Below is the online edition of In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood,
by Dr. Walt Brown. Copyright © Center for Scientific Creation. All rights reserved.
Click here to order the hardbound 8th edition (2008) and other materials.
To answer this question, we will first look briefly at some relevant Scriptures. Then we will examine specific scientific evidence and compare two possible explanations.
At least 11 times, the Bible says that God “stretched out” or “stretches out” the heavens. [See Table 25.] Is Hubble’s law (soon to be explained) a consequence of this stretching? Does this mean that space is elastic? In a few pages, we will have the answers.1 Key ideas in the Bible are often repeated for emphasis. Therefore, even if we have difficulty visualizing this stretching, we can be confident of its significance.
The Hebrew word for stretched is natah. It does not mean an explosion, a flinging out, or the type of stretching that encounters increasing resistance, as with a spring. Natah is more like the effortless reaching out of one’s hand.
| Job 9:8 |
“[God] stretches out the heavens” |
| Ps 104:2 |
“stretching out heaven like a tent curtain”1 |
| Is 40:22 |
“He ... stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent”1 |
| Is 42:5 |
“... God the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out” |
| Is 44:24 |
“I, the Lord, am the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by Myself” |
| Is 45:12 |
“It is I who made the earth and created man upon it. I stretched out the heavens with My hands” |
| Is 48:13 |
“Surely My hand founded the earth and My right hand spread out the heavens.” |
| Is 51:13 |
“... the Lord your Maker, Who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth” |
| Jer 10:12 |
“He has stretched out the heavens” |
| Jer 51:15 |
“He stretched out the heavens” |
| Zech 12:1 |
“the Lord who stretches out the heavens” |
| The context of each of the above verses deals with creation. Although past and present tenses (stretched and stretches) are expressed in these English translations, Hebrew verbs do not generally convey past, present, or future. Translators must rely on context and other clues to determine tense. For example: creation was completed in six days (Exodus 20:11), but on Day 4 of the creation week, the stretching produced separate stars (Genesis 1:16). Today (in the present), we see these stars as they appeared in the past. Because of this past stretching of space, stars are now redshifted and at extreme distances. |
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