; 1 Co 2:14), could it be that the firmament has something to do with carnal blindness to truth – just as spiritual immortality has something to do with being able to see truth?

 

BY HIM ALL THINGS CONSIST

Scientists used to think all “solid” matter was solid because they skinned their knees when they fell on pavement. That’s the essence of the “scientific method”: If you observe something and confirm that observation the observation must be true. The pavement appeared to be solid, and their knees confirmed it, so it was accepted as fact. But the study of atoms and sub-atomic particles has convinced them they were wrong. Just like there is a seeming empty space between the stars and galaxies, there appears to be empty space between atoms and even between the elements that make up atoms such as the electrons. But wait, they even think the electrons would prove to be mostly “empty space” if they could ever see stuff that small. Therefore they no longer think, because there seems to be empty – rather than solid – space between galaxies, between stars, between planets, between molecules, between atoms, between electrons, and between whatever makes up electrons, etc., etc., etc., that solid matter – or any matter – is solid.

 

They have been able to measure a wavy line of radiation energy coming from between the galaxies. And even though they can’t yet measure between the parts of atoms and electrons, they do note the amazing consistency of creation and therefore, since everything radiates wavy lines of energy, they now think everything is made up of an energy. They call this wavy-lined energy a “warp in space-time.” They’ve never been able to see the energy itself because it is apparently invisible, but they can measure its presence. So everything they thought was solid they now think is made up of a, or even the, fundamental building block of the physical universe – an invisible wavy-lined energy called a warp in space-time similar to a sound wave. A sound wave is invisible and can pass through things as if they weren’t there. But a sound wave can also behave like a “solid” by making an eardrum move or by breaking glass. The energy that makes up the universe, however, is more versatile than sound waves because it can be both visible and invisible; we can see rocks and planets but we can’t see air or the firmament (dark matter).

 

God is called the Word (Jn 1:1). He spoke the universe into existence (He 11:3), and by Him all things consist (Co 1:16,17). Since the Word spoke the words by which the entire universe came into existence, it would logically follow that all things behave according to the pattern by which they were made. And since all things in existence are made up of energy, sound waves, warps in space-time, or whatever you want to call the spoken word of God, it’s not surprising that those things behave like waves, sound waves: Ocean waves; amber waves of grain; waving flags; ups and downs; biorhythms; shock waves; ripples on sand dunes; detectable waves of energy coming from the firmament of outer space; etc. In other words, scientists are only now beginning to figure out something Bible believers have known for many centuries – the words God spoke are the very fabric of the universe.

 

It is therefore still reasonable (reasoning together with God) in the 21st century for someone who has faith in God and His word to look at the evidence of things not seen and conclude that all things really are made up of the words God spoke.

 

All of this is meant to edify and exhort the brethren and help them see that God Almighty really has given us His word – and we really can believe and act on everything in it. The Bible always has been, is now, and always will be way ahead of science.

 

What a Creator! What a Book!