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Did God Use the Big Bang to Create?

The term "big bang" describes what many scientists believe about the beginning of the universe, i.e. that at some point in the past, all the matter in the universe was packed into a super-heated dense point that then exploded into a pattern of expansion and cooling that continues today.  This process eventually created all that is in the universe, from atoms to planets.  This cosmological model is the foremost model among scientists and the prevalent and exclusive model presented in science text books.
photo courtesy of NASA

Some Christians have accepted the theoretical big bang as fact.  They believe that God used the big bang to create. They seem to have the best of both worlds- they can remain in step with the prevailing secular view of cosmology and at the same time retain their belief in God as Creator.  Hugh Ross is an example of a Christian who espouses the belief that God used the big bang to create.

Could God have created by using a big bang event?  Yes, He could have.  But did He?  How do we know how God created? We go to His eyewitness testimony of the creation event- the opening chapter in the Bible.  If we compare God's account of what He did in the beginning as recorded in Genesis 1 with the prevailing model provided by the big bang theory, we immediately see that the two just don't fit.  There are major discrepancies between the order of events in Genesis 1 and those of the big bang model.  For an excellent article on these discrepancies, see Dr. Jason Lisle's article, Does the Big Bang Fit with the Bible?.    

The big bang and Genesis 1 are not compatible because:
  1. The BIG BANG says that the stars and sun appeared before the earth was formed.  The BIBLE says that God created the earth first (day 1), and then the sun, moon, and stars (day 4).
  2. The BIG BANG says that the earth's original state was that of a hot, molten blob.  The BIBLE says that the earth was created as cool, dark, and water-covered.
  3. The BIG BANG says that the first oceans on Earth appeared almost one billion years after the earth was formed. The BIBLE says that the oceans covered the earth on the first day.
  4. The BIG BANG says that the sun appeared billions of years before the first plants.  The BIBLE says that the plants were created one day before the sun.
  5. The BIG BANG supposedly took billions of years.  The BIBLE says God created in 6 days (Genesis 1, Exodus 20:11).
As Dr. Jason Lisle points out in his article, the big bang model not only theorizes what happened in the past but predicts what will happen in the future.  I quote Dr. Lisle: 
"Many people don't realize that the big bang is a story not only about the past, but also about the future. The most popular version of the big bang teaches that the universe will expand forever and eventually run out of usable energy.  According to the story, it will remain that way forever in a state that astronomers call 'heat death'." [1]
What Dr. Lisle is saying is that the big bang proposes that, after billions of years of expansion, the universe will eventually run out of usable energy and therefore will run out of usable heat.  The result will be a frozen, lifeless universe.  In stark contrast to the big bang, the Bible says that the universe will end in quite a different manner.  2 Peter 3 says that, on the day of God's judgment, He will destroy the present heavens and earth with fire and then will create a new heavens and earth.  The big bang predicts an icy universe where no life could exist; the Bible predicts a fiery judgment on the present universe and a new creation where the justified will live eternally.

The above discrepancies make it impossible to reconcile the big bang theory with the Bible.  Did God use the big bang to create?  Not according to His written word.  Christians who want to believe in the big bang model must reinterpret the Bible to accommodate the many areas in which the big bang contradicts the plain meaning of Genesis 1.

This article has dealt with the many hermeneutical problems in trying to reconcile the Bible and the big bang. For further information regarding some scientific problems with the big bang, see https://answersingenesis.org/astronomy/#big_bang.

NOTES:
[1] Dr. Jason Lisle, Does the Big Bang Fit with the Bible?April 15, 2010, https://answersingenesis.org/big-bang/does-the-big-bang-fit-with-the-bible/#fn_1, accessed on July 21, 2014.


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