The Hand that made us is divine

The spacious firmament on high,
With all the blue ethereal sky,
And spangled heavens, a shining frame,
Their great Original proclaim.
The unwearied sun from day to day
Does his Creator’s power display,
And publishes to every land
The works of an almighty hand.

Soon as the evening shades prevail
The moon takes up the wondrous tale,
And nightly to the listening earth
Repeats the story of her birth;
Whilst all the stars that round her burn
And all the planets in their turn,
Confirm the tidings, as they roll,
And spread the truth from pole to pole.

What though in solemn silence all
Move round the dark terrestrial ball;
What though no real voice nor sound
Amid their radiant orbs be found;
In reason’s ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice;
Forever singing as they shine,
“The hand that made us is divine.”

–Joseph Addison


I was thrilled to discover yesterday on Matthew's Blog, a link to the complete text of "Through New Eyes" by James Jordan. If you haven't read this book, stop what you are doing and download it now! It is an outstanding book that will help you get the most out of the Bible by bridging the gap between our 21st Century way of thinking, and the worldview and symbolism contained in the pages of scripture.

I have been devouring it again, and came across this poem that I really like. It appeals to me both as a scientist and as a believer. The true study of science will never disprove God — how could it?! That is a fantasy propogated by the lies of the Darwinists. The study of God's creation will always point to the creator. That is why, when I was at University, the Physics department had one of the largest Christian Union groups of any faculty, and why when you consider the greatest Physicists of all time: Newton, Einstien, Maxwell — they were all firm believers in the divine hand that had shaped the cosmos.

Jordan, correctly points out in his book, that besides being giant balls of gas, the stars are there for a divine purpose. To reveal to all who will see, aspects of their creator. Not just the majesty and awesome greatness and power of God, but they also speak of his rule and his Kingdom. They were placed in the heavens to govern.

I was meditating on this recently, and I believe it explains the purpose behind, what is one of the most misunderstood scientific discoveries of our time.

In 1924 the astronomer Edwin Hubble (Made famous by the recent spectacular images beamed back from the space telescope that bears his name) made observations of the spectra of light emitted from the stars. He made a remarkable discovery. All the spectra were "red-shifted": the spectral lines for the emission of known elements in the stars did not fall on the frequencies they should have, but occurred at lower frequencies. This is an effect known as a doppler shift. Waves from an object travelling towards you appear to have a higher frequency than stationary waves, and those travelling away from you have lower frequencies. It is the reason for the "neeeeeOOOOOW" sound as a race car goes past: you hear the engine sound make a high-pitch noise as it is approaching, and a low pitch one as it roars away.

The fact that all the spectra of light were red-shifted meant something amazing: all the stars in the universe are moving away from us. This led to the discovery that the Universe is expanding — all the time, and in every direction — something that was also predicted by Einstein's theory of relativity. But this data has been misinterpreted! Georges Lemaître, in 1927 proposed what is now known as the Big Bang theory, by assuming that if the universe will be bigger tomorrow than it is today, it must have been smaller yesterday, and even smaller the day before that, all the way back to when it would shrink to a single point.

It is interesting to note however, that although this theory is today championed by atheists, it's original proponent, Lemaître,was a Christian, and tried to use it as proof that God had created the Universe.

If only Lemaître had read Jordan's book!! (I know it wasn't around then!) Then he would have understood that the eternal expansion of the Universe is there to tell us about the nature of God's kingdom. I believe it to be a cosmic declaration of Isaiah 9 verse 7! Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. And we would have been spared the precedent of trying to explain creation by science; a trap which many Christians still fall into. Creation defines the laws of science; science does not, nor can it, explain the miraculous divine act of creation itself. Its ultimate purpose is to point us to God.

All heaven declares the glory of the risen Lord!