In an article in The Scotsman of 21 April 2007, Stephen McGinty recalls the evening in December 1968 when three astronauts in Apollo 8 entered the orbit of the moon and were able to transmit to Earth images of our planet: “Stuck for words to describe a spectacle never before seen, they reached for the Bible and each man read from Genesis. Frank Borman, the Apollo 8 commander, ended with: ‘And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called He Seas: and God saw that it was good’.”
The article records the comments of some astronauts as they reflected on
their view of the Earth from the heavens. We note the following quotations from five different sources. “The sheer beauty of it just brought tears to my eyes.” “I see the deep black of space and this just-brilliantly-gorgeous blue and white arc of the Earth, and totally unconsciously, not at all able to help myself, I said, ‘Wow, look at that’.” “It was the only colour we could see in the universe. We’re living on a tiny little dust mote in a rather insignificant galaxy.” “From up there, it looks finite and it looks fragile and it really looks like just a tiny little place on which we live in a vast expanse of space.” “All of the teachings of the Bible that talk about the Creator and His creation take on new meaning when you can view the details of the Earth from that perspective. So it did not change my faith per se, the content of it, but it just enhanced it, it made it even more real.”
In his very useful and readable book for the scientifically-lay person, He Made the Stars also (Day One Publications), Dr Stuart Burgess notes the common motivation for space exploration and for the ambition to discover extra-terrestrial life and identifies it with the rejection of God and with man’s desire for the control of his own destiny and for his own glorification, which inspired the attempt to build the tower of Babel (Gen 11). He illustrates from scientific data the centrality of the earth and of the human race in the universe, how the earth is designed for life and how the stars are designed for the earth. “Even although the earth is small in comparison to the universe, the Bible teaches that the Earth has been uniquely prepared for life and is centre-stage of the universe” (pp 16,17).
It is noteworthy, but not at all surprising to those who believe the truth of the Bible, that, whatever motivates space research, any certain conclusions drawn from it only go to confirm us in that sense of wonder and worship which characterised the psalmist as he looked out into space from earth: “When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him? . . . O Lord our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth” (Ps 8:3,4,9). “The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s; but the earth hath He given to the children of men” (Ps 115:16). It is a great wonder that the universe exists for the good of human beings on the Earth. It is an even greater wonder that human beings on this little Earth are at the centre of the wonderful works whereby God shall be glorified eternally. “But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth?” (2 Chron 6:18).
More wonderful than anything that will be discovered in space is the fact that the man Jesus Christ is Emmanuel, God with us. “Here is a vast wonder, the framing of a soul and body to be the everlasting rest and home of God
Himself” (Alexander Stewart, The Tree of Promise, p 55, FPP edition). The work of redemption accomplished by Him for sinners on Earth is the greatest demonstration of the glory of God. That is what gives the Earth its central place in all the works of God and what makes it truly beautiful in the estimation of His people, even though it is now “made subject to vanity” on account of the Fall of man (Rom 8:20). HMC