“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: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 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. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 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.” (Genesis 1:14–18 KJV)

It is interesting that God did not tell us about a vast ever expanding universe filled with galaxies, solar systems, planets, countless numbers of moons and suns,  – well, you get the picture. On the fourth day, God said “Let there be lights in the firmament of  the heaven…” – God made the sun, moon and the stars, placed them in the firmament with their purpose clearly explained – for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years,  for lights in the firmament of the heaven  and  namely – “to give light upon the earth: 

from Baptist theologian, John Butler…

It is important to note that all the lights in the universe (stars, sun, moon, etc.) were made for the benefit of the earth. The focus of creation, as recorded in the Scriptures, is on the earth. It is not on other planets or other civilizations which many educators and scientists seem to think are out there somewhere.

(John G. Butler, Volume 1 GENESIS to EXODUS (Analytical Bible Expositor 1; Accordance electronic ed. LBC Publications, 2012), 15.)

The lights that were made on the fourth day  – the  sun, moon and stars   are listed together in scripture a total of 14 times.

Gen. 37:9 And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. 

Deut. 4:19 And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven. 

Psa. 148:3 Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light. 

Eccl. 12:2 While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain: 

Is. 13:10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. 

Jer. 31:35 ¶ Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: 

Ezek. 32:7 And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. 

Joel 2:10 The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: 

Joel 3:15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. 

Matt. 24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

Luke 21:25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;

1Cor. 15:41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. 

Rev. 8:12 And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. 

Rev. 12:1  And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: 

It seems to me that God is very clear and consistent throughout scripture. The lights that were created to be placed inside our firmament to give light upon the earth were the sun, moon and stars.

PLANETS

“OK, so what about planets – certainly the Bible mentions planets?” The word “planet” means simply “wandering star”. According to space.com “The word is typically traced back to the ancient Greeks, who believed the Earth was stationary at the center of the universe while objects in the sky revolved around it. The Greek term asters planetai mean “wandering stars” and described the tiny lights that moved across the sky more dramatically than stars when compared over weeks and months.”

The planets (as we know them and as see them portrayed above) are not referred to in scripture; however the word “planet” is used in 2 Kings 23:5

“And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.”

The original hebrew word is מַזָּלָה mazzâlâh, maz-zaw-law’; apparently from H5140 in the sense of raining; a constellation, i.e. Zodiacal sign (perhaps as affecting the weather):—planet. Compare H4216.

Scientists tell us that currently there are 148 moons in our solar system . Not including the 27 other moons awaiting official confirmation of their discovery. This number does not include the six moons of the dwarf planets, nor does this tally include the tiny satellites that orbit some asteroids and other celestial objects.

We stray even further from what Gods word says when we look at the sun – well, actually science would correct the Bible and its use of the word “sun” mentioned 160 times in scripture. A sun in actually just a star..  A quick web search where we can “Ask an Astronomer”  

“A star is called a “sun” if it is the center of a planetary system. A large number of planets have been found that orbit other stars, thus making these stars officially “suns.” Chances are that a large percentage of the stars in the galaxy also have planets orbiting them, which would make them suns as well. The number of extrasolar planets that have been detected is increasing very rapidly, as we find new planetary systems. So a large number of the stars that you see are also suns. However, many objects in the night sky are not stars. You mentioned man-made satellites, planets and the moon. From earth, there are many other objects that we see as points of light, such as far-away galaxies, so not every point of light is a star!

From Ask.com “Earth’s solar system has only one sun, but if the word “sun” is taken to mean “any star with planets in orbit,” the Milky Way might have as many as 400 billion suns. If the observed ratio of approximately one planet per star is consistent everywhere, the observable universe might contain 10^24, or 1 septillion, suns’

Let’s stop right there for a moment.  According to science, the sun (created in Genesis 1:16)  is technically a star  – even though later in the verse God indicates ” He made the stars also” -which seems a little redundant on Moses’ part,  don’t you think?   Anyway, its now “o.k.” to refer to that star as the “sun” because “it is the center of a planetary system”.  I’m still a bit confused because I’m now left wondering why God chose to not mention planets. They must be important – since they technically make a star a sun?  And the only time the word “planet” is used in scripture – it is referring to stars. To further complicate matters, planets were originally (and probably correctly) once viewed as stars, but eventually given the name “planet” – which technically means “wandering star”  Interestingly enough, the greek word – ‘planeo” is the root of our English word – “planet”  – and means “go astray, get off course, deviate from the correct path”. The  verb “planeo” shows up 39 times in the New Testament…always referring to being led astray like sheep, , self deception, or deception by Satan… Speaking of wandering… I best get back to Genesis 1:16.

In addition to the sun  – the lesser light God created was the moon.  Originally the moon was (incorrectly) thought to be a planet – a throwback from when the geocentric view was en vogue. Science doesn’t have an official definition for a moon (also sometimes referred to as a satellite) other than to say that a moon is an orb or object that is in orbit around a more massive body ..i.e. a planet…(that presumably orbits a star) … presumably making that star a sun? Are you tracking with me here?  Who’s on first?

God is not the author of confusion and  its safe to say that Christians will have to do some serious twisting to align God’s Word  up with what science shows us to be “reality”

But What does God say

The word “sun”  is used 160 times in the Bible (KJV). Always singular, referring to the one particular greater light that God created to rule the day, to serve for signs, seasons, days and years, and placed inside the firmament, to separate light from darkness, and to give light upon the earth.  The sun moves and is not stationary. Out of the 160 uses in scripture, approximately  70 of those uses refer to movement or motion of the sun. The sun rises, sets, goes up, down,  goes fourth, and even stands still and moves backwards in the cases of Joshua and King Hezekiah. In the book of Ecclesiastes, the term “under the sun”  is used upwards of 27 times. Most believe the expression to simply mean “on the earth” while others suggest a more connotative  meaning of “in the physical world.”  Regardless of either meaning, the statement clearly identifies with the position and location of the sun in relation to the earth. While the scientific community would beg to differ with Solomon, claiming that “there is nothing new on the third planet from the sun”    – I’ll side with Solomon and his wisdom and  stand on the Word of God.

The word “moon” is used 62 times in the Bible (KJV). Always singular, referring to the one particular lesser light that God created to tule the night, to serve for signs, seasons, days and years, and placed inside the firmament to, separate light from darkness, and to give light upon the earth. According to Gods word – the moon is a light or “luminary” and does give off its own light.  As a side note, there are many that are performing simple experiments that seem to show that objects exposed to moonlight are cooler than objects shaded from moonlight.  – Very interesting.

In Genesis 1:16 – “light” refers to:

3974. מָאוֹר māʾôr, מָאֹר māʾōr: A masculine singular noun meaning luminary, a light. This noun is employed in connection with the lamp in the Tabernacle (Ex. 35:14; Lev. 24:2; Num. 4:16). It is also used to describe the heavenly lights in the creation story of Genesis 1:15, 16.

In I Corinthians 15:51, Paul says “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.”

So in conclusion – 1 sun, 1 moon and the stars -all for the benefit of the earth.  That’s it.

Do you really believe what the Bible says ?

 

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