Thank you for the question on being intellectually and emotionally honest with the science and the Bible, “How can one reconcile an intellectual and emotional understanding of God and the Bible in the 21st century?”
As a Christian, it is my goal to be honest with myself, being consistent with my biblical beliefs in a scientific world. For myself, the challenges or assaults on the Christian faith by the various fields of science and historians have caused many to question the integrity of the Bible.
For one’s consideration, this is how I reconcile the two seemingly divergent view:
A. As a Christian, one of my core beliefs is in the existence of God and the revealed nature of God as recorded in the Scriptures. I believe that the Bible is the recorded words of God.
The Creator God declares that he is holy and righteousness, truthful in his declarations to world since he is the Creator of the Universe. In other words, God can’t lie or speak falsehood for that would be inconsistent with his own nature (Rev. 4:1–11),
B. As a Christian, one of my core beliefs is that one must/ought to interpret the Bible in a historical, grammatical, and literal manner. The theological and biblical beliefs of a believer is based on a careful study of the Scriptures, guarding against reading into the biblical text or ignoring the biblical text.
C. As a Christian, the questions or challenges to the biblical declaration must be taken seriously and not be ignored. The Bible is not a science manual or a world history book for the main focus in the Old Testament is the Jewish people and the New Testament is the people’s of the world.
One of the common questions is how do a Christian reconcile the age of the Universe and the Bible. Here are some thoughts on this question:
A. Cosmologists believe that the Universe is 13.7 billion years based on their observation of the most distant sun. There is no dispute about the light years as man observes them from the planet earth.
B. Biblical scholars state that the Universe and Earth is about 8000 to 12,000 years old. Definitely there is a discrepancy between the two views.
This is how I attempt to reconcile the differences. It’s a viewpoint for one’s consideration.
A. The statement in Genesis 1:1 is that God created the heavens and the earth. Scholars debate whether this is an introductory statement or a statement of God’s creation of the Universe and the earth.
I understand that statement to be both that God created the heavens and the earth. Prior to the creation of the Universe, there was nothing beyond God himself. In his plan, he decided to bring both the spiritual and physical world into existence.
I accept that the heavens would include the angelic beings and the material Universe. The method/means of the creation of the Universe is stated without explaining the process. Cosmologists either believes the Universe has an origin for it is expanding or that it is self-existing that contracts and expands infinitely. If one reasons that the Universe is self-existing that is just a statement without adequately how it “just” came into existence without a cause. Cosmologists are looking beyond the “Big Bang Theory” for the moments before it.
It seems reasonable to me that when the biblical records that God created the heavens and the earth, that it is unlikely that the spiritual beings were made and then there was only earth in the vast Universe. There were other material bodies in the moment of creation. In other words, there were galaxies and there was order in creation. The Scripture further describes the earth as being void and empty. It doesn’t state how the earth was form and its condition of a body of water around the earth. If this condition is accurate, then there was a process whereby gases were leased into the sky to the extent that the water covered the surface of the landmass.
Geologists would say that at the formation of the earth that there wasn’t any life on it as far as we know at this point. Geologists further believes that the earth was once submerged beneath the ocean and through tectonic shifts, the landmass rose upward from the ocean floor.
On the “first” day of creation, God declared the existence of light and that light separated the darkness. It is unclear what that light is whereby in God’s viewpoint, he saw that it was good. That light was able to penetrate the heavens to the earth and beyond. My conjecture is that the light is different from the energy of the suns, but of the glory of God. God’s glory was to begin to work on earth to reformat it so that life can be sustained on it. I don’t know if cosmologist will one day be able to detect that light that is beyond the Universe to the throne of God.
As one reads the creation days, the sun and moon were created on the fourth day. This in my view the days are not “twenty four period” nor infinite time period. The days describe the activity of God upon the earth. In other words, it is faulty for Christians to assume that the days are literal 24 hour days time is irrelative to God. When God said, “Let there be light.” and there was “light”, the light had to travel from the presence of God to earth and beyond. God didn’t wait “billions” of years for the light to reach earth but it happened in time. Whatever “time” frame for the “light” to penetrate the darkness and onto earth is unknown. In the subsequent days, I believe the biblical narrative records the activities of God which we call “day.” It is call “day” in the sense that the particular aspect of God’s creative work was finished or completed.
Verse 14 is a comment that is included that when God made the Sun and Moon and placed them in its position to give light on the earth, one has already noted that there was light on Day one. The light of Sun is different from the light from God’s presence. The notation or comment that God made the stars also in my viewpoint is that the stars were already present but were now more so visible from earth. One must remember that there were no humans to see the lights in the sky.
Cosmologist and geologists have concluded that if the Sun or Moon varied in distance, the effect on the earth would be drastic. The Scriptures do not state how the Sun and Moon were made but it states that it was placed there to give “light” to the earth. The light of the other distant stars would be insufficient to sustain life on earth.
Thus in my view, the cosmologists estimate of the Universe of 13.7 billion years based on light year may well be correct by that measurement of the most distant sun from earth. God made the Universe prior to Day One in the reformatting of the earth. That dating may well be correct.
An additional thought is that at present physics do not know of any means that can travel faster than the speed of light. I believe that they will discover another means since angels who travel from the throne of God to earth do not travel at the speed of light. Whether it is through “worm holes” or some other means is not know how the angels can travel between heaven and earth.
Scripture records that Gabriel was held up for days because of a spiritual battle that delayed his coming to Daniel. Daniel 10 says this, “12 Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. 13 But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. 14 Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come” (NIV).
The text implies that the angel do not necessarily instantly appear for there are spiritual forces that may delay the angelic message to Daniel. For Gabriel, it took 21 days of earth time to give Daniel the message from God.
Does my answer satisfied the dating of the Universe by cosmologists and my interpretation of the biblical text? For me, it does. For you and others, I don’t know.
In my opinion, the Genesis 1 narrative of the reformatting of the earth is within the boundaries of cosmologist and geologists. I have not fully resolved the dating of the age of the earth based on radioactive dating or geological layering. How did the earth’s magma temperature affect the radioactive dating, the rising of the landmass from the ocean floor and the Flood affect the geology of earth? Just a side note, geologists are quite certain there are water in the earth’s crust as the Scripture declared. They even think that there may be more water in the crust than on the surface of the earth.
“Northwestern geophysicist Steve Jacobsen and University of New Mexico seismologist Brandon Schmandt have found deep pockets of magma located about 400 miles beneath North America, a likely signature of the presence of water at these depths. The discovery suggests water from the Earth’s surface can be driven to such great depths by plate tectonics, eventually causing partial melting of the rocks found deep in the mantle.
The findings, to be published June 13 in the journal Science, will aid scientists in understanding how the Earth formed, what its current composition and inner workings are and how much water is trapped in mantle rock.”
https://www.bnl.gov/newsroom/news.php?a=111648
As cosmologists, geologists, archaeologists, and other fields continue to uncover new findings, I believe eventually science and scientists will eventually affirm the Biblical statements as being true.
SUMMARY: If God exists, and I believe he does, the declarations by God will be affirmed or confirmed one day by the various fields of science.
For more perspectives: