The Heavens Declare...

We recognize the order and the beauty of creation, and that includes human beings, who are made in the image of God - "fearfully and wonderfully made," as the Bible tells us. In Psalm 19, we can read these words:
(1) The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.
2 Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge.
3 There is no speech nor language Where their voice is not heard.
4 Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world. In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun...

God has created the heavens and the earth, setting the stars in place, and creation testifies to Him. If we need an attitude adjustment or even a simple reason to praise God, we can worship Him because of His creation.  And, we can worship Him for the new creation that we are because of the presence of Christ Jesus. We can humble ourselves, surrendering to a God who gave of Himself, sending His only Son, so that we might come to know Him.  Creation reminds us of the involvement, day by day, of God in our lives.

+++++

In 1st Timothy chapter 6, there is a key phrase and Paul writes about submitting to the authority of our mighty Creator God. He writes:
17 Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.
18 Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share,
19 storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.

Richly all things to enjoy...

Since the images were first reported on a few months ago, the images that have been transmitted by the James Webb Space Telescope have garnered quite a bit of attention.  Just a few days ago, the Washington Examiner website stated:

A new image captured by the James Webb Space Telescope showcases the Pillars of Creation, located over 6,000 light-years away from Earth.

The Webb telescope was able to take this new photo by using infrared detectors to see beyond most of the light-scattering effects caused by the pillars' dust. The latest photo, released Wednesday, allows viewers to look at the activity of new suns near the gas clouds of the pillar, according to BBC.

Mark McCaughrean, the senior adviser for science at the European Space Agency, is quoted as saying, "I've been studying the Eagle Nebula since the mid-1990s, trying to see 'inside' the light-years long pillars that Hubble showed, searching for young stars inside them. I always knew that when James Webb took pictures of it, they would be stunning. And so they are..."

The article notes that, "Previous photos of the pillars were taken by the Hubble Observatory between 1995 and 2014. The pillars are illuminated and sculpted by intense ultraviolet light coming from massive stars in close proximity to them." It surmises that these pillars may no longer be at the projected location, due to their distance from earth.

But, Jake Hebert, writing for the Institute for Creation Research, relates:

Creationists have long noted that the Big Bang suffers from the mature distant galaxy problem. Big Bang theorists assume that light from the most distant galaxies took more than 13 billion years to reach Earth. By Big Bang reckoning, we should be seeing these very distant galaxies, not as they are today, but as they were more than 13 billion years ago. Hence, these galaxies should look “unevolved” and “immature.”

He writes, "Yet this expectation is routinely contradicted... and preliminary data from Webb continues the trend."

But astronomer Danny Faulkner, writing for Answers in Genesis, says this about the earlier models from the Hubble telescope:

But what have these photographs really revealed? Far less than claimed. These photos are static. That is, they don’t show any change over time. Rather, the images have been interpreted in terms of the current model about how stars form from gas clouds. That model has changed much over the past half century, and I’m sure it will continue to change. There are many examples of how astronomers in the past interpreted images in terms of what they believed at the time.

That Answers in Genesis article was written by Ken Ham, who notes:

According to God’s Word, stars didn’t form slowly and gradually from “protostars” in nurseries. They were formed at God’s command when “he made the stars also” (Genesis 1:16). And he names them all: God determines the number of the stars and he gives to all of them their names (Psalm 174:4).

Ham writes, "As astronomers continue to study the heavens, they will be forced to change their ideas because they start with the wrong foundation: man’s word. Only God’s Word is unchanging." The contention here is that theories of origins are based on human understanding and that discoveries, such as the data coming back from Hubble, and now Webb, are being interpreted through the lens of humanism, rather than the Scriptures.

In another article, Ken Ham states:

As you look at the images from the James Webb Space Telescope, be in awe of the incredible beauty, wonder, and order of the heavens. But don’t stop there. Turn in praise to the One who created all of that and sums it up with the simple phrase, “he made the stars also” (Genesis 1:16b, NKJV).

He notes also, "...In evolutionary models, stars gradually form before the earth. In the biblical text, earth came before the stars (day one vs. day four)."

Hebert says, "So, at a minimum, the ability of Hubble and Webb to see extremely distant galaxies is yet another example of a failed Big Bang prediction...But it could be much more than that—it could be evidence against the very idea of an expanding universe..."  He reminds Christians:

In any case, Bible-believing Christians can be confident that the heavens will continue to testify of God’s glory and their supernatural creation by the Lord Jesus Christ, as described in Scripture...

I contend that we can see evidence of the Creator by considering His creation.  Can a person honestly say the beauty and order of creation, including the intricacies of the human body, happened as the result of mere chance?   I would even say that a "big bang," an explosion that allegedly started it all, could not produce the type of specificity that we see in creation.  An earth suitable for sustaining life, placed just the right distance from the sun.  So much around us tells the story of a loving, all-powerful Creator who did more than initiate a series of random events.  

We can also worship the Lord for giving us created things to enjoy. My wife, Beth, and I traveled to western North Carolina recently to catch some fall foliage, and what we saw certainly did not disappoint.  And, when we see the beauty all around us, it can give us a great appreciation for the One who has given us so much to see and experience.