How can the light of stars billions of light years away from the earth have reached us if the earth is only thousands of years old?

Again, on the fourth day we hear of the luminaries. And here mark the consistency and propriety of the language. It is not said that God then created them, but simply, "Let there be lights in the firmament." It is not light now, but "lights," or light-bearers, "in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night (the stars also)." These last are just referred to, and it was the more important because, as is generally known, many of those that had the greatest weight in the ancient world adored the stars. Even Plato, although a western, was sufficiently tinctured by orientalism to yield to the monstrous figment that the earth is a sort of living creature. As the philosophy of Aristotle directly tended to atheism (for it was low-minded empiricism), so the philosophy of Plato led into, if it was not downright, pantheism. Such was the difference between them. Pantheism, though in sound opposed, is really near akin to atheism.

God here cuts off the ground of all these delusions, as well as the objection of moderns, who too hastily assumed that the stars are said to be created at this time. It is not so. No matter how long the space required for the light from more distant stars to reach the earth, it is evident that room is left for all by what is said, and not said, in verses 1, 14, 16. Had Moses written that they were created on the fourth day, it would have contradicted the facts; but as it is expressed, not only is there no contradiction, but obviously the Bible is wiser than either the friends or the foes of revelation. Compare what Moses wrote with any philosopher you please in the ancient world. Whose writings have failed to contradict the facts of modern science? How comes it that Moses did not? Whose care was it that preserved him from here implying — as many divines have been too hasty to say for him — the creation of the lights? A Scotch university professor not long since insisted to me that Moses affirmed it. He was so ready to believe that Scripture contradicts science, that he had not even weighed these few words with care. Had Plato or Aristotle written as Moses did, how loud the boasting, and how close the scrutiny, not to "hint a fault," but to set forth the excellence of their philosophy! Scripture needs no apology. All I ask is a more exact attention to the word of God on the part of those who venture to assail it. It would be wiser at least to read it first. Thus Horsley (Biblical Crit. i. 4) says, "Neither the sun nor any of the celestial luminaries were in being when light was produced. For light was the work of the first day; the luminaries of the fourth." Also (p. 5), "The celestial bodies were set in the firmament in their respective places, when they were first created; and they were at the same time appointed to be for lights, to give light upon the earth; and to be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years."

You see where those are that speak about the enormous length of time necessary for light to be transmitted — though this again is more than they ought to assume — at any rate for the action of light by means of the heavenly orbs. But there is no difficulty whatever. When God created the heavens, did He make them empty? Did He not create also the host of heaven? What about the sun, and moon, and stars? He created them some time. That they were made we find elsewhere in this chapter; not, I presume, the absolute moment of their creation, but of their being made to serve for the use of man on the earth. What other uses they served we are not there informed. That they were God's handiwork, and for man's use, as creatures of God here below — not objects of worship, as in heathenism, He does explain. Surely there was wisdom in saying this and no more. There was considerate goodness in what He said, and in what He withheld.

A. — 1. The two "great lights" were constituted as they still are (not created then) in relation to the earth prepared for man, like the work of all the six days. The dense darkness that prevailed in the chaotic state which preceded these days easily accounts for the gloom, though the sun, moon and stars were already in existence since God created the heavens and the earth, which took place, it may be, ever so long before the great geologic ages previous to the Adamic race. Not that scripture is occupied with these material processes; but it leaves ample room before the first day in ver. 3.

Further, we must banish the notion that the black pall of an unbroken night was the original condition — a heathen, not a biblical, idea. It was not so before ver. 2, which describes a subsequent and transient state. The first verse supposes an order of the universe; the second, an interruption of no small moment for man; then in ver. 3 the week begins in which the earth was prepared for his abode who was made before that week ended. The geologic ages had passed before the human measures of time commenced. If the record had been duly read, the Inquisition might have avoided its unwise and suicidal judgment of Gal. Galiléi; for the first day, compared with the fourth, favours the Copernican theory as decidedly as it condemns the old philosophy of Ptolemy. It exactly agrees with the revolution of the earth round its axis for evening and morning, independently of the function of the sun soon after formed. Only we must take note that the profound darkness dispelled was neither primeval nor universal, as many men of science have hastily assumed. It had nothing to do with the heavens, any more than had the disorder which befell the earth, after ever so long lapse of time.

So without straining a point we can say there may be millions of years between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. Geologists claim that the earth is millions of years old, and this the Bible does not contradict. Man and the lower animals, as we know them, are not more than about six thousand years old; but the earth itself may be millions of years old. Probably every shovelful of coals is pre-adamic.

274 Again, 'Tell the serious student that the book he has been taught by history to revere is not only a good and holy book, containing the word of God to man, but is the infallible word of God, in which there is no error' (I tell him it is the truth itself, or nothing at all; education of a child is another thing) 'and he can appreciate the singular honour that the wise and the great have so often, and so conspicuously given to the Bible: but, alas! you have told him the Holy Book is infallible; and, before he passes from its first page, he is led to believe that the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them were made in six days, whereas the indelible testimonies of matter, sense, and reason combine to assure him that this earth, with all its populations' (where, and what?) 'that have in its younger days dwelt on it and perished in its ruins, is countless millions of years old,' etc. But he is not so led as to Creation. I believe the earth may have existed millions of years, nor does the Bible contradict it, but admit of it, and proves thus its divinity, for Moses knew it not. He says, 'The fourth day's special product was the sun, and moon, and stars.' But that is not said, but avoided. It is said, "God made two great lights." The sun as a 'body having weight' is not a light. As to 'multitudes of men in this state of mind being habituated until they become dead to all practical sense of religion and spirituality,' that is they judge by physical science of which they are ignorant.

Physicists tell us that the ratio of sizes between the ultimate atom of its constitution and the rain-drop is similar to the ratio of size between the rain-drop and the earth. While the atom itself is no longer the hard, indivisible point conceived in the minds of 19th century scientists, but is believed to be a system analogous to the solar system in which negatively charged electrons circulate round positively charged protons in marvellous adjustment. Again, in the ultra-megascopic sphere, the distinctive features of God's creation are no less marvellous than in the afore-mentioned ultra-microscopic spheres. The earth is a mere speck in the solar system, the outpost of which is over sixty times the distance of the earth from the sun, which, nevertheless, controls every member of its system according to an exact uniformity; but the solar system itself is also a mere speck in the immensity of space. Every star in the bespangled firmament is a sun possibly with attendant satellites. There are about six thousand stars visible to the naked eye, but millions have been brought into evidence by the aid of the telescope, and moreover, stars have been photographed which are beyond the power of the telescope to reveal, and the star-maps and catalogues record the existence of at least one hundred millions, and each star is separated from each other by distances of inconceivable magnitude.

The nearest star is at such a distance from the solar system that it takes light three and a half years to come therefrom, and light travels at the great velocity of 186,000 miles per second. Thus undoubtedly the more distant stars are seen as they were hundreds of years ago, because the light has been so long on the way. Someone has illustrated the magnitude by putting a speck in the midst of Madrid to represent a star, another in Oslo, in the north, and another in Bucharest in the east. Recognising all the space between the suburbs of these cities as empty, we get some idea of the prophetic reference in the 34th chapter of Isaiah, "He shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion and the stones of emptiness." Yet the last expression is suggestive. Space is completely filled with a subtle medium which has been styled the luminiferous ether, as it has the power of transmitting light, although it differs from ordinary matter as it does not affect our senses and thus may be described as empty relative to matter which can be weighed in a balance. Yet physical discoveries would suggest that the emptiness contains the essential stuff or stones out of which the universe has been built. The things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. (Heb. 11:3). Albeit the initial framing of the universe was by the Word of God.

"He made the stars also" (v.16). This is only stated as though it were incidental and of much lesser importance. Though many of the stars have been found to be tremendous in size, much larger than the sun, and their number beyond computation, their distances ranging into billions of light years, yet the sun and the moon are more important to us on earth, and God's revelation is for the benefit of human beings. Again God saw that His work on the fourth day was good, and again He declares that there was evening and morning, a fourth day (of 24 hours).Go upto Index

“He made the stars also” (v. 16). This is only stated as though it were incidental and of much lesser importance. Though many of the stars have been found to be tremendous in size, much larger than the sun, and their number beyond computation, their distances ranging into billions of light years, yet the sun and the moon are more important to us on earth, and God's revelation is for the benefit of human beings. Again God saw that His work on the fourth day was good, and again He declares that there was evening and morning, a fourth day (of 24 hours).

But though God is not seen, His work clearly declares His glory. As to the astronomical heavens, the solar system and all the constellations of stars, we are told they extend for millions of light years, wonder of there is any end to them. Light is said to travel at 186,000 miles per second, so a light year is the time that light takes to travel in one year at that great speed! Such distance is so staggering that it is hopeless to try understand how many miles is involved. But there has to be a capable mind in control of all this, a mind therefore that is infinitely higher than human thought can comprehend.

Consistently with these thoughts, there is nothing in creation that bears more striking witness to the Eternity of God than does pure light. Astronomers today inform us that by means of the Mount Palomar telescope, light has been photographed proceeding from stars over one billion light years distant! This leads many of them to conclude that space is endless. But when light, traveling 186,000 miles per second, requires over one billion years to reach us, the very thought of such time and distance staggers our limited minds. And while even billions of years cannot of course approach eternity, yet such time so far surpasses man's comprehension that its glorious voice should bow our hearts with thorough faith in that sublime word of Psalm 90:2, "From eternity to eternity Thou art God" (New Translation). This verse also is clearly applicable to our Lord Jesus Christ, Who Himself asserts in John 8:58, "Before Abraham was, I am."