Astronomy and the Bible

The Birth and Expansion of the Universe

Unlike other ancient religious writings, the Bible uniquely and correctly describes major features of the origin, structure, and history of the universe. Apart from revelation, those features were unknowable to the authors of the Bible. The Bible declared thousands of years ago what modern astronomy and astrophysics did not discover until the twentieth century. The discoveries of modern astronomy and astrophysics are in amazing harmony with the Bible. More Bible-affirming discoveries are made each year as our knowledge of astronomy and astrophysics continues to grow. Astronomers measured the Doppler red shift of the galaxies, showing the universe is expanding. The discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) shows the universe arose from a hot flash point in the distant past. The CMB has been called “the afterglow of creation.” The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) spacecraft produced a stunning CMB image recorded from deep space (pictured above, NASA image, Public Domain), which shows remarkable uniformity in temperature. That is evidence of a single primeval event followed by expansion. In summary, astronomical data show the universe arose from a single hot flash point all at once and has been stretching and cooling down from the moment of its birth.

The Bible tells us the universe arose all at once.

My own hand laid the foundations of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I summon them, they all stand up together. (Isaiah 48:13)

The Bible tells us the universe was stretched out.

It is I who made the earth and created mankind on it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts. (Isaiah 45:12)

But God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding. (Jeremiah 10:12)

Modern astronomy confirms the universe has been stretching from the moment of its birth. The galaxies are more spread out now than in the early universe, and will continue to spread out more over time (Figure 1).

The universe is fine tuned to permit inhabitable worlds. (See The Design Argument under the The Existence of God in the site navigation bar on top.) The fine tuning of the universe, which modern science has revealed, is implied in the Bible.

For this is what the LORD says— he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited— he says: “I am the LORD, and there is no other...” (Isaiah 45:18)

The Bible tells us of the decay and ultimate end of the physical universe.

For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. (Romans 8:20-22)

Modern astronomy reveals the universe is cooling down and slowly running out of usable energy. The temperature of the cosmic microwave background has been falling from the moment of its appearance, as indicated in Figure 2. Astronomical data published in 2013 confirm this.

Eventually, all the stars will burn out, leaving a cold and lifeless universe. The Bible promises us eternal existence in a new heaven and a new earth.

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. (Revelation 21:1)

The Bible promised these things long before science revealed the need. Modern astronomy and astrophysics display the glory of God through the cosmos, as so majestically stated by the Psalmist.

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. (Psalm 19:1-2)