Thought For The Week

First, consider mature creation. Genesis 2:7 describes Adam formed as a man, not a cell evolving over millennia. Day 3’s trees bore fruit, not just buds. Similarly, the universe was created mature, with starlight already reaching Earth. Isaiah 45:18 declares God “formed [the heavens] to be inhabited,” not to leave Earth in darkness for billions of years. Psalm 104:2 adds, “He wraps himself in light as with a garment.” If God wields light itself, He could place it instantly across the cosmos on Day 4. Apologetics Press notes this as God’s intent—a functional universe from the start, stars blazing and visible to declare His glory.

This solution is elegantly simple. God didn’t set light in motion to arrive eons later; He made it shine on Earth immediately, just as He made Adam ready to walk and talk. A universe where stars are visible only after billions of years wouldn’t serve God’s purpose of revealing His majesty to humanity.

Another solution lies in the stretching of the heavens. Genesis 1:17 says God “set [the lights] in the vault of the sky.” The Hebrew raqia (expanse) connects to repeated biblical imagery of God stretching out the heavens. Psalm 104:2 says He “stretches out the heavens like a tent”; Isaiah 42:5 echoes, “The Creator… who stretches them out.” Creationist physicist Dr. Russell Humphreys proposes a white hole cosmology to explain this. At creation, the universe began small, with Earth near a gravitational core. On Day 4, God rapidly expanded space—faster than light itself. Einstein’s theory of relativity shows that time slows in strong gravity. Near Earth, time moved slowly (a single day), while billions of years of starlight travel occurred in the stretched cosmos.

By evening, the universe spanned 93 billion light-years, and starlight reached Earth. Humphreys ties this to Job 26:7: “He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing.” This stretching was a one-time miracle, not a process we observe today. 2 Peter 3:8 supports this: “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” God bends time to His will, ensuring Day 4’s light arrived on schedule.

A third possibility is that light’s speed (c) wasn’t always 186,282 miles per second. Genesis doesn’t fix light’s speed eternally. Some scientists, cited by Apologetics Press, suggest c could have been vastly faster during creation—perhaps a million times faster on Day 4. If so, 13 billion light-years of travel could occur in hours. God could have adjusted light’s speed post-creation to its current value. Job 38:19–20 challenges human arrogance: “What is the way to the abode of light?… Do you know it?” We don’t—God does. Psalm 119:91 affirms, “Your laws endure to this day, for all things serve you.” God sets the rules, then and now.

Which solution is correct? Mature creation is the simplest, requiring no complex physics—just God’s fiat. Time dilation aligns with biblical stretching imagery and modern relativity. Variable light speed is speculative but plausible. Deuteronomy 29:29 concludes, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us.” God reveals He made the heavens; how is His prerogative.