The Fourth Day

Genesis 1

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 creates the heavenly bodies on the fourth day and they are identified as lights in the sky. These lights or starts have their own functions as God has ordained in His creation pattern. They are for:

• signs - indicators of events and messages
• seasons - indicators of appointed times for earthly purposes like farming, travelling, birth, death, etc.
• days - separator of days in addition to the evening and morning rotation of the earth
• years - indicator of counting years

Then the purpose of the sun (the greater light) and the moon (the lesser light) for lighting the day and night.

God made the sun and moon on the fourth day to show us that they are not needed to define the day. A day is the rotation of the earth since the first day. Typical question to the creationist is how can you get a day when the sun is only created on the fourth day. Now you know the answer.

More importantly, the stars in the sky had significant purposes which is mostly lost to us today. The bible tells us that the ancient civilizations had used the stars as indicators of time and dates long before we had our Julian calendar and our 24-hour clocks.

Job 38:31-32

31 Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?

32 Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus (the Bear) with his sons?

The constellation of stars bore meaning to the people of old. The Mazzaroth are the 12 specific constellations that aligned to 12 periods of a year. These are also aligned to the zodiac of today's astronomy names of the constellations.

God told us that He gave names to the stars.

Psalm 147:4

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

God must have told someone, if not Adam, at least some of the names of the stars since we know from the bible that God had made references to a few of them. EW Bullinger was one man who popularized the Jewish zodiac (Mazzaroth) to give it some biblical interpretations. The table below must not be held as a dogma but for special interest of research purpose only.

Zodiac Interpretations

Constellation	Picture	Interpretations
Virgo	Virgin	Virgin Mary
Libra	Scales	Sin must be paid for
Scorpius	Scorpion	Sin brings death
Sagittarius	archer	Demonism
Capricorn	Goat-fish	Earth corruption
Aquarius	Water pourer	Living water or Noah's flood
Pisces	Fish	God's remnant
Aries	Ram	Sacrifice
Taurus	Bull	Resurrection
Gemini	Twins	Christ's dual nature
Cancer	Crab	Gathering of redeemed
Leo	Lion	The King

This is now abused by astrology where people believed that the positions of the stars affect the lives of man. Horoscopes are used by millions to dictate the way they live on a daily basis instead of inquiring into God's word. The original intent by God is to depict messages and indicate events. These stars have no effect on the our lives at all. Satan has corrupted the Mazzaroth since Babylonian times and misled people away from God, the creator of the stars.

Evolution Objections

Evolutionists believe that the Big Bang cause the formation of gas and dust which somehow fusing into a mass over millions of years. Star birth has never been observed but star death can be seen over the centuries in the nova or super nova. This is really a theory to explain away God in the creation by replacing Him with natural laws. Where did the energy come to cause the fusion? Why is it that we cannot see a single star birth if evolution is still continuing?

There is no consensus as to whether the stars formed before galaxies or the other way round. The theory has gotten more complex and has serious problems as how a star gets the energy to form itself as compressing gas has limits according to the Gauss Law. Many say that it requires many stars to explode to form a star. Where did those original stars come from then?

Distant Starlight

Many evolutionists claim that since light travels at 186,000 miles per second and stars are many light years away, the world cannot be that young after all. But it is. Read How can we see distant stars in a young universe to find out more.

Scientists have found that the speed of light is not constant and has slowed down over the years. Which may mean that light traveled much faster in the past. Then again, time is different in different parts of the universe and seems to be affected by gravity. We find that a clock at a higher altitude moves faster than a clock at sea level. Einstein proved this using his theory of relativity and the example of the twin paradox to explain the dilation of time.

There are two twin brothers. On their thirtieth birthday, one of the brothers goes on a space journey in a superfast rocket that travels at 99% of the speed of light. The space traveller stays on his journey for precisely one year, whereupon he returns to Earth on his 31st birthday. On Earth, however, seven years have elapsed, so his twin brother is 37 years old at the time of his arrival. This is due to the fact that time is stretched by factor 7 at approx. 99% of the speed of light, which means that in the space traveller’s reference frame, one year is equivalent to seven years on earth. Yet, time appears to have passed normally to both brothers, i.e. both still need five minutes to shave each morning in their respective reference frame. (watch an animated video here).

What is more important for creationists to understand is that God made the stars on the fourth day and that observation from the earth can already see them in place. Then God stretched the heavens out from here so that we can continually see the stars but it is moving away from us (Psalm 104:2 "Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain", Isa 40:22, Job 9:8, Isa 42:5, Isa 51:13, Jer 10:12, Zec 12:1).

In 1929, Edwin Hubble published a paper that would lead to the realization that the universe was expanding. This means that at one time, it must have be stretched out from one place and according to the bible, that place is earth. At least that is what God implied when He created the stars on the fourth day.

A Wonder of Wonders in the Heavens

Do you know how many stars are there in the observable universe? CNN reported in a news article that there are 70 sextillion stars. That is 70 followed by 22 zeros or 70,000 million million million. There are more stars than all the sand on earth's sea shores.

The Civilizations of the Past in Telling Time
God made the stars and sun and moon to help man tell time. Before the invention of clocks, there were already mechanisms like sun dials and various calendars of different cultures that worked on the orbit of the moon as well as the seasons of the year.

Even today, we can devise a simple mechanism to tell time of day, month and year by looking at the pointer stars of the Big Dipper called Merak and Dubhe together with their alignment of Polaris, the North Star.



Note: More on calendars of the ancient civilizations to come.