Light!

[IL_ray_phillips]

In Genesis 1:3 we see that God created light. What was this light? He then divided light from darkness in vs 4. What was he doing here? Why in vs. 1:14-16 does he create light again when he already created in vs 3?

Gen 1:1 KJV - In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Gen 1:2 KJV - And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Gen 1:3 KJV - And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Gen 1:4 KJV - And God saw the light, that [it was] good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
Gen 1:5 KJV - And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Gen 1:6 KJV - And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
Gen 1:7 KJV - And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which [were] under the firmament from the waters which [were] above the firmament: and it was so.
Gen 1:8 KJV - And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
Gen 1:9 KJV - And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry [land] appear: and it was so.
Gen 1:10 KJV - And God called the dry [land] Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that [it was] good.
Gen 1:11 KJV - And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, [and] the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed [is] in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
Gen 1:12 KJV - And the earth brought forth grass, [and] herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed [was] in itself, after his kind: and God saw that [it was] good.
Gen 1:13 KJV - And the evening and the morning were the third day.
Gen 1:14 KJV - And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
Gen 1:15 KJV - And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
Gen 1:16 KJV - And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: [he made] the stars also.
Gen 1:17 KJV - And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
Gen 1:18 KJV - And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that [it was] good.

There are 55 vs that light and darkness are used together between Gen and 1 John. Here are a few of them:

1Jo 1:5 KJV - This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
1Jo 1:6 KJV - If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
1Jo 1:7 KJV - But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

1Th 5:5 KJV - Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.

2Cr 6:14 KJV - Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

Act 26:18 KJV - To open their eyes, [and] to turn [them] from darkness to light, and [from] the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

Rom 13:12 KJV - The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.
Rom 13:13 KJV - Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
Rom 13:14 KJV - But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to [fulfil] the lusts [thereof].

What is the light in genesis 1:3?

Jhn 12:46 KJV - I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.

Jhn 12:35 KJV - Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.
Jhn 12:36 KJV - While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.

Jhn 8:12 KJV - Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

Jhn 3:19 KJV - And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Jhn 3:20 KJV - For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
Jhn 3:21 KJV - But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

[okieshooter]

I recall a Sunday lesson about Christ being the light of the world. In darkness you can not see light until it reflects off of something. If we as christians do not reflect the light of Christ the world can not know him. Something to think about anyway.

[Chuck7]

Amen Okie...VERY TRUE!!

[Lemaitre]

Gen 1:3 KJV - And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Gen 1:4 KJV - And God saw the light, that [it was] good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
Gen 1:5 KJV - And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

I have many questions about these passages. What was the source of the light that was created on the first day if the objects that we know to be the sources of light in the Universe did not exist until the fourth day?

Light is an electromagnetic phenomenon that has a dual nature that is not easy to comprehend. It manifests itself as either a wave or particle phenomenon depending on the type of experiment you perform on it. If you do a diffraction experiment, such as Young's double slit experiment, on a beam of light it appears to behave like a wave. However if you examine the photoelectric effect, the results can only be understood if the beam is made up of particles each carrying a certain amount of energy. In the wave depiction of light it is made up of oscillating electric and magnetic fields that travel at 3x10^8 m/s. In the particle description light is made up of massless particles called photons that also travel at 3x10^8 m/s.

The accounts from Genesis seem to show no awareness of the nature of light and even imply that light and darkness can exist together and be separated. Darkness is not an entity that can be placed somewhere, it is simply the absence of light. Therefore, if there was darkness than light could not be coming from everywhere, it had to have a source from which areas that were dark were obstructed.

How did we have night and day before there was a Sun since we know that day and night are caused by the rotation of the Earth on its axis with the side facing the Sun experiencing day and the side facing away from the Sun experiencing night because it is shielded from the light of the Sun by the Earth. The authors of Genesis appear to believe night occurs because of the placement of darkness by God over the world when it is night and light when it was day and were unaware of the real cause of alternating periods of light and dark.

Other passages imply that the Moon produces light and is only seen at night. The Moon only reflects Sun light, it does not produce its own light and is visible at night only half of the time. Genesis regards the stars as phenomenon that exist only at night when in reality the stars are still there during the day but can not be seen due to brilliance of the Sun. I would really have to give a failing grade to the authors of Genesis on this one. Other civilizations at that time knew that the stars also gave off light during the day because stars could be seen during the day when there was a solar eclipse.

When one reads Genesis from an astronomic point of view it is clear that its authors did not know what light was, how it is produced and the nature of the Universe. They showed a level of knowledge about these things that would have been typical of people living 3,000 years ago and in some cases seemed to know even less than other nearby civilizations. This is not what one would expect from people that had access to special revealed knowledge from an all-knowing deity rather than having to rely on observation and human reasoning like the ancient Greeks.

[IL_ray_phillips]

When one reads Genesis from an astronomic point of view it is clear that its authors did not know what light was, how it is produced and the nature of the Universe. They showed a level of knowledge about these things that would have been typical of people living 3,000 years ago and in some cases seemed to know even less than other nearby civilizations. This is not what one would expect from people that had access to special revealed knowledge from an all-knowing deity rather than having to rely on observation and human reasoning like the ancient Greeks.[/quote]

The author understood it perfectly. You do not understand the Word of God. If explained to you it would be foolishness. Some day in the very near future you will understand it clearly and it will not be foolishness.

[Lemaitre]

Originally Posted by IL_ray_phillips

When one reads Genesis from an astronomic point of view it is clear that its authors did not know what light was, how it is produced and the nature of the Universe. They showed a level of knowledge about these things that would have been typical of people living 3,000 years ago and in some cases seemed to know even less than other nearby civilizations. This is not what one would expect from people that had access to special revealed knowledge from an all-knowing deity rather than having to rely on observation and human reasoning like the ancient Greeks.

The author understood it perfectly. You do not understand the Word of God. If explained to you it would be foolishness. Some day in the very near future you will understand it clearly and it will not be foolishness.[/quote]

When it comes to light I have no trouble understanding what God said in Genesis. Other than saying that it exists from days one through three and is produced by the Sun, Moon and stars as of day four God does not really say much about light in terms of what it is exactly. The modern explanation of the nature of light does to some extent sound like "foolishness" since it is difficult to comprehend something actling like a particle when someone does one experiment on it but it behaves like a wave when a different experiment is performed on a beam of light.

If God had been quoted in Genesis as saying that light has a dual nature, sometimes behaving like waves of alternating electric and magnetic fields and sometimes behaves like a stream of particles that have no mass but do carry energy and that light has a finte velocity of 3 x 10^8 meters/second I would be very impressed. It would be a major challenge to my beliefs in Deism, a religion that rejects special revelation, since it is nearly impossible to understand how any human could have known these things 3,000 years ago on the basis of the observations and the state of human reason that existed at that time. The truth though is that no one even tried to determine the nature of light until the 17th century when Galileo attempted to perform an experiment to determine if light had a finite speed and what it was.

[LBR]

The Bible isn't devoted to science, and neither is this forum--as you have been told numerous times. I'm not at all convinced you are the least bit interested in understanding the Bible, but rather your only goal is to try and subtly undermine it as much as you can.

Since your chosen "religion" requires no proselytising, I don't see why it's so difficult for you to keep the promise you made to me concerning this forum.