BIBLE STUDY MANUALS: GENESIS CHAPTER ONE: IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH: CREATION

EXCERPTS FROM

"STARLIGHT AND TIME"

BY D. RUSSELL HUMPHREYS, PH.D.

Creation Science Fellowship of New Mexico

P.O. Box 10550

Albuquerque, NM 87184

I) HOW CAN ONE SEE LIGHT FROM FAR AWAY STARS

A) GRAVITY EFFECTS THE PASSAGE OF TIME

According to Einstein's [theory of General Relativity], gravity effects the passage of time: [From chapter 1, "Solving the 'Unsolvable Problem,' pp. 9-29]:

"Clocks at a low altitude... tick more slowly than clocks at a high altitude - and observations confirm this effect...

While a few days were passing on earth, billions of years would have been available for light to travel to earth. It still means that God made the heavens and earth (i.e., the whole universe) in six [24 hour earth days according to Scripture, especially since the Genesis chapter one account stipulates the word rendered day to be only a 24 hour day, which day is defined within a sequential number of days each with an evening and a morning in the frame of reference that men would comprehend as an ordinary 24 hour sunset to sunrise day ] ... With the reality revealed by [General Relativity] ... we have to ask - six days [of creation] as measured by which clock?... The mathematics of this ... theory shows that while God makes the universe in six days [according to the clock] in the earth's reference frame ... the light has ample time [according to the clock] in the extraterrestrial reference frame to travel the required distances [in order to get to the earth in one 24 hour earth day].

None of these time frames can be said to be "God's time" since the Creator, Who created time and Who sees the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10, Rev 22:13, John 8:58, 2 Pet 3:8 and more), is outside of time. Time is a created feature of His universe, like matter and space... The equations of [General Relativity] have long indicated that time itself had a beginning...

[Note that if] the matter in the universe has a center and an edge [i.e., it is bounded - finite], this makes more common sense and is also Scripturally far more appropriate. When we feed in this, plus the same observations [individuals use to support their theories of the universe] into general relativity, quite a different cosmology falls out.

I call it a "White Hole" cosmology for reasons to become clearly shortly - and it just happens to solve the problem of the starlight travel-time rather neatly.

Expansion Affects the Time Difference

For a given amount of matter, the bigger the radius in which it is contained, the less the effect of gravitational time dilation, i.e., expansion. If we assume that the matter we can observe with telescopes is all there is (i.e., the edge of matter is closer than, say, 20 billion light-years), then our clocks are ticking only a small percentage slower than near the edge. This is not enough to solve the problem.

However... I am convinced that the observations indicate that the universe has indeed expanded significantly, by a factor of at least one thousand."

[For further information see Appendix C in Dr. Humphrey's book, "Starlight & Time"]

There is also evidence for such an "expanse [Heb. "rAqîa"]" or "firmament" rendered from the Hebrew word transliterated "rAqîa," which is defined in Scripture as follows:

1) [Compare Ez 1:22]:

(Ez 1:22 NKJV) "The likeness of the firmament above the heads of the living creatures was like the color of an awesome crystal, stretched out over their heads."

2) [Compare Isa 40:22; 42:5; 44:24; 45:12; 48:13; cf. 51:13; Jer 51:15]:

(Isa 40:22 NKJV) "It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in."

(Isaiah 42:5 NKJV) "Thus says God the LORD, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, Who gives breath to the people on it, And spirit to those who walk on it"

(Isa 44:24 NKJV) "Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, And He who formed you from the womb: "I am the LORD, who makes all things, Who stretches out the heavens all alone, Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself."

(Isa 45:12 NKJV) "I have made the earth, And created man on it. I - My hands - stretched out the heavens, And all their host I have commanded."

(Isa 48:13 NKJV) "Indeed My hand has laid the foundation of the earth, And My right hand has stretched out the heavens; When I call to them, They stand up together."

3) [Compare Job 9:8; 37:18]:

(Job 9:8 NKJV) "He alone spreads out the heavens, And treads on the waves of the sea."

(Job 37:18 NKJV) "With Him, have you spread out the skies, Strong as a cast metal mirror?"

4) [Compare Ps 104:2; cf. 18:9; 144:5 cf. Jer 10:12; Zech 12:1; 2 Sam 22:10]:

(Ps 104:2 NKJV) "Who cover Yourself with light as with a garment, Who stretch out the heavens like a curtain."

[Humphreys, cont.]:

"Thus, there seem to be both Biblical and scientific reasons for thinking the universe was much smaller...

[For at the end of the second day God did as follows]:

5) [Gen 1:6-8, 14-19]:

(Gen 1:6 NKJV) "Then God said, "Let there be a firmament [i.e., expanse [Heb. "rAqîa"]] in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

(Gen 1:7 NKJV) Thus God made the firmament [i.e., expanse [Heb. "rAqîa"]], and divided the waters which were under the firmament [i.e., expanse [Heb. "rAqîa"]] from the waters which were above the firmament [i.e., expanse [Heb. "rAqîa"]]; and it was so.

(Gen 1:8 NKJV) And God called the firmament [i.e., expanse [Heb. "rAqîa"]] Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day."

Thereafter beginning on the fourth day, God increased the expanse [Heb. "rAqîa"] when He created lights in the heavens:

(Gen 1:14 NKJV) "Then God said, 'Let there be lights in the firmament [i.e., expanse [Heb. "rAqîa"]] of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years;

(Gen 1:15 NKJV) and let them be for lights in the firmament [i.e., expanse [Heb. "rAqîa"]] of the heavens to give light on the earth'; and it was so.

(Gen 1:16 NKJV) 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.

(Gen 1:17 NKJV) God set them in the firmament [i.e., expanse [Heb. "rAqîa"] of the heavens to give light on the earth,

(Gen 1:18 NKJV) and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.

(Gen 1:19 NKJV) So the evening and the morning were the fourth day."

[Humphreys, cont.]:

"In a bounded universe, some startling effects would then occur.

Black Holes and Event Horizons

Imagine this bounded universe when it was about 50 times smaller than today... The equations of GR would then allow the universe to be in one of two states (no other states are possible). One of the possibilities... is that the whole universe would be inside a huge black hole.

Black holes are more than just theoretical concepts. They are, first, direct predictions of general relativity, which is backed by a great deal of experimental evidence. In addition, most astronomers are convinced they have observational evidence of possibly three star-sized black holes, and very strong evidence for another one, millions of times larger. As huge quantities of matter fall toward such black holes, copious amounts of energy are given off. The giant one, recently discovered, is at the center of the galaxy M87; astronomers know of nothing other than a black hole to explain what they observe.

Black holes can be very small or very large - it all depends on the amount of matter packed within a given radius. The combined gravitational force of al lthe mass inside a black hole is so strong that light rays cannot escape - hence the name.

EVENT HORIZON IN THE UNIVERSE AS IT WAS BEING FORMED AT CREATION

This means that all the matter within our 50-times-smaller universe [as it was being formed at creation - the first day] would have been trapped within an intangible spherical border called the event horizon, at least a billion light years in diameter. This is the point at which light rays trying to escape a black hole bend back on themselves; it is also where time is massively distorted.

The diameter of an event horizon depends on the amount of matter inside it. This means that the event horizon of, say, a star-sized black hole, the gravity of which causes it to swallow more and more matter, will increase...

Matter and light can exist inside a black hole; however, the equations of GR require that they must fall inward, eventually reachinig the 'singularity' at the center, where they would be crushed down to a pinpoint of nearly infinite density. However, as mentioned, the evidence indicates that the universe has expanded and is not currently undergoing such an overall inward-falling. Therefore the universe cannot now be within a black hole.

WHITE HOLES

Given a bounded universe that was once 50 times smaller, the other possibility allowed by GR is that the universe was previously in a huge white hole. This is a black hole running in reverse. Astrophysicists of the 1970s gave that name to the concept, arising from theoretical studies of the black holes. The name never really became popular, but the concept is still considered valid today.

Like a black hole, a white hole would also have an event horizon. Matter and light could exist inside its event horizon without any paricular problems. There need be no singularity at its center, except perhaps at the very beginning of its existence. However, the equations of GR require that light and matter inside the event horizon of a white hole must expand outward.

The event horizon of a white hole would be a one-way border that permits only outward motion through itself. Matter and light waves would have to move out of a white hole, but they could not go back in. Since the diameter of an event horizon is proportional to the amount of matter inside it, the event horizon would shrink as matter passes through it and out of the white hole... The event horizon would get smaller and smaller, and eventually shrink to nothing. There would then be no more white hole, but only scattered matter moving away from a central point...

The equations of GR permit, but do not demand, the existence of white holes today...

Therefore, by starting with the assumption that the universe is bounded (and accepting the overwhelming observational evidence that it has expanded), the following deductive sequence applies:

1. The visible universe was once inside an event horizon

This means it was once within either a black hole or a white hole [or both]. We have seen that if it were a black hole, it would be contracting, which is not indicated by the evidence.

Therefore:

2. The visible universe was once inside a white hole.

It may, however, have commenced as a black hole before expansion started... If the universe is not much bigger or much denser than what we can directly observe right now..., then ... an event horizon can no longer exist/ This means that the event horizon has shrunk to zero radius sometime in the past, meaning that an expansion of space continued at least until the white hole ceased to exist.

So from all the physics and astronomical data we now know, we can draw a straightforward conclusion:

If the universe is bounded, then sometime in its past the universe must have expanded out of a white hole.

An unbounded universe (such as Big-Bang cosmos) could never be in a black or white hole at any time in its history, because there would be no center in 3-D space for gravitational forces to point to...

[Furthermore], White Hole cosmology can explain the same data as the Big Bang, while retaining the idea of a young earth. But more than that, the White Hole cosmology seems to have a very good chance of explaining data that the Big Bang cannot...

According to GR, time effectively stands still at the event horizon. Clocks and all physical processes at that location run very slowly (relative to clocks away from it). We have already shown how the scientific evidence indicates that the universe (with the earth roughly at its center) must have expanded out of a white hole that no longer exists. This means that the event horizon shrank down to zero. (GR sets no limit on the speed at which such a shrinkage can take place, incidentally.)

If you were standing on the earth as the event horizon arrived, distant objects in the universe could age billions of years in a single day of your time. And there would be ample time for their light to reach you.

In a bounded universe, clocks in different places can tick (or register time) at drastically different rates. So which set of clocks is the Bible referring to in Genesis 1, or in Exodus 20:11, when it says that God made the universe in six ordinary weekdays? ... Gen 1:5, 14-15 etc., [indicate] that God's intention was to define time in terms of the earth's rotation and the earth's motion around the sun, thus speaking in periods of time in our own frame of reference. This is quite reasonable in a book intended to be understood by people of widely different cultures and degrees of scientific knowledge. Therefore, it looks as if the Bible is telling us that God made the universe in six day E.S.T. - Earth Standard Time...

[Appendix C, pp. 83-]

"Evidence [indicates] that the biblical cosmos has finite boundaries, and that our earth is near the center. If we put those boundary conditions into the equations of Einstein's general theory of relativity, we get an expanding cosmos in which clocks (and all physical processes) tick at different rates in different parts of the universe. The physics is that of a universe-sized 'White hole' (a black hole running in reverse), with a shrinking event horizon and matter expanding out of it. At the event horizon, clocks would be momentarily stopped relative to clocks farther out. At one critical moment of the expansion, the event horizon would reach the earth, and clocks there would also momentarily stop.

I propose that the critical moment arrived on earth during the fourth day of Creation:

6) [Gen 1:13-19]:

(Gen 1:13 YLT) "and there is an evening, and there is a morning - day third.

(Gen 1:14 YLT) "And God [says], 'Let luminaries [i.e., source lights] be in the expanse [Heb. "rAqîa"] of the ['Heaven', (dual: sing/ pl)], to [separate] the day and the night, [and] they [will] have been for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years,"

(Gen 1:15 YLT) and they have been for luminaries [i.e., source lights] in the expanse [Heb. "rAqîa"] of the ['Heaven', (dual: sing/ pl)] to give light upon the earth:' and it is so.

(Gen 1:16 YLT) And God [makes] the two great luminaries [i.e., source lights], the great luminary [i.e., source lights] for the rule of the day, and the small luminary [i.e., source lights] - and the stars - for the rule of the night;

(Gen 1:17 YLT) and God [has placed] them in the expanse [Heb. "rAqîa"] of the ['Heaven', (dual: sing/ pl)] to give light upon the earth,

(Gen 1:18 YLT) and to rule over day and over night, and to make a separation between the light and the darkness; and God [sees] that it is good;

(Gen 1:19 YLT) and there is an evening, and there is a morning - day fourth."

During that day, billions of years would elapse in the distant sky, allowing light from galaxies to reach the earth within one ordinary day of earth's time. This theory also explains the red shifts of galaxies and the cosmic microwave background. As measured by clocks on earth, the age of the universe today could be as small as the face-value biblical age of about 6,000 years.

GOD USED RELATIVITY TO MAKE A YOUNG UNIVERSE!

That idea, the main thesis of this paper, may seem startling to many people... But I am proposing here that God invented relativity as an essential part of His universe, and that one feature of relativity in particular, called gravitational time dilation by some authors, enabled light from distant galaxies to get to earth in a very short time - within one ordinary day, as measured by clocks here on earth..

1. Light from distant galaxies

We see light from galaxies that [is] billions of light years away, as measured by a variety of techniques. Light traveling such great distances at today's speed would take billions of years to reach us [if measured by clocks located far away in outer space]

2. Galactic red shifts

The wavelengths of light from each galaxy are shifted toward the red side of the spectrum by a factor roughtly proportional to the distance of the galaxy from us. There are some exceptions , but the overall trend is very clear and must be explained.

3. Cosmic microwave background

The earth is immersed in a bath of low-power micorwave (centimeter to millimeter wave wavelength) electromagnetic radiation whose spectrum is exactly like that of the thermal radiation (heat waves, black-body radiation) found within a cavity whose walls are very cold, at 2.74 Kelvin. After correction for the earth's motion through space, this radiation is very uniform, having variations with direction no greater than one part in 100,000.

All of these phenomena fit reasonably well into the 'big-bang' cosmologies, and as such seem to point to a long time scale, billions of years, for the cosmos. Yet creationist scientists have found a great deal of evidence pointing to a very short time scale, much less than millions of years, for the earth and solar system. Good science requires that we try to reconcile both the young-earth data and the cosmological data, thus motivating a creationist cosmology to explain the above phenomena...

II) WHAT SCRIPTURE SAYS RELATIVE TO CREATION

A) GENESIS 1:1-20]:

(Gen 1:1 NASB) "In the beginning God has created [perfect tense] the ['Heaven', (dual: sing/ pl)] and the earth.

(Gen 1:2 YLT) [And] the earth [has] existed [with formlessness] and [emptiness], and darkness is on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God [hovering over] the face of the waters,"

[D. Russell Humphreys, PH.D. states in "Starlight & Time, Master Books, Green Forest, AR, 1994, p. 32-38]:

"God creates a large 3-D space and within it a ball of liquid water, the "deep." The ball is greater than two light-years in diameter, large enough to contain all the mass of the universe... Two light-years is surprisingly small compared to the later size of the universe, but it is still huge (about 12 trillion miles or 20 trillion kilometers) compared to us, being more than a thousand times greater than the diameter of our solar system...

Because of the great concentration of matter, this ball of water is deep within a black hole, whose event horizion [= the point at which light rays trying to escape a black hole bend back on themselves, p. 23] is more than half a billion light-years away. The earth at this point is merely a formless, undefined region of water at the center of the deep, empty of inhabitants or feature. The deep is rotating slowly and there is no visible light at its surface... at the instant God creates it...

Because the enormous mass of the whole universe is contained [at this point] in a ball of (relatively) small size, the gravitational force on the deep is very strong, more than a million trillion Gs. This force compresses the deep very rapidly toward the center, making it extremely hot and dense. The heat rips apart the water molecules, atoms, even the nuclei into elementary particles."]

[A cont.) GENESIS 1:1-21 cont.]:

(Gen 1:3 YLT) "and God [says, imperfect], 'Let [there be] light ...; and [there is] light ..."

[Starlight & Time, cont.]:

[Thermonuclear fusion reactions begin, forming heavier nuclei from lighter ones and liberating huge amounts of energy. As a consequence, an intense light illuminates the interior, breaking through the surface [of the deep through the event horizon] and ending the darkness there."]

[A cont.) GENESIS 1:1-21 cont.]:

(Gen 1:4 YLT) "And God [sees] the light that it is good, and God [separates] ... the light and the darkness,"

[Starlight & Time, cont.]:

["As the compression continues [into denser mass], gravity becomes so strong that light can no longer reach the surface, redarkening it.

1) [Compare Ps 104:1-2]:

(Psalm 104:1 NKJV) "Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, You are very great: You are clothed with honor and majesty,

(Psalm 104:1-2 NKJV) Who cover Yourself with light as with a garment, Who stretch out the heavens like a curtain."

These verses in Psalms in context appear to refer to Day One... At this point the Spirit of God, "[hovering over] the face of the waters," (Genesis 1:2), becomes a light source, in the same way as He will again become a light source at a future time (Rev 21:23, 22:5). This would give the deep a bright side and a dark side, thus dividing light from darkness and inscribing "a circle on the face of the waters, at the boundary of light and darkness," (cf Job 26:10)]

2) [Compare Job 26:7-14]:

(Job 26:7 NKJV) "He [God, ref. Job 25:4] stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing.

(Job 26:8 NKJV) He binds up the water in His thick clouds, Yet the clouds are not broken under it.

(Job 26:9 NKJV) He covers the face of His throne, And spreads His cloud over it.

(Job 26:10 NKJV) He drew a circular horizon on the face of the waters, At the boundary of light and darkness.

(Job 26:11 NKJV) The pillars of heaven tremble, And are astonished at His rebuke.

(Job 26:12 NKJV) He stirs up the sea with His power, And by His understanding He breaks up the storm.

(Job 26:13 NKJV) By His Spirit He adorned the heavens; His hand pierced the fleeing serpent.

(Job 26:14 NKJV) Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways, And how small a whisper we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand?"]

[A cont.) GENESIS 1:1-21 cont.]:

(Gen 1:5 YLT) "and God [calls] ... the light 'Day,' and ... the darkness He [has] called ... 'Night;' and there is an evening, and there is a morning - day one."

[Starlight & Time, cont.]:

["The deep speeds up its rotation as the compression continues... We can imagine a reference point on the surface rotating around to the dark side and continuing farther around to the bright side again, marking off evening and morning. Rough calculations show that all of the events from the beginning to this point had to take place in a very short time... To calculate the time exactly would go beyond the frontiers of modern relativity, but I suspect that a modern clock (if it could survive) on the surface of the deep would register about 24 hours from the instant of creation to the end of Day One]

[A cont.) GENESIS 1:1-21 cont.]:

(Gen 1:6 YLT) "And God [says], 'Let an expanse [Heb. "rAqîa"] be in the [middle] of the waters, and let it be separating ... [the] waters [below] [from the] waters [above].' "

[The Hebrew word transliterated "rAqîa" is related to the Hebrew verb "rAqa" which the latter is rendered "to hammer out (gold), (Ex 39:3); "to stamp (ones foot)," (Ez 6:11); "to spread out, (the clouds of the sky like a molten / cast mirror of bronze)," (Job 37:18); "to spread out into plates, (of silver)," (Jer 10:9) - implying a material that is malleable and metallic such as gold, silver or a molten metal mirror of bronze. The Hebrew word transliterated "rAqîa" is rendered "expanse" in Gen 1:6 & 7 in the YLT to describe what God created to separate the earthly waters from the waters above, i.e., the heavenly waters. In Gen 1:20, "rAqîa" is parallel in meaning, i.e., synonymous with "sky" "in the face" of which in the sense of "within which" birds fly, i.e., in the earth's "atmosphere."

3) [Compare Job 37:18]:

(Job 37:18 NASB) "Can you, with Him, [God, Job 37:14) spread out the skies, strong as a molten (lit., cast) mirror? "

[A cont.) GENESIS 1:1-21 cont.]:

(Gen 1:7 YLT) "And God [makes] the expanse [Heb. "rAqîa"], and [He separates] between the waters which are under the expanse [Heb. "rAqîa"], and the waters which are above the expanse [Heb. "rAqîa"]: and it is so."

[Starlight & Time, cont.]:

[By direct intervention God begins stretching out space, [i.e., He creates an expanse [Heb. "rAqîa"] causing the ball of matter to expand rapidly, thus changing the black hole to a white hole. He marks off a large volume, the 'expanse'... within the deep, wherein material is allowed to pull apart into fragments and clusters as it expands, but He requires the 'waters below' and the 'waters above' the expanse to stay coherently together]

[A cont.) GENESIS 1:1-21 cont.]:

(Gen 1:8 YLT) "And God [calls] ... the expanse [Heb. "rAqîa"] ['Heaven', (dual: sing/ pl)] and there is an evening, and there is a morning - day second."

[Starlight & Time, cont.]:

["Since the sun has not yet been created, the Spirit of God continues to be the light source close to the rotating waters below, giving them a light and dark side. The expansion started at the beginning of this day will continue until the end of the fourth day."]

[A cont.) GENESIS 1:1-21 cont.]:

(Gen 1:9 YLT) "And God [says], 'Let the waters under the ['Heaven', (dual: sing/ pl)] be [gathered into] one place, and let the dry land [appear]:' and it is so.

(Gen 1:10 YLT) And God [calls] the dry land 'Earth,' and ... the [gathering] of the waters He [has called] 'Seas;' and God [sees] that it is good."

[Starlight & Time, cont.]:

["Matter beneath the expanse expands until the surface reaches ... present temperatures, becoming liquid water... God collects various heavier atoms beneath the surface (formed from [thermonuclear fusion, forming heavier nuclei from lighter ones] [This] constructs minerals... laying 'the foundations of the earth,' (ref. Job 38:4), i.e., its core and mantle. Gravity at the surface [of the earth] drops to ... present values. Out in the expanse, matter is drawn apart... [But] the waters above the expanse stay together.

Rapid radioactive decay occurs, possibly as a consequence of the rapid stretching of space. The resulting heating forms the earth's crust and makes it buoyant relative to the mantle rock below it, causing the crust to rise above the waters, thus gathering the waters into ocean basins. I hypotheisize that rapid volume cooling of molten rock deep with the earth also occurs, again as a result of the rapid expansion of space, solidifying the rock."]

[A cont.) GENESIS 1:1-21 cont.]:

(Gen 1:11 YLT) "And God [says] 'Let the earth yield tender grass, herb sowing seed, fruit-tree (whose seed is in itself) making fruit after its kind, on the earth:' and it is so.

(Gen 1:12 YLT) And the earth [brings] forth tender grass, herb sowing seed after its kind, and tree making fruit (whose seed is in itself) after its kind; and God seeth that it is good;

(Gen 1:13 YLT) and there is an evening, and there is a morning - day third."

[Starlight & Time, cont.]:

["God makes plants on the newly formed land."]

[A cont.) GENESIS 1:1-21 cont.]:

[From the standpoint of Scripture it is evident that the stars were created in the expanse - the heaven - for a purpose central to the existence of the earth, more specifically - for those on earth who have the capacity to determine that the stars were created for signs, for seasons, for days and years, i.e., mankind. Hence it is feasible that the earth was positioned to be in the center of the universe, since the earth is evidently central to all of God's creation]

[Starlight & Time, cont.]:

["Normal physical processes cause cooling to proceed as rapidly as the expansion. Heat waves are stretched out to much longer wavelengths as a relativistic consequence of the stretching of space [hence red shift phenomena]. Eventually these stretched-out waves will become the cosmic microwave background radiation."

The continuing expansion of space causes the waters above the heavens to reach the event horizon and pass beyond it. This causes the amount of matter within the event horizon to begin decreasing, which in turn causes the event horizon to begin rapidly shrinking toward the earth... There are no stars yet, only clusters of hydrogen, helium, and other atoms left behind in the expanse by the rapid expansion.

The shrinking event horizon reaches earth early on the morning of the fourth day. During this ordinary day as measured on earth, billions of years worth of physical processes take place in the distant cosmos. In particular, gravity has time to make distant clusters of hydrogen and helium atoms more compact.

Early on the fourth morning, God coalesces the clusters of atoms into stars, and thermonuclear fusion ignites in them. The newly formed stars find themselves grouped together in galaxies and clusters of galaxies. As the fourth day proceeds on earth, the more distant stars age billions of years, while their light also has the same billions of years to travel to the earth. While the light is on its way, space continues to expand, relativistically stretching out the light waves... and shifting the wavelengths toward the red side of the spectrum. Stars that are now farthest away have the greatest redshift, because the waves have been stretched the most. This progressive redshift is exactly what is observed."]

[A cont.) GENESIS 1:1-21 cont.]:

(Gen 1:15 YLT) "and they have been for luminaries [i.e., source lights] in the expanse [Heb. "rAqîa"] of the ['Heaven', (dual: sing/ pl)] to give light upon the earth:' and it is so.

(Gen 1:17 YLT) and God [has placed] them in the expanse [Heb. "rAqîa"] of the ['Heaven', (dual: sing/ pl)] to give light upon the earth,

(Gen 1:18 YLT) and to rule over day and over night, and to make a separation between the light and the darkness; and God [sees] that it is good;

(Gen 1:19 YLT) and there is an evening, and there is a morning - day fourth.

(Gen 1:20 NKJV) [And] God said, 'Let the waters abound with [swarms] of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the face of [in the sense of within] the [expanse] [Heb. "rAqîa"] of the ['Heaven', (dual: sing/ pl)].

(Gen 1:21 NKJV) "[And] God [creates] great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God [sees] that it [is] good."