To answer this question, we will first look briefly at some relevant Scriptures. Then we will examine specific scientific evidence and compare two possible explanations.
At least 11 times, the Bible says that God “stretched out” or “stretches out” the heavens. [See Table 20.] Is Hubble’s law (soon to be explained) a consequence of this stretching? Does this mean that space is elastic? In a few pages, we will have the answers.1 The Bible often repeats key ideas for emphasis. Therefore, even if we have difficulty visualizing this stretching, we can be confident of its significance.
| Job 9:8 |
“[God] stretches out the heavens.” |
| Ps 104:2 |
“stretching out heaven like a tent curtain.”1 |
| Is 40:22 |
“He ... stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent.”1 |
| Is 42:5 |
“... God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out.” |
| Is 44:24 |
“I, the Lord, am the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by Myself.” |
| Is 45:12 |
“It is I who made the earth and created man upon it. I stretched out the heavens with My hands.” |
| Is 48:13 |
“Surely My hand founded the earth, and My right hand spread out the heavens.” |
| Is 51:13 |
“... the Lord your Maker, Who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth.” |
| Jer 10:12 |
“He has stretched out the heavens.” |
| Jer 51:15 |
“He stretched out the heavens.” |
| Zech 12:1 |
“the Lord who stretches out the heavens.” |
| The context of each of the above verses deals with creation. Although these English translations convey past or present tense, Hebrew verbs generally do not. Translators must rely on context and other clues to determine tense. For example, creation was completed in six days (Exodus 20:11), but on Day 4 of the creation week, the stretching produced separate stars (Genesis 1:16). Today (in the present), we see these stars as they appeared in the past. Because of this past stretching of space, stars are now redshifted and at extreme distances. |
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Big Bang |
Big Stretch |
| SIMILARITIES |
The universe and time began before the laws of physics came into operation.3 Energy and matter appeared out of nothing.4 |
Yes |
Yes |
| Space expanded in all directions faster than the speed of light. Wavelengths of light were stretched (redshifted). Stars and galaxies were carried outward by expanding space. |
Yes |
Yes |
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When did the expansion occur |
At the very beginning |
Just before all matter gravitationally merged |
| DIFFERENCES |
When time began, the mass of the universe was what it is today, but it was all concentrated in a
|
point, one quadrillionth the size of an atom. |
volume, that was several light-days in radius. |
| What expanded? |
space, light, and matter |
space (the heavens) and light |
|
| Expansion occurred |
within a fraction (10-32 ) of a second after time began |
on Day 4 of Creation Week |
|
| After the accelerated expansion, the universe was |
the size of a basketball, but the outward momentum has continued for 13.7-billion years |
nearly the size it is today |
|
| Expansion energy came from |
inside the universe |
outside the universe |
|
| The earliest universe contained only |
hydrogen, helium, and lithium; half was matter, and half was antimatter |
matter, including most of today’s chemical elements |
|
| Stars, galaxies, planets, and black holes began forming |
after 420,000,000 years of expansion5 |
before the expansion, only a few thousand years ago |
|
| The initial temperature was |
nearly infinite |
finite |
|
| Some materials, if they once exceed certain temperatures, will never take the form we see them in today. Therefore, temperatures were never “nearly infinite.”) 6 |
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The Hebrew word for stretched is natah. It does not mean an explosion, a flinging out, or the type of stretching that encounters increasing resistance, as with a spring. Natah is more like the effortless reaching out of one’s hand.