Christ and the Restoration of the Universe
In Gen 1:1, 2 Moses received a revelation that God created the heavens and the earth. In Gen 1:3 he received a further revelation about the make up of the universe.
וְהָאָרֶץ הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ וְחֹשֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵי תְהֹום וְרוּחַ
אֱלֹהִים מְרַחֶפֶת עַל־פְּנֵי הַמָּֽיִם׃ Gen 1:2
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
תהו tohu means formlessness of a primeval condition or earliest stage of the earth development
בהו wabohu means emptiness.
The hendiadys of without form and void is the grammatical use of two words having similar meanings but with the words separated by a conjunction, so as to emphasize the complexity or intensity of the relationship. Examples of hendiadys are “sound and fury” and “nice and warm”.
These words without form and void when used together suggest a state of potential existence of the earth which preceded actual space and time.
. בַּהֲכִינֹו שָׁמַיִם שָׁם אָנִי בְּחוּקֹו חוּג עַל־פְּנֵי תְהֹֽום׃ Prov 8:27,29
27When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth …29when he appointed the foundations of the earth.
One interpretation of this proverb is that He was present when He made the formless part of the earth to become firm. (כון kuwn-means to make firm) with its core, inner and outer mantle and crust consisting of land masses and oceans in the form of a sphere ((חוג khüg) means sphere of the heavens). It was a time when the elements were formed by nucleosynthesis and a time when water was formed in the deep parts of the earth and atmosphere.
The spirit of God fluttered or hovered (רחף rakhaf) over this early stage of the earth’s development with tender love The universe, as we see it now, had a comparatively smooth distribution of matter until the time of the Big Bang. It was formless.
Dark matter filaments began to form first, providing underlying scaffolding for the subsequent development of stars and galaxies from the primeval formless matter (Vera Cooper Rubin 2000, UCLA)
Gen 1:4 “and God divided the light from the darkness”.
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Dark Matter Light Matter
Into it God sent light. “Let there be light” Gen 1:3.
The same revelation about light in the heavens was given to Moses in Gen 1:14 “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven”. God made the stars and galaxies by Christ (Light) interacting with the dark formless precondition of creation.
Distribution of Dark Matter around light to form stars and galaxies (bottom of picture)
Information from the Hubble Space Telescope
The beginning of space and time centered on Christ manifested in the luminous portion of the universe. Christ, as light, is the foundation of the universe in the same way as He is as the light of the world.
This primeval formlessness existed in a vast area of darkness (חשך khoshek – dark, secret place) composed of dark matter, dark energy and non-luminous matter according to current scientific theory. Things that we can see are but a small part of existing universe, only about 0.4% of the total.
United States Geological Survey of the composition of the universe
Vast darkness makes up 99.6% of the universe. Since it is created, it must be restored, too, and we don’t even know that much about it. The great size and complexity of the visible universe is astounding. How much more so those areas of darkness?
Since restoration includes all things, the magnitude of the restoration process is great! Christ created all things and will restore all things. We, as the completed body of Christ will participate in the restoration process with Him.
There will be a need for metamorphosis of our bodies to set us free from the constraints of space and time allowing us to venture into distant and unknown parts of the universe. In that regard, our bodies will be like the body that Christ had after His Resurrection.
John 14:3 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, [there] ye may be also”.