Good Heavens! The Cosmos, the Logos, and the Star-Maker

Good Heavens! The Cosmos, the Logos, and the Star-Maker.

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth… And God said, ‘Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters,’ and God made the expanse and called it Sky, or the Heavens… And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.’ And God made the two great lights and the stars.” (Genesis 1:1,6,14).

DEFINING OUR TERMS:

Firmament = Latin, for vast expanse or sky; expanse of the heavens above the earth; the expansive atmosphere.

Celestial = Greek, “epouranis;” above the sky; heavenly; belonging to heaven; the world beyond our ability to perceive; contrasted with terrestrial (of the land); in Bible often pertains to spiritual heaven as a divine place above the sky, and the resurrection.

Cosmos = Greek, “kosmos;” all of creation; a well-ordered whole; the harmonious universe; the inherent ordered arrangement of the world; humanity, all the people on earth.

Star = Greek, “aster;” a giant, beautiful, glowing ball of hot gas in space; composed of 90% hydrogen and 10% helium; powered by nuclear fusion as it produces light and heat energy, causing it to shine in the night sky.

Planet = Greek, means “wandering star;” a natural object that has a motion of its own, orbiting a star; is massive enough for its gravity to force it into a spherical shape; composed of rock or metal with solid surface (if nearer to the sun), or hydrogen and helium gas (if further away from the sun).

Galaxy = a huge, organized grouping of stars.

Galaxy Groups = a large collection of galaxies.

Galaxy Clusters = thousands of galaxies bound together by gravity.

Super Clusters = large grouping of galaxy clusters.

Galaxy Filaments = huge ‘walls’ of galaxy super clusters.

Constellation = a group of stars that form a pattern or design in the night sky, making an imaginary shape or design; they are usually named after mythological characters, animals, or objects that they resemble; there are 88 officially recognized constellations.

Light-Year = This is a unit of length, not of time; it is a way of measuring the distance between objects in space; it is based on how far it takes light to travel in one year; light travels at 186,000 miles per second; one light year is about 6 trillion miles. So to determine the distance across the Milky Way galaxy, for example, we would have to multiply 6 trillion miles times 100,000 light-years. Practically countless.

“Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God, for He is gracious and lovely; praise is becoming and appropriate… He determines and counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by their names. Great is the Lord, and of great power; His understanding is inexhaustible and boundless.” (Psalm 147:1, 4, 5).

BY THE NUMBERS:

Size of the Universe = Impossible to determine the actual size; it may be an infinite size, or “maybe finite but unbounded;” the universe is flat and constantly expanding at a very fast rate; the observable universe is about 94 billion light-years in diameter; the most distant objects in universe are 47 billion light-years away; it is estimated that the universe is 250 times larger than the observable universe, or 7 trillion light-years across.

Number of Galaxies = in observable universe, there are between 200 billion to 2 trillion galaxies.

Number of Stars = in observable universe, there is an average of 100 million stars in each galaxy; many galaxies have billions of stars; the largest known galaxy has 100 trillion stars; astronomers suggest there are more stars in the observable universe than there are grains of beach sand on the Earth.

Number of Planets = For every one of the billions of stars in the observable universe, there are many planets; the number of planets are thus literally uncountable.

Earth’s Galaxy = The Milky Way, which has between 100-400 billion stars; it is 100,000 light-years across; it appears there is only one sun in the Milky Way, sitting exactly in the middle of our solar system; our sun is a star that has eight planets orbiting around it. Our closest galaxy neighbor is the Andromeda galaxy, which has 1 trillion stars.

“Lift up your eyes on high, and see! Who created these? He who brings out their host by number and calls them all by name; through the greatness of His might, and because He is strong in power, not one is missing or lacks anything.” (Isaiah 40:26).

LOGOS: “In the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word (Logos) was with God, and the Word (Logos) was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, for God created everything through Him; not one thing came into being except through Him. In Him was life, and the life was the light of mankind.” (John 1:1-4).

The ‘heavens’ of creation is a vital part of God’s created order and design, which brings us to ‘logos.’ For, behind the written Word is the living Word, and behind the living Word is the creative Reason that resulted in all the beauty, order, and design of nature. Thus, the sky and all God’s handiwork in the heavens is an integral part of Logos. 

The Greek Logos. The Greek term for “word” was logos. Logos evidently started in the centuries before as a mathematical term, meaning to count up or give an accounting for, as in bookkeeping. It was still used occasionally in that way, such as in Matthew 12:26. For the most part, the term logos evolved into a Greek philosophical term. Using their famous Greek logical thinking, many Greek thinkers looked at our reasonable, well-ordered world and concluded that there must be a universal principle of Reason that is behind the running of the cosmos. They thought, mostly as a logical necessity, that there is an Intelligence somewhere, a transcendent source for this order that is beyond man’s understanding. There must be something that provides the world with this amazing form and coherence and exquisite design. They called this rather vague ideal “Logos.” This invisible force of Reason unifies the world into order from the chaos from before the world became reality. This logos is able to speak aloud, and whatever truth, goodness or beauty it speaks in fact exists the moment it is spoken. In a sense the Greek logos is able to create truth and reality. The Greeks never dreamed that their logos would become an actual person. The idea that logos would take on flesh would be laughable and unthinkable, and would actually defeat the whole purpose of this ideal of an impersonal, governing force in the world. The Greek logos had many hints of the true faith, though, and has been called a “bridge-word” because of the many Greeks who baptized the Greek logos into Christian belief after finding Christianity a logical step forward.

The Gospel Logos. The term Logos in John 1 has been the most debated and discussed term in all the Greek New Testament, according to the biblical scholars. It has been described and amplified and studied and defined in any number of ways. But for our purposes in the Christian faith, Jean Vanier’s definition of Logos is as good as any other: “Logos has come to mean the spoken Word, the thought and idea behind that Word, and the wisdom that inspired that Word.” The term logos was not a foreign word in that part of the world during the time of Jesus and the early Christians. The Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, was widely used for biblical reading and considered the Bible of reference of that time. John decided to adopt that term and baptize the Greek version with a more complete understanding of it from the Christian viewpoint. In the New Testament era, logos meant the expression of a thought of the Father through the Holy Spirit; an utterance or a word embodying a divine idea; a message through speech or in writing; or more generally, reasoning expressed by words. John’s logos would include these sorts of thoughts:

(1.)  There is indeed a universal Reason that is behind the well-ordered and reasonable world. This powerful force of divine intelligence is the God of the holy Scriptures, Yahweh, the Sovereign God who put the cosmos together. This God is the Person who created the world with His spoken Word, and has sustained it ever since.

(2.)  This personal Creator God, the eternal Lord of the cosmos, wanted to yet again use His spoken Word to start a new beginning. God’s Word would once again be in the act of creation, but this time would create salvation and renewal. God’s spoken Word was actually a divine Presence, His Son, Jesus Christ.

(3.)  The Creator God expressed Himself with His spoken Word, and His ultimate self-expression was when He revealed Himself to the world in the form of His Son. In this way, God revealed His divine Reason and Wisdom, and His desire to personally share His presence in this world He created. So God, the invisible Source of Reason and Wisdom, sent forth His Son as His visible, eternal spoken Word. Jesus, the spoken Word, is thus the Voice of God.

(4.)  Jesus Christ is the Logos, the living Word of God, the Word who once said, “Let there be light!” That creative Word has taken on flesh and is the visible image of the invisible God. Jesus is the physical representative of God’s existence, heaven’s Ambassador of the Godhead to bring messages from His home. Jesus is the Co-Creator of the cosmos and has been face-to-face with the almighty God for all eternity. The Word that spoke light into the world has now become the Light of that world.

(5.)  So John declares that Jesus, the Son of God, is in fact the Logos…not only the spoken Word of God in the flesh in a new creation, not only God’s thought behind that living Word, but also the embodiment of the Wisdom that inspired God’s spoken Word. John presents Jesus as the absolute revelation and self-expression of God. Jesus is Yahweh spoken into flesh, the holy Scripture in the form of a Person. If we want to read God’s mind, we read Jesus.

The Hebrew Logos. The Bible used during the time of Jesus and the early Christians was usually the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. The original Old Testament was written in Hebrew, but Greek was the prominent language used during Jesus’ time. The Septuagint had been translated several centuries before Christ, and so it was commonplace for New Testament writers to quote the Greek version and not the Hebrew version of Scripture. For the most part, when we see a quote from the Hebrew Bible in the New Testament, it is from the Septuagint. The Greek term logos was used literally hundreds of times in the Greek Bible, and was often used to highlight the Word of God. Logos was also used to translate “truth,” and implied thought, meaning, planning and design. It’s interesting that the Hebrew Bible’s logos was so similar to the Greek understanding. In many ways, the Greek Old Testament laid the groundwork for John’s use of logos. The Word of God in the Hebrew Bible (logos), as with John, signified the presence of the Lord. Logos suggested God’s self-expression, whether in creation, in the prophet’s message, or in the Torah itself. When a prophet declared “the word of the Lord,” the prophet’s words were considered coming from the mind and mouth of Yahweh Himself.

Moses and the Logos. A fascinating use of logos in the Hebrew Bible is found in Deuteronomy 32:45-47. Moses had just finished delivering the truth of the Torah to the Chosen People ready to enter the Promised Land. And logos was used a number of times in his final words to his people. Moses declared that logos is life itself, with supernatural power. “When Moses finished reciting all the words (logos) to all Israel, he said to them… ‘Take to heart all the words (logos) I have solemnly declared to you in this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words (logos) of this instruction. They are not just idle words (logos) for you – They are your life. By them, you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”   When Jesus declared that He was “the Life” (John 14:6), I wonder if there were many listeners who made the connection to Moses’ reference to logos being life. Did any listeners of Jesus believe that with these and so many of His other words, He was the embodiment of the Hebrew Bible… not just its fulfillment, but its embodiment. The Greek Bible translated the term “the Ten Commandments” (Deut. 5, Ex. 20) into “the Ten Logos,” the Ten Words.” That’s why so many refer to the “Decalogue” when referring to the Ten Commandments. As outrageous as this might sound, Jesus wasn’t merely fulfilling the Word of God, He was embodying it. He wasn’t merely living in light of the Ten Commandments, He was a living, breathing version of them. Jesus was not merely unpacking the Torah in His teachings, He was the Torah. Jesus the living Word, Scripture in the flesh, Torah with a pulse.