Genesis Part 1: Creation of Spacetime

Summary

In Genesis 1, God started the Universe with a spacious volume of ‘waters’. With the introduction of time as ‘day’, Space-time was in full swing since Day 1 of creation.

Discussion

Observations from the Hubble Telescope and the NASA's Gravity Probe B data confirmed Albert Einstein's Space-time Theories. Yet, Space-time has no meaning before the creation of the Universe since God exists eternally and is neither bound by space nor time.

Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Genesis 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

Genesis 1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

Genesis 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

(Source: KJV)

The first object God created in the Universe on Day 1 was a volume of ‘waters’ (Genesis 1:2). There was no mention of the size of this ‘waters’ but it was sufficiently spacious for God’s spirit to move upon (Genesis 1:2). In addition to space, God introduced time. Genesis 1:5 points out for the first time that ‘waters’ and ‘light’ were made on a single 'day'. Although there was no solar-earth system on Day 1 to tell time or day, God wants us to know that the creation of ‘waters’ and ‘light’ took a period of 24-hour earth time. The interpretations and the use of 'day' are consistent throughout the Bible. Clearly, the Space-time was in full swing by the end of the first day.

Because space consists of 3 dimensions, and time is 1-dimensional, our Universe is embedded in a 4-dimensional Space-Time continuum. Space-time is the fabric of the Universe and is not empty. It is filled with energy and provides a stage where gravitational potentials are generated between objects. In future blogs, we will see how God used 'firmament' to decorate this Space-time with galactic wonders.

For those who are interested to learn more about Space-time, the concept is well illustrated in a recent video produced by PBS.

The extrapolated age of the Universe using the Hubble constant is projected to be about 13.7 Billion years with the assumption that the Universe started out very small as the size of an atom. Yet, Genesis 1:2 teaches that the Universe began with a volume of ‘waters’ spacious enough for God’s spirit to move upon. Depending on the starting volume of this ‘waters’, the real age of the Universe could be much younger than it is projected. Furthermore, it is also a common theory that the Universe began with a gargantuan explosion. Here, Genesis describes the humble beginning of the Universe with God quietly creating a volume of ‘waters’ instead of setting off a giant firecracker.

On the first day of creation, God filled the Space-time of the Universe with 'waters' and ‘light’ (Genesis 1:2-3). In the next few blogs, I will discuss the creation of ‘waters’, ‘light’ and ‘firmament’ in this newly created Space-time. Please check back for our next discussion.

Genesis Part 2: What is the Universe made of?

External resources are independent of our site and do not necessarily support our opinion.

• The Fabric of the Cosmos featured Dr. Brian Greene, an American theoretical physicist, mathematician, and a professor at Columbia University.

• NASA's Gravity Probe B confirms Einstein Spacetime theories

• https://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/uni_age.html

• https://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/blueshift/index.php/2015/11/25/100-years-of-general-relativity/