The Heavens Declare

Mark Dunagan
12/27/15 - Sunday Evening

The Heavens Declare

“The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.  Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.  There is no speech, nor are there any words; their voice is not heard, their line has gone out through all the earth, and their utterances to the end of the world” (Psalm 19:1-4).

Look at the above passages once again.  The heavens declare that God is their maker—and this is declared every single day and night.   What is in the heavens, like the sun and the stars do not actually speak a human language, but everyone can understand what they are declaring by their existence—there is a God.  In addition, this sermon which is preached everyday and night is equally preached everywhere on the planet.  On the one hand the message is quite plain, almost self-evident.  It does not require extensive investigation, technical skill and great learning to see it.  Everyone can understand it even if they lack the most basic education and have very few educational advantages or opportunities. Yet---if you want to be technical, if you want to dig deeper, you will soon discover that the testimony of the creation is even stronger than first imagined.  In other words, believing in the existence of God is not a naïve or ignorant point of view which is quickly abandoned once a person looks into the evidence carefully.  On the contrary, the more you investigate the more the heavens gush forth the fact that God is the designer.  This is one reason why men like German astronomer Johanna Heinrich Madler (1794-1874) and others have concluded that “A true scientist cannot be an atheist.  When you peer so deeply into God’s workshop and have so many opportunities to marvel at His omniscience and eternal order, as we have, then you should humbly bend your knees before the throne of the most holy God”

It is a code that no one can erase.  A country might try to destroy Bibles and make the preaching of the gospel a capital crime.  It might shut down every place of worship and seek to persecute every believer, but such a country cannot turn off the night sky.  Countries can censor the Internet---but you cannot censor Creation.  The message coming from the Creation will outlast all times and eras, the message will never dim, and it cannot be silenced.

“He stretches out the north (northern skies) over empty space and hangs the earth upon nothing” (Job 26:7)

“Considering the time at which this verse was written (around 2000 B.C.), its significance in terms of present-day astronomy is profound.  Job is regarded as one of the oldest books of the Bible, and it was written at a time when it was believed that the earth was a flat disk, floating on water, with the firmament to which the stars were fixed, enclosing it from above.  The authors of the Bible, however, did not subscribe to the primitive world-view of their Babylonian and other neighbors” (Stars and Their Purpose, Signposts in Space, Werner Gitt, p. 41).

That is amazing—but equally amazing is the fact that:

• Job knew that the earth was simply suspended in space.  It does not lie on anything and neither is it attached to anything.  Only in 1687 A.D. did Isaac Newton succeed in describing the motion of the earth in its orbit, by means of the law of gravity which he had discovered.
• That space is very empty.  Yes, the stars are without number, yet there are vast distances that separate them from one another.  There is a lot of empty space in space.
• Even though the writers of the Bible were surrounded by very influential and powerful cultures, such as Babylon, Egypt, Assyria, the Philistines, Canaanites, the Persians, Greeks and Romans, absolutely none of the myths, ignorance, bad science or wrong ideas in those cultures made it into the Bible.

“Then God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth’” (Genesis 1:14-15).

“The present day science of measurement (metrology) the units (for force, length, time, electrical current, etc) are defined by means of exactly repeatable physical processes.  Only if there is such a standard, can other things be measured in a meaningful calibrated fashion.  In a similar way the Creator gave us exact, astronomically tractable units of measurement:  days, months, and years” (Werner Gitt).

• The rotation of the earth, 24 hours, constitutes one day.
• The earth’s orbit around the sun---a period of approximately 365.25 days is our year.
• The moons orbit around the earth, 29.5 days—gives us our month.

“Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent” (Acts 17:30).

Paul is saying to the men of Athens that it is time for them to move on from such primitive superstitions as thinking that some statute created by human hands is a god—or even accurately represents God (17:29).  How much more does this verse apply even today.  It is time for people to move beyond the primitive idea that the universe just happened, caused itself was the result of some accident and that we are here by accident as well.  Especially in light of all that we now know about the amazing world and universe in which we live.

• Not only is the earth the correct distance from the sun—to support life, but our rotation is perfect as well.  A 12-hour alternation between night and day helps temperatures even out in any given place.
• The length of our year suits our life cycles.  The seasons are the correct length to ensure that there is enough time for growth between sowing and reaping, and the winter is not too long for man and animal to be able to subsist on stored supplies.
• The angle which the earth’s axis makes with the plane of its orbit around the sun is perfect.  Scientific calculations show that the optimum inclination lies in the narrow interval between 23 and 24 degrees.  Is it only a coincidence that the actual angle is 23.5 degrees?  Without such a tilt---daytime would last for six months on one side of the planet while six months of night was on the other.  What such a tilt accomplishes is that most of the planet is suitable for human habitation.
• Oxygen makes up 21% of the atmosphere.  Yet if the percentage had been 50% we would suffer from oxygen poisoning.  It would equally make the earth a very flammable place.  If we the percentage of oxygen were 10% it would be impossible to light a fire.

“All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is not full, to the place where the rivers flow, there they flow again” (Ecclesiastes 1:7).

• Of course water is essential for life and 71% of the surface of the earth is covered by water in liquid form.  This is absolutely essential.  Because most of the matter of the universe consists of hot gases, or is deeply frozen.   The oceans regulate the temperature of the earth, and act as a essential source of food.
• Life is possible on the earth from the simple fact that when water freezes it floats.  This is the only substance that has such an unusual property.  Yet this means that fish can survive even the coldest winters in lakes and rivers because when a body of water freezes, the ice, being lighter floats on the surface, while the heavier water below does not freeze.
• In addition, when water vapor in the atmosphere reaches heights of 5 to 20 km, the vapor freezes, and the resulting ice crystals continue to grow until they become so heavy that they fall towards the surface.  In this manner water is prevented from escaping into space, so that the earth will be wet and not dry out.

The heavens are still declaring the glory of God---and yes, let’s move on past the times of ignorance and acknowledge our Creator and serve Him.

Mark Dunagan | mdunagan@frontier.net
Beaverton Church of Christ | 503-644-9017
www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net