Title: 13
Author: Joe G
Last saved by: Auth User
Company: GDC

© 2005 Joe Griffin		05-03-03.CC02-412 /

Charles Clough: Cosmologists Use Models, Not Direct Measurements, to Estimate Age of Universe with Conflicting Results; Peter’s Rebuttal, 2 Pet 3:10-18

ASTRONOMICAL "CLOCKS" AND THE BIBLE
I have shown how the two dating methods approach terrestrial evidences that are "local" to mankind.  Now I turn to extraterrestrial evidences that are "remote" from mankind.  Some of these so-called astronomical clocks are used to determine the age of the universe with such confidence that news media regularly report their ages as hard facts instead of modeled estimates.  From the biblical view, the universe has the same young age as the earth.  (p. 117)
For the pagan method to work in estimating the age of the universe, it has to cope with an additional problem that it avoids when estimating the earth's age.  The method can only utilize remote evidences, many of which are located in far-off outer space and not subject to direct measurement techniques.  For an astronomical clock to work, constants have to be extrapolated in space as well as time.
Layer upon layer of speculative thought is required to date the universe.  Great reliance is placed upon the relativistic theories of Einstein in order to model light travel and spatial geometry in spite of the fact that alternate theories (which are far less imaginative) exist that explain key experimental data.  The so-called "red shift" in incoming light toward the earth is explained exclusively in terms of Doppler effects which implies an expanding universe. Distances to nearby stars are calculated using trigonometry similar to ordinary surveying, but distances to far away stars are inferred using multiple assumptions.  Such computations extrapolate constants billions of times beyond the nearby "surveyed" stars.
Once an expanding universe model (with its multiple layers of conjecture) exists and the rate of expansion is thought to be known, then the age from a starting "big bang" can be computed.  What is often overlooked, however, is that the starting big bang is neither a creation-from-nothing nor an extrapolated physical process.  It is not an ex-nihilo creation because before the big bang there was something, if only a tightly condensed object.  Nor is it an extrapolated process because its explanation requires a different set of "natural laws"; the big bang amounts to a sort of pagan "miracle".  Thus the big bang theory involves an internal contradiction with the central pagan principle that "all things continue as they were from creation.”
The modern pagan method claims an age for the universe that varies from about 10 billion to about 20 billion years (with the stars apparently older than the universe!).  This age is the age from the big bang state to the present day. Nevertheless, such figures are confidentially trumpeted in the mass media as assured scientific "facts".  The term "fact" is deceptively used as though highly speculative model results are just as certain as directly observed phenomena.
Just as with the terrestrial clocks, however, the astronomical clocks do not all give consistent answers.  Here are some examples: (1) comets have very short lifetimes before they break up, and there is no clear source of resupply so that the age of the solar system seems no longer than 6000 years; (2) spiral galaxies are observed with straight "bars" but angular momentum calculations show that such bars can't exist more than 12.5 million years; and (3) since very massive stars burn up their energy much faster than less massive stars, they must be young in order to have such mass--probably less than 100,000 years.  (p. 118)
What about any historical observations that might touch on this matter of astronomical clocks? There are some historical observations that challenge the modern theory of evolution of stars. Stars are supposed to take hundreds of thousands of years to evolve from (1) protostar [A cloud of gas and dust in space believed to develop into a star.] to (2) main sequence star [Stars representative of the stages a normal star passes through during the majority of its lifetime.] to (3) red giant [A star that has low surface temperature and a diameter that is large relative to the sun.] to (4) white dwarf [A small hot whitish star of low intrinsic brightness usually with a mass approximately equal to that of the sun but with a density many times larger.].  Obviously, there are no direct observations of such a slow process.  There is, however, a set of historical observations of the star Sirius \sir' ē‑us\ [A star of the constellation Canis Major that is the brightest star in the heavens.]. These observations show that Sirius went "backwards" from a red giant to a main sequence star and did so in only 1000 years!
You should realize by now that dating methods for the earth or the universe are largely determined by one's chosen presuppositions about the nature of reality. Such dating is not rigorous, experimental science; it is conjecture and speculation of scientists who hold to a fundamentally pagan view of reality.  (p. 119)
40.	The move away from a biblically centered culture combined with a simultaneous advance in technology has caused the paradox of a modern society returning to the mythology of ancient pagan religions.
41.	The so-called scientific laws that are being taught in the field of “creation science” are the result of human viewpoint deluded into believing the lie due to rejection of the truth.
42.	It all boils down to verbal prestidigitation which has consistently been taught from grade school through university for over fifty years.
43.	The damage done is to convey the idea that there is no Creator, all life emerges by chance through natural selection, and there is no life beyond the grave.
44.	Therefore the idea of accountability to a Supreme Being Who is the Creator is lost.  Also lost is the realization that His management of history includes catastrophic events ending in the destruction of this universe after which there will be judgment upon those who believed the lie.
45.	Human history is brief, in fact, it is but a moment compared with the timeline developed by the faulty theories of creation science.  The Church Age will soon end and the time clock on universal history will begin ticking down to its final destiny of complete destruction.
2 Peter 3:10 -	But the day of the Lord [ end of the Millennium ] will arrive as a thief in the night in which day the heavens shall completely disappear with a great noise, and the structure of the universe shall dissolve with fervent heat [ nuclear fusion ] the earth also and the production of human good that is in it shall be burned up.
2 Peter 3:11 -	Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,
			NOTE:	This world is temporal and will be destroyed.  According to prophecy the rapture could occur at any moment.  According to prophecy the Second Advent would follow seven years later.  According to prophecy only believers—alive at the Second Advent or in resurrection bodies—will populate the Millennial Kingdom.  According to prophecy the universe will be destroyed 1,000 years later.  Then follows the judgment of unbelievers and the creation of the new heavens and the new earth.  In light of these things what should be your conduct?

v. 12 -	as you eagerly look forward to the day of God [ the eternal state ] and hastening its coming?  That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by nuclear fusion and the structure of the universe [ its matter ] will melt in the heat.
v. 13 -	 Nevertheless we [ believers ], according to the norms and standards of His promise [ of a new universe: Isaiah 65:17; 66:22 ], look forward in anticipation for new heavens and a new earth, in which indwells righteousness.
Isaiah 65:17 -	“For behold, I create [ ar*B* bara: to create ex nihilo ] new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.”
Isaiah 66:22 -	"For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me,” declares the Lord, “So shall your progeny and your name remain [ there will always be an Israelite remnant ]."
2 Peter 3:14 -	Because of which [ eschatology ] since you members of the royal family of God anticipate these things, be diligent that you may be discovered by Him in peace [ tranquility of soul ], without spot and blemish [ consistent use of rebound & spiritual growth ],
v. 15 -	and conclude that the patience of our Lord regards deliverance [ the final catastrophic event is being delayed to allow more to be saved ]; just as our brother Paul also according to wisdom given to him has written to you,
2 Peter 2:16 -	as in all his epistles, communicating these things in which some things are hard to understand which the unlearned [ ¢maq»j, amathēs: without learning due to negative volition to truth ] and unstable [ ¢st»riktoj, astēriktos: literally: without confirmation: belief in theories as fact in opposition to divine truth ] distort [ streblÒw, strebaloō: from the Classical stršblh, streblē: an instrument of torture; in the Koine, “to twist words so that a false meaning results,” i.e., verbal prestidigitation ], as they also do the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.
v. 17 -	Therefore, knowing this beforehand, be on guard lest being led astray [ aorist passive participle of sunap£gw, sunapagō: due to the reversionism of buying the lie they are caused to be led astray ] by the error of unprincipled men [ teachers unlearned in the principles of biblical truth ], you fall from your own steadfastness [ revert from a biblical worldview to a pagan worldview ].
v. 18 -	But grow up in the sphere of grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  To Him be glory, both now and to the day of eternity.  Amen.
46.	This passage by Peter amplifies several principles that we can extract from Charles Clough’s series:
•	The constants of natural law that have been accepted by those in cosmology and biology are based on presuppositions rather than hard evidence.
•	These presuppositions assume that present physical processes are the same as they were in the past.  This is known as uniformitarianism.
•	This ignores the biblical revelation of cataclysmic events such as the ex-nihilo creation of the earth and universe, the shutdown of the universe following Lucifer’s fall, the Restoration, the universal flood, the Second Advent, the miraculous restoration of the earth to Edenic perfection during the Millennium, and the destruction of the universe at its conclusion.  These things are classified as catastrophism.

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