Time’s Beginning

The Universe and the Bible:

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1 ESV)

Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. (1 Corinthians 2:6-7 ESV)

Among many other verses, the Genesis and 1 Corinthians passages, indicate that time does have a beginning just as current propositions of singularity suggest. Albert Einstein extended his Theory of Relativity beyond velocity effects and on to the acceleration effects between observers. The results were the ten field equations of General Relativity. Subtracting one set of these equations from another yielded the surprising result that everything in the universe is simultaneously expanding and decelerating. The only physical phenomenon which expands and decelerates at the same time is an explosion. But, if the universe is the aftermath of an explosion, then sometime in the past it must have had a beginning. There must have been a moment at which the explosion began. Unfortunately for Einstein (who did not believe in a creator), if the universe had a beginning, then there must be a Beginner. Even though Einstein’s own worldview initially kept him from adopting such a conclusion, astronomer Edwin Hubble soon proved that the galaxies indeed are expanding away from one another in the manner predicted by Einstein’s original formulation of General Relativity. Confronted with this proof, Einstein gave grudging acceptance to ‘the necessity for a beginning,’ and to ‘the presence of a superior reasoning power.’ Einstein’s work simply confirmed what the Biblical writers already knew. The universe was not eternal, but had a beginning. God created it, and He alone exists in that realm that exists “before time began”.

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