The Calendar, Part 3

Today, in place of the sermon, I'm going to give part three in my series of studies I've been giving on the calendar. And in my previous two Bible studies, I'm not going to review them, but just quickly give a note of what I touched on. First, I gave an overview of the calendar issues, and then I gave a perspective of the New Testament. And it's interesting when you look into the perspective of the New Testament, you'll see that even though there probably were some issues surrounding the calendar back at the time of Christ, there's not a hint of any controversy or anything about the calendar or calendar issues anywhere in the New Testament.

It's totally silent when it comes to any differences people might have had or variations in the calendar and so on. It's just not addressed at all in the New Testament. It was not an issue. The most important issue, as I mentioned last time, that's covered in the New Testament is the relationship that we have with one another based on the love of God. In other words, that we don't dispute over doubtful things. Romans 14.1.

And the calendar is one of those things that has a lot of people argue about or dispute over that it's a doubtful thing to many people. And it also says that we should grow spiritually to where we no longer have envy, strife, and division. 1 Corinthians 3.13. Now, it comes to the actual study of the calendar. And actually, I'm going to kind of give a prelude to it today. It's not going to actually get into a calendar issue per se.

But when it comes to the actual study of the calendar, you know, where do you think we should begin? Where should it begin? Well, we should begin at the beginning, which is what we're going to do today. So today, then, in Part 3 of the series on the calendar, we'll begin in Genesis 1 with God's creation of the heavens and the earth. And look at how God created our solar system and the universe, because all of that ties into the calendar and calendar issues.

So today, we're going to look at Genesis 1 and the subject of astronomy. Astronomy is a fascinating subject. When I was young, I probably, you see, I go back to high school. I always loved astronomy. And I bought myself a telescope when I was probably in ninth grade or something like that. Actually, it was a refractor telescope, which is a little bit more expensive than reflectors. But I got a refractor telescope. It was a unitron. I had a rotating prism on it. So you had six different lenses in there. It started with a magnification power. The first lens was like 22, then went to 40. It kept going up to 240 power.

That's pretty good power for a refractor. It has to have pretty good light to see it, 240 power. But you could actually look at the moon and see very close-up craters and so on. And you could see planets of some of the, I mean, you could see the moons of some of the planets with that telescope. If you get it set right. Anyway, and I took astronomy, one course of astronomy at the University of Washington. They got a big observatory there with a very large telescope at the University of Washington. Actually, it took astronomy my freshman year at the University of Washington.

And just use that telescope there as well. But, you know, it's a fascinating subject. So I might say you kind of fasten your seat belts. For we're about to embark on a very amazing journey. Because you do have to start with astronomy and look at astronomy.

You're going to look at issues of the calendar. Now, this journey we're going to go on. In this Bible study, in the next Bible study, looking at astronomy. This is going to disprove the theory of evolution. Because when you really look at astronomy and some of the things of astronomy, it will totally disprove evolution.

And also directly ties in with the calendar and calendar issues. So again, my title then is the calendar part of three, Genesis 1 and astronomy. So again, the question I asked a moment ago, where did it all begin? Well, when it comes to the study of the issues surrounding the calendar, we have to begin on Genesis chapter 1. Because on what are nearly all calendars based? Well, they're all based on God's creation, really. When you stop and think about it and analyze it. They're based on God's creation of the heavens and the earth.

So begin at Genesis chapter 1, because that's where it all began. Let's turn there. Very beginning. Of course, the Bible, right off the bat. The very first verse of Genesis 1 is, in the beginning, this is not all by chance.

When you look out the universe, it wasn't a chance thing. It said, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Everything we see, you look up at this heavens at night, see all the stars in the universe. Of course, we can see a lot with the telescopes, advancements we have today. They can explore that much far greater extent than they ever could in the past.

Let's say God created the heavens and the earth. So when it comes to the calendar and calendar issue, this is where we begin with the creation of the heavens and the earth. I want to drop down to verse 14, 14 through 19. Actually, I'm going to spend the next two Bible studies right here in these few verses, because there's a tremendous amount that we're told here in verses 14 through 19 of Genesis 1.

Verse 14, then God said, let there be lights. I'm going to read it as it's translated here in the New King James 1, and I'll explain it a little bit. Then, God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night.

Let them be for signs and seasons and for days and years.

And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and it was so. 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. And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth.

And, verse 18, to rule over the day and to rule over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness, and God saw that it was good, so that evening and the morning were the fourth day.

Now, the New King James here, there's the old King James as well, but when the old King James version, the same as the New King James version, when the King James version was translated back in 1611, it was thought that the sun and stars were all kind of in fixed positions on some kind of a fixed plane in the sky that rotated around the earth. That's why they translated firmament in verses 14, 15, and 17. Now, the Hebrew word, rakiah, literally means expand. If you look it up, it's strong 75-49, and more like, more properly means expanse. Of course, now we know that the universe, the stars, everything up there is in a huge expanse of the heavens.

So the earth and the sun and the stars are anything but fixed.

Now, I want to just give you some statistics. It's absolutely amazing, because we're sitting here in this room, very comfortable, nothing's flying around anywhere. I don't see any papers flying or people flying here and there or anything falling against the walls.

But the earth is rotating around the sun at a speed of 67,000 miles per hour.

67,000 miles per hour. That's pretty fast. That's faster than a Corvette.

And our solar system that we're in, the Milky Way galaxy, or I'm not even not at the Milky Way galaxy, but our solar system, our solar system of the sun and the earth and planets, is rotating around our Milky Way galaxy. It's on the outer edge of the Milky Way galaxy. Our solar system is kind of on the outer edge of our galaxy. That's when you look toward the center of our galaxy. That's where you see a lot of stars. It's called the Milky Way.

But our solar system is rotating around our Milky Way galaxy at a speed of about 560,000 miles per hour. But that's not all.

On top of all that, our entire Milky Way galaxy is also hurtling through space at a horrendous speed.

Our Milky Way galaxy is traveling through space at a velocity of over 2,700,000 miles per hour. Now, you remember some of you watched Superman? It's faster than a speeding bullet.

2,700,000 miles per hour is approximately 450 times faster than a speeding bullet.

That's how fast our Milky Way galaxy is hurtling through space.

But right now, here in this particular hall, we are moving. We all seem to be stationed here, but we're actually moving in several directions at once at horrendous speeds.

We're anything but stationary. But the way God created things with gravitational gravity and so on, it just seems like we're all just right here, and everything's calm and quiet, and we're just all kind of standing still. That's not the case. And when it comes to the expanse of the universe, as we know, the expanse is so great, you can't measure it in miles. They measure it in light years.

A light year is a distance light can travel in one year. And right now, they don't know, I don't think of anything that can travel faster than light. But they have calculated, it's amazing our technology has advanced, but they calculate that light travels at a speed of 186,000 miles a second. 186,000 miles a second.

Now, when it comes to that, then the distance it takes travel in a year, then, if you multiply the number of seconds in a year, light travels at a speed of about 700 million miles per hour.

186,000 miles a second is about 700 million miles per hour, approximately.

Now, you multiply it 700 million by the number of hours in a year, and you can calculate how far light will travel in one year, traveling at a speed of 186,000 miles a second. It might surprise you. How far do you think light would travel at 186,000 miles a second? How far would it travel in one full year? It comes to about 6.2 trillion miles. Now, I want to show you something here. At 186,000 miles a second for one year, you come to 6.2 trillion, a little over.

Now, think about that in relation to our national debt. Our national debt is 16.4 trillion. That means you would have to pay off 186,000 dollars a second for over two and a half years to pay it off. That just shows you how bad our debt is. I don't think politicians are going to solve the problem.

I think we're kind of at the point of no return. People don't grasp that number.

But the bottom line here is that the English word firmament is better translated expanse. So Genesis 1.14 should read, let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to divide day from night and let there be for signs and seasons for days and years.

So that's where it all began. And this is in the basis for almost every calendar.

So I'm going to spend a great deal of time here because this is essential when it comes to the study of the calendar. And there are a lot of things in here in these few verses that are of paramount importance because we can't study and expand on each of the calendar without looking at astronomy. And also without understanding the Hebrew. Another very important one I'm not going to get to today. I'll get this in the next Bible study. But also very important here is understanding the meaning of the word translated seasons here. It's very fascinating to understand what this word seasons really is in Hebrew and what it means and how it's used in Scripture.

It's extremely informing. It's not like what we think of. You think of seasons, you think have a certain concept in your mind. Spring, summer, winter, fall. That's not what it means in Hebrew. It has a different meaning. It's used in a different way. But it's extremely crucial to understand when it comes to the calendar. We'll get to that in the next Bible study. Well, when it comes to astronomy in the calendar, we must study the relationship between the sun, the moon, the earth, and the planets of our solar system. They all play a crucial role when it comes to the calendar. Again, Genesis 1.16, then God made two great lights. The greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. Obviously, referring to the sun and the moon.

This verse now concludes with something I want to talk about a little bit, because there's quite a bit in these few little words. More than you might think.

This verse then concludes by saying, He made the stars also.

Now, this becomes very significant when we understand the full ramification of what this could mean, what it refers to. You know, when we read this today, we think only of other suns or maybe galaxies. Some of us, you look up at the stars at night, and of course, those are all other suns like our sun. They're far, far away. The nearest other star or sun is four and a half light years away. Now, there's far, far, far further away than that. And some of those stars, you'll see up there, if you had a powerful telescope, and you look at them, you'd realize they're not a star, but they're a galaxy. They're a cluster of stars or another other galaxies.

But there's other objects here that are referred to as stars here. Now, when you look up there at night, you see those stars. You'll see some are stars or other suns. Some are galaxies.

But there's a very few that are something different. They're not stars.

We would call them stars. They appear as stars. But some of them, few of them are actually planets in our solar system, which appear as stars.

But there's a difference. You can tell the difference, even with the naked eye, you can tell the difference. Because stars or star clusters, galaxies twinkle.

They twinkle because they generate their own light.

Planets, on the other hand, are reflected light. They reflect light from the sun, and they don't twinkle. Reflected light does not twinkle. Generated light does. So if you look up there in the sky and you see a star that doesn't twinkle, it's not a star. It's actually a planet.

There are actually about four planets. You can see readily with the naked eye. And those planets are Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn.

And in fact, on a really clear night, if you've got very sharp 2020 vision, and you happen to spot Saturn, you can probably detect the rings. It doesn't take much, even with a pair of binoculars, you can see the rings of Saturn. And if you see Jupiter, and you have even a pair of binoculars, you can actually see one or two of the moons of Jupiter as well.

But those four planets you can see with the naked eye. And of course, the planet Venus is sometimes referred to as the, it actually is the brightest star in the sky, sometimes referred to as a bright morning star. Venus, when you can see, appears very low on the horizon, where Jupiter and Saturn appear higher up in the horizon. In fact, one of those, I forget what Jupiter said, I think it's Jupiter, he's very close to the moon.

But I want to ask a question because you look at the planets, maybe you've seen some things about the planets, they're not very inhabitable, pretty hostile to life.

Now, if God made them, do they serve a purpose?

Do the planets in our solar system have a purpose?

Did God create the planets for a purpose, or did they just come about in a haphazard way as a result of uncontrolled cosmic events, as evolution would try to say?

But it says here, we just read here, in verse 16, that God made the stars also.

And that would include other signs, of course, and galaxies.

But it would also include the planets of our solar system, which appear as stars. They look like stars.

And you certainly could say that the planets would be included in that, where God made the stars, also made the planets of our solar system also.

And if God created them, then there has to be a reason why He created them. Has to be a purpose.

Is it for some kind of future life, or is there another purpose? Do they have a purpose right now?

And does their purpose have anything to do with the calendar? How we keep time?

See, for what purpose or purposes did God create the planets?

All of which are totally devoid of life, and totally hostile to life, if you study them at all.

I could spend a lot of time on that, but we'll go on.

Well, let's notice verses 17 and 18 again here, in Genesis 1. Verse 17, God set them in the expanse of the heavens, as it should be, to give light on the earth. If you hear of verse 17 and 18, you can kind of get some purposes.

And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness, and God saw it was good.

Now, the them here, in verse 17, includes the planets.

And then it gives us three purposes for the planets, if you will, and the stars, and everything, but including the planets here, can give us three purposes for the planets. Number one, it says to give light on the earth, along with the sun, moon, and stars. Obviously, that's extremely minor, almost irrelevant role for planets. They give very little light, but they're included in all those not heavenly bodies that you see at night that do help give light on the earth. That's a very minor role.

Second is, the reason is to divide the light from the darkness. Once again, as far as the planets go, those few planets you can see up there, that's a very extremely almost non-existent role, very minor. They just kind of play a role along with all the other stars and galaxies you see up there. But it's the third reason that's quite interesting and is quite relevant.

It becomes vitally important when it comes to the planets. It says to rule over the day and over the night.

Now, have you ever thought about that? Do the planets play a role in ruling over the day and over the night?

When it talks about day and night, you're talking about the earth, because it's on the earth where we have day and night, because our earth is rotating on its axis 24 hours a day. At a speed of a thousand miles per hour, by the way. We're rotating at a thousand miles per hour, but you wouldn't know it. You don't walk out and feel any wind, because the wind's rotating with us.

The way God made things.

But in what way might the planets help rule over the earth?

Because day and night were for days to the earth.

I want to quote from one of our hymns.

Page 145 of our hymnal we have. The hymn, I sing the mighty power of God. I want to just quote the first Anzam. I sing the mighty power of God that makes the mountains rise, that spread the flowing seas abroad and built the lofty skies.

I sing the wisdom that ordained the sun to rule the day.

The moon shines full at his command, and all the stars obey.

And all the stars obey.

And of course, some of those stars are planets, especially pertains to planets. When it comes to all the stars obeying, that's especially true in an amazing way when it comes to the planets, which appear as stars in our night sky.

In verse 14, it says that the light in the expanse of the heavens are among the other things for determining years. It says, they help determine years. It says, let them be for years.

So my question then is, in what way do the planets in our solar system help rule or govern the earth? Do they help in any way to govern the earth?

Indeed, they do. They have a tremendous purpose.

Now, as we know, a year is the time it takes for the earth to make one full revolution around the sun at a speed of over 67,000 miles per hour. It still takes a year to make its revolution around the sun. Now, did God set the planets in their orbits according to their size and gravitational forces so they could play a major role in ruling or governing the precise orbit of the earth around the sun? It's amazing. The earth is a very slightly elliptical orbit around the sun, but it's very precise, the time it takes to make one revolution. You know what would happen if over a period of 100 to 200 years or 300 years that it was being pulled into the sun?

How much of a shift would it take before it would get too hot and life would be intolerable on the earth? You know, we live in a very, very, very precise situation. Just any tiny, tiny variation would make life very difficult on the earth and soon it would not be habitable for life.

That, the earth has to be maintained in a very, very tight orbit. It's got to be maintained.

So it doesn't get any farther away from the sun or doesn't get any closer to the sun.

Do the planets play a role in all of that? You know, the world has been totally blinded by the theory of evolution. And the most popular theory today, there's been different theories, but the most popular theory today is what they call the Big Bang Theory.

That our solar system came into being as a result of some Big Bang that started with all matter, was very highly concentrated in a very small, kind of an explosion. What caused the explosion? What laws did that? I don't try to explain that. But somehow this explosion took place and this matter went out over everywhere and somehow formed all the stars and the galaxies and our solar system and our sun. The earth just got to kind of come in and go right in the perfect orbit, right where it is. It all happened by an explosion. Now, have you ever seen order come out of an explosion? I haven't. That's what they say. Now, I'll explain the Big Bang Theory a little bit further, a little bit later on. But God's word, on the other hand, right here in Genesis chapter 1, says, God created them and set them where they are for a purpose. For the purpose of ruling, it says, to rule over something, to rule over the earth. Do we understand the balance and interdependence of the planets in our solar system? Do we understand the harmony of the relationships they all have with one another as God created them and placed them where they are? See, all the planets in our solar system have a very precise relationship with one another, which maintains the stability and precision of the earth's orbit around the sun.

All the planets rule by governing and regulating the earth's orbit so life can be sustained here on the earth and be comfortable for all of us. See, God is an awesome creator, an awesome mathematician. His mathematics are far above any anything man can calculate.

And God's at the planets where they are, so Earth's orbit around the sun can be precisely maintained.

And some astronomers have actually shown that and determined that that's the case.

Now, how long does it take for the earth to make one complete revolution around the sun?

How long is one solar year? This is an average length because it can vary a little bit. It can vary by from year to year. It can vary by up to one to a few minutes a year.

That's a long way around. It only varies by one or one to a few minutes. But they can average it out. And the average length of one solar year is 365 days, five hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds. That's the average length it takes. It can vary like by say a minute or two from year to year. But the thing is, if you take an average for 10 years here, and then you take an average for the next 10 years, and you take an average for the next 10 years, and you take an average for the next 10 years, how much do those averages vary?

They don't even vary by one second. That average is maintained to one second over a long period of time. Is that amazing or what? What maintains that? Is God doing it just by himself, or does it make a creation in a way that helps maintain that?

What keeps that average revolution around the sun so precise? And like I say, it does vary, but it varies, I mean, it'll vary from year to year, but the average over a long period of time, and they've calculated over a hundred year period of time, that average doesn't even vary by more than one second. Is that amazing or what? I have an article here written by Dr. David Harper, titled, A Brief History of the Calendar.

The story of the calendar begins with astronomy. To be precise, it begins with the length of the day, the year, and the lunar month, and the fact that neither the year nor the lunar month is an exact number of days, nor the year exact number of lunar months. The tropical year or solar year, here's the length of it, this is an average number, here's the average length over a prolonged period of time. It is 365.242.189.6698 days long. That's an average. And you go down 40 years from now, and measure the averages, it'll still be the same, do within a second.

The lunar month is measured by the phases of the moon, new moon to new moon, and that is 29.530588531 days long, but getting longer by about a second every hundred years, the average is getting longer. So that's extremely, strictly maintained as well, even though it can vary by, I think, about three hours from month to month, and up to 13 hours in a year, but the average is maintained. But the amazing thing is the average length of the solar year is only getting, changing by about a second or so every hundred years. It's very, the average is maintained very, very precisely, as is the month. Now, I have another article entitled, What Astronomical Events Form the Basis of Calendars. Calendars are normally based on astronomical events. Cycles are very important to the construction and understanding of calendars, cycles that is the earth, the moon, and the planets. Our constant of a year is based on the earthly motion around the sun. The time from one fixed point to the next is called a tropical year. Its length is currently 365.242190 days. Our constant of a month is based on the moon's motion around the earth. The time from one new moon to the next is called a synodic, S-Y-N-O-D-I-C, month, and this length is currently 29.5305889 days, but it can vary. Note these numbers are averages.

The actual length of a particular year may vary by several minutes due to the influence of the gravitational forces of other planets to change. Some of those forces of the other planets will change slightly because they're changing positions. It's very dynamic, as we know, and so it might vary the rotation of the earth around the sun by up to one to a few minutes from year to year.

Similarly, the time between new moons may vary by several hours due to a number of factors, including changes in the gravitational force from the sun and the moon's orbital inclination.

In fact, the time of a lunar month can actually change by up to maybe three minutes from month to month and can vary from year to year by as much as 13 minutes, but that average is maintained very precisely. You average it out. You take an average over a long period of time, and you take another long period of time, and the averages don't change. They're the same.

They're very strictly maintained as far as the averages go.

What causes the slight variations in the length of the solar year? Again, primarily the gravitational forces from other planets in our solar system.

It has to do with their size, their location, their orbits, any given year, because, of course, their relationship to the Earth is a very dynamic and very changing relationship.

Thus, there are slight variations of up to one to a few minutes in the average time, in the time it takes for the Earth to rotate around the sun. Yet, at the same time, that average is maintained very, very closely to within almost a second over a long period of time.

But that is how precisely the planets are ruling over the Earth.

And the same can be said of the Moon as well.

Could such precision of both the Earth's orbit around the sun and the Moon's orbit around the Earth as far as their averages are concerned? Could that have been the result of haphazard circumstances such as the Big Bang?

Let me ask another question about calendar-related question. You think about it, is God a mathematician? Is he pretty good at calculating math and calculating things out so they can be very precise?

Does God use precise calculations? Is our Solar System, which is the foundation of nearly all calendars, is that based on precise mathematical calculation so the Earth's orbit is very strictly regulated and maintained? Well, we've seen how precise the Earth's orbit is as far as average is concerned over, say, a hundred-year period of time.

If that is a mathematical precision, I don't know what is. Can you take the average orbit of the Earth around the sun over the Earth around the sun over a prolonged period of time, and that average doesn't change over a hundred years, but more than about a second.

Now, you think about that. That precision is even more remarkable when we consider all the variables God uses and had to calculate into the equation to have all those planets that are in their way. It's going to maintain their gravitational forces. All the changes are taking place. It's going to maintain that Earth in a very precise and lock it into that very precise orbit. No human mathematician could have calculated it, let alone created it. Again, going back to Genesis 1, verses 16 to 18, God made two great lights, the great light to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars and the planets also. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the Earth and drool over the day and over the night. He divided the light from darkness, and God saw it was going to be a great light to rule the day. God saw it was good. Now, scientists actually know all of this. They know there's a very strict relationship between all the planets and the Earth. Now, I ask the question, some of the planets were only discovered in the last hundred years or so. How did they discover some of the planets that they now have discovered? I want to quote from another article entitled, Does Jupiter perturb the Earth's orbit? Now, the word perturb simply means disturb or alter in any way the Earth's orbit.

This is by Jason Goodman, who works for the Department of Geosciences at the University of Chicago. Does Jupiter perturb the Earth's orbit? Yes, one could detect the effect of Jupiter's gravity on the Earth's orbit. As Jupiter moves in its orbit, its effect on the Earth's orbit will change from year to year.

I don't know the exact distance of the perturbation, but I have run a simple computer model of Earth's orbit once without the perturbing presence of Jupiter. This model shows a difference of roughly 0.001 astronomical units, or about 150,000 kilometers, in the shape of the Earth's orbit between the two experiments. This difference is almost impossible to see when you plot the whole orbit. But taking careful measurements of the position of planets in the sky and comparing them with precise mathematical models of the gravitational attraction of the various planets upon each other, side as in the 19th and early 20th century were able to deduce the existence of Neptune and then Pluto by observing their perturbing effect on the inner planets. Observers then discovered the planets by looking in the region of the sky where the models predicted the planets could be found. And that's how they found them.

So in other words, all the planets in our solar system have a gravitational effect upon the orbit of the other planets, including the Earth. And they could see that there was some, there had to be more than just the planets that they knew about at one time back in the early 1900s. They knew there must be some other planets out there that had some kind of a slight effect on maintaining the Earth's orbit. And they said, they've got to be coming from this direction. So they focused their telescopes in that direction and they discovered Neptune and later they discovered Pluto, which has now been dismissed as being a planet for Pluto. But anyway, they found it out there. It used to be a planet. I guess it's just kind of a moon roaming around now.

It's got a very, very, very long elliptical orbit. It just goes way, way out in outer space. But that is how some of the planets were discovered. They knew there had to be additional gravitational forces affecting the orbit of the Earth. And they mathematically calculated where those forces should be coming from. And then when they looked there, they found some of the other planets that's how they were discovered. I want to quote enough from another book, very interesting book, called the Astronomy Book, written by Jonathan Henry.

And he asked this question in the Astronomy Book. He said, why did God make other planets?

If the other planets do not support life of their own, why do they exist? There is the time-telling purpose of all the heavenly bodies given in Genesis 1, verses 14 to 18. Planets are included in this purpose as stars in Genesis 1, 16. Planets act together to stabilize the solar system, a fact discovered by the French atheist Laplace in the 1790s. God created each one of the planets in a special way, each one with a special size, gravity, chemical makeup, rotation rate, magnetism, and axis tilt. Each one of these special properties of the planets helps to keep the solar system stable and safe. In particular, the other planets stabilize the distance of the earth from the sun. They keep the earth from approaching too close or moving too far away from the sun. This ensures the ability of the earth to support life. So the planets play a major role. They are placed where they are by God to maintain the precise orbit of the earth.

They all work together by means of their sizes, their locations, their orbits, and their gravitational forces in poles to maintain the earth's orbit. And God, the master mathematician, precisely calculated our solar system and where they should be to maintain the earth's orbit. That's how it's sustained. At least that's what you can see scientifically looking at scientifically as scientific evidence. And when you come to understand the planets and all the poles they have, you can see that when they find it, they discover that they all have a very, very important relationship with one another in our solar system. It's not just haphazard. You could take just one, like Jupiter's the largest planet. You just took Jupiter out of our solar system?

Eventually, the earth's orbit would alter over a long period of time. Do we get to either too close?

Probably get too close to the sun because Jupiter's out there beyond the earth and kind of keeps it, pulls it away a little bit. And it would probably eventually get too hot. You'd have real global warming that you wouldn't want. Now, what about the real stars and galaxies?

Why were they created other than to give additional light to the earth?

Well, there's a reason actually given in God's Word why they were created, especially today. When we could look there, we could see some of the qualities that they have. And we're going to get to that in the next Bible study. We'll see that each star, each galaxy, you might think, well, there's our sun and see all the other suns out there.

There's millions, billions of them. You might think a lot of them are alike, right?

You know what? They've looked at billions of stars. Guess what? They've never found two that are alike. Why is that? What does God's Word have to say about that? You know, they could have learned that without even having to go to astronomy. They could learn that from God's Word.

We'll get into that in the next Bible study.

But what about those stars and galaxies? Why were they created other than to give additional light? I want to turn to Psalm 19, because it gives us another reason here. Psalm 19, verse 1.

The heavens declare the glory of God.

And the firmament, or it should be the expanse, shows his handiwork.

As that latter part of verse 1 should be translated, the expanse of heaven shows the work of God's hands. The stars and galaxies and the expanse of the heavens clearly reveal the power and the glory and the majesty of God. Anyone who would look out there and think that that somehow could have evolved, or come about as a big bang. You know, here's the thing. Think about it.

This is going to the next Bible study, but I can't help but say it now. They say the big bang, they had all this matter condensed, huge, and there's no explosion, and it all went out from this ball of matter here. If that were the case, wouldn't all the stars and all the things that came from that original piece of matter, wouldn't they all have somewhat the same composition? Wouldn't it be somewhat the same? What have they discovered? They could go to stars now, and they can analyze the light, and they can tell what their composition of that star is, what percentage of this gas it has, and what percentage of that gas it has, and so on. You know what? Every star is different. None of them are the same. Why not? They didn't come from a big bang. They were created by God. The heavens declared God's glory. There's awesome power and majesty. So hold your place here just for a second. Come back to Psalm 19 a minute. Let's go to Romans 1. Romans 1, verse 16, where Paul writes, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteous of God is revealed from faith to faith, as is written, the just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteous of men who suppress the truth and unrighteous, because what may be known of God is manifest or made evident to them, for God has shown it to them. Oh yes, he has. All they've got to do is look at it and see. Verse 20, for sense the creation of the world. God's invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power in Godhead, so they are without excuse. We can understand God's existence and his power and glory and his attributes by the things that are made, which includes the sun, the earth, the moon, the planets, the stars, and the galaxies in the universe. And when you look at all those things, you can see they had to be made, created by a very awesome and all-powerful God. And he did it all for mankind so he could become a part of his family someday. Let's go back to Psalm 19. Psalm 19, again beginning in verse 1, the heavens declare the glory of God and the expanse shows his handiwork or the work of his hands, the creation of his hands. Day unto day utter speech. And night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. In other words, the stars and the galaxies and all the celestial bodies in our solar system figuratively cry out to all who gaze on them to declare the glory of God. They all speak volumes when you understand, you look at them. They speak volumes as to God's awesome power and majesty and his creativity. And we will be in his mind. They cry out during the day and they cry out during the night.

The sun cries out during the day with the earth's orbit being precisely maintained in a way that supports life. And the moon and the planets and stars and galaxies cry out during the night.

Their voice, quote-unquote, needs no translation. It's apparent in all language, no matter what language you speak, and look out there and you can see the awesome power of God and understand it. It can be seen and heard in any and all languages. Going on to verse 4 of Psalm 19, their line has gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. Or as Paul translates this particular verse when he quotes it in Romans 10 18, he quotes it as says, their sound, as it could be translated here, their sound has gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the earth, figuratively speaking, to the ends of the known universe. Then Psalm 19 4 concludes by saying, in them he has set a tabernacle or a tent for the sun.

You look at our sun in our little solar system in the vast universe, it's like a little protected haven, like a tent that supports life for the earth. All the planets maintaining the exact orbit of the earth at the perfect distance from the sun, so that we can have that very very close temperature range that supports life.

Maintain precisely within a second over a hundred year period of time as far as the average goes.

It's like this little tent of protection for a lot for us to live in, in this vast universe. And when we look at the universe, we are overwhelmed by God's awesome power and glory and majesty.

The universe openly declares the great power and the glory of a very awesome God, which he wants to share. Think about it, he wants to share that with all of us, going far beyond things that we can't even imagine. He wants to share it with us for all eternity.

But where did it all begin? It all began with astronomy, with the creation of the heavens and the earth, and with the placing of the earth in its precise orbit around the sun, and with the precise orbit of the moon around the earth, being maintained as far as the average goes, and with the relationship of the earth with the other planets in our solar system.

While we're in there for now, next time we'll look at one more aspect of astronomy before getting back to issues of the calendar.

We'll look at, and again, I've touched on it today, but I didn't give it a name. We'll touch on what is called the nebular hypothesis.

And we'll look at what the Bible tells us in regards to that, because it has a lot to say about the nebular hypothesis. I didn't call it that, but it has a lot to say about it.

We'll also look at how we tell time, and what Genesis chapter 1 specifically tells us in regards to the nebular hypothesis. We'll look at how we'll look into the calendar, especially in regards to Genesis 1.14, and in regards to signs and seasons. It's extremely interesting and very important to understand when it comes to the calendar. They're both crucially important when it comes to the calendar.

We'll cover all that next time in part four of this series of Bible studies. On the calendar, it's a very fascinating subject to look into and study a lot to explore.