Today’s New Reason To Believe

A Jehovah's Witness who had knocked on my door challenged me in the course of our conversation to give a clear and concise definition of the Trinity doctrine. Here's how I responded: The word "trinity" refers to "tri-unity" (three in one), thus conveying the biblically revealed truth that there is plurality within the unity of God's nature (one God in three "persons"). The doctrine of the Trinity should be understood within the broader context of the Christian view of God. The God unveiled in the Bible (and later described in the ancient creeds of Christendom) is the one sovereign and majestic Lord. Historic Christianity thus affirms belief in one infinitely perfect, eternal, and personal God—the transcendent Creator and sovereign Sustainer of the universe. This one God is triune. He exists eternally and simultaneously as three distinct (though not separate) persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

All three persons in the Godhead share equally and completely the one divine nature, and are therefore the same God—coequal in attributes, nature, and glory. God has revealed Himself as one in essence, but three in personhood. In terms of what God is (essence), God is one; in terms of who God is (personhood), God is three. God is therefore "one What" and "three Whos." The God of the Bible therefore reflects both a unity of nature (monotheism) and a plurality of personhood (trinitarianism).

Since the Trinity doctrine is so crucial for Christians, and since it is so often distorted or misunderstood by various critics, it is important for believers to be able to define this basic Christian doctrine. Even though the Trinity doctrine is not fully comprehensible to the finite human mind, what Christians believe about the doctrine is clear and distinct in the church's creeds and statements of faith. The truth of this doctrine, however, can only be clearly and cogently communicated if believers take seriously their responsibility to study and show themselves approved (2 Timothy 2:15).

For more on the doctrine of the Trinity, see Kenneth Richard Samples, Without a Doubt: Answering the 20 Toughest Faith Questions (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), chapter 5.

The heart and soul of the biblical cosmic creation model calls for continual cosmic expansion under fixed physical laws from an actual beginning of matter, energy, space, and time. For over two thousand years the Bible stood alone as the only text making such claims about the universe. Not until Albert Einstein produced his theory of general relativity in 1916 did scientists even consider the possibility of continual cosmic expansion. Thus, any effort to confirm to a greater degree continual cosmic expansion from a transcendent cosmic creation event not only establishes the validity of the biblical cosmic creation model, but it also demonstrates the Bible's capacity to accurately predict future scientific discoveries.

Recently, a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal provided additional evidence for the biblical cosmic creation model and demonstrated how ongoing observational efforts will lead to even stronger support. This paper shows how new observations allow an accurate determination of the expansion history of the universe without reliance on the "distance ladder." These new observations take advantage of time delays between multiple images of strong gravitational lens systems.

An example of a strong gravitational lens system is where a round galaxy is situated in the line of sight between an observer's telescope and a distant quasar. Einstein's theory of general relativity states that the round galaxy will act as a lens, bending the light from the distant quasar. If the galaxy is exactly in the line of sight, the image of the quasar will be transformed from its actual point image into a small ring. In the much more common case where the galaxy is slightly off the line of sight, the quasar's point image becomes lensed into two or more point images.

Almost all quasars experience frequent and large variations in their light output. Such variations allow astronomers to determine how rapidly the universe expands at the epoch corresponding to the light-travel time to the quasar. A variation in the light output of the quasar will also show up in the lensed image of the quasar. But, typically, different parts of the lens will be situated at different distances relative to the observer. Those different distances mean that the light will arrive at the observer's telescope at different times. Knowing the velocity of light, astronomers can translate the different times into distance differentials in kilometers. The measured angles separating the different components of the lens allow astronomers to use junior-high plane geometry theorems to determine the distance to the lens in kilometers. Measuring the redshift of the spectral lines in the lensed image tells astronomers how rapidly the lens is moving away from us. In this manner astronomers can use gravitational lenses over a wide variety of cosmic distances to determine how rapidly the universe expands at different distances relative to Earth.

Until recently, astronomers lacked an adequate number of accurately measured strong gravitational lens systems for them to reliably determine the expansion history of the universe. Now, Masamune Oguri, an astronomer at Stanford University, analyzed 16 published time-delay quasars and produced the first-ever accurate determination of the expansion rate of the universe without any reliance on the assumptions inherent in the distance ladder approach. His measurement of the cosmic expansion rate, also known as the Hubble constant, was 70 ± 6 kilometers per second, per megaparsec (228 ± 20 kilometers per second, per million light years). The value determined through the distance ladder method is 72 ± 8 kilometers per second, per megaparsec (235 ± 26 kilometers per second, per million light years)¹.

The remarkable agreement between the two independent methods demonstrates that the confidence astronomers express in their determination of the expansion history of the universe is justified. The agreement also confirms that the assumptions undergirding the distance ladder method are valid.

Christians and non-Christians alike can be assured that what the Bible has been teaching about the origin and history of the universe for over two thousand years is correct. They can rest assured also in the conclusion that continual cosmic expansion implies a beginning which in turn implies a Beginner. Christians can rejoice, too, in how this discovery helps resolve the debate over the age of the universe. If the universe continually expands under constant laws of physics from a cosmic creation event, as the Bible states, then a reliable measurement of the expansion rate will yield a reliable measure of the universe's age. A measure of 71 kilometers per second, per megaparsec implies a cosmic age of about 14 billion years.

1. Wendy L. Freedman et al., "Final Results from the Hubble Space Telescope Key Project to Measure the Hubble Constant," Astrophysical Journal 553 (2001): 47-72.

Not Much Gravity a Good Thing
Air date: 6-12-07
Hugh Ross, Fuz Rana, Kenneth Samples, and Joe Aguirre

• Discoveries
  • Gravity wave detection instrument affirms big bang cosmology
    • B. Abbott et al., “Searching for a Stochastic Background of Gravitational Waves with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory,” Astrophysical Journal 659 (April 20, 2007): 918-30.
    • Resources
      • The Creator and the Cosmos, 3rd ed., by Hugh Ross
      • Creation as Science, by Hugh Ross
  • New emphasis in origin-of-life research
    • Robert Shapiro, “A Simpler Origin for Life,” Scientific American, June 2007, 47-53.
    • Addy Pross, “Causation and the Origin of Life: Metabolism or Replication First?” Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere 34 (2004): 307-21.
    • Robert Shapiro, “Small Molecule Interactions Were Central to the Origin of Life,” Quarterly Review of Biology, vol. 81, no. 2 (June 2006), 105.
    • Resources
      • Origins of Life, by Fazale Rana and Hugh Ross
      • Origins, a Skeptic’s Guide to the Creation of Life on Earth, by Robert Shapiro
      • Jacquelyn A. Thomas and F. R. Rana, “The influence of environmental conditions, lipid composition, and phase behavior on the origin of cell membranes,” Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres, vol. 37, no. 3 (June 2007), 267-85.
• Philosophy/theology segment
  • Ken discusses the passing of pragmatic philosopher Richard Rorty
    • Richard Rorty (1931–2007)
• RTB announcement
  • Bob Stuart reminds listeners that the next term for Reasons Institute begins July 2
    • Reasons Institute
• Call-in questions
  • Roger from Portland, ME:
    • How many realistic alternative models for the origin of the universe have not been eliminated by the LIGO results? Can Hugh name any viable alternative models?
    • Are some hot big bang inflationary models harmonious with Scripture and some not?
  • David from Los Angeles:
    • Is the multiverse idea testable? Does the Bible allow for the multiverse?
    • Resource
      • The Creator and the Cosmos, 3rd ed., by Hugh Ross
• Email question
  • Steve Gann, a chemistry teacher:
    • Is theistic evolution falsifiable?
    • Resource
      • Creation as Science, by Hugh Ross
• Dan from Grandview, MO:
  • Can Hugh provide objective information for his claim that the items listed in Jeremiah 31: 38-40 have been fulfilled in consecutive order?
• Brain Boothe:
  • When did light separate from darkness? The question comes in response to a statement Hugh made on the John Ankerberg debate.
  • Resources
    • The Great Debate on Science and the Bible (DVD)
    • A Matter of Days
    • Beyond the Cosmos, 2nd ed., by Hugh Ross
    • The Creator and the Cosmos, 3rd ed., by Hugh Ross