Dec
24
2009
This Is What Jesus Christ Upholds by the Word of His Power
HT: Z
About Justin Taylor
Follower of Christ. Editorial Director at Crossway.
Elder at Grace Community Bible Church.
Husband of one, father of three. More…
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17 Comments
[...] (HT: Justin Taylor) [...]
[...] Taylor posted this over at his blog today, and it’s [...]
I’m simply left without words.
Absolutely stunning!
Psalm 8:4
Awesome.
My. brain. hurts.
If there are 300 billion atoms in the average human head, think about how many atoms God holds together with the Word of His Power!
“Let all the earth fear the LORD; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.” Psalm 33:8
Humbling.
The imagery is impressive, but the astronomy is dubious, to say the least.
The Bible does not teach that God created the orderly universe through a Big Bang followed by eons of cosmic evolution, as this film suggests. Nor does it represent the Earth as a planet orbiting the Sun, or the Sun as orbiting the center of the Milky Way–the testimony of the secular textbooks notwithstanding.
Rather, Genesis teaches that God created the Earth first, stationary, and in the center. Then, on the fourth day, he created the heavenly bodies, all of which revolve–servant-like–around the Earth.
For a sterling scientific defense of the geocentric cosmology of the Bible, see Philip Stott’s excellent book, Vital Questions, and Robert Sungenis’ recent tome, Galileo Was Wrong. My own effort to describe defend biblical cosmology is entitled In Search of the Beginning (Pleasant Word) (www.clr4u.org).
It is good to know that our Lord upholds the universe by the word of his power. However, it is better to know why and how he created it as he did. If this short film awakens a Berean spirit in even one Christian, moving him to see if the Scriptures really do support the cosmological speculations of anti-biblical modern science, then only will it have have served us well.
@Dean Davis: Not sure what to make of geocentrism, to be honest … As long as it is a philosophical discussion, I suppose we can argue for and against. But with all the satellites, space probes etc. out there, with courses based on the heliocentric system charted years in advance with a precision of a few miles, isn’t the discussion over? However, I’m not arguing for pragmatism — “it’s right just because it works”. I do take the Bible very seriously.
I recently watched “The Privileged Planet”, which proposes the theory that it is exactly Earth’s apparent “remote, unimportant” place in the universe that both enables life and makes observation of the universe possible. For example, if we were located within a spiral arm of our galaxy rather than in a relatively unpopulated region, we would have been destroyed by radiation from supernovae long ago, and we could not see much further than a few lightyears because of the density of stellar dust and nearby stars.
hmm… born in a manger, became flesh to dwell among us, to live a perfect life… according to the sovereign plan of God he willingly gave up His life to save unworthy sinners. THAT is mind blowing. By the way, great video. I don’t think JT was arguing for any biblical view on creation, just for us to stand in awe of creation, and more importantly, its Creator. Christmas blessings,
–
Brandon
Martin: Check out Sungenis’ book, which explains how scientists routinely use an Earth Centered Inertial Frame of Reference to chart space probes. In other words, because it works so well, they plot the trajectories assuming that the Earth is at rest and the other heavenly bodies in motion. But this raises an interesting question: Does the ECIFR approach work so well because the Earth really IS at rest in the midst of all?
I have not watched The Privileged Planet, but I like the title. As I understand it, the film explores, in astronomical categories, the so-called Anthropic Principle; the idea that the universe looks tailor made for man. This fits in perfectly with the idea of geocentricity: God has put the Earth at the center physically, but it lies at the center of his attention–and affections–spiritually. Privileged indeed!
Many recent discoveries confirm the geocentric thesis. For example, the Cosmic Microwave Background is perfectly “isotropic”–it looks the same from all directions. The simplest and most natural explanation of this amazing phenomenon is that we really ARE at the center–a conclusion that Hubble despised, and which he tried to escape by embracing the incomprehensible (and irrational) idea of spatial curvature.
Or again, from measuring their “qunatized” red-shifts in every direction, scientists are now forced to admit that quasars and galaxies seem to be situated on concentric shells, shells orbiting (you guessed it) the Earth.
A look at the history of science suggests that the Galileo affair was, in fact, the crucial turning point, when western man abandoned the authority and perspicuity of Scripture in favor of autonomous human reason. The resulting crisis in cosmology paved the way for the deadly doctrine of cosmic evolution and the apostasy of the western intelligentsia from its moorings in the Word of God. The bitter fruit of this is plain for all with eyes to see it.
Perhaps, then, the best way forward is to go back–back to the Copernican crossroads, where we abandoned the cosmological treasures of the Word of God for the empty speculations of sinful man.
[...] is beautiful and stunning. Very much the more so in light of the title of Justin Taylor’s blog post: “This Is What Jesus Christ Upholds by the Word of His [...]
Thankfully this was without the offputting breathless “gosh wow” that I’ve seen in other presentations.
Big Bang? really….
[...] Justin Taylor) 45.545648 [...]