The Big Bang Theory vs. Scripture

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, let there be light; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. The God said, let there be a firmament in the mdst of the water, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day. Then God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, and the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the third day. Then God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth; and it was so. Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. ” Genesis 1:1-5 (NKJV)

There are a number of Christians who claim to believe the Word of God, yet claim to also believe in both evolution and the Big Bang Theory. I want to address the BBT from the perspective of Scripture.

According to the BBT, all matter was once contained in one place, probably something like a black hole that was so massive that nothing, not even energy, could escape. For some reason, this massive particle managed to explode and the resulting energy formed the physical universe as we know it. As it cooled, all of the heavenly bodies coalesced out of the energy, forming stars, nebulae, gas clouds, etc. Eventually, planets formed around some (some believe most) of the stars.

Now, I have no intention of dealing with those who are unbelievers and who ascribe to the BBT. On the other hand, those believers who claim to believe the BBt need to look carefully at the creation account in Genesis. It’s my contention that one cannot believe the literal rendering found there and the BBT. God clearly gave the chronological order of creation. Now, either the Bible is the Word of God, or it is not.

Genesis1:1-2 are clear that the heavens and the earth were created first. After that, it gets interesting. If the BBT is true, then energy (including light) was created first. Yet, God doesn’t create light until verse three. Verse three begins, “Then God said, Let there be Light ….” Therefore, matter and space (“heaven” could mean the Heaven of heavens where God presently dwells) were created prior to the creation of wave energy. Belief in the BBT of necessity requires the creation of wave energy first.

Note also that water is present before the creation of light (verse 2). As a matter-of-fact, God did further creative work on and with the earth on the second and third days, including forming the dry land, assigning the boundaries of the seas, and even creating plant life. This is significant, because God did not create the “lights in the firmaments of the heavens” until the fourth day. As a matter-of-fact, God formed the sun and the moon before (or, at least, at the same time as) the rest of the heavenly bodies (verse 16).

Another point is this: the planets that have been discovered orbiting other stars had to have been created about the same time, or immediately after, the creation of the stars they orbit. According to Scripture, therefore, space and the earth (along with water) were created before all other energy and matter.

The fact that God lays out the creation in chronological order makes it impossible for Christians to believe in both the Biblical account of creation and in the Big Bang Theory. Scripture makes them mutually exclusive and brings Christians to a point of decision: are you going to believe the Bible is the Word of God (All scripture is given by inspiration of God, …” 2 Timothy 3:16, KJV). By the way, the Greek word for “inspiration” literally means “breathed of (in the sense of “by”) God.”

So, the choice is clear: either Christians have to accept the inspiration of the Scriptures and, thus, the Genesis account of creation or they have to climb the slippery slope of believing that the Bible simply “contains the Word of God” and that fallible mankind has the task of deciding what is truly inspired and what is not.