Earth Center of the Universe: God's Focus

Welcome to the Preaching the Cross Radio Podcast, featuring the radio ministry of Pastor James W.

Knox of the Bible Baptist Church of Delane, Florida.

Our prayer is that these half-hour Bible study programs will bring the lost to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and enable the saved to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Savior.

Now here's your host, Pastor James W.

Knox.

All right.

Thank you so much for that kind word of introduction.

Thanks to each and every one of you for tuning in today to the King of the Cross Radio Broadcast.

We hope and pray that you'll set aside the next half hour or so and listen very carefully as we uh speak to you from uh the Holy Bible, the Word of God, and begin a series of broadcasts on the program today, dealing with uh Earth, Planet Earth, mankind on planet earth, God's dealings with man on planet earth.

And what we're going to try and do in a very brief fashion is to give you the history, hitting the high points, of God's dealing with mankind as a whole on the earth.

We are going to talk about the fact that the earth is the only habitable planet, that is the only planet conducive to a human life.

Then we'll talk about the creation of the earth, we'll talk about the two primary theories, that is, catastrophe versus uniformity.

We'll talk about the earth's first great catastrophe and what caused it.

Then the reconstruction of the earth, Satan's regaining the earth, degeneration, the great flood in Noah's Day, the abiding curse, Earth's glory age, and then talk about planet Earth as the capital of the universe.

We think that if you'll uh uh will listen carefully and consider prayerfully what we have to say, that this will not only be a very educational series, but also a very inspirational one as well, as we see the Word of God, the Holy Bible, answer the questions of all the critics, put down the arguments of all the scoffers and skeptics, and continue to stand as the absolute final authority for all matters of faith and practice to the Bible-believing Christian.

In ancient days, uh men were of one mind as to the center of the universe.

To them, its confines were limited to the objects visible to the naked eye.

In those early times, there was an immense difference between the earth upon which men stood and the bright objects which shone upon it from the heavens above.

The earth was vast and motionless, the stars were insignificant and incessantly in motion.

Even their imaginations could not conceive of any center of importance outside the earth.

All other bodies were made to revolve about it in recognition of its central supremacy.

The earth was the acknowledged hub to the wheel of universal events and the all-important center of time and eternity.

Well, with increased enlightenment, these astronomical conceptions were really revolutionized.

Men learned that the sun was the center of the solar system and the earth one of the least of the planets.

They went beyond.

What for the ancients appeared as a mere point of light, men began to ascertain as a gigantic sun whose diameter was enormous and whose distance was unthinkable.

With minute measurements of scientific devices, man began entering the regions inaccessible to the most powerful telescopes.

With these marvelous instruments, a universe was unveiled, incomprehensible, a creation immeasurable, in which this little earth lies lost like a gran grain of sand by the seaside.

The earth is but a speck, the sun a spark in the vast creation that is known to the modern astronomer.

So insignificant is this earth in comparison with the universe of celestial bodies that its removal from space would cause less commotion than the loss of a penny from the billions of dollars in the national debts.

But with all our modern knowledge of astronomy, which reduces to insignificance our infinitesimal earth and the puny people that populate it, we have no scientific or scriptural grounds, strange as it may seem, for believing that this earth on which we live is anything less than the ancients imagined it to be, the center of the universe.

It's the Bible that mightily magnified this grain in the mountain of creation.

It is the word of the Creator Himself that proclaims intelligent life the first fruits of creation and makes man greater than the planet upon which he lives.

Astronomy, which denies us the right to call this earth the center of the universe, fully establishes the word of God in making the earth the theater of life.

Thus, as it shall be demonstrated throughout our study, we are justified in calling the earth the theater or the center of the universe.

The outstanding reason for contending that the earth is the theater of life is the conclusive scientific and scriptural evidence that of all celestial bodies it is the only planet capable of sustaining life.

But in presenting the scientific arguments that lead to such an assertion, it must be acknowledged at the outset that only life such as we know it can be considered.

To speak of disembodied intelligences of which we know nothing would be irrelevant, we must confine ourselves to conditions favorable or unfavorable for the per preservation of life with which we are familiar, human life, mankind.

When we examine the physical condition that fosters life, we find that it is restricted to a very thin envelope, if you want to call it that, between the huge bulk of the earth and the vast regions of space.

Man cannot live in the bowels of the earth, nor can he venture many miles above its surface without some sort of breathing device, and then for only a limited time.

Not only must he have the heat of the sun, which is so necessary to his existence, but also the atmosphere, which is his very breath.

The two heavenly bodies that have always attracted the chief interest of man are the sun and the moon.

In the present day, we know too much about the sun for anybody to suppose that it can be the home of organic life.

But it is not more than one hundred and fifty years ago that as high an authority as Sir William Herschel seriously suggested that the sun might be inhabited.

He actually conceived that its stores of light and heat might be confined to the surface, and that the sunspots were but glimpses of its solid cooler mass.

But the study of solar conditions has associated the sunspots with gigantic fiery cyclones, if you will, and our success in weighing the sun and ascertaining its density as a fraction of that of the Earth would positively prove a gaseous constituency throughout its enormous bulk.

A study of the Moon, on the other hand, discloses no changes as the years go by.

Its hills and its vales, so conspicuous in our telescopes, stand out like tombstones to mark the passing of all fire and water from a dead planet.

Every part of the moon that is visible has been repeatedly examined, measured, and photographed, so that our knowledge of the topography of its visible portion is more complete than that of the Earth on which we live.

So near is our satellite that photographs have disclosed crater pits not more than a mile across, narrow lines less than one-tenth of a mile in diameter.

An artificial construction like the Great Empire State Building in New York City couldn't escape observation.

There wouldn't be any way.

Thus, the verdict of thousands of telescopes, uh moon orbits and uh satellite photos and everything else has pronounced the moon dead by observation, while the absence of atmosphere has decreed it lifeless by necessity.

It doesn't appear that it was always this way, and we'll talk about that later in our study.

There is evidence of a catastrophe in some former day, of which the moon still bears the scars.

The possibility of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, some of the other planets supporting inhabitants in the light of the latest knowledge can be dismissed without discussion.

The giant Jupiter, larger than all the other planets combined, receives on an equal area only one twenty-seventh of the heat that reaches the Earth, and as its density is only a little less than that of the Sun, there is every reason to believe that its bulk is in a similar gaseous state.

The infinitesimal amount of heat which we on the earth receive from Jupiter has recently been measured, and its amount shows that the surface of Jupiter is at a temperature of about two hundred and thirty-eight degrees below zero.

Which is just about that at which it would be maintained by the sun's heat alone.

Mercury, the innermost planet, receives seven times as much heat as the Earth.

Interesting if you study your Bible in-time prophecy and talk about the uh heat of the sun being increased, uh, by that measure it's uh pretty evident that the uh orbits of the planets may indeed be altered during that tribulation time, and we'll talk about that later in our study.

But this uh planet Mercury is so eccentric uh it's in its orbit that while at one point it gathers four times the Earth's portion in less than six weeks, the sun's contribution is increased to eleven times that amount.

Water in a liquid state, which is so necessary for life, is unknown on the surface of Mercury, for under such powerful rays, evaporation must scatter every drop of moisture before it can gather upon the surface of the planet.

Venus, which is often called the Earth's twin planet, is so heavily enshrouded with clouds that up until recent times it has been difficult to determine at all the conditions of its surface.

Recently we've sent uh space probes out there and taken uh some rather fascinating photographs, but it receives twice as much heat as the Earth.

It's further rendered unfit for sustaining life because of a slow rotation upon its axis.

As far back as 1899, uh Schiaparelli, S-C-H-I-A-P-A-R-E-E-E-L-L-I, I'm sorry, uh, in 1889 he determined that Venus, like Mercury, always keeps the same face turned toward the sun and rotates on its axis only once during the period of its orbit.

If this is true, and this famous Italian astronomer's view was confirmed by uh Lowell, uh Percival Lowell, and others since his time, if this is true, then Venus, in its slow rotation, would present one hemisphere cold beyond measurement, and the other blasted by continuous rays of the sun.

Because of its favorable position, Mars is better known than any other planet of the solar system.

There has been much conjecture as to the possibilities of its sustaining life, but with all the work that NASA has done and all the uh probes and uh explorations and uh satellites and so forth, uh the proof has been just the opposite.

The proof is that Mars is uh entirely and totally incapable of sustaining any uh sort of life whatsoever.

Other astronomers uh have spent a great deal of time talking about these uh so-called canals on Mars.

Uh the scarcity of moisture upon the planet has required uh inhabitants to construct uh canals to utilize the water for melting snow caps at the poles.

This has been the conjecture of some of the more fanciful uh writers and commentators on these uh subjects of space.

Artificial construction is argued from the apparent straightness of the lines and their distribution, while the origin of such stupendous human undertakings is explained by a necessary struggle of the populace for existence.

If that's true, the Martians lost the fight.

They're not there now.

Also, it uh it seems like these canals are nothing more than an optical illusion because when Mars moves further away, uh these canals become invisible.

Uh the hundred inch uh telescopes, as far back as the hundred inch telescopes, uh when they were the largest in the world, uh it was found out even in those days that these canals didn't appear at all when you took a good close look.

Some sort of an optical illusion, uh shadowing uh taking place there.

Even if it were possible to establish beyond a doubt the nature and purpose of these uh peculiar marks, there are other conditions that would make it impossible for human life as we know it to exist upon Mars.

One fixed law of astronomy is that the density of a planet's atmosphere is in proportion to the mass of the planet.

If then Mars had an atmosphere equal to that of the Earth, the fact that she has only one-ninth its mass would mean that the air at her surface would be but one-ninth as dense as that of the Earth.

This would mean a barometric pressure of not more than one half that registered on the top of the highest mountains on Earth.

Uh, you couldn't live there.

The unsuccessful efforts of recent expeditions to uh reach the summit of the highest mountains, there's been a few that have uh gotten there and uh put a flag up there, but for the most part they've been largely unsuccessful, and this would suggest to us clearly that you couldn't live on Mars.

Under certain conditions, uh you uh, like we say, men have reached the top of these mountains, but they couldn't live there.

They had to have some sort of breathing uh devices, and the ones that didn't uh nearly lost their lives uh because of the immense uh uh atmospheric uh pressure or requirements placed upon the body to live in in those sort of conditions.

Mars has less than half the atmosphere of the Earth at one-ninth the pressure, and because it is so much farther away from the sun, it does not receive half as much heat.

These features all conspire to lower the temperature of Mars below freezing and make it absolutely impossible for the maintenance of life such as exists on Earth.

There is not a single scrap of evidence that Mars is inhabited.

There is no evidence that the markings on uh Mars are uh were put there by any sort of uh race of people, at least existing in our time.

To sum up, there is only the remotest probability of any of the planets of the solar system outside the earth being inhabited.

Life then requiring an atmosphere such as the size of this globe affords, the presence of water in its liquid state, such as this globe affords, results obtained only at the Earth's distance from the sun, we must logically conclude that in our solar system, or in any other solar system, only a planet of the size and situation of the Earth relative to the sun could possibly sustain life.

Not only are the astronomers reaching negative conclusions regarding life upon the planets of our solar system, but they are now taking a step farther and asserting that life is improbable, if not impossible, elsewhere in the universe.

Perhaps half of our suns are double stars, whose complex motions preclude the possibility of habitable planets revolving about them.

Again, most of the stars are giant gaseous bodies, hundreds of times larger and hotter than our own sun, so that a planet like our earth could not safely approach these immensely rarefied masses and still be commanded by the laws of gravitation.

Professor Tyndall once stated it this way the theory that fixed stars have planets is pure conjecture.

And Sir Robert Ball said no man could live an hour on any body outside the earth.

Professor R.

A.

Proctor was at one time an advocate of habitable worlds, but he is uh or before his death, he had reached the conclusion that, quote, no planet but the earth is the abode of light.

Uh some of the leading astronomers of our day have continually repeated this uh conclusion.

Uh sad to some of their colleagues, uh leaving some of the uh those who had hoped for another evolutionary leap from the Space Brothers uh to get us out of the messes that we're in.

It's been a kind of a heartbreaking thing for them, but all the money that's been spent, all the probes, all the satellites, all the exploration, has only proved to reinforce the biblical idea, the idea that is set forth in the Word of God that Earth is the center of uh God's universe as far as his dealings with uh humanity and with intelligent creatures.

The only physic philosophical argument that has led popular writers to imagine life on other spheres has been the economy of God.

It must be noticed that the marvelous economy of God is manifested towards men and not towards creation.

God is far more concerned about man in his comparative insignificance than suns, constellations, and solar systems with all their inestimable immensity.

God provides all the necessities of man's life light, heat, air, water, but in every instance there is furnished infinitely more than is required.

Men have argued the existence of life upon the planets on the ground that God would never have created such beautiful and massive structures to waste their presence in the depths of space.

But God's not through yet.

There's a long way to go in God's dealing with man and with the universe, but even if the planets were inhabited, this supposition has little weight in the face of the inconceivable waste of potential energy in the universe that is evidenced every hour of its existence.

The sun, each second, radiates as much heat as would be given out by burning eleven trillion tons of coal.

But the ener the earth receives only one tiny fraction of this valuable energy, uh something like one uh two-billionth of this energy.

Most of this amount is expanded in maintaining the earth's temperature, but a small portion, about one one thousandth, is stored away by animals and vegetables, and this slight fraction is the source upon which the human race depends for its artificial heat when the energy of the sun is diminished.

If this direct and indirect power from the sun were withdrawn, the whole race would perish.

Why all the planets combined do not receive twenty times the Earth portion, so that all but about one one hundred millionth of the sun's incredible power is wasted.

A drop in the bucket reaches the planets, granted, whether they are inhabited or not.

What becomes of the inconceivable amounts of heat and light radiated by a countless multitude of sons vaster than our own?

Of this incalculable, incomprehensible, and incessant waste, there is none to know but God and the exalted creation upon which he has so graciously bestowed his providence.

When we multiply the tremendous power of our own Son by the host of innumerable other sons, we stand astounded and awed at the power of God.

But in marked contrast to this stupendous waste, as men would call it, we cannot help being astonished with God's economy in dealing with men.

He's taken care to number the very hairs of your head.

He hears and answers the prayers of the humblest human beings.

He's not satisfied with the ninety and nine that are saved, but diligently, earnestly, lovingly seeks that one lost sheep.

Not only do we argue indirectly that the earth is the center of the universe because of the absence of life elsewhere, but we have direct evidence in the Word of God that it is the center of his interest and the field of his program.

The Bible says in John 3.16, and you know the verse well, God so loved the world.

Of course, we know it was not the earth, but the inhabitants of the earth that he so dearly loved, and it is inconceivable that God could ever love another people as he has the people of this earth.

It is inconceivable that there should be another planet somewhere in the universe whereon could be enacted the great tragedy of Calvary.

Could there be another atonement of the Son of God when the Bible so clearly states he was offered once forever?

Couldn't be impossible.

There is no way the Bible says God commend his love toward us, in that while we are yet sinners, Christ died for us.

He is not going about dying here and there and uh hither and yon, a dozen deaths, uh twenty deaths, fifty deaths.

No, one time in all of eternity, one place in all of the creation, the Son of God in human flesh, laid down his life and died for the race of man that God had created.

Not only is the earth the present center of interest, but as we shall see in our study, the attention of all creation was centered in this planet, in those prehistoric days, when the morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy.

The scriptures also predict a coming day when our Lord should be glorified, where once he was crucified, when in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him in whom also we have obtained an inheritance.

The earth was, is, and will continue to be the central place in God's universe, the grand stage upon which God acts out his purpose of redemption.

Now we know from the Bible, Genesis 1 and verse 1, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

The earth.

How do we know?

Well, Hebrews 11 3, through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God.

So the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

This is an appeal to faith, not to reason.

Reason can never discover who God is and where he came from.

It can never tell when the beginning was, nor how the universe was made out of nothing, which is the meaning of the word create, to make something out of nothing.

And this is what God did.

There's a good illustration of this in that great passage in Job chapter 38.

Job 38 · chapter mention

And let me read to you verses one through seven.

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?

Gird up now thy loins like a man, for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.

Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?

Declare, if thou hast understanding.

Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest, or who hath stretched the line upon it?

Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened, or who laid the cornerstone thereof?

When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy, or who shut up the sea with doors when it break forth, as if it had issued out of the womb, when I made the cloud like the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling band for it, and break up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, and said, Hitherto shalt thou come but no farther.

Here shall thy proud ways be stayed.

Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days, and caused the day spring to know his place, that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it?

Now, where were you?

Where were you when God created the heavens and the earth?

Did he consult you?

Did he ask your advice?

Did he seek your counsel?

Did he beseech your help?

No, my friend, God Almighty is the creator.

God Almighty spake this universe into existence.

God Almighty brought all that you see, all that you hear, all that you feel, all that you taste, all that you touch, God Almighty brought that into existence by the power of His Word.

Marvelous thing to consider.

Now you just have to accept the account of creation through faith and not through reason.

You say, well, that's just a religious conviction, a religious belief.

You weren't there.

Any contrary conviction theory, belief, or proposal is just that.

It's a religious conviction.

You weren't there.

Charlie Darwin wasn't there.

The professors at your favorite university weren't there.

I'll tell you who was there.

God was there.

The sons of God were there.

The Father, the Word, the Holy Ghost, they were present.

They gave you their testimony in the Holy Light.

They were present.

You were not in the beginning.

God created the heavens.

And the earth God reaches our reason through our faith, and not our faith through our reason.

And faith finds nothing in the scriptures to outrage reason.

Not only is God's testimony regarding creation accepted by faith, but by reason as well.

God is the great need of the vast creation in which we live, and consequently, God is a creature without a God.

Who can conceive of such a thing?

Given the creature, the creator is a necessity.

There cannot be a here without a there, there cannot be a before without an after.

There cannot be a creation without a creator.

These are all axioms, self-evident truths.

The universe is a product of thought, and thought implies a thinker, and a thinker is a person.

How often the astronomer comes back from the excursion into the depths of space with a feeling of awe.

He has seen traces of the footsteps of God.

He's heard the rustle of the robes of deity.

Lord Bacon was right when he said, It is inconceivable this frame of the universe without a mind.

Why did God create this great universe?

The Bible says in Isaiah 45, He created it not in vain.

He created it for the purpose of being inhabited by a perfect, sinless race of beings that would praise and worship and glorify their creator.

Live together in peace, in love, in wonderful, sinless harmony.

And you know something?

God is not to be defeated in his purposes.

If that's what God set out to do, that's what God is going to do.

The Lord has not forsaken the earth.

The Lord is not cast off or turned away from his great creation that he's formed and fashioned and spoken into existence and cared for for all these centuries.

The Lord has a purpose.

And he will fulfill that purpose on the future broadcasts in this series.

We're going to lay out just what interrupted God's plan and purpose and program.

And then we're going to talk about the great and wonderful things that God has done, is doing, and will do to see to it that his original intent and purpose for the earth and the man that dwells upon it, to see how God sees to it that those things are gloriously fulfilled.

We hope and pray that you'll be with us as we continue on in this series of messages on earth as the center of the universe.

Thanks for tuning in today.

Join us every weekday for another episode of the Preaching of the Cross Radio Podcast.

For hundreds of hours of in-depth expository Bible teaching, please visit our YouTube channel, James W.

Knox Sermons, our sermon audio page, Bible Baptist Land.

Or our website, Bible BaptistLand.com.

Until next time and throughout eternity, may Jesus Christ be praised.