When he was working on his theory of the universe, Dr. Humphreys decided to let the Scriptures guide him in his thinking. He saw that in many places (like in Job 26:7) the Bible talks about God “stretching out the heavens” during the Creation Week mentioned in the Book of Genesis. Humphreys realized that if this was true, then it could solve one of the greatest problems in astronomy for the creationists. We had always wondered, if the world is only 6000 years old, how is it that we can see stars and galaxies that are thousands or millions of light-years away. Shouldn’t it take thousands or millions of years of time for the light to get from there to here, for us to be able to see it? Creationist theories on the universe at that time had some pretty difficult problems associated with them. Humphreys discovered what he thought (and now most creationists believe) is the best explanation. God stretched space when He made the universe.According to the Bible God didn’t make the sun, the moon, the stars, or the other planets until Day Four of the Creation Week. Up to then, the only thing in the whole universe was planet Earth. So there was nothing yet that had very much gravity. The gravity of Jupiter is more than twice as strong as Earth’s. The sun’s gravity is 25 times stronger. Albert Einstein said that gravity can slow down time, and many years later he was proven right. He also said that anyone who is moving through space at near the speed of light will also experience time being slowed down for them. Both these proven facts of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity can be shown to go hand-in-hand with both the Bible and with Humphreys’ theory on the universe. Here’s how his theory works.
White Hole Cosmology Made Easy!
ctf • January 15, 2011
In the 1990’s Dr. D. Russell Humphreys came out with his theory on the origin of the universe. Dr. Humphreys is an award-winning physicist retired from the U.S. government installation at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. He is also a Biblical young-earth creationist. He became famous for correctly predicting how strong the magnetic fields would be for the planets Uranus and Neptune, before the space probes got there to measure them. By contrast, NASA’s predictions were nearly a million times off! In 2008, Humphreys accurately predicted the weakening of the magnetic field of the planet Mercury from 1975 to then. He is a solid scientist and also a Bible-believing Christian gentleman.
At first, there was very little gravity anywhere in space, since Earth was the only thing that had been made yet. Time would have gone along quite normally as long as only Earth was there. But on Day Four, suddenly God made all of the stars and the galaxies with all of their huge amount of gravity. Now, according to Einstein, gravity makes a kind of a dent in space, a lot like a bowling ball in the middle of a trampoline. Inside this dent caused by gravity, time will go slower. Earth would have been like a marble on the trampoline, hardly making a dent in the fabric of space-time at all. Galaxies full of stars would be much heavier, and would have much greater gravity. Think about the example of the trampoline again. All the new gravity sources on Day Four, would all pull the fabric of space-time down very deeply. This would be like putting ten bowling balls on the trampoline all at once. This next part is not hard to understand. It is just hard to believe. But the math and the physics and the astronomy all work out correctly.
If the “trampoline” of space is pulled down far enough, then time will slow down so much (because of the gravity) that it will actually stop. So, time stopped everywhere on Day Four of the universe. Then why do we have time today? The answer is simple. God kept stretching out the universe. Let’s go back to the trampoline. Let’s say you did put a marble in the middle. Nothing much would happen. Then let’s say you put ten bowling balls on the trampoline. The center the become so heavy, it might even sag down and touch the ground. This is like time coming to a halt. But if God is continually “stretching out the heavens,” think of what would happen next. Imagine you got a large group of friends to all gather around the trampoline, and all of them grabbed around the edges, and all of them pulled as hard as they could. They might be able to pull it tight enough that the middle of it, bowling balls and all, would lift up off of the ground. This would represent time being hoisted back into operation on the stretched-out fabric of space in the universe.
Now which part of the trampoline will get back up off the ground first? It will be the part in the areas around the center. Which part will finally come up off the ground last? It will be the very center itself. Creationists make the one assumption that our Earth is someplace near the center of the universe. That means that time would have started back up again around the edges of the universe first, because of God stretching it from around the edges. When time started back up at the edges first, the light from all of the galaxies at the edges, would have immediately taken off (at the speed of light) in all directions. Meanwhile, Earth is still stuck in the center where time is yet standing still. The light would have had plenty of “time” to get from there to here, before time were to begin again at our location, which is nearer to the center of the “trampoline” of space. So, it really did take millions of years of space-time for the light from the other galaxies to get here to Earth. But meanwhile, no time had passed on Earth, since the stretching had not yet pulled Earth and its neighboring stars up out of the “time dent” yet. So really, no time passed on Earth during Day Four, until time had begun again in our place near the center part of the universe.
This might seem pretty complicated. The reason for that is that we are not used to thinking about time the way it really must be. We only experience it from our own point of view. What about God’s point of view? What about the point of view of the universe? Which way is the true way? God says in His Word, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.” Jesus said, “before Abraham was, I am.” Both these statements are confusing to us. It almost sounds like Jesus made a grammar mistake when He said that! Time is different for God, because He is eternal. He is infinite. We are not infinite. That is why we have troubles even understanding the meaning of His words in either of these statements. If time means nothing to God, then Jesus is dying on the Cross at Calvary … right now. What does that mean? Maybe it would be easier to think of time being like a huge paper map (or even just a history time-line on paper). Then Jesus could be seen dying on the Cross “over there” in time, while we are looking at our map (or time-line) “over here.”
Here’s another way to think of it. Time for us, is like watching a parade through a hole in a wooden fence. Time for God, is like watching the parade from a traffic helicopter. He sees the beginning and the ending, both at the same “time.” If we can think of time in this way, then just maybe we can get a tiny part of our thinking right, about how God made the universe when He did. From everything that we can learn from the infallible Scriptures and from the proven sciences, Dr. Humphreys’ explanation has become the best one that goes along with confirming what we see both in Scripture and in science.
One of the most important ministry focuses CTF has is the Sharp Institute for Biblical Worldview Studies (SIBWS). Dr. Sharp began this division of our ministry in 2005 because of a specific call from the Lord. As Doc would share often, the Lord challenged him. He saw that even with all of the programming and books sold in the church programs that we did year after year, and as impactful and Kingdom-building as that was, when we left there was most often no one in the local body to continue our message and teaching on Genesis 1-12 and its importance to the Gospel. The Lord directed Doc to multiply the teaching and mission of CTF in the local body. So Doc heard the call and accepted the challenge, as he always did from the Lord, and IBWS was born. Doc called a few people to join him for study that first meeting of the IBWS at a dude ranch in north Texas. I was one of those first invited to come and study, as many of you know from my personal testimony shared over the years. It was Providence that directed me to this Cadre study group and laid the foundation for me to be in the position I am today. As the four of us in that first group studied, the Lord connected, emphasized, and exhorted the importance of Genesis in our worldviews. When I left that first meeting, I was full and ready to teach and preach what the Lord had just challenged and changed in my worldview. Now, 21 years later, Doc’s original calling and direction for the IBWS continues. Over the course of these years, 146 members have completed the training. Each one has been challenged to use what they have learned wherever the Lord places them in ministry. For some it is from the pulpit, others are in vocational student ministry, and some have been called to primarily impact their own families with worldview training. We send them off with all of our outlines and presentation slides to help accomplish this task. It is quite exciting to look back and see what the Lord has done through this endeavor. Ryan and I literally might not be where we are today if we hadn’t first studied in our Cadre program. When Doc retired and passed the mantle of the presidency to me in 2018, it seemed fitting to honor his enduring call to Biblical worldview training by renaming the Institute to bear his name. So now it will forever be called the Sharp Institute for Biblical Worldview Studies. Over the course of its history we have had consistent numbers of invited members desiring to learn more of the Word of God. However, we have never had a consistent location to provide the training. It’s through the generous offerings of borrowed church facilities that we have been able to continue SIBWS without a home of its own. It is time to change that. We are in need of our own facility to house the SIBWS presently and for future expansion of this CTF ministry division. We have been pursuing different options, from renovating our present office building to the purchasing of additional space. Providence would have it that 2 doors north of our offices there is a property for sale. It is a great fit for the SIBWS Cadre program needs, and it would also provide room for our books and resources department to expand out of its present cramped space. It has a room for a training facility, a kitchen (needing renovation), dining room options, possible sleeping quarters for a Cadre member in need, 3 bathrooms and a shower, parking out back (which we have been blessed to utilize for years by permission), and the afore mentioned room for our books and resources department. We have no idea how we could ever afford such a property without the Lord’s help, as we are devoted to being as debt free as possible moving forward in this ministry. In the midst of seeking the Lord for this need to be met, He has already sent us a generous offer of a $100,000 matching gift toward the purchase of a property , even if the building up the block is not the one. Truly, our financial position has never been more blessed at any other time in our history than at present, being completely debt free. So, I share all of this to ask for your prayers as we move forward to find a solution to our need of a home for the SIBWS and it’s continued effectiveness for the Kingdom. Also lift up the matching gift offer: I must exhort you to seek the Lord if you are one to help us do what, at this moment seems impossible, to purchase property without incurring debt . The mission of CTF is accomplished month in and month out with the exceeding blessings of churches, family members, and individuals that support us. The Lord’s faithfulness through all these years is unmistakable and we look forward to seeing Him do more of the impossible. May the Lord bless, keep, and challenge you for His Kingdom!
The First Prayer In Congress by T.H. Matteson, 1848