February 24, 2022 | Silver Spring, Maryland, United States | Ted N.C. Wilson, President, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
TW: Greetings, friends! On December 25, 2021, something spectacular occurred—the James Webb Space Telescope, identified as “the most complicated and expensive space observatory in history” soared into space, bound for its destination 1.4 million kilometers from Earth. Costing $10 billion US dollars, the Webb Space Telescope is, according to the scientific journal, Nature, “humanity’s biggest gamble yet in its quest to probe the Universe.
NW: The telescope stands three stories high and has a gold-plated mirror that is 21 feet, or 6.4 meters, across. It has a sunshield the size of a tennis court that will keep it an incredibly cold minus 370 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 223 Celsius. In preparation for its launch on a high-powered rocket, the entire telescope was folded up like a giant origami creation.
TW: During its 1.5 million kilometer, 29-day journey to its destination point, this modern-day wonder is designed to unfold itself piece by piece until it is completely unfurled into a vast honeycomb-like structure. According to Günther Hasinger, director of science for the European Space Agency, the unfolding process is something like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis–although this is a very large, expensive, and complex butterfly!
NW: Once it reaches its destination and cools to its incredibly cold temperatures, this amazingly designed telescope will be able to pick up glimmers of distant galaxies and other cosmic objects in infra-red wavelengths. With its infra-red vision, it will “be able to penetrate dust-swathed regions such as the places where stars are born, and to probe the atmospheres of planets beyond the Solar System,” says the scientific journal, Nature.
TW: This amazing space telescope is the result of many decades of painstaking research, detailed planning, and very complex engineering by a multi-national team of astrophysicists, astronomers, engineers, and other scientists who together created this technological wonder. It is designed to accomplish what no other space telescope has been able to do– peer deep into the cosmos and see light from what scientists believe are the earliest galaxies to form, after what they term, the “Big Bang.” As the scientists peer into what they believe is the dawn of time, they will be searching for signs of life. “It’s the beginning of one of the most amazing missions that humanity has conceived,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’S head of science, during a webcast from the launch site.
NW: While this is, indeed, an amazing achievement, what is so ironic is that most people who freely acknowledge the detailed design and engineering of this man-made marvel, do not see that the vast universe this space telescope is meant to explore, was designed, engineered, and created by an all-powerful God who spoke worlds into existence.
TW: We read in Psalm 19, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard” (vss. 1-3). And in Hebrews 11:3 we are reminded, “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” Friends, our existence, the existence of this world, and of the entire universe, comes from the power of our Creator God.
NW: The very first words of Scripture affirm the fact that “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). If we don’t believe the beginning of God’s Word, upon what basis would we believe anything else written in its sacred pages?
TW: The fundamental belief of Creation is absolutely foundational to who we are and what we believe and practice as Seventh-day Adventists. It reads as follows:
NW: “God has revealed in Scripture the authentic and historical account of His creative activity. He created the universe, and in a recent six-day creation the Lord made ‘the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them’ and rested on the seventh day.
TW: “Thus He established the Sabbath as a perpetual memorial of the work He performed and completed during six literal days that together with the Sabbath constituted the same unit of time that we call a week today.
NW: “The first man and woman were made in the image of God as the crowning work of Creation, given dominion over the world, and charged with responsibility to care for it. When the world was finished it was “very good,” declaring the glory of God.“
TW: Friends, the theme of God as Creator is found throughout the pages of Scripture. If you would like to read some of these Bible passages, along with other helpful material affirming Creation, I invite you to visit adventist.org/creation.
In addition, the Geoscience Research Institute, an entity of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, provides multiple resources along with scientific research supporting a biblical worldview. I strongly encourage you to visit their newly updated website where you will find videos, PowerPoint presentations, articles, photo galleries and more at: grisda.org
NW: Friends, love motivates all that God does, for He is love. He created us not only so we could love Him but so that He could love us. How affirming to know we did not evolve from some kind of slime out of the sea but were instead created by the hand of a loving God. In the wonderful book Ministry of Healing, we read:
“The work of creation cannot be explained by science. What science can explain the mystery of life? . . . In the creation of the earth, God was not indebted to pre-existing matter. ‘He spake, and it was; … He commanded, and it stood fast.’ Psalm 33:9. All things, material or spiritual, stood up before the Lord Jehovah at His voice and were created for His own purpose. The heavens and all the host of them, the earth and all things therein, came into existence by the breath of His mouth. In the creation of man was manifest the agency of a personal God” (Ministry of Healing, p. 414).
TW: Continuing on we read, “When God had made man in His image, the human form was perfect in all its arrangements, but it was without life. Then a personal, self-existing God breathed into that form the breath of life, and man became a living, intelligent being. All parts of the human organism were set in action. The heart, the arteries, the veins, the tongue, the hands, the feet, the senses, the faculties of the mind, all began their work, and all were placed under law. Man became a living soul. Through Christ the Word, a personal God created man and endowed him with intelligence and power” (Ministry of Healing, p. 415).
TW: What a profound thought this is–that we were created by a personal, self-existing God who loves us and who has endowed us with intelligence and power.
In our next video, we will look more closely at why understanding Creation is so important and how it is foundational to our lives today. But in the meantime, know that the One who created the vast universe is the same God who created, loves, and cares for you. Let’s thank Him just now. Father in heaven, thank you for creating this earth, through the power of the father, the son and the Holy Spirit, this beautiful earth came into existence, we thank you for the privilege of living here and realising that one day soon you will remake this earth complete in a perfect form again, thank you for hearing us in this prayer and thank you for making provision for eternal life, because of what Jesus is done. In Christ name we ask it, amen.