God Stretcheth Forth The Heavens
by David J. Stewart
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Isaiah 40:22, "It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in."
God's greatness is truly unsearchable. God is awesome!!! Isaiah 40:22 proclaims that God stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, as a tent to dwell in. Astronomers have determined that there are at least billions of trillions of stars, having no idea of the total number of stars. Billions of trillions!!! That number would have this many zeros behind it... 000,000,000,000,000,000,000!!! No one knows how many stars there are!!!
Even more amazing is that the Bible says God knows the exact number of stars and has a name for each and every one of them, calling them all by name...
Psalms 147:4-5, "He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names. Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite."
On a clear night, as viewed from earth, the human eye can see only about 4,000 stars. Our atmosphere prevents many of the stars from shining through. The earth has a thin layer of air that is only 50-miles thick, which causes the stars to twinkle as viewed from ground.
The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in the year 1990 and has since sent back tens-of-thousands of striking images of the universe. The images are nothing less than breathtaking, further testifying to God's omnipotence and creativity. Just look at how beautiful the picture below is of the M1 Galaxy...
It's exciting that the James Webb Telescope will be launched in 2018, travel 1,000,000 miles away, and then look deep into the depths of the universe and take pictures. If the Lord tarries His return, the images will no doubt be unbelievable and open man's understanding further into how God's universe works.
Just to give you an idea of how enormous the universe is in comparison to our tiny earth, take a look at the following images. Notice how giant the planet Jupiter is in comparison to our earth. You can see the storms on Jupiter, where wind speeds average over 700 miles per hour! An average storm on Jupiter is bigger than the area of the United States! The image below represents the smallest planet in our solar system, Pluto, as compared to Earth and our solar system's largest planet Jupiter.
This following image represents the size of Earth as compared to Jupiter and our brilliant Sun. Earth could fit inside Jupiter approximately 1,300 times. Jupiter could fit inside the Sun more than 900 times. Approximately 1,200,000 Earths could fit inside the Sun! Wow!!! Our sun is 93,000,000 miles away from Earth, the perfect distance. God knew exactly what He was doing my friend when He spoke the universe into existence by the very Word of His mouth.
Now prepare to be amazed my friend! The image below represents the size of our Sun compared to the giant star Arcturus and the biggest known Sun VY Canis Majoris. These huge stars are several hundred million times larger than our Sun. Remember, you could fit 1,200,000 Earth's inside the sun, and now look at how big VY Canis Majoris is in comparison!!!
This image represents the size of our Sun compared to the giant Sun Arcturus and the biggest known Sun VY Canis Majoris. These huge stars are several hundred million times larger than our Sun. The Bible mentions the star Arcturus, and star constellations Orion and Pleiades. God is the ultimate astronomer, for He created the universe...
Job 9:2 and 8-9, "I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God? ...Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea. Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south."
Job asks the question... How can a mortal man be justified with such an immortal, omnipotent and fearful God? It is impossible with man. Ah, but God in His love (Who created the stars for man and not man for the stars), promised the gift of eternal life before the world even began (Titus 1:2). God's plan of redemption for mankind was already laid out, ready to go before God even spoke the universe into existence.
God's plan of redemption for mankind is nothing less than breathtaking. God Himself (the Godhead, Colossians 2:9--King James Bible) became incarnate upon the Earth in the flesh of the man Christ Jesus. Jesus lived a sinless, perfect life in every sense (1st Peter 2:22). Jesus was despised and rejected of men, betrayed by one of His own Apostles, and crucified as a common criminal for simply telling the truth.
John 1:12-13, "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
Thank God for the gift of His dear Son (Ephesians 2:8-9), Jesus, the Christ; Who came to earth in the flesh and died for our sins, and He was buried, and rose again triumphant three days later (1st Corinthians 15:1-4); Jesus ascended into Heaven (Acts 1:9)and is now seated on the right-hand of the heavenly Father; interceding as High Priest for every born-again Christian believer (Colossians 3:1-2; Romans 8:34; Hebrews 4:15-16).
1st Peter 2:24, "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed."
I believe God created these massive heavenly bodies to impress mankind, I really do. God made a giraffe's neck long so we could admire it, and the beauty of a peacock's feathers, and the glow of the firefly... God wants to be admired and praised. God created mankind in His own image. Thus, we like to have our work admired and to be praised for our accomplishments in life.
God made men to desire praise, which to a humble degree is acceptable and proper. If someone compliments our music or our cooking, that is acceptable in the eyes of the Lord, for He hath made us in His image to desire praise, love and admiration for our works. The important thing is that we redirect any praises given to us to the Lord, Who giveth to men all good things. A man or woman who receives praises and fails to return them to God is sinfully proud and arrogant. It is wrong to seek the praises of men more than the praises of God (John 12:43). God must come first! Does God praise our works? Does God praise our attitude, our spirit, our intentions, our ways? Seek God's praises!!!
The Bible teaches that God created the stars for mankind, as lights in the night sky, and to show us the seasons and signs (Genesis 1:14).
Can you imagine a Being so powerful, that He could simply speak and a universe could come into existence? And so it is...
2nd Peter 3:4-9, “And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
What precious Scriptures! The New Testament Epistle of 2nd Peter addresses the question of "WHEN" will Jesus Christ return as He so promised? There are numerous passages of Scriptures, two such passages are John 14:1-2 and John 16:22. There are many more where the Lord promised to return for His saints. The Apostle Peter, speaking under inspiration as God's pen, tells us that God is waiting for men to repent (Verse 9).
I believe the Lord is going to return when the gospel is no longer being preached and the world, as it was in the days of Noah, will not listen anymore (Matthew 24:37-39). The people ate, drank, married and partied; but forgot about God entirely. Noah preached Christ's righteousness for 120-years but no one listened to the gospel. Only Noah and his immediate family (8 souls) stepped onto the ark. The world perished and went to Hell.
As more corrupt Bibles are published, and as homosexuals and wicked people corrupt the truth of God into a lie, and as men sell their souls to the New World Order... Jesus said...
“...Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8).
The implied answer is a resounding... No, No, No!!!
Our churches today are saturated with the demonic Lordship Salvation teaching, which says that a person must try really hard to stop sinning in order to be saved. They wrongly understand this to be the meaning of repentance in the Bible. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Take for example, Mark 1:15 ere Jesus proclaimed
Astronomers have discovered that galaxies are composed of hundreds-of-millions of solar systems. Our our ten-planet solar system is a part of the massive Milky Way Galaxy, which is 70,000 light-years across. If man could travel at the speed of light, it would take an astronaut 1,000 lifetimes (70-years each) to get from one side of the Milky Way to the other. Yet, our Milky Way Galaxy is merely one of billions of visible galaxies. The Hubble Space Telescope has revealed the presence of at least 200,000,000,000 galaxies to astronomers. Each galaxy contains hundreds-of-billions of stars.
God lives in eternity where there is no time. Mankind lives within the framework of time which God created. This is why a day is as a thousand years with the Lord and a thousand years as a day with God.
Also, astronomers have discovered that galaxies rotate. It also appears that the universe is constantly expanding, but they really don't know for certain what is going on. The truth is that the best and brightest scientists in the world cannot even explain how the atom works. They are perplexed, still searching for smaller unknown particles. Mankind has only tapped into the smallest part of God's creation and cannot even restore life to an ant. It is a marvel why men challenge God and tempt His hand of judgment. God has been so good to us. Remember that when you're eating such awesome foods and beholding God's beautiful creation.
Isaiah 44:24, "Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself."
Isaiah 44:13, "The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house."
God is Truly Amazing! I was researching our own solar system and found out that the planet Jupiter has constant massive hurricane-like storms with wind speeds in excess of 700 MPH. Wow! Due to the dense atmosphere and greenhouse effect, surface temperatures on the planet Venus rise upwards to 900 degrees Fahrenheit daily (hot enough to melt lead). The atmosphere of the ninth planet from the sun, Pluto, is composed of frozen liquid gel.
No wonder Romans 1:20 in the Bible teaches that there's no such thing as an atheist. The Bible plainly teaches that mankind can CLEARLY see the invisible things of God by the things which are made... so that THEY ARE WITHOUT EXCUSE! That's exactly what Romans 1:20 says in the trustworthy King James Bible (please don't use any modern Bibles because they are all corrupt). Only the King James Bible has been tried and tested over the centuries. Only the King James Bible is NOT copyrighted. Greedy men and women have corrupted the Bible to make more money. It is evil.
God has stretched forth the universe so mankind would be amazed at God's greatness and praise His holy name. Blessed be the name of the Lord!!!
Zechariah 12:1, "The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him."
What an incredible truth to know that there's a supernatural Being so powerful as to create a universe by the Word of His mouth (2nd Peter 3:5).
2nd Peter 3:5, "For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old..."
Could the universe surrounding us have just "happened?" Could it be that all of the planets are aligned in perfect balance just by chance? Could it be that the sun is a perfect distance from the earth by chance? The planet Mercury's hot side reaches a scorching 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Yet the planet Pluto is so cold that it has an atmosphere composed of gel.
In this ultraviolet image of the Sun, a prominence arcs thousands of miles above the solar surface and white patches reveal magnetically active regions. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, SOHO, returned this image in 1997. It's one of many spacecraft dedicated to monitoring our star. NASA / SOHO
Can you imagine an omnipotent, supernatural, God that can speak a sun into existence? Our solar system's sun burns continually at MILLIONS of degrees!!! Think about this! The sun burns continually at millions of degrees, converting hydrogen into helium through thermonuclear fusion. How could God merely speak a functioning thermonuclear generator (the sun) into existence? Wow! I can't even comprehend the scope of such a grand miracle!!!!!! God spoke trillions-of-billions of such star into creation
Yet, as awesome as creation is to behold, I believe that the Bible makes much more sense than the lies of evolution which claim the universe just happened.
Think of all the millions of stars and planets, isn't it strange that the ONLY life is found on earth? The earth is tilted on its axis and rotates at 23.5 degrees. The earth's magnetic poles protect the earth from harmful electromagnetic radiation from the sun. A temperature change on average of even a few degrees would mean total disaster.
Even if we try to imagine there is no God, the universe around us is a constant testimony of God's presence, power and goodness. There definitely is a God! It is the ONLY logical conclusion. The Bible itself declares that the universe around us testifies of a Divine Creator...
"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard." (Psalm 19:1-3)
How big is the universe? Can the universe have an end? Is this possible according to the laws of science? Psalm 147:4 reveals that God "...telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names." There is a certain number of stars and only God knows EXACTLY how many there are.
God is truly Amazing! God loves you and wants you to be present in Heaven with Him when this life is over. The promise of the Lord's coming is on the horizon. It could happen at any moment.
"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (2nd Peter 3:9)
