God Said Man Said

… He Made the Stars Also (The Genesis Series, Part 5)

Centuries ago, the skeptics would have railed on the Bible’s claim that “the host of heaven cannot be numbered.” Today, cosmologists understand that the stars actually cannot be numbered and estimate that there are approximately 200 sextillion stars. From the start, God has been telling us that the stars cannot be numbered by man.
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… He Made the Stars Also (The Genesis Series, Part 5)

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GodSaidManSaid is engaged in the global battle for the lost sons and daughters of Adam.  All of us who are BORN AGAIN were once where they are.  It’s true:  We understand their vacuous thoughts because we once thought them, too.  It’s true:  We understand their various bondages because we were also once bound.  We understand their every argument, because we once made those arguments, too.  But then something bizarre and marvelous happened to us, at a place Jesus Christ calls BORN AGAIN.  John 3:3:

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

What a day!  What a marvelous day! 

Dear visitor, have you yet to be BORN AGAIN—born a second time, this time of the Spirit of God?  In just a few moments, I will invite you to follow me in a simple prompt, and if you follow from your heart, you will surely begin to understand.  You will surely see the Light.  Presently, you are currently spiritually dead.  This is because you were spiritually stillborn.  Ephesians 2:1:

And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins: 

Much of what I am saying is hard for you to fathom, I’m certain.  You are at GodSaidManSaid by divine design.  Your visit is not a matter of happenstance.  You have been drawn by the Holy Ghost into the valley of decision.  Joel 3:14:

Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

For you, “the day of the LORD” is near.  Your eternal soul is in your very own hands.  Will you choose BORN AGAIN and eternal life in Christ Jesus, or will it be the walking death of this carnal experience and a final, eternal damnation?  There are only two options.  Here is the prompt I promised: Click onto Further with Jesus for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God.  Make your choice. NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Genesis 1:14-19:

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

GOD SAID, Psalm 147:4-5:

4 He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.

5 Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.

GOD SAID, Isaiah 66:1:

Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?

MAN SAID: Look, the whole world can’t be wrong.  So, I’ll take my chances.  If there’s a God of the Bible and His Jesus Christ—and that’s a mighty big IF!—then, when I show up at the Great White Throne Judgment (if that’s real), well, They’ll just love me!  I think I remember that maybe the Bible said, “God is love,” right?  A well-reasoned plan, wouldn’t you say?

Now THE RECORD: Welcome to GodSaidManSaid feature 1225 that will once again certify the bonafides of the beautiful Book, the majority-text Holy Bible.   All of these faith-building features are archived here in text and streaming audio for your edification and to be used as a platform from which to convince the gainsayers.  Every Thursday eve, God willing, they grow by one. 

Thank you for visiting.  May God’s face shine upon you with Light and Truth.   

Genesis 1:14-19:

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

Welcome to the GodSaidManSaid “Genesis Series;” this is Part 5  Each of these features begins with the following foundation from the first feature:

According to a 2006 issue of Discover magazine concerning the deceased Carl Sagan: “Sagan approaches religion like any phenomenon.  He isn’t on a quest for life’s meaning, for a comforting philosophy, or even a guide to how we should treat the neighbors.  Sagan seeks truth of a demonstrable kind.  As a puckish example, he wonders why the book of Genesis didn’t include God-inspired truths…” [End of quote]

I recently reviewed an advertisement from a magazine called Free Inquiry that also has a problem with the God of Creation and the first book of the Bible, called Genesis.  Under the heading “Is God Big Enough for the Universe,” Free Inquiry writes:

The authors of Genesis proclaim that God made the heavens and earth in less than a week.  This feat must have amazed these Bronze Age authors, even though they thought the heavens extended only so far as the sky above them.  Of course, they did not know what stars, planets, or galaxies were.  We now know that the universe is so much bigger and so much more complex. [End of quote]

The BORN AGAIN scratch their heads in bewilderment.  Did these folks actually read the book of Genesis? I suppose they did, but God’s revelation is only revealed to the humbled hearts of the children of faith.  This GodSaidManSaid series will be called “The Genesis Series.”  It is our intention to travel through the entire book of Genesis and publish one major God-inspired truth after another.  We will be pulling from previous GodSaidManSaid features and adding the latest information as we go.

A special note to the children of faith:  The skeptics are looking, with eyes closed shut, for “God-inspired truths.”  This is the fifth feature in the GodSaidManSaid “Genesis Series” and we are still in Genesis Chapter 1 with quite a way to go before we get to Chapter 2!  The book of Genesis ends at the 26th verse of Chapter 50.  Be of good cheer, child of God, the Truth is with us! 

The first sentence of the challenge posed by The Free Inquiry reads, “The authors of Genesis proclaim that God made the heavens and earth in less than a week.” 

The book of Genesis is part of the Pentateuch, which is the name given to the first five books of the Bible. Though these books were penned by Moses, the author, however, was God.  Seven times, Moses is instructed by God to write.  The book of Genesis was not something handed down from generation to generation that Moses just got around to putting to paper.  The book of Genesis was (and is) an eyewitness, hands-on account of the events of Creation given by the Creator of all things, whose recall is perfect.  The self-defined unbelievers at this magazine are unaware that all Holy Scripture in the Bible is given by the inerrant God; they are not the contrivances of mere men! II Timothy 3:15-17:

15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

Jesus Christ, whose name is “The Word of God” (Revelation 19:13), declares the supernatural primacy of the Word of God in Mark 13:31:

Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.  

We are commanded not to add to or subtract from God’s Words.  Deuteronomy 4:2:

Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.

Revelation 22:18-19:

18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

Those who reject the adding and subtracting clause should consider Proverbs 30:6:

Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.

If you would like to know whom God respects amongst the sons and daughters of men, consider Isaiah 66:1-2:

1 Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?

2 For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

The Words in the majority-text Holy Bible were penned by holy men, but authored by God.

The magazine Free Inquiry went on with their critique, remarking: “This feat must have amazed these Bronze Age authors, even though they thought the heavens extended only so far as the sky above them.  Of course, they did not know what stars, planets, or galaxies were.  We now know that the universe is so much bigger and so much more complex.”  [End of quote]

First, they erroneously attribute authorship to men, and then go on to claim that the Bible is ignorant in regard to stars, planets, galaxies, and the universe as a whole.  Is their challenge true?  

The stars are mentioned numerous times in the Scriptures, and we are particularly told that we do not have the ability to number them, though God can and has even named each star.  When Abrahm (who would become the Bible’s Abraham, the father of all who walk in faith) spoke to God regarding his lack of children, God made this promise to him in Genesis 15:5:

And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.

Several other examples of the stars mentioned in the Scriptures include:

Genesis 22:17-18:

17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;

18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.

Psalm 147:4-5:

4 He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.

5 Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.

Jeremiah 33:22:

As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me.

Centuries ago, the skeptics would have railed on the Bible’s claim that “the host of heaven cannot be numbered.”  According to 15th Century astronomer Ulugh Beg, there were 994 stars in the heavens; he had catalogued heaven’s inventory by counting the stars he could see from his observatory in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.  Today, cosmologists understand that the stars actually cannot be numbered and estimate that there are approximately 200 sextillion stars.  From the start, God has been telling us that the stars cannot be numbered by man. 

Flavious Josephus, the most renowned of all ancient historians, made the following report concerning the heavens and Seth, the son of Adam, the father of all living humans:

Now this Seth, when he was brought up, and came to those years in which he could discern what was good, became a virtuous man; and as he was himself of an excellent character, so did he leave children behind him who imitated his virtues.  All these proved to be of good dispositions.  They also inhabited the same country without dissensions, and in a happy condition, without any misfortunes falling upon them, till they died.  They also were the inventors of that peculiar sort of wisdom which is concerned with the heavenly bodies, and their order.  And that their inventions might not be lost before they were sufficiently known, upon Adams prediction that the world was to be destroyed at one time by the force of fire, and at another time by the violence and quantity of water, they made two pillars; the one of brick, the other of stone: they inscribed their discoveries on them both, that in case the pillar of brick should be destroyed by the flood, the pillar of stone might remain, and exhibit those discoveries to mankind; and also inform them that there was another pillar of brick erected by them.  Now this remains in the land of Siriad to this day.  [End of quote]

Ken Ham of the Answers in Genesis Ministry (home of the replica of Noah’s Ark), wrote the following about stars in his book, Creation to Babel:

Along with the sun and the moon, we are told God made the stars on day four.  I love how the King James Bible translation states it in Genesis 1:16:

He made the stars also.

How many stars are in the universe?  No one knows, but some scientists estimate there are 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy alone and then 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 in the universe.  To try to count them would be like trying to count the grains of sand on all the beaches in the world.  The point is, the number of stars is so great we can’t even comprehend it.  But think about this:  He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.  (Psalm 147:4)  So God knows the number of stars and has a name for each one.  Once again, we get a little inkling of what it means that God is the infinite Creator.

God even tells us we can’t count the number of stars or the number of grains of sand.  This reminds us of how finite we are compared to God:

As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me. (Jer. 33:22)

And when I think about the fact that all we’re told is “He made the stars also,” I think it’s almost as if God is saying , “Oh, by the way, you see all those stars you can’t count?  I made them, too.”  And when you think about how powerful just our one star (the sun) in our solar system is, I can’t’ even imagine the power it took to create all these stars, and many of them so much bigger than our sun!  So why did God create so many stars?

Well, the Bible tells us why God made the stars:

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.  There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.  Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, (Psalm 19:1-4)

God made the stars to declare His glory!  And as we consider the number of stars and the energy they produce and the vastness of space, we start to again get a tiny understanding of what it means that God is infinite in power.  [End of quote]

Numerous verses deal with the structure of the earth and the heavens, beginning in Genesis and continuing through Revelation. A few examples include:

 

Job 9:9-10

Job 26:13

Job 38:31-33

Psalm 115:16

Isaiah  13:9-10

Isaiah 40:26

 

Isaiah 45:18

Isaiah 66:1

Jeremiah 33:22

Amos 5:8

 

Science knows it as “the anthropic principle,” where all things on earth and in the heavens seem to be designed to benefit mankind.  Students of the Bible know this anthropic principle as the handiwork of a loving God who made the earth and its universe—its sun, moon, stars, constellations, etc.—for the benefit of mankind.  A couple of the many verses that illustrate this include:

Genesis 1:26: And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Isaiah 45:18: For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.

Psalm 115:16: The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord''s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.

NOTE:  God did not make outer space to be inhabited by man!  Consider this paragraph from the July 13, 2024 issue of Science News under the heading, “Short Space Trips May Affect Health:”

Researchers have been studying how spaceflight affects astronaut health since the dawn of the Space Age. Well-known problems include bone loss, heightened cancer risk, vision impairment, weakened immune systems, and mental health issues.  Yet what’s going on at a molecular level hasn’t always been clear.  [End of quote]

The late Dr. Duane T. Gish wrote relating to the anthropic principle in his book The Amazing Story of Creation from Science and the Bible. Dr. Gish writes:

There are many, many things that have to be just right on the earth, or life could not exist.  If the earth were just a little bit closer to the sun, it would be too hot for life to exist.  If the earth were a little bit farther away from the sun, it would be too cold; all the water on earth would be frozen solid, and there would be no life. 

Water is absolutely essential for life, and on the earth we have 350 million cubic miles of water!  But there is not a single drop of liquid water anywhere else in the Solar System! There is no liquid water on Mars, Venus, Mercury, or anywhere else—only on Earth. 

Oxygen is another significant element lacking elsewhere in our Solar System.  Our atmosphere contains 21 percent of this life-giving oxygen, but there is no free oxygen on the moon, or on any other planet.  We could not survive without it, but there is another very important reason for oxygen to exist on the earth. The ultraviolet light that is given off by the sun is deadly.  Ultraviolet light has a lot of energy—so much energy that it kills living things.  If bacteria are exposed to ultraviolet light they are killed in seconds!  You and I and all other living things would die very quickly if we were exposed to the whole range of light coming from the sun, including the ultraviolet light.  So God made sure that this wouldn’t happen.

Ozone is produced from oxygen.  The molecules of oxygen in our atmosphere have two atoms of oxygen, but in ozone, the molecules of oxygen have three atoms of oxygen.  The ultraviolet light from the sun changes some of the ordinary molecules of oxygen, with two atoms of oxygen, into ozone with three atoms of oxygen.  Now, ozone has a very special property.  Ozone absorbs ultraviolet light, so much of the ultraviolet light can’t get through it.  But there is a problem with ozone—it is poisonous!  And just where is this ozone?  Right where it must be to protect the earth from ultraviolet light.  Ozone is found in a layer surrounding the earth about ten miles above the surface, where it can absorb and filter out the ultraviolet light from the sun, without messing up things down here on earth.

The kind of light that plants need for energy and growth is visible light—the kind of light that can pass right through ozone.  So ozone is perfect!  It keeps out deadly, destructive ultraviolet light, but it lets life-giving visible light pass through, and it is high up in the atmosphere exactly where it needs to be to do the job.

Continuing the theme of “just right,” Gish writes about the sun, the earth, and the earth’s axis:

The axis of rotation of the earth is not straight up and down, in relation to the sun, but is tilted at an angle of 23.5 degrees.  That is, a line drawn from the south pole of the earth through the north pole is not perpendicular to a line drawn from the sun to the earth.  The angle between the axis of rotation of the earth and a line from the sun is 66.5 degrees, or 23.5 degrees less than 90 degrees.

The very existence of that angle, and the exact size of that angle, are both very important.  Under the conditions now existing on earth, we could grow food on only a small part of the earth, if the angle of rotation was straight up and down. Most of Canada and other countries that are far away from the equator--either far to the north or far to the south—would have winter all year long.  Large parts of the United States and many other countries would never get warm enough for food to grow.  It is only because of the angle of the rotation of the earth that we have summertime in Canada, and the United States and other countries, which enables us to grow food in these places.  Furthermore, 23.5 degrees is just the right angle to create a perfect difference between summer and winter. 

There are many, many other things on the earth that have to be exactly the way that they are for life to exist.  All those things just couldn’t happen by accident.  That is one reason why many scientists, who don’t believe the Bible, still believe in creation. [End of quotes]

What about the sun and the moon?  Andy McIntosh, a visiting professor at Leeds and an adjunct professor at Mississippi State University, expounds on the anthropic handiwork of God and the perfect positioning of the earth, the sun, and the moon in his book, Wonders of Creation:

The sun shows remarkable design.  Its surface temperature of 5,527° C / 9,980° F is exactly right for radiating most of its energy in the visible spectrum.  If the sun was slightly cooler, there would be less intense light and the peak of the power felt would be in the infrared region, and life as we know it could not be maintained.  If the sun was slightly hotter, then the peak would be in the ultraviolet region which would be very harmful for life.  Earth is also in exactly the right position to receive the right amount of heat to sustain life.  Closer in to the sun, and the seas would evaporate—farther out, and the seas would freeze.

The sun’s energy provided by fusion shows that the sun is not billions of years old.  The evolutionary view of the sun’s formation is that the sun can only have been undergoing fusion reactions for the last 5 billion years and in it’s supposedly early evolution it was a much fainter star.  However, if that were true, then the sun would have had no power to support life (termed the faint young sun paradox).  For the Biblical timescale with a 6,000-year-old sun, this is not an issue.

Everything points to the sun being made precisely, and positioned exactly, for Earth to sustain life.  The true science of the solar system agrees with Genesis.

Everything is really showing that the moon is created and that its position, size, almost circular orbit, and the fact that it is approximately 400 times smaller than the sun but is 400 times closer than the sun (and thus total eclipses can take place), are all indicating that the moon is designed perfectly for its function.  As Lisssauer admitted in an article in Nature in 1997, “It’s not easy to make the moon!”  If man cannot, by natural processes, explain the closest celestial object without creation, how can he speak of the most distant objects with any authority? 

The moon has a cycle of 28 days and is thus used, as Genesis states, for signs and for seasons, in particular the lunar month.  Though astrology and worship of the moon is wrong, it is noteworthy that many cultures, such as the Mayans of South America, could predict with great accuracy not only eclipses of the sun, but also of the moon.  [End of quotes]

The Genesis Account, written by Dr. Jonathan D. Sarfati, makes this statement concerning “the lesser light:”    

Once again, we have “the lesser light” rather than explicitly the ‘moon.’ The moon is actually largely black, because much of its surface is covered with basalt.  But it looks white in the sky because it shines by reflected sunlight.

The moon is a remarkable satellite.  Its gravity is vital for life on earth because it’s the main cause of the tides.  They cleanse the ocean’s shorelines, and help keep the ocean currents circulating, preventing the ocean from stagnating.  They benefit man by scouring out shipping channels and diluting sewage discharges.  In some places, people exploit the enormous energy of the tides to generate electricity. [End of quote]

The Bible teaches that the sun and moon would be the earth’s chronometers.  John Hudson Tiner makes the following observations in his book, Exploring the World of Mathematics:

Ancient people quickly saw that the moon could be a celestial timekeeper.  The moon passed from a particular phase, such as full moon, back to the same phase in about 29.5 days.  The word month comes from the word moon.

A month was convenient for measuring longer periods of time. The United States and Canada have four distinct seasons: winter, spring, summer, and autumn.  The time from one season to the next was about three moons, or three months.  People could also plan events for those nights when the moon was full.  The harvest moon was the full moon falling closest to the first day of autumn (about September 21).  It gave farmers light to gather crops at night.

A year is actually due to the motion of the earth.  During a year, the earth makes a complete trip around the sun.  A person who is twelve years old has gone around the sun 12 times.   A person with an average life expectancy will travel around the sun 72 times in his or her lifetime.  [End of quotes]

Genesis 1:19:

And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

The book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, is one God-inspired truth after another—but you must have eyes to see.  Be of good cheer, child of God! Your Bible is true and righteous altogether.

GOD SAID, Genesis 1:14-19:

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

GOD SAID, Psalm 147:4-5:

4 He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.

5 Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.

GOD SAID, Isaiah 66:1:

Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?

MAN SAID: Look, the whole world can’t be wrong.  So, I’ll take my chances.  If there’s a God of the Bible and His Jesus Christ—and that’s a mighty big IF!—then, when I show up at the Great White Throne Judgment (if that’s real), well, They’ll just love me!  I think I remember that maybe the Bible said, “God is love,” right?  A well-reasoned plan, wouldn’t you say?

 

Now you have THE RECORD.

 

 

References:

Authorized King James Version

Blumner, R., Free Inquiry

Burgess, S., and McIntosh, S., Wonders of Creation, Master Books, 2018

Gish, D., The Amazing Story of Creation from Science and the Bible, Institute for Creation Research, 1990

GodSaidManSaid, “From the Very First Verse (The Genesis Series, Part 1)

GodSaidManSaid, “The 6,000s (Part 1)

Ham, K., Creation to Babel, Master Books, 2021

Mann, A., “Short Space Trips May Affect Health,” Science News, July 13, 2024

Sarfati, J., The Genesis Account, Creation Book Publishers, 2015

Tiner, J., The World of Mathematics, Master Books, 2004

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