Did The Big Bang Actually Happen?

A recent article,  “Scientist Disputes That Big Bang Actually Happened” (Futurism, September 17, 2024), reports on computer scientist Lior Shamir of Kansas State University, who has revived the nearly century-old “tired light” theory originally proposed by Fritz Zwicky in 1929. Shamir argues that the observed redshift of distant galaxies—long taken as proof that the universe is expanding from a Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago—is instead caused by photons simply losing energy as they travel through space. He points to James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) images showing “large and mature galaxies” that appear far too developed for the early universe predicted by the Big Bang model. “If the Big Bang happened as scientists initially believed,” Shamir states, “these galaxies are older than the universe itself.” By analyzing how redshift varies with distance (accounting for Earth’s rotation), he claims the data better fit a static universe in which light tires over distance rather than space itself expanding.

From a strictly Biblical perspective, this article is a powerful illustration of the futility of human reasoning when it rejects the absolute truth God has already revealed. Scripture declares that the heavens were not the product of an explosion or gradual expansion but were deliberately stretched out by the Creator Himself. Multiple passages use the same Hebrew verb (natah) to describe this divine act:

• “Thus says God the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out…” (Isaiah 42:5)

• “I, even I, have made the earth… My hands have stretched out the heavens” (Isaiah 45:12)

• “The LORD… who stretched out the heavens” (Zechariah 12:1)

• “Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain” (Psalm 104:2)

• “He has made the earth by His power… and has stretched out the heavens at His discretion” (Jeremiah 10:12)

  
  

These are not poetic metaphors for slow cosmic inflation over billions of years. They describe a sovereign, instantaneous creative act during the six-day creation week (Genesis 1). When God stretched the heavens, the light already in transit from distant stars and galaxies was stretched along with space. That stretching is precisely what produces the redshift we observe today—without requiring either an expanding universe or “tired” photons losing energy en route.

The article testifies to the confusion that reigns when scientists refuse God’s eyewitness account. Shamir’s “tired light” proposal joins a long line of alternatives (steady-state cosmology, plasma cosmology, variable speed of light theories, etc.) because the Big Bang model itself keeps running into fatal contradictions—most recently the “impossibly mature” galaxies revealed by JWST. The piece itself notes that astronomers have repeatedly rejected tired light because it would blur distant images (which we do not observe) and because it cannot account for the cosmic microwave background. Yet the very fact that secular researchers are now seriously debating whether the Big Bang “actually happened” proves the point of Romans 1:21–22: “Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools.”

God didn't have to tell us how He created, yet in loving condescension He did—both in Genesis and through the prophets. He could have left us guessing. Instead, the Bible gives us the only absolute truth about origins: “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth” (Psalm 33:6). Fallen humanity, however—its mind darkened by the Fall (Ephesians 4:18), its body subject to decay (Romans 8:20–21), and its world cursed by the Fall—prefers to lean on its own crippled intellect rather than bow before the Creator’s clear revelation. The result is endless contention, shifting models, and “crises in cosmology” that never end because they start from the wrong foundation.

This article is a timely witness of why we must begin with God’s Word, not man’s speculation. Just as the global Flood of Noah’s day left unmistakable geological evidence that secular geology still cannot explain without invoking millions of imaginary years, the stretching of the heavens left unmistakable redshift evidence that secular cosmology cannot explain without invoking billions of imaginary years. Both the rocks beneath our feet and the stars above our heads declare the same truth: the God who judged the world with water in Genesis 6–9 is the same God who spoke the heavens into existence and stretched them out in Genesis 1. He has not left us without a witness.

When we stand on the firm foundation of Scripture, the “crisis” disappears. The redshift is not a puzzle demanding 13.8 billion years or exotic new physics; it is the visible signature of the Creator’s mighty arm that stretched the heavens like a curtain in six literal days. That same Creator preserved Noah and his family through the Flood, and that same Creator has given us His unchanging Word so that we might know Him, trust Him, and proclaim His glory to a world still futile in its darkened thinking.

We hope that visitors to The Flood Museum leave not only convinced of the historical reality of Noah’s Flood, but also of the historical reality of the Six-Day Creation and the stretched heavens—truths that no telescope, no computer model, and no “tired light” theory can ever overturn. “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1)—and they declare it exactly as He said they would.