Bereshit 101

Stan Sholar, November 30, 2002

I awoke this morning with my mind upon the book of Genesis. Thoughts quickly turned to how differently the beginnings can be interpreted, starting with the very first word, in Hebrew, bereshit Subjects like the 'big bang,' the age of the earth and creationism vs. evolution quickly pop up. However, more importantly, the fall of Adam is notable to me as the first event separating God's thread of varying dispensations. Attention to the details of the creation of the universe and man is scant in the Scriptures compared to the rest of the material devoted to the Glory of God and His plan for mankind. Surely this must indicate the much lesser importance of understanding the cosmology of the beginnings as compared to understanding God's plan for man.

 

As far as setting the universe in motion, I do not lose sleep over imponderables of the age and time of events. It is academically challenging for some to contemplate how the story of creation covers a period apparently much shorter than indicated by the light from stars, apparently millions of light years away. One should not underestimate the power of a God who can set such a universe in motion. To Him it would be a simple matter to initialize the positions, and radiation states of bodies, and their motions, to be related to any kind of genesis, including even a big bang that didn't actually happen. One of many concepts is that radiation could have been placed in motion throughout space, including the recently measured and studied cosmic background radiation (CBR). Our secular mode of thinking tends to preclude giving God credit for His omnipotent ability. We make a puzzle out of the observations and look in physics texts for solutions instead of the Bible.

 

Physics is necessarily limited from an observational verification standpoint to how things appear to behave from the vantage point of our earthly domain. Theories whose domains of applicability portend to extend to the outer reaches of our observable universe are predicated on postulates that are unverified, as in the cases of the Special and General Theories of Relativity. Today, alternatives that yield the same predictions as Relativity of the behavior of electromagnetic radiation, such as radio waves and light, and alternative explanations for the three results that put General Relativity on the map regarding space, time and gravity, are on the table. In addition to predicting and agreeing with current empirical data from experiments, replacement theories cover several important unsolved problems in physics, such as the Sagnac effect, which denies Einstein's postulate of the constancy of the speed of light in uniformly moving frames of reference. All efforts over the past century to explain the Sagnac effect using Relativity have failed. In fact Einstein's theory denies even the existence of a non-moving frame of reference, which seems to be refuted by CBR data, where there is an orientation in the universe within which the CBR is the same in all directions (isotropic) and thus represents a special and unique orientation. This orientation is not discernibly different from the distant stars, which have formed the basis for inertial navigation up until this time.

 

Today some scientists wrestle in a speculative way with the business of how much mass is out there and how fast and in what direction it is going. An answer is required in order to predict whether the universe will last forever or collapse into oblivion. In either case, the uncountable billions of years until such events would occur seem inconsequential to the history and future of mankind as established on a time scale by its Creator. The general public may not be able to follow these machinations, and may place undue confidence in the plausibility of developing theories, thinking that things are falling into place. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most theories in this regard are based purely upon mathematics, and although the practitioners are quite gifted, and the theories have a formal beauty, the only real virtue of mathematics is its logic and dependence upon starting points or postulates. The idea of an expanding universe based upon an interpretation of the source of the "red shift" is no longer an unchallenged notion. We are not sure of the speed of light in the far reaches of the universe and whether it has changed throughout all time. Therefore we do not really know how to reconcile the age of the universe with the descriptions in Genesis. Sometimes even attempts at popularizing this issue can be obfuscated by terms like "cosmological constant."

 

The essence of the problem is quite simple and can be illustrated by my following thought experiment. Consider just two masses, separated at a distance and moving away from each other. We imagine the straight line defined by the two masses and they are confined to this line throughout their history of motion. They have a gravitational attraction that tends to pull them together. The momentum from their mass and velocity causes them to tend to continue to move outward, though being slowed down by the gravitational attraction. As they grow further apart, the gravitational attraction diminishes by the so-called inverse square law effect. This means that when the separation distance doubles, the attraction diminishes to one fourth as much. It is intuitive that for a given set of conditions, the separation distance, the size of the gravitating masses, and their outward velocities, they may reach a maximum separation distance from which they will reverse direction and come together. Or, with large initial distance, small masses, and high velocity, they will go on indefinitely. There is an obvious set of values where the difference between these two conditions of initial state is precisely on the boundary of collapse or eternal outward migration. The cosmological constant is related to this. It is not difficult to imagine that with regard to the universe, we are talking about a three dimensional version of this one-dimensional simplification. Density is the amount of mass in a given volume. In our simple experiment it is the masses divided by the distance, a concept that reduces our focus to just two things, the density and the velocity. Nevertheless, the basic principle applies to the three dimensional universe.

 

It has been determined that if the big bang had happened, and we are where we are at this point in time, then the fact that we are neither recollapsed nor projected further into a larger dispersion must have resulted from a fine tuning of this initial relationship between density and velocity. This relationship amounts to an offset or bias away from the perfectly balanced value, let's say in velocity given a particular density, of one part in ten raised to the 43rd power according to physicist, Tom Van Flandern. That's a lot of zeros. We are nowhere able to actually measure the current state of affairs but our basic models of the observable universe do not match the principle discussed above. As a result physicists look for large amounts of "missing matter" by speculating that most of the universe is composed of "dark matter" that does not radiate as do the stars, and occupies the vast areas of space in spherical distributions surrounding the relatively flat galaxies and intergalactic space.

 

This is all interesting in a sense, but the essence of Genesis to me begins with the fall of Adam. I have discussed this with some of my Reform Jewish friends and they remind me that one of the things they have in common with Jewish Orthodoxy is the notion that there was no "original sin" and that Adam was mortal from the very beginning. This in turn leads to a very prominent difference in interpretation that affects how we conduct our spiritual lives and pray. Jews believe that they have all of the power within themselves to obey God's law and to please Him. There is no need for mediation, which of course predisposes them toward the idea of a lesser role for their Messiah, than for that of Jesus of Nazareth. Christians mostly agree that with Adam's "fall," all mankind became sinful by nature and only God can bring forgiveness and sanctification, no matter how fervent, effective, and sincere our actions may be. We must claim this covenant that is given to us by the death of His Son through our faith, is the Protestant view.

 

A next significant point in time when God makes a change in how He plans to deal with mankind over an ensuing period is the presentation of the Abrahamic Covenant, handed down to Isaac and Jacob (Israel). The unfolding history quickly gets to the lineage of Abraham and we learn of the warring relationship between the brothers Israel and Ishmael. This mystery to me holds an important key to understanding the current Middle East situation. It is remarkable how the tiny State of Israel, as reconstituted in present times, is juxtaposed to neighboring countries nearly identical to those of ancient times, only with modern names. These Arab nations, hundreds of times larger in population and area than Israel, are populated with descendents of Ishmael, who, as in ancient history, are dedicated not to just a continuation of war, but to the eradication of the Jewish Nation. The prophet Mohammed added Christians to the list of infidels who should be converted or killed.

 

I think these aspects of Genesis, as they relate to God's plan for Muslims, Jews, Christians and all mankind, are the focus of what God would have us prayerfully analyze today. Proper understanding affects our behavior today and our future condition for eternity. Also, in Genesis is found the first hints of the end times. Muslims and Jews do not share Christian views here either. There is a natural attraction to the mysteries of eschatology, similar to cosmology. However, 'end times' are yet to be experienced events and more a propos for current analysis than cosmology. Consider the signs that Jesus said in the Olivet prophecy would announce these times: (1) restoration of Israel, (2) a time of worldwide distress, and (3) proclamation of the Gospel to the whole world. I think we can check off the first two. The last refers to the task of making the message of Jesus Christ known to the whole world. There is not widespread publicity of the progress that has been made in this regard.  However, through efforts of worldwide missions, the American Bible Society, Wycliffe Translators, Calvary Chapel, and many others, publishing the Bible and commentaries in over a thousand languages, this testimony is rapidly approaching the point of reaching all nations and presents an opportunity for all Christians to have a role in checking off number 3.