Earth Rotation and the First Two Days
One rotation of the Earth takes 23 hours 56 minutes and 3.45 seconds. By definition, it takes 24 hours for the Sun to reach high noon on successive days. The extra time, almost four minutes, is necessary because the Earth revolves around the Sun. The Earth takes 365 days plus about a fourth of a day to make one complete revolution. In one day, the Earth progresses one part in 365.25 of a revolution around the Sun. Since each day the Earth is farther along in its orbit, the Earth must make slightly more than one turn to get the Sun high overhead again.
This four-minute difference prevents people from defining a day as one rotation of the Earth. At present a day requires a bit more than one rotation of the Earth. The relationship between the Earth and Sun determines the amount required. Twenty-four hours elapse between times when the Sun shines high overhead at noon. This definition can never apply to a time before the Sun was shining.
At present the rotation of the Earth and the Earth’s revolution about the Sun separate light from darkness. This cannot be the way God accomplished the separation of light and darkness on days one and two. In the beginning the Earth was formless and empty. The words “formless and empty” cannot mean that the Earth was a sort of muddy or fuzzy ball. The word “ball” is the name of a very regular form. A ball is more or less spherical, and it contains substance or matter. Matter produces gravity, a central force that makes things round. The force gives the form. When the Earth was empty it had very little gravity to form anything.
If the Earth had no form, could it be rotating? How can one determine if a formless body is rotating? How could the Earth revolve around a Sun that wasn’t there? The movement of a formless Earth near a Sun that didn’t shine could not separate light from darkness. Even if the Earth had been rotating on the first or second day, its rotation could not have produced an alternating cycle of light and darkness.
The Duration of the First Day
On the first evening darkness was everywhere. When God commanded light to shine out of darkness, all of the darkness responded. Gamma rays collided and light came out of the darkness everywhere. Since the light shone out from all locations, it came from all directions. Even if the Earth had been formed and rotating, it could not have turned any portion of its surface away from the light. Rotation cannot change the intensity of illumination if the light comes uniformly from everywhere. At present night comes on the surface of the Earth when that part of the surface turns away from the Sun. Nothing like that could happen to end the first day. Therefore, the first day lasted until the first light dimmed and went out.
The Bible does not say how long the first light lasted. Theoretical calculations in the last half of the 20th century estimated that the first light lasted between 300 000 and 700 000 years. Now we have more precise data. Calculations based on the WMAP data now say that the first light lasted 380 thousand years. As the first light was dimming and going out it was somewhat redder than sunlight, like the light from the coals of a very hot fire.
God separated the light from the darkness in time and space. Separating them in time made the first three days and determined their duration. He did all this in His Own good time, and He doesn’t tell us how long it took. But every time He stopped to evaluate His work, what He had made was good. The only thing we can deduce from the Bible account about the intervals He chose for the durations of the first three cycles of darkness and light is that they were good too.
The First Three Cycles of Darkness and Light
From the beginning, the absence or presence of light has always determined night or day. According to cosmology, astrophysics, and the astronomy of the solar system, there have been three phases of darkness while the Earth was forming. A new phase, when the material of the Earth in formation was flooded with light, was the end of each preceding dark phase. The cycles of alternating darkness and light were the first three days. Together they lasted 13 820 million years, but their long durations do not mean that they were not really three days, in the simplest sense of the word as small children understand it. Astronomers have photographed the different phases of light that shone on each of the first three days. They have also photographed the transitions between night and day, that is, the dawn and the twilight of the first and second days. Each of the first three days has a different source of the prevailing light. We will examine photographs of the light sources.
The darkness and light of the first three days are scientifically observable data. They establish an exact correspondence between the Genesis narrative and the discoveries of science. Nuclear physicists and astrophysicists have determined the origin and formation of atoms, stars, and the life-giving chemical richness of the crust of the Earth. The formation of atoms, stars, and the Earth’s crust is interrelated. To make atoms, stars, and a habitable planet one needs exactly three alternating cycles of darkness and light. Moses was right about the three major discoveries of cosmology. Besides that notable accomplishment, Moses also anticipated the findings of nuclear physicists and astrophysics by more than 3 000 years!
It took three cycles of darkness and light to form the Earth, just as the Bible says. This provides additional Bible confirmation from precise science.
Among pre-scientific peoples, certain concepts are simply taken as given. The idea of defining a day seems absurd to many uneducated people. If asked, they would say, “A day is a day!” Even after modern education people often say, “A day is 24 hours,” without recognizing their circular reasoning.
Moses gives a logical and scientific criterion for observing the passing of a day. Given the cosmic scope of his compact narrative it is remarkable that he would devote even one verse to explaining his concept of a day. The observational criterion he gives for recognizing a day applies to the very beginning of the universe, long before the Sun was shining and the Earth was formed and rotating. Even though night and day in the universe as a whole are very different from the darkness and daylight an observer sees from a fixed location on Earth, the same criterion applies.
The literal, Biblical criterion for observing the passing of a day applies everywhere and always. It applies universally precisely because the criterion avoids specifying any particular duration. A day is simply an unspecified period of natural darkness followed by another unspecified period of brightness. The criterion turns on phenomena that anyone with seeing eyes can easily verify.
Only in the last fifty years have we begun to understand and photograph the cycles of alternating darkness and light at the beginning of the universe. Yet more than 3000 years ago Moses describes the cycles correctly and provides an observational criterion that includes them as well as the ordinary days the Sun now makes on the Earth. Once again, we have to ask: How did Moses get his story right?
This four-minute difference prevents people from defining a day as one rotation of the Earth. At present a day requires a bit more than one rotation of the Earth. The relationship between the Earth and Sun determines the amount required. Twenty-four hours elapse between times when the Sun shines high overhead at noon. This definition can never apply to a time before the Sun was shining.
At present the rotation of the Earth and the Earth’s revolution about the Sun separate light from darkness. This cannot be the way God accomplished the separation of light and darkness on days one and two. In the beginning the Earth was formless and empty. The words “formless and empty” cannot mean that the Earth was a sort of muddy or fuzzy ball. The word “ball” is the name of a very regular form. A ball is more or less spherical, and it contains substance or matter. Matter produces gravity, a central force that makes things round. The force gives the form. When the Earth was empty it had very little gravity to form anything.
If the Earth had no form, could it be rotating? How can one determine if a formless body is rotating? How could the Earth revolve around a Sun that wasn’t there? The movement of a formless Earth near a Sun that didn’t shine could not separate light from darkness. Even if the Earth had been rotating on the first or second day, its rotation could not have produced an alternating cycle of light and darkness.
The Duration of the First Day
On the first evening darkness was everywhere. When God commanded light to shine out of darkness, all of the darkness responded. Gamma rays collided and light came out of the darkness everywhere. Since the light shone out from all locations, it came from all directions. Even if the Earth had been formed and rotating, it could not have turned any portion of its surface away from the light. Rotation cannot change the intensity of illumination if the light comes uniformly from everywhere. At present night comes on the surface of the Earth when that part of the surface turns away from the Sun. Nothing like that could happen to end the first day. Therefore, the first day lasted until the first light dimmed and went out.
The Bible does not say how long the first light lasted. Theoretical calculations in the last half of the 20th century estimated that the first light lasted between 300 000 and 700 000 years. Now we have more precise data. Calculations based on the WMAP data now say that the first light lasted 380 thousand years. As the first light was dimming and going out it was somewhat redder than sunlight, like the light from the coals of a very hot fire.
God separated the light from the darkness in time and space. Separating them in time made the first three days and determined their duration. He did all this in His Own good time, and He doesn’t tell us how long it took. But every time He stopped to evaluate His work, what He had made was good. The only thing we can deduce from the Bible account about the intervals He chose for the durations of the first three cycles of darkness and light is that they were good too.
The First Three Cycles of Darkness and Light
From the beginning, the absence or presence of light has always determined night or day. According to cosmology, astrophysics, and the astronomy of the solar system, there have been three phases of darkness while the Earth was forming. A new phase, when the material of the Earth in formation was flooded with light, was the end of each preceding dark phase. The cycles of alternating darkness and light were the first three days. Together they lasted 13 820 million years, but their long durations do not mean that they were not really three days, in the simplest sense of the word as small children understand it. Astronomers have photographed the different phases of light that shone on each of the first three days. They have also photographed the transitions between night and day, that is, the dawn and the twilight of the first and second days. Each of the first three days has a different source of the prevailing light. We will examine photographs of the light sources.
The darkness and light of the first three days are scientifically observable data. They establish an exact correspondence between the Genesis narrative and the discoveries of science. Nuclear physicists and astrophysicists have determined the origin and formation of atoms, stars, and the life-giving chemical richness of the crust of the Earth. The formation of atoms, stars, and the Earth’s crust is interrelated. To make atoms, stars, and a habitable planet one needs exactly three alternating cycles of darkness and light. Moses was right about the three major discoveries of cosmology. Besides that notable accomplishment, Moses also anticipated the findings of nuclear physicists and astrophysics by more than 3 000 years!
It took three cycles of darkness and light to form the Earth, just as the Bible says. This provides additional Bible confirmation from precise science.
Among pre-scientific peoples, certain concepts are simply taken as given. The idea of defining a day seems absurd to many uneducated people. If asked, they would say, “A day is a day!” Even after modern education people often say, “A day is 24 hours,” without recognizing their circular reasoning.
Moses gives a logical and scientific criterion for observing the passing of a day. Given the cosmic scope of his compact narrative it is remarkable that he would devote even one verse to explaining his concept of a day. The observational criterion he gives for recognizing a day applies to the very beginning of the universe, long before the Sun was shining and the Earth was formed and rotating. Even though night and day in the universe as a whole are very different from the darkness and daylight an observer sees from a fixed location on Earth, the same criterion applies.
The literal, Biblical criterion for observing the passing of a day applies everywhere and always. It applies universally precisely because the criterion avoids specifying any particular duration. A day is simply an unspecified period of natural darkness followed by another unspecified period of brightness. The criterion turns on phenomena that anyone with seeing eyes can easily verify.
Only in the last fifty years have we begun to understand and photograph the cycles of alternating darkness and light at the beginning of the universe. Yet more than 3000 years ago Moses describes the cycles correctly and provides an observational criterion that includes them as well as the ordinary days the Sun now makes on the Earth. Once again, we have to ask: How did Moses get his story right?