Marvels of the Heavens – Markers of the Creator

Have you ever gazed at the sky and pondered the seemingly incomprehensible multitude of stars, or even their transit across the sky in perfect clockwork? Humanity has considered these questions for millennia as they carefully charted this starry host for both navigational and timekeeping purposes. The Bible often uses the stars of the heavens and sand grains on a beach to reference a quantity incomprehensible to the human brain: near infinity (e.g., Genesis 22:17; Deuteronomy 10:22). However, consensus in astronomy during the Middle Ages rejected this clear biblical teaching. They claimed one could easily know the number of stars using accurate charts. Rather than the unfathomable number the Bible suggested, conventional ‘wisdom’ of the time stated there were only a few thousand stars. Allegedly, the stars themselves disproved the Bible.

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The invention of the telescope in the seventeenth century soon changed that situation. As Galileo Galilei directed his telescope to the heavens, he uncovered an uncharted expanse of stars invisible to the naked eye. We can appreciate the wonder of this sensation even today with a pair of binoculars, which suddenly bring into focus this magnificent spectacle. Specialized telescopes are continually produced today for the investigation of our universe. Some of these, like the Hubble Telescope, we launch from Earth to gain a clearer perspective. Once focusing on a portion of the sky as minute as a sand grain held at arm’s length, the Hubble Telescope photographed over one thousand sparkling marvels. However, these points of light were not individual stars but galaxies, themselves comprised of billions of stars¹. Astronomers^2,3 now estimate that the visible universe is comprised of more than 10²⁴ stars (a one followed by twenty-five zeros) — an incomprehensible quantity.

This multitude of witnesses overhead testify to the inerrancy of Scripture. Despite the ideas of fallible man, science has only confirmed such an elementary yet profound concept as the enormity of the universe that Scripture has  taught so plainly. Rather than contradicting the Bible, science will in the end always corroborate with the Bible, as they both have been penned by the same Author. He created the marvelous parade of light each evening for a special purpose, as David proclaimed that the “heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1). Not only do the stars act for “signs and for seasons” (Genesis 1:14), but they show the magnificence of our Creator, who “tells the number of the stars” and “calls them all by their names” (Psalm 147:4). Even so, God has made humanity the focus point of Creation. Indeed, “what is man, that thou are mindful of him?” 

Footnotes

1. Hardwood, W. (2015). Top 5 discoveries from the Hubble Space Telescope.  CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/media/hubble-space-telescope-science-milestones/ ↩︎
2. Marov, M.Y. (2015). The Structure of the Universe. In: The Fundamentals of Modern Astrophysics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8730-2_10. ↩︎
3. European Space Agency (n.d.). “How many stars are there in the Universe?” The European Space Agency.” Accessed 22 October, 2024 ↩︎