Moses knew about the Theory of Relativity

Before moving to the next issue that Metaxas takes with the Materialistic worldview, it may be the appropriate time to discuss the recent shift in thinking that I’ve had in regards to the first chapter of Genesis.  I have always been and by the Grace of God will always be a man who believes that the Bible is the Inspired, Authoritative and Inerrant Word of God.  I believe in taking Scripture in a literal sense¹ and I take issue with a certain perspective held by some in the Church that would brush this chapter under the proverbial rug by calling it symbolic or poetic.  In my reading of this chapter in both my English Bible and by studying the takes of Hebrew Scholars I see this to be a very sophisticated and at times prophetically vague² account of the origin of the world as we know it today.

Like I said in the previous post I had never really looked deeply into this chapter until recently because I never saw the need to.  I understood that there was a cultural debate that pitted atheists who claimed that science was on their side against the Church which was perceived as “anti-science” but never really cared about it because God had delivered me from requiring everything to make sense before I trusted Him.  I grew up a believer and became serious about my devotion to Jesus when I was in college after which I was met with a difficult season of doubt that God used to deliver me from a belief that my mind was the key to the bolstering of my faith to instead learning to trust in the Spirit of God Himself to strengthen my faith through encountering Him in prayer.  My problem was that I would tend to put my relationship with God on hold whenever I couldn’t answer every question that entered my mind and as such, I was on a constant treadmill of trying to prove every doubt wrong.  When I would finally solve the “math equation” that was the solution to all the conflicting-theories I was troubled by then - and only then - could I have a reprieve to worship God.  This would be short lived however because there is a real devil, and he really is the father of lies (John 8:44) and the originator of questions against God’s character (Genesis 3:1-7).  In addition to this, God has allowed for stumbling blocks to exist in the world (Matthew 18:7) and that combined with the fallen nature of man that pushes against the truth (Romans 1:17) creates a recipe for the devil to use his spiritual power to propagate worldviews, religions and theories that are against Jesus and against the Truth.

In other words, I learned that questions and alternative theories are always going to be out there because God has allowed them to exist in the world.  With that in view I found that true faith was that which came from God (John 15:16), was strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13) and surpasses the mind (Philippians 4:7, Ephesians 3:19).  There is a wisdom that God gives (1 Corinthians 2:6) that will bring answers to these questions but that must come in the context of the trust that is built up by God Himself.   When those answers come I praise God for them and hope to use them bring Him glory but until they do I hold my questions as little offerings in my heart and I place them before Him when I enter into the sacred ground of His Presence in prayer confessing to my Lord that I may not understand everything that is out there but by His grace I have been saved and by His strength I believe.

The Theory of Relativity

With that in mind I can say that I was stirred to embrace a new perspective on Genesis 1 by considering the theory of relativity. I’m not physicist but as far as I can tell the basic premise³ of Einstein’s famous concept is that time is relative.  In saying that time is relative what he means is that an individual’s experience of time will vary depending on the physical situation that they are in.  The physical situations that effect one’s experience of time are relative gravity, relative velocity and relative expanding space.  And as such one’s experience of time is dependent on where he is located and how the gravitational pull, velocity and expanding space affects that location he finds himself in.  There have been experiments that have proved this – for example clocks move slightly faster on the top of tall skyscrapers where there is slightly less gravity than closer to the surface of the earth.  Also, astronauts age differently than do people on the earth over the same period of earth time⁴.  This seems strange and outrageous when one first hears this but this is because we all have only lived on earth and have all experienced the same physical situation.  Imagining a different physical situation has never entered our minds so the idea that time might affect us different should we enter into one of those situations seems aberrant.

And as mind-bending as it is, Einstein’s theory of relativity is of tremendous theological importance when you consider how the idea that time is relative to the physical situation of an individual may impact how we read the first chapter of Holy Scripture.  With this in our minds we find ourselves re-reading Genesis 1 in a new light.  A perspective that specifically frees itself from an earth-bound view of time regarding the Days of Creation and rather causes us to wonder where God was when He was both causing and witnessing the events of this chapter.  When one is mulling this over as he reads this incredible chapter, he finds that the measure for time as we know it on earth was not given to us until day 4 (see Genesis 1:14) when the earth and the sun come into their final relational states with each other⁵.

This the begets the question – if our measure for a “day” on earth doesn’t come into place until day 4 then what measure is God using for a “day” in this chapter?

From the best of my estimation God seems be using the ascending and receding of light in the universe as His measure for a Day.  This is marked out in Genesis 1:3-5 when He creates Light, separates it from darkness and calls the Light “Day” and the Darkness “Night”.  After this we see that there was then “evening” - which I believe to be the waning or absence of this light in the universe.  Following this there is “morning” – which in a similar way I would see to be a brightening or enlightening of light in the universe.

So to sum up the above paragraphs we are left with 2 questions regarding God’s measure for a “Day” in Genesis 1.

1. Where is God located in Genesis 1?

2. Do we have a way of relating our measure for time (the earth’s rotation on its axis in relation to the sun) with God’s measure for time (the ascending and receding of light in the universe)?

Where is God Located

With Einstein theorizing in his equations that time is relative to the physical situation that the individual is in when he is experiencing time we find that to understand a Day in Genesis 1 we must attempt to know where God is located when He is both causing and witnessing the monumental events of this chapter.

In my mind the answer to this question can be one of three possibilities:

a) The Omni-Present God who fills all space (Psalm 139:7) is witnessing the various stages in the development of the Universe from the expanding space of the Universe itself.  I’m not well versed enough in physics to understand this but there is a very compelling explanation of how expanding space effects one’s experience of time that I think deserves a serious look by anybody who is interested about how the Biblical account of the universe getting to where it is today and the explanation from the discoveries in science have no conflict with each other.  You can find that explanation at SixDayScience.com.

b) God is Spirit (John 4:24) and therefore not confined to the material world and is experiencing these events from the spiritual realm.  In consideration of Einstein’s theory of time based on a physical situation⁶ it would mean that time wouldn’t apply to God at all⁷.  This is interesting in many ways because it seems to be the theme of Psalm 90 and is perhaps a new window into one of the attributes of God.  The attribute I'm referring to is that He is Eternal.  In discussing any part of the Divine Nature, we must speculate about something that we can’t possibly relate to because we are finite created beings with definite beginnings.  Nonetheless the way I have always understood God's Eternal Existence was from the perspective of time.  His history goes back forever, and His future will go on forever.  But in light of the theory of relativity I think it's possible that the reality of God’s Eternal Existence may be equally understood from the perspective of space.  Or more aptly put – the fact that He created space and is not confined to it and is therefore not affected by time the way those who are confined to space are⁸.  And instead of just calling God Eternal, we can also think of Him as Timeless.  That God - this Self-Existent Spiritual Being - is actually the foundation of the space-time reality that we live in.  With Space and Time being gifts that God gave to mankind for our benefit.  

c) God is perhaps watching these events from a fixed physical location of some kind.  If this is in fact the case, then there are no hints as to where this location is.  In my mind this is the least likely of the three possible scenarios.

Moses Knew that Time was Different to God

Since we are unable to know where God is located when He is witnessing and causing the events of this chapter, we must accept that we are unable to really understand how He would have experienced time.  And being that God is a Spiritual Being who is not confined to a physical location we have to conclude that it's possible that He experiences time differently than we do.  The Bible amazingly bears witness to this in Psalm 90:4 stating that a “thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it passes by, or as a watch in the night.”  It's exciting enough that Scripture – written thousands of years before Einstein – talks about the theory of relativity but when you consider that the same man who wrote Psalm 90 also wrote Genesis 1 it causes a distinct pause.

Let that sink in, Moses - the author of Genesis 1 – knew about the theory of relativity.  The implications of this become more profound when you consider that the concept of God’s morning and evening being different from ours is spoken about in this same chapter in Psalm 90:3-6.  In other words, the same guy who said the Universe was created in 6 days also states that God’s days are not like ours.

What possibly could this mean?  Well for starters I think it means that when we think of the 6 days of creation, we should think of them as "God-Days" - which certainly is literally a day but it's a day to God and not necessarily the same thing as a day to us.  And when you give this consideration, you will see that the first chapter of Genesis bears this out.  Verse 14 tells us that the inhabitants of earth are given our measure for time on Day 4.  This is important because it indicates that for sure the earth's rotation on its axis in relation to the sun was not what God was using as His measure for a day for the first 4 days. And once you read these verses with this perspective you can see that there is no reason to believe that the measure God uses for a day - which from what I can best tell has something to do with receding and ascending of light in the universe (Genesis 1:3-5) - doesn't continue on Days 5 and 6.

So, this all borne out means something really profound.  The 6 God-Days in Genesis 1 are not necessarily like ours.  They could represent billions of earth-years, or they could represent 6 earth-days.  The jury is out as to how the earth's rotation on its axis in relation to the sun compares with God's witnessing of universal light from an undisclosed location.  This means both the young earth creationist and the old earth creationist are both free to discuss their theories on the age of the earth based on what they have discovered via the natural sciences.  It allows those like me who are fascinated by the profound philosophical implications of the Big Bang Theory to embrace the idea that the universe is 13.8 billion earth-years old because it's very possible that 6 God-Days could equate to 13.8 billion earth-years.  But regardless of where we land on the question of the age of the earth considering this subject ultimately causes us to wonder at the Transcendent, Omnipotent, Eternal, Timeless and Inscrutable Being that we call God.

Open our eyes to see more of Your wonders oh Lord.

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¹ By literal I mean in its literary context.  In the sense that the literary context will determine if something is spoken in a poetic sense (for example the Psalms), to record the testimonies of eyewitnesses (for example the Gospels), to put forth theological truth (for example the epistles) and so on.  The question with Genesis 1 is whether this chapter is a retelling of that God which gave to Adam as to how He created the Universe that is being recounted now by Moses or if this chapter is something that God told Moses directly while they spoke face to face (Exodus 33:11).  I tend to think that it is the latter and view chapters 1 and 2 as God explaining the origin of the universe in a technical way.

² To say something is "prophetically vague" sounds like an oxymoron because a prophetic word should be known for giving the details of something before that thing came into common knowledge.  Thus for it to be "vague" seems to indicate that it wasn't very prophetic at all.  What I mean by calling the simple sparse details of the origin and development of the Universe as we know it today "prophetically vague" is that the limited detail and simple statements of world-shaping events allows for believers in every age to have a synthesis with the ever-changing fields of science and philosophy.  Science in particular is a moving target and a discovery in a certain discipline of science can lend towards one conclusion but then years down the road another breakthrough brings about a whole new perspective. While it is true that at times Scripture will stand in opposition to a certain perspective, the brief descriptions of how the different aspects of the world as we know it arrived at where they are today give us some leeway in understanding the nuanced mechanics of how those things came to be.  I call this "prophetic" because I believe that God in His foresight knew that science would develop as it has and in His wisdom gave the church the ability to create a degree of synthesis between Holy Scripture and the findings of science in every age.

³ At least as it applies to what I’m discussing here

⁴ There is a very easy to follow slide show of this found at SixDayScience.com.  The portion that pertains to how individuals experience time differently is found on slides 51 - 64.

⁵ This isn’t just an idea that I’ve had while considering a popular scientific theory.  Verse 14 itself says that the “lights in the expanse of the sky are for “seasons, days and years.” In other words, God gives humanity our measure for time on Day 4.  This, like I will explain more in depth in this post, is not necessarily His measure for time during these 6 days.

⁶ Einstein even goes to say that something traveling at the speed of light wouldn’t experience time at all

⁷ If this is true then God participating in the 6 days of creation and the 7^th day of rest would be similar Jesus embracing baptism by John the Baptist.  Jesus didn’t need to be baptized because He had never sinned.  As such God didn’t need to act as though He experienced time in a measured way because He is Timeless.  He also didn't need to rest at the end of it because He doesn't get tired (Isaiah 40:28). But both the Triune God in Genesis 1 and Jesus in Matthew 3:15 did these things as examples for us time-bound, finite, sinners who need guidance on how to live our lives.

⁸ God is both present within all space (He is Omni-Present - Psalm 139:7-12) and time (He is Everlasting - Isaiah 40:28) but is not confined to either.  As such He was able to create the universe from nothing (Hebrews 11:3) and He knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10).