“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,” Genesis 1:1.

“Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in,” Isaiah 40:21-22.

“Thus declares the LORD, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him,” Zechariah 12:1.

The Bible asserts the universe had a “beginning” and that it was subsequently “stretched.” The scientific community would not have supported the assertion that the universe had a beginning during the early 20th century. At that time, Albert Einstein, Sir Arthur Eddington, Sir James Jeans, Sir Fred Hoyle, and the rest of the world’s famous cosmologists agreed that the universe could not have had a beginning. Yet while they agreed upon that, they differed considerably over hypotheses and theories to account for the existing universe, let alone the beginning of life. all of these theories fell before direct astronomical measurements from the greatly improved telescopes.

By the late 1920s the pioneering work of Edwin Hubble in his observations of galaxies and their associated “red shift” established that the universe was expanding and argued for a “beginning” and a “stretching,” just as the Bible teaches. The Bible presents a view of a Creator who stands outside of nature, and creates nature itself.

How does this happen? The Bible does not speak to this subject except to assure us that this is according to the Heavenly Father’s plan.

The simplest explanation is that this “stretching” helps move the universe to a lower energy state. In 1979 physicist Alan Guth (MIT) found that if the universe contained a field in what is called “a positive-energy false vacuum state,” then, according to general relativity, it would generate an exponential expansion of space. It was very quickly realized that such an expansion would resolve many other long-standing problems. Readers wishing a more thorough understanding of cosmic expansion are directed to the peer-reviewed science on this interesting question.

Additional Resource:
Christian Questions Podcast
Episode #1090: “What Profound Secret Does Creation Reveal? Contradictions (Part V)”
Startling revelations from Genesis 2
Preview Video
CQ Rewind Show Notes