the greatest story ever told!

DAY 4 - CREATING THE SUN MOON & STARS

We skip days six and five, for now, because we are mainly interested in the part of creation that has to do with the heavens and heavenly bodies. The main reason for this is that there is where there is an abundance of empirical evidence, making the job of determining and matching Evidence Profiles substantially easier than it would otherwise be. Just like the proof of zero entropy at the initial conditions of the universe made it easier to prove what Christ was doing when he performed his miracles during his three and half year earthly ministry. It would be impossible to substantiate, prove and link Christ's "work" to initial conditions, if we had gone in reverse order! Hence starting in the heavens is always the wise first step. That is what scientists have spent billions of dollars studying. And the evidence doesn't care if you believe in God or not. It doesn't care if you're an atheist. So Intellectuals have spent their self-focused lives, unwittingly collecting and collating all the evidence that proves Jehovah God to be the Creator. It is them who have collected the evidence that will prove to be their undoing - the end of their careers and prestige.

Here then are the details of Day 4:

The Sun & Moon & All the Stars Were All Made in ONE DAY

You should find those details most interesting. Why? Because in this verse we learn that all the red-shifting evidence for the stretching of Space occurred within a time period that is less than one seventh (1/7th) of the total age of the universe. How do we know? Because according to the principle of Critical Density, objects were only added as Space was being stretched. Which means Space was only stretched while heavenly objects - stars, galaxies, galaxy clusters etc. were being created! Since all the extraterrestrial creation, that is the creation in the Cosmos that happened outside of the earth, happened on Day 4, it means that is the only time that Space was stretched. Space was not stretched in any of the other creative days, for those days were focused on improvements that were made to the earth. For instance, Day 3 has the land appear and plants are created. Day 5 sees the creation of whales, sharks, and all life in the oceans, as well as all bird life. These events have nothing to do with creating the rest of the Milky Way galaxy, or creating the Andromeda Galaxy. Only those events would require a stretching of Space to maintain Critical Density. If only the Earth existed in the universe and it was at Critical Density with Space with a population of 1 billion people. Space would not have to stretch if over time Earth grew to have a population of 7 billion people. What happens on earth does not change the Critical Density of the universe - only the addition of other star systems requires such stretching. Hence, the immense value of the fourth creative day. By documenting that all such addition of celestial objects occurred in ONE CREATIVE DAY, Jehovah is telling us: that the stretching of Space from its size at initial conditions, to its current size, also happened - in that same day!

The Creative DAYS are not 24 HOURS LONG!

How could we possibly know that? Because Jehovah tells us so! He says quite plainly that the luminaries he is creating on the fourth day will serve "as signs for seasons and for days and for years." That makes it clear that the 24 hour day was only established from the fourth creative day - onward! Thus the description at the end of each creative day has nothing to do with the luminary based "signs for ... days" that Jehovah created luminaries to provide for mankind.

This realization will trigger an avalanche of questions to the thinking mind. There is a lot to unpack about Day 4, but in order to do so we have to go one step at a time - reading only what we find in Scripture. DO NOT ... never, go beyond what is written, and read your own biases and opinions into what you think God is trying to tell us. Rather LISTEN to what God is telling you about what he did - then you will understand! Be humble! That is why the twitter handle for The Greatest Story Ever Told is "Humility Decodes." Only when we are humble and listen to God - our Father - will we come to understand reality. We continue.

At the end of each creative day, Jehovah's account of his actions says, "And there was evening and there was morning...." In the case of the fourth day that statement in full is:

There reason this "fourth day" was not a 24-hour day is that it had the same period as all the other creative days, three of which had already occurred before the creation of the Sun, moon and stars on day four. IN OTHER WORDS, THIS DAY AND NIGHT AND HENCE THE LENGTH OF THE OVERALL DAY WAS NOT PRODUCED BY STARLIGHT!

A Fluctuating but NON-VARIABLE Light Source

What does that title mean? The reason the luminaries, all luminaries are signs "for seasons and for days and years" is because they have the opposite functionality to the light that provided the fluctuations of the creative days! For instance the Sun does not fluctuate, but its light is variable due to its relation to the Earth. Dawn, midday, dusk, and the full night are all variations of sunlight. Yet in all that time the Sun itself is shining with the same brightness! So how is variability achieved if the light source is constant? Through the relationship of the bodies in question. Galileo

If you understand Galileo's words, then you appreciate that even from the same source, time is measured differently for different heavenly bodies. For example in our solar system, the Sun is the one and only source of all daylight, but an Earth "day" has a different length from a Mars "day," which in turn is different from a Jupiter "day!" Likewise for the years. Such variable time is the measurement of the relationships between the different planets that form a solar system - and depends on the variable motions of the non-light emitting bodies. It depends on the size and orbit of the planets - not on the Sun itself. For instance, the starting and ending of the seasons on earth does not depend on the Sun - the light source - but on the tilt of the Earth. Hence the four seasons are a result of the four distinct stages of the Earth's yearly tilting 'cycle' as is evidenced by the equinoxes (spring and summer) and solstices (summer and winter). This means time is a nested reality. With the variable time being a subset of fluctuating time - which itself is a subset of absolute time! (As we will make plainly clear - shortly). For now, let us focus only on the first two subsets of time: variable time and fluctuating time - and the differences between them. Here is Newton:

As I said, for now we will not concern ourselves with "absolute" time. Thus, though the entirety of Newton's statement is true, we will only focus on the highlighted portion for now. What is of interest to us is that, "common time is any sensible measure of duration by means of motion! " Is that not fantastic, how brilliant was this man? It is the motion that creates the hours, days, months and years of "relative" or "common time." What is in motion? It is not the Sun, but the planets and moon! For, as Galileo pointed out, "the Sun remains fixed ... without changing its place." While the planets and moons - none of which produce their own light - each have a "circle" to their "heavenly bodies," in other words an orbit. As for us and our home planet, it is the Earth that "turning upon itself, moves round the Sun." The Earth turning upon itself creates the 24-hour day. And, its movement around the Sun creates a year. So the Sun doesn't fluctuate - it is always on! But its light produces variable effects, due to the "motions" of the planets that orbit it, along with their relative sizes. This is what God meant when he inspired the following statement to be recorded as Scripture:

The footnote for the phrase "turning of the shadow" reads Or, "variation or shadow caused by turning." From this scripture alone it becomes obvious that the Bible has never claimed that the Earth was at the center of the solar system. Clearly the conditions of varying shadows created by the "celestial lights," that is day and night, are an effect produced by something turning. Which thing? The planets not the Sun? If the Earth was fixed at the center and hence stationary (not turning), the turning of the Sun would not cause day and night, for the Sun generates light in all directions. This scripture is only talking about creating varying shadows through "turning," not orbiting! Remember what we agreed about previously, not reading what is not on the page. Read what Jehovah is saying. Not what you think he is saying. In the book of James, Jehovah is talking about the variations being caused by something "turning," not orbiting. The moon orbits around the Earth, but it does so without turning. I say that only to highlight that heavenly bodies can orbit without turning. Orbiting and turning are two different dynamics - a difference we have now duly noted. So, again, if two objects are stationary the Sun and Earth, at a certain distance from each other. Day and night would only occur on Earth, if the Earth was the object that was turning. If it was the Sun that was turning there would be no variation, for the Sun gives off equal amounts of radiation in all directions. One side of the earth would always have light (the side facing the Sun). And the other side would be in continual darkness. This is why we only see one side of the moon! Because it is locked in its orbit around the Earth - it is not "turning upon itself" as Galileo put it. So reasoning out how the system in Genesis 1:14-19 was set up to work, it is obvious to anyone who knows the Bible, that it is the Earth that moves, and not the Sun. The only way to reconcile James 1:17 with scriptures like Psalms 19:1-6 which speaks of the Sun emerging "from one of the heavens" and circling to their other end is to realize that the appearance of movement is created by the motion of the Earth not the Sun!

That ... is the value, and genius, of the Bible being hyperlinked! But our main point was that the "celestial lights" create their seasons, and days, and years by the variable motions of the planetary and satellite bodies of the solar system. For us that means the motion of the Earth in "turning upon itself" and moving "[a]round the Sun." While for the moon, it is from its monthly orbit around the Earth. But the more important point is that the radiation that is used for measuring the fluctuating conditions of night and day for the universe as whole does not function in this way. What's more it is UNAFFECTED BY IT. What do we mean? We can agree that on Day Four Jehovah creates the Sun and moon, together will all the stars! He then positions them to "shine upon the Earth" in order to be signs for seasons and days and years. Thus setting in motion the earth's orbit around the Sun and its daily completion of one revolution on its own axis. Yet, after all this was done. The universal clock of the creative days continued apace, for:

The universal clock was completely unaffected by all the changes that occurred on Day 4. You must realize how radically different the universe must have looked before and after Day 4. It went from having only planet Earth at its center, with an appropriate volume of Space surrounding, and containing the Earth; to being stretched to its current dimensions and having what scientists today call the "observable universe" - all in one creative day. By the way elsewhere we have shown why the observable universe is actually the whole universe. Further, we have stated that all the evidence always accumulates on one side - the side of the truth. This means when something is true, all the evidence conspires to prove it so. Put another way, no piece of evidence can be used against the truth - they all corroborate it. The statement about Jehovah creating all the stars to "shine upon the Earth" is just such a corroborating piece of evidence. When scientists make a distinction between the "observable universe" and the rest of the universe, it's because they have the mistaken view that, Space is currently being stretched, and thus some portion of Space now lies outside of our visual horizon. And since it is moving away from us faster than the speed of light, we will never see those stars. But that's not what God says. He created the stars with the distinct purpose that we should see all of them from Earth. He created them to all "shine upon the Earth!" That means there is no part of the universe that is not observable to us. In other words our current horizon, what scientists demarcate as the observable universe IS the universe! There is nothing else.

As an aside: I once pointed out to someone - who claimed to be a strong believer in the Bible - that the stars were created to all be seen from the Earth - the so-called "Axis of Evil" (named by God-hating Intellectuals masquerading as scientists). He asked me to prove it, so I told him to look up this passage of scripture. He read it and said it didn't say anything about the stars being positioned in the heavens so we could see them from Earth. I quickly realized I was talking to a dead tree and stopped the conversation short. All stars radiate their light radially, and the Bible nevers uses two words when one will do. God is the most economical being in the universe. There is no detail in the Bible that is unnecessary or redundant. Since stars give off their light in all directions, how could they not shine their light upon the Earth. Stating what seems to be obvious means there is a deeper layer - an Evidence Profile - to be uncovered that belies the true meaning of those - seemingly self-apparent words. For a fact, that detail in scripture, highlighted below within its scriptural context, is the key to understanding more fundamental truths:

That fundamental truth is that the positions of the stars in the heavens is such that their alignment is an information system - in and of itself! The layout of the stars in their star systems throughout the universe has a very specific and phenomenal relationship with regards to the Earth! As I said: this is known as the so-called "Axis of Evil," and is something we will discuss in detail, a little later. It has much to tell us about our loving God! Remember: "Everything we know about the universe empirically, we have learnt from light! Back to our story."

A principle reason that the radiation of the creative days is not affected by the variable systems of what Newton called - and we likewise will call - "common time" is that it is its own source of light. For instance, the moon is part of the variable machinery God set in order, as a sign to impart regularities in the passage of time, or as Newton put it in measuring certain aspects of "duration." For instance the moon gives us this information by going through its regular cycle of moon phases. And we know that a lunar month is completed every time the moon completes a cycle, going from full moon to full moon, as an example. Just like the Earth does, with its daily cycle measuring the "day and night." However, both the moon and the Earth would not be part of the Sun's system of measuring time if they were their own source of light! For instance it the moon, were like a mini Sun and actually produced its own light, IT WOULD NOT GO THROUGH MOON PHASES. IT, LIKE THE SUN, WOULD ALWAYS BE SHINING. This is obvious. Just like the Sun doesn't have phases, because it is the light source and produces non-variable light. In the very same way, the light that God used to determine the cycle of two equal periods of night and day for the creative days is its own source of light, and is thus not part of, and remains totally unaffected by the starlight systems Jehovah put into action on the amazing Day 4 of creation.

So, the light by which the creative days are measured in non-variable, in that it is not connected to any other systems - in a way that produces "a variation of the turning of the shadow!" (Ja 1:17) It is clear to us all that the Sun can only produce such varying shadows, because it is part of a Solar system, with planets. For clearly the varying shadows are produced on the planets and moons - and not on the Sun itself. As such, the light of the creative days has nothing to do with the natural processes that humans currently use to measure duration. It is not a part of those systems. We know that, because whether they exist, or in their absence - it continues, without interruption! But it does somehow fluctuate - otherwise, there would no universal night and day, the periods by which the creative days - are themselves measured. A careful reading of the historical account tells us two other ways in which it is different from starlight. It is global, or a more accurate term in this instance - universal. Secondly, the appearance of the stars did not affect its operation.

Global

I choose to use the term global, even though, in the case of the universe the better term might be universal, just because global has the more familiar meaning to everyone. Global in everyday language means affecting every place. Covid 19 was a global pandemic. And that's the sense that I want to convey. The light source of the creative days affects everyplace at once. For instance, the lighting conditions of the Earth before it was created was ...

You will note from verse 9 that land only appeared on Day 3 of creation. Our earlier reasoning about perfect thermal equilibrium also made it clear that at initial condition, if the surface of the spherical heavenly object was in liquid form, it would have to be one type of liquid globally. In other words the description of the Earth's condition "In the beginning" is scientifically accurate and meets the empirical requirements. So, we understand that the darkness was global. Then we have the advent of a light source. At that point, did the light source shine on only one side of the earth, or on all sides - globally? It was global! We know because Jehovah's next task was to make a division between the "light" and the "darkness." Think of it from the standpoint of the Earth receiving sunlight. If the light source of the creative days behaved like the Sun, would Jehovah have needed to make a distinction between the light and the darkness? Of course not, since that division occurs naturally, for the Sun can only ever shine on one half of the Earth's surface - the side that is facing it! With the other side being in darkness. "Celestial lights," that is, stars, always produce divided light effects: 50% light and 50% shadow. That is the insight behind scriptures like James 1:17 and Job 38:12-14. The fact that a division had to be created is telling us that the light was not partial but global. Have you heard the expression "darkness is the absence of light?" After he commanded Christ to form light, that light was everywhere. It shone on the Earth from all directions - unlike the behaviour of the Sun, and effectively, all starlight, which requires the Earth to "turn" in order for different parts to receive its rays. Thus, the "Day" portion of the creative days is global. Whereas all starlight can only directly shine on no more than 50% of the surface of the planets within their star systems - since they are spheres.

And ...

The point is that a spherical object lit by "celestial lights" will always have a shadow on roughly 50% of its surface. The "shifting shadows" are what cause the different phases of the day. They are what "transforms" deep night into dawn, and the early light of dawn into the glaring heat of midday etc. The Bible makes clear that such transformations are due to the operation of a turning motion of the Earth. When Jehovah in the book of Job speaks of the Earth as being "transformed like clay under a seal" he is communicating that the Earth turns! The were different ways that seals were implemented in ancient times. One popular way was through signet rings, where the seal was created by pressing a ring into heated wax, leaving the seals imprint on the wax. This is how they were done in ancient Israel. Another way was to use a cylindrical seal which had engravings round about. This kind of seal was used in conjunction with clay not wax. You would "turn" the cylinder upon moist clay, and it would leave a picture of what was engraved on the seal - on the clay. Job lived before the time of the nation of Israel, when the second method of cylindrical seal engraving was commonly used. It is obvious from the Evidence Profile of the methodology used that Jehovah is here referring to cylindrical seals and not signet rings, for one method uses a rolling, turning action to give effect and the other requires a pressing motion. Here is how a curator from The Met museum in New York, described how cylindrical seal engraving worked:

Figure 79 - Cylindrical Seals

The Story Unfolds

As the curator at the Met Museum said: "... You can't see the whole imagery. What's the point of the imagery, if you can't see it? One idea is that it's the actual act of rolling out the seal that has meaning...." Indeed. That's why, in referencing the interaction between Earth and Sun, the Bible, speaking of the Sun's apparent movement, says: "It is like a bridegroom emerging from the bridal chamber; it rejoices like a might man running his course. It emerges from one end of the heavens, and it circles to their other end; and nothing is concealed from its heat." In other words, "the actual act" is the "meaning." And this wonderful interplay between the Earth and the Sun plays out everyday - with benefits for all living things on the planet!

Watching the Met video, will give you a clear understanding of why the turning action is critical, as the curator explains. Her last point is the most relevant, for it is the Evidence Profile we are looking for. Without motion, you cannot see the whole inscription, because its on a 360 degree cylinder. As she says: "It's the actual act of rolling out the seal that has meaning...." That is what Jehovah God is communicating to Job in the quoted verses. Since God used the word picture of a cylindrical seal and clay, we must see how those two variables relate to the Earth and the "dawn." Firstly, the 'subject' in Jehovah's illustration is the dawn - that is was is being "transformed" like clay. Hence the Earth is the seal, since there are only two variables. What is it about the Earth that allows the dawn to be transformed into full morning, so that "things take their station as in clothing" as the NWT with References renders the end of verse 14? Well with the cylinder, it is "the actual act of rolling out the seal that has meaning." Translated to the Earth/dawn scenario, it is the actual rotation of the Earth that causes the dawn to "know its place" and "transforms it like clay under a seal." The 500 or so cylindrical seals housed at The Met are of Akkadian origin according to the curator. Near the end of the video she tells us that these cylindrical seals form part of the "Near East" and that holding and interacting with these artifacts now makes her realize "that someone else held it and used it 4000 years ago." Job was written in 1473 B.C.E. and covers 140 years that lie somewhere between 1657 and 1473 B.C.E. In other words events that happened about 3500 + years ago. Job, the Bible tells us, was "the greatest of the people of the East." I make these two points to show that the environment and time of Job's life matches exactly with when such cylindrical seals when in use and popular. So Jehovah was using an item that Job was familiar with - perhaps owned examples of - to illustrate what no one at the time knew - the Earth moves! And it is the turning of the Earth that causes night and day not the non-existent orbit of an Earth-circulating Sun! Job's response is humbling:

Humility Decodes.

But what about the darkness? If after Genesis 1:3 there was now light everywhere, how would God effect darkness? You know the answer. Turn off the light. This is confirmed for us in verse 5:

Did you catch it? Recall that at this point Jehovah has not yet put the seasons and the measuring of "common time" into effect - i.e., as of yet, there is no "variation of the turning of the shadow" as spoken of in James. Or as the footnote put it: "Or, variation or shadow caused by a turning." In other words, Jehovah has not yet started the Earth's rotation. Of course the Earth turning on its axis would mean nothing when light was shining on it globally - from all angles. No part of the Earth could become dark under such conditions. Verse 5 confirms that God turned off the light to again have darkness. This is because he called the light "Day!" Put another way, the opposite of Day is Night, and if Day is defined as light, then it means Night is defined as the absence of Day - or light. So to review, the difference between these two light sources and the way they operate is: the light established on the fourth creative day is from stars and has following features of interest: it does not fluctuate - but is continual; it needs a second object to create the effect of night and day; it needs a rotating object to make that effect variable - in other words, to make night and day alternate at a specific location on Earth - otherwise the Earth will always have light on one side and darkness on the other. Whereas the light of the creative days is does not need a second object to create night and day: it would've been dark in the universe when it was turned off even if there was no Earth! Secondly it creates Day and Night by fluctuating on and off like a strobe light. This means for the light of the creative days, Day and Night is not an effect, but a reality. For instance if it is nighttime where you live, you can get on a plane and travel to where it is daytime. Or you can go and live in places near the Earth's poles at certain times of the year, when there'll be continuous light for months at a time (depending on the Earth's tilt). But with the light of the creative days, you cannot do that. When it is Night - there is no light, no matter where you are in the universe (before the events of the fourth creative day). Also when it lighted the Earth in the first three creative days, it did so without the Earth having to rotate, because its light is global.

The fourth difference is the one you need to pay particular attention to. All starlight is local in ability to create the effects of day and night. When see stars in our night's sky, they don't turn our local conditions into daytime. Only our local, host star, the Sun can do that. Of course, if you were on an exoplanet in another solar system, the Sun would have the same effect on you there - it would not be able to cause daylight on the exoplanet. So starlight does not scale across the universe. But things are different with the light of the creative days. On days four, five, six and seven the Day and Night of the creative days continued apace. For, at the end of each of those creative days the Bible account says: "And there was evening and there was morning, a ... day." This is even though we know that the size of the universe changed dramatically from Day 3 of creation to Day 4. After Day 4, Jehovah maintained the Critical Density of the universe by no longer stretching Space, because he had finished creating all the stars and galaxies. They were all created in one creative day - Day 4. But if the light of the creative days is fully scalable, why don't we see it today?

Where is this Special Light?

That's the obvious question. And the first part of the answer comes from realizing that its fluctuations have an intrinsic period of long duration. In our solar system the Sun creates a night and day effect on 8 planets. Here they are with the length of the periods. A period is the length of time required to perform one complete cycle of night and day. Mercury takes 1 408 hours; Venus 5 832 hours; Earth 24 hours; Mars 25 hours; Jupiter 10 hours; Saturn 11 hours; Uranus 17 hours; and Neptune 16 hours. You can tell by the figures that the outer planets spin really fast. But our point of interest is that with light from stars, the period is determined by the planets, not the light source. With the light of the creative days, we already know that it determines the period of Day and Night. Since we haven't seen any changes in dramatic changes in the night sky throughout human history, we can assume that the period of the light of the creative days is very long. The Bible confirms this. For in it, we are told that the universe is still in the seventh creative day!

This passage of scripture makes several things clear. First, there is a marked difference between the length of the creative days and the 24 hour earthly day. Verses 6 and 7 contrast when the invitation for people to enter into God's rest was first made at the time Joshua was to lead the nation of Israel into the promised land. But verse 7 says "long afterward in David's psalm." Now the Psalms were written around 460 B.C.E and the Israelite campaign of conquering the promised land started in earnest in 1473 B.C.E - more than 1 000 years prior. So the length of the creative day is longer than 1 000 at the very least. But we know from Genesis, that it started soon after Adam and Woman were created. (Jehovah didn't create Eve, he created Woman. Woman later had a name change to Eve after the downfall of mankind.) We can trace Adam's creation through accurate Biblical chronology to 4026 B.C.E. That' another 2 553 years prior. I will not include our times in the calculation because I'd have to furnish proof and that's not the focus of our current topic. However, at the very least we realize that the creative days, which were all of the same length with the seventh day must have been at least - 3 500 yeas long. This is one reason why we don't see regular changes in the lighting conditions of the universe: the period of the creative days is extremely long! To make it perfectly clear: the universe was not created in six 24-hour days! There is a much deeper reason why the light of the creative days seems to be missing from our night skies, but we will get to that in good time. For now, let us deal with a much more urgent matter - the seemingly back to front order of appearance between plants and the Sun!