Scripture

Genesis 1:14-19
[14] Then God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years;
[15] and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so.
[16] God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also.
[17] God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth,
[18] and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good.
[19] There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

This is the 37th Lecture on Genesis.
I'll continue to explain the 4th day of the Creation from the last lecture.
On the 4th day, God created the sun, the moon, and stars.
In astronomical terminology, God created "our Galaxy" during the 4th day of the Creation.
The stars beyond our galaxy have existed since there was only one space, "the original space."
Compared to the vastness of the space, the earth is less than a tiny speck.
In the last lecture, I said that the earth, among the all the stars in the first heaven, might be compared to a grain of sand of a beach.
Scientists even say that the number of the stars in the universe is greater than the number of grains of sand that make up all the beaches of the earth.
They say so because they assume that there are roughly 100 billion galaxies in the universe.
In our galaxy, which is one of 100 billion galaxies, there are about 100 billion stars.
Therefore, the number of stars in the entire universe is more than 100 billon times 100 billion
(1 with 22 zeros after it!)
People call all the small shining lights in the night sky "stars."
In astronomy, only the celestial body that can shine by itself is called "a star."
Before I go on any further, let me explain some terms first.
First, "the celestial bodies" refer to "all the existing things (material objects) of the universe."
A "body," which shines by itself in a relatively fixed location, like the sun of the Solar System for example, is called a "star."
This is the definition of a "star" in astronomy, and the most of stars that we can see in the night sky are the celestial bodies that can shine by themselves.
An extreme number of material celestial bodies only reflect the sunlight, and this makes them appear as stars.
For example, Venus, which is called the "Morning Star," cannot shine by itself.
But you can find it shining brightly in the eastern sky at the dawn.
However, Venus doesn't shine by itself, but it only reflects the sunlight to make it luminous.
In the Solar System, there are celestial bodies that circle around the sun in a regular cycle.
Such celestial bodies which "revolve around a star" are called "planets."
Since the earth circles around the sun every year, the earth is also a planet.
And the celestial bodies which "circle around a planet," like the moon which circles around the earth for example, are called "satellites."
Therefore, the things which man launched to circle around the earth are called "artificial satellites."

Sometimes, these satellites reflect the sunlight, and they seem like bright stars.
By the way, you can find one similarity from these countless celestial bodies such as stars, planets, and satellites.
It is that they all look like a ball.
What does it mean?
It means that all these celestial bodies are created by one God the Creator.
Scientists say the space particles which resulted from the Big Bang attached to one another, forming globular bodies as they traveled for a long time.
(If it were true, the artificial satellites would change into globular bodies as well.
Some of them circle around the earth every 2 hours.
But they don't change into globes.)
Pebbles, which can be found at the mouth of a river or on a beach, are said to be originally rocks, but their angled corners were cut and split to have rounded corners.
However, the pebbles are not globes.
Some of them are not rounded but flat. Some others are elongated.
Even though their angular corners were cut for thousands of years, they all have different shapes.
The countless stars in the universe, however, are all globes like a ball.
You don't say it is a coincidence.
God the Creator planned and designed them that way, and He created them that way.
Now, why did God created all the celestial bodies to have the shape of a globe?
Why didn't He put some individuality into them to have a varied appearance?
The colors of light of something are major factors to make people who see it think that it's beautiful. However, a balance of its shape is also another important factor.
A rough gemstone itself can shine to a certain degree with colors of light, but when it is cut into a balanced shape, it looks more beautiful and shines more intensely.
Flowers are beautiful because they have beautiful colors. However, they are beautiful because they are also well balanced from a structural point of view.
No matter what flowers you see, they have mirrored symmetry.
If a shape were to be folded in half over the axis, the two halves would be identical; this is mirror or bilateral symmetry.
Many flowers have this symmetry with more than one axis to have the amazing beauty of perfection.
If flowers didn't have mirror symmetry, no matter how colorful they are, they wouldn't look so beautiful.
I once showed you the crystal structure of snow which has the shape of hexagon.
The reason you feel the snow crystal is beautiful is also because they have the beauty of perfect balance.
By the way, when a thing has a shape of a globe, it has an infinite number of axes of symmetry.
An objects or a figures that have the most beauty of perfection are the planar shape circle and the solid shape sphere.
That's why God created countless stars in the universe to have a shape of a globe or sphere.
This is the first evidence that the only One God created the sun, the moon, and stars.
The second evidence is that the orbits of planets of the Solar System and the distance between them are in great harmony.

There are eight planets in our Solar System.
In order of increasing distance from the Sun, they are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
The sizes of the sun and its planets are most appropriate as they now exist.
And the distances between the sun and each of the planets, and the distances between each of the individual planets are most appropriate as they are now.
For example, two men are facing each other, with their arms stretched toward each other, and their palms touch each others.
If they push each other with the same strength, they will stay where they are now.
Even though they are pushing each other, to a third person, they just seem to stand facing each other.
If one of them applies less strength, however, the balance of strength is broken, and both of them will not be able to stand as they are, but they will wobble.
By the same token, the reason the eight planets are staying in the current location is because they maintain the proper sizes and the distance from others.
Even though invisible, God created them wisely so that the balance of their gravity is precisely maintained.
Therefore, if the sun or any planet were smaller or bigger than now, the entire Solar System would be affected by it.
The heat of the sun is the same.
According to the research of scientists, no plants in the earth could survive if the heat of the sun were hotter by 5%.
If plants cannot survive, animals naturally wouldn't survive.
You can confirm this fact that no living thing is found on Venus which is closer to the sun than the earth or on Mars which is farther from the sun.
Dear brothers and sisters.
As astronomy develops, many secrets of our Solar System are being revealed.
Let me introduce one of them.
As I told you earlier, there are about 100 billion stars like the sun in our galaxy only.
These stars also have their own planets just as the sun has its planets.
Up until May 2010, about 450 planets of others stars, besides the planets of our Solar System, had been found.
These planets have something different from the planets of our Solar System.
In other words, the planets of our Solar System have something different from extrasolar planets.
Planets are generally divided into two main types: rocky terrestrials and gas giants.
The surfaces of rocky terrestrials are covered with rock; they are small in volume, but high in density.
Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are such terrestrials.
Gas Giants have rock in their core, but they are the planets with a composition largely made up of gas.
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are such gas giants.
In gas giants, tremendous strength of wind blows due to extreme speed of gas, which results in mega sized windstorms.
In a common sense, therefore, a better environment for a living thing to survive can be found more easily on rocky terrestrials than in gas giants.
Astronomers have expected to find in the vast universe a planet which has the same conditions as the earth.
However, extrasolar planets which have been discovered so far are mostly gas giants.
In addition, these extrasolar planets are located closer to their stars.
Unlike these extrasolar planets, gas giants in our Solar System are located far from the sun.
This placement is very unique.
Gas giants are placed far from the sun, and rocky terrestrials like the earth are placed more closely to the sun.
Among the rocky terrestrials, the earth is located in the best place where living things can maintain their existence.
With this one fact in mind, you can see that the Solar System didn't come to existence by chance or accident.
God planned it with a high level of wisdom, and created it with His amazing power.
The third evidence that God created the sun, the moon, and stars is the fact that the distance between each of them and their sizes are in profound and mysterious harmony.
In the last lecture, I explained how different the sun and the moon are in their volume.
Calculating their volumes, the sun is 1.3 million times bigger than the earth; the moon is one 50th of the earth, and the sun is 65 million times bigger than the moon.
Now, when comparing their diameters, the sun is 400 times that of the moon.
If you draw the sun and the moon on a piece of paper according to proper proportion, the sun should have a diameter with a length that is 400 times greater than that of the moon.
If you draw the moon with a 4 centimeter diameter, the diameter of the sun should be 4 meters.
However, the size of the sun and the moon seem to be about the same seen from the earth, and it is because the moon is 400 times closer to the earth than the sun.
The fact that their sizes look almost same from the earth is by no means a coincidence.
It is possible only when the 4 conditions are precisely met. They are the relative sizes of the sun and the moon must be met while the relative distances from the earth to the sun, and from the earth to the moon must also be met.
It wouldn't be possible if the sun were a little bigger than it is now or if the moon were a little smaller than it is now.
If the distance between the sun and the earth or between the earth and the moon were different, even a little, from what it is now, the sizes of the sun and the moon would not seem identical.
In the Solar System, among the planets which have satellites, the earth is the only planet which has the satellite that looks similar in size compared to the sun.
Due to this fact, there are special phenomena can be observed from the earth.
They are the solar eclipse, and lunar eclipse.
Solar eclipse is an occasion when the moon hides a part of or all of the sun. And lunar eclipse is an occasion when the shade of the earth covers the moon.
The sizes and distances between the sun, the moon, and the earth, along with the revolutions of the moon and the earth makes complex but precise harmony; and this results in periodic solar and lunar eclipses.
It is said that the likelihood of having periodic solar and lunar eclipses by three celestial bodies' interaction is close to zero.
These phenomena that can be almost impossible to take place are observed on the earth.
However, scientists of the world insist that this probability of 0% took place "by accident" through a big bang.
And many people of the world believe that what they say is true.
The celestial bodies of the universe that operates precisely didn't come to an existence by accident, but they were created by God the Father.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
All agree that the sun is a must for every living thing to survive.
On the other hand, the moon doesn't shine by itself, nor does it generate heat by itself.
Then, why did God created the moon to stay with the earth?
There are fleshly and spiritual reasons. Let me tell you the fleshly reason first.
As science develops, people recognize the importance of the moon more and more.
What if the moon disappeared?
First of all, flow and ebb of the tide would disappear from the seas.
Then, mudflats would dry, and it would cause to loss of habitat to clams, crabs, and small octopus that live on the tidal beach.
Also, changes would be made to the circulation of the seawaters so that the pollutants couldn't be purified.
The earth is rotating tilted by 23.5 degree, and it is thanks to the moon that it can stably rotate even though it is tilted like this.
It is because the gravitation of the moon holds the rotation of the earth on its axis in stability.
If the moon disappeared, just like a top which is about to fall down, the earth would roll and pitch heavily.
If the moon were closer to the earth by 10% than it is now, all the continents of the earth would completely submerge under water twice a day.
There is another bit of research available.
The research shows that the certain amount of light from the moon is a must for the survival of many living things under the sea.
It is known that many kinds of things living in the seas surface to receive a certain amount of moon light and then re-submerge.
Even some sort of the crustaceans which live in flesh water, not in sea water, and reptiles and insects are found to need the moon light for their survival.
Point made, the result is that the earth needs the sun, and it definitely needs the moon as well.
Dear brothers and sisters.
There is also a spiritual reason that God put the moon and stars to shine in the night.
God separated the light from the darkness, and called the darkness night. However, it is a fact that even in a dark night, there is a light.
There is the moon that shines by reflecting the sunlight, and many stars out in the solar system shine their light to lighten up the darkness at night.
The moon and stars at night guide people with their lights.
People can determine their direction at night by looking up to the moon and stars in the night sky.
There are lights at night in the urban area. Even in a remote area, there is the moonlight and starlight so that people might not stumble in the dark of night.
God created some of them especially big to be noticed by man.
For example, the North Star is always fixed in the same location so that it can give precise direction to people.
Before a compass was made, people found directions by finding the North Star.
Not only during the day, but also in the night the moon and stars shine the light. Likewise, the light of God's truth shines at all times and everyplace.

This is the spiritual reason God placed the moon and stars in the night sky.
The light of God's truth always shines on those who walk during the spiritual day.
However, even on those who temporarily walk in the darkness, the light of God's truth still shines.
For example, when someone is wandering on a dark road at night, how will he feel if no light of the moon or stars be found? Will he be depressed and worried?
However, if he can find even a faint light, he will be greatly comforted and the light will become great strength.
All the people should realize that there exists the God of love who always wants to become a light for us anytime anyplace.
Even when someone is in the spiritually in the pitch of darkness, if he earnestly and diligently seeks God, God will shine the light of truth on him.
2 Chronicles 16:9 says, "For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His."
And Psalm 18:6 says, "In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God for help; He heard my voice out of His temple, and my cry for help before Him came into His ears."
Psalm 34:6 also says, "This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles."
Therefore, even when you confront a hopeless and depressing situation, don't ever worry about it.
God the Almighty, who can hear your cry whenever and wherever, is near you.
Our God always wants to let His mercy be upon you and to bring peace to you.
It is only that people don't long for it and seek for it, and thus they cannot receive it.
Moreover, people hate the light and stay afar from the light, and thus they wander in the darkness, suffering.
You will feel the love and grace of God the Father who gives you hope in the darkness even through the moon and stars in the night sky.
I urge you to receive this love and to walk in the light completely so that you can lead the souls who are still walking in the darkness into the light.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
In this lecture, I presented 3 evidences that God created the sun, the moon, and stars.
I also explained the reasons He created the moon together with the sun, and also the reason He created stars.
In the next lecture, I will explain how the word of God, "...and let them - the lights - be for signs and for seasons and for days and years," was accomplished.
In Job 38:31-33, God asked some questions to Job.
God said, ""Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, Or loose the cords of Orion? Can you lead forth a constellation in its season, and guide the Bear with her satellites? Do you know the ordinances of the heavens, or fix their rule over the earth?"
Pleiades, Orion, and the Bear in this scripture refer to constellation or stars of a certain constellation.
Man can neither move stars, nor can they understand how they were created.
However, God created such stars, and He set up the ordinances of the heavens so that the stars would move according to them.
No matter how highly men's knowledge and wisdom develops, they cannot create a star; they cannot even move any of them freely.
Even though they are such weak beings, they neither seek nor fear God; rather they stand against God.
Our God, however, endures and waits to give the opportunity of salvation even to such souls.
2 Peter 3:9 says, "The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance."
People should realize how deep the love of God the Father is.
You are the ones who have already realized this love.
May you diligently preach that God is the Creator so that the patience of God the Father may bear abundant fruit, in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, I pray!

[Amen!!!]