The Sun is Really Bright Today!

“There was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.” John 1:9

Here the Gospel writer John calls Jesus Christ “the true light.” That would be the real deal. The true light. The light that makes the other lights seem minor or insignificant.

On a sidewalk in Annville, PA recently,  I thought the sun is the true light of this physical world. It is the one light we absolutely could not do without. The Earth needs to bathe in its light 24/7.

Many lights, - tail lights, a flashlight, a neon sign, help us in various ways. They offer us warnings, convey information, guide us, and make life convenient. We can and often do live without some of these. They are relatively minor lights that are made possible by the true light of the sun. It is the source.

So John calls Jesus “the true light.” The true light came into the world. The Light of God. The moral light. The example. The pattern. The true Illuminator.

 That light “enlightens every man.” He makes it possible for us to see. Just as the sun enables vision, so His inner light enables us to see reality. By it we can discern what is right. Every man and woman has received this light, to some degree. That’s what John says.

Every culture has some norms of what is acceptable and what is not. There are some norms of decency acceptable in every nation or tribe. They don’t all agree, but they do exist. C.S. Lewis wrote, “The moralities accepted among men may differ, though not, at bottom, so widely as is often claimed…”[1] There is not an inhabited place on earth that does not have some acceptable standard or some concept of what is good and what is not good. This can be referred to as moral “light.” This is the light that Jesus, “the true light” has enlightened us with.

Just as the sun has enlightened all of us, so the true light, Jesus, has shined in our hearts and we have some vision. He is the one moral light we cannot do without.

John goes on to say, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name…” (John 1:12) Receive the full light of Jesus today. Believe in Him! The Sun is really bright today!

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[1] C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain,(New York: MacMillan Publishing Co, 1962)  21-22

A Beautiful Balancing Act

There is a really good PBS video called “The Secrets of the Sun,” on Nova. I am giving the link here, because watching it may be more interesting than reading about it on this blog. http://video.pbs.org/video/2226474716/ It is 53 minutes well-invested.

As a Christian apologist, two things stood out to me while watching this documentary about the sun. These provide evidence that the Universe has been purposefully created by God.

The first has to do with the composition of the Sun. Nuclear fusion in its core is the source of it’s great heat and light. There is a nuclear reaction going on in the core of the Sun that is equivalent to millions of atomic bombs going off each second. If that is so, then why doesn’t the Sun blow apart? A Princeton Scientist explains on the documentary, “Because there’s a beautiful balancing act that occurs. In the core of the Sun you’ve got this pressure, from all of this fusion pushing outwards; and the sun is huge so you have all this gravitational pressure pushing downward so you’ve got this gravity pushing down and the Sun trying to blow itself apart from the inside, and it is this beautiful balancing  act between the two, that keeps the Sun in one piece.[1]” It’s a “beautiful balancing act.” Just the right amount of push both ways to keep the Sun stable and dependable. I find it exciting how these types of balancing acts keep occurring over and over again in nature.

The second point that grabbed me in this documentary was the fact that the Sun is vibrating. Because of the massive movement of the Sun’s plasma due to convection, many, many sound frequencies are emitted from the Sun. Satellite studies of the Sun’s surface tended to show it vibrating. It was initially thought to be errors in the instruments. As the instruments improved, scientists finally realized the entire surface of the sun vibrates… with sound.

The sound is compared to notes on a pipe organ. Another web source quotes Stanford scientist Dr Amara Graps as comparing the sound to a bell.[2]  Professor Ken Lang of Tufts University writes, "The Sun is playing a secret melody, hidden inside itself, that produces a widespread throbbing motion of its surface. The sounds are coursing through the Sun's interior, causing the entire globe, or parts of it, to move in and out, slowly and rhythmically like the regular rise and fall of tides in a bay or of a beating heart." [3]

The sun is like a pipe organ. Like a bell. Like the rise and fall of tides. Like a beating heart.

Maybe now we begin to comprehend the meaning of the passage in Psalms: "Praise Him Sun and Moon, Praise Him, all you shining stars." [4]

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[1] Luc Peterson, Princeton Plasma Physics Lab, on the PBS Video, Nova: The Secrets of the Sun

[2] http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/ask/a10411.html

[3] Kenneth R. Lang http://solar-center.stanford.edu/singing/

[4] Psalm 148:3 (Revised Standard Version)

This Cannot Be Random

A total eclipse of the sun is one of the most remarkable phenomena in nature. I remember being in the path of a total eclipse once, in South India. I was disappointed in that it didn’t get completely dark, but it did become like dusk in mid-day.

You have to be in the right place at the right time in order to see a total eclipse. The Gospel writer Luke states “darkness came over the whole land…” in the middle of the day when Christ was crucified. It is known that an eclipse occurred, very close to Jerusalem, on the 24^th of November in 29 a.d.[1] Was it a total eclipse that darkened the "whole land" at Jesus' crucifixion?

An eclipse is a remarkable thing. The Sun is 400 times larger than the Moon and the Moon is 400 times closer to the Earth. The result is that the Sun and Moon appear nearly the same size. There is no other planetary moon in our solar system where such a condition would exist.

When an eclipse occurs it offers the only chance to study the Sun’s chromosphere and the Solar corona. These outer regions of the sun are usually overpowered by the brilliant photosphere and cannot be seen. When a total eclipse occurs these layers become visible and can be studied.

Interesting, isn’t it?

Apologist Ron Mayers sees it this way. “Due to the regular and non-arbitrary relationship of God and created nature, nature can be studied, understood, and even greatly controlled and enhanced by man. Chemistry and biology, physics and physiology, along with innumerable other disciplines that are concerned with nature can be investigated by the scientist because there is this inherent regularity.”[2]

There is an “inherent regularity” around us. We’re able to study the sun and moon during a total eclipse. Data can be obtained concerning the size of the sun. Is it getting smaller? “One of the first confirmations of general relativity [Einstein’s Theory] was the bending of star light by the sun's mass, which could be observed only during a total solar eclipse when the images of stars were visible near the sun's edge.”[3] 

Friends, the size and positioning of the Sun and Moon in relation to Earth is purposeful! It cannot be random.

“The day is thine, the night also is thine: Thou hast prepared the light and the sun.”[4]

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[1] “Eclipses in History,” http://asaaf.fis.ucm.es/eclipseanular/historia-in.htm

[2] Ronald B. Mayers, “Balanced Apologetics,”  (Secunderabad, India: OM Books, 2000) 26

[3] Danny R. Faulkner, http://www.creationresearch.org/crsq/articles/35/astrodesign.html

[4] Psalm 74:16 (American Standard Version)

He Got Da Whole World In His Hands

This morning as we drove to church, the sun was hot shining through the windshield. It was 7:45 a.m., but I was already hot. I turned up the air-conditioner.

I said to my daughter, “You know, if the Sun shot out one extraordinary explosion of gas off it’s surface, like a power surge, - the entire Earth would be burned to a crisp.” 

She didn’t respond, or look at me, but kept driving with her sun glasses on. 

“But it doesn’t do that,” I continued. “God’s power monitors and regulates the Suns energy output. He is in control. The Earth’s temperature stays within the narrow band of what is comfortable and survivable for life on Earth.” (I thought about the relatively small temperature difference between below freezing and a scorching hot day) 

My daughter didn’t look or respond. Just kept driving, sunglasses in place. 

Feeling the need to further ‘wow’ her, I said, “That is amazing considering  the size of the sun, the intense heat, and the distances involved. That is called the ‘Anthropological Theory.’” Something sounded wrong when I said that. Was that what it was called? 

She didn’t say a word. Didn’t look impressed. “Oh,” as it suddenly came to me, “I mean the ‘Anthropic Principle.’ That means that many people see that the Earth is fine-tuned, by a Creator, to be just exactly what man needs.”

There. My speech was over. Pretty impressive argument for God. My daughter  casually reached up and flicked the radio to another music channel. No comment.

Wow, - kids these days just don’t get it.