Do the James Webb Telescope’s First Images of Deep Space Challenge the Bible?

By Kris W. Sky | Posted July 19, 2022

In 1996, plans for “the ‘Next Generation Space Telescope,’” the future successor of the mighty Hubble Space Telescope, were born. Twenty-five years later; $9 billion over its initial budget; and after several unexpected delays, including the COVID-19 pandemic, that far-off dream became a reality. On December 25, 2021, Christmas day, the James Webb Space Telescope launched into orbit from the Spaceport in French Guiana.

Named after James E. Webb, NASA’s second-ever administrator, this optical behemoth, “an international collaboration between NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA),” is “the most powerful space telescope ever.

After launching, Webb took the next 29 days to travel—literally—a million miles to its destination, Lagrange point L2. Once in outer space, Webb gradually deployed its state-of-the-art features, including a “five-layer sunshield” the size of “a tennis court” and 18 “ultra-lightweight beryllium” mirrors, which unfolded in sections, assembling into a giant honeycomb. It took another six months before Webb was in working order. The mirrors alone took “several months to align … properly, to a precision of one-5,000th the diameter of a human hair.”


More than Just an Infrared Lens

Then finally, on Monday, July 11, NASA revealed Webb’s first image, a cluster of “thousands of distant galaxies” called SMACS 0723, via President Joe Biden’s White House press conference. Some of the objects captured “have never been seen before.”

The next day, Tuesday, July 12, NASA shared several more images. Three of the subjects taken, the Southern Ring Nebula, Stephan’s Quintet, and the Carina Nebula, can be compared to older images produced by Hubble—and the difference is striking. And it’s all due to the type of telescope Webb is. It’s an infrared telescope.

Infrared light is essentially heat,” outside our natural human visibility. And since every object radiates some amount of heat, an infrared telescope like Webb would, for instance, be able to detect a person behind a wooden door—or stars and planets in the middle of a cosmic dust cloud. Objects that are far away from us also fall into that infrared spectrum. Though they are “very dim (or invisible)” to our eyes, they can be clearly viewed through an infrared lens like Webb.

And Webb was built with exactly this goal in mind: to study objects at a great distance. The reason is fascinating. According to NASA, Webb’s purpose is to “examine every phase of cosmic history: from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang to the formation of galaxies, stars, and planets to the evolution of our own solar system.” NASA designed Webb from a construct that assumes the veracity of the Big Bang.

The Big Bang theory says that the universe began coincidentally from a giant explosion in outer space. NASA treats this origin story as uncontested truth. This evolutionary model conflates distance with time; it declares that the further away an object in space, the earlier it was formed. Thus, NASA believes that when Webb is viewing those distant planets and stars, it is actually “[peering] back over 13.5 billion years,” further back in time than anyone has ever seen. NASA believes that Webb will help us to discover how stars are formed, how life on Earth developed, and if there is life elsewhere.


Creation

But the fact is that Webb’s epic mission has already been achieved. The Bible has recorded God’s plain proclamation: “I am the LORD, who makes all things, who stretches out the heavens all alone, who spreads abroad the earth by Myself” (Isaiah 44:24).

The Bible’s first chapter tells us that God created our world in only six days. On day four, He created the sun, moon, and stars (Genesis 1:14–19). On days five and six, God created the animals (vv. 20–25). Lastly, God made man and woman (vv. 26–31; 2:21–23). We humans were the culminating feat of God’s creation, for we were made “in the image of God,” “in His own image” (1:27).

The Bible has the answers NASA desperately wants to know, not only the deep mysteries of the universe but the great longing in every human heart: What is our true purpose in life?

One of the scientists behind Webb shared, “A lot of people sometimes see pictures of space and they think it makes them feel small. … When I see these pictures, they make me feel powerful[,] … that when we want to, we can do that.”

Is that our purpose in life, to be great in our own eyes, to amass power, wealth, fame, knowledge?

King David, who could arguably rival the great men of today, wrote this praise to God, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” (Psalm 8:3, 4).

When David looked at the world around him, he didn’t see his own greatness; he saw the greatness—the love—of God Almighty. He saw himself in relation to God. And the Bible says that when we truly see God, when “we all, with unveiled face, [are] beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, [we] are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Learn about this beautiful truth in Pastor Doug Batchelor’s presentation “Mankind: God’s Handiwork.” That is our great purpose in life—to be restored to the image of our Creator. 

Kris W. Sky
Kris W. Sky is a writer and editor for Amazing Facts International and other online and print publications.
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12 Comments
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Elona
The Bible does say God created the sun and moon on the fourth day to give light during the day and night. Verse 16 says "He made the stars also." This doesn't put a time of creation on the stars, only states God made them too. Our God is awesome and worthy of praise.
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L J
It is absolutely amazing, mind boggling if you will, that man can create the likes of the Webb telescope and choose to remain ignorant to the source of life and light. Not one instance of the Big Bang theory has ever been proven, not one instance of evolution has ever been discovered in process during man’s existence on earth and yet they still hold to this theory. To add insult to injury they have spent years and billions of dollars to effectively prove the Bible and the Word of God is wrong. Just simply amazing.
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Milan
As one commentator said: "They say they can see galaxies at 13.9 billion light years away, and yet these galaxies are whole. Shouldn't they be seeing the edge of the Big Bang?"
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Bente
CGI that»s all it is CGI
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Joy
People will do whatever it takes to prove that there is no God and that He did not create this world in literally six days. It is a shame that so much money is wasted when it could have helped to alleviate the suffering of those who are languishing in poverty.
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Sam
It will all come to nothing. Genesis 1:26 (KJV)
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. When man tried to go beyond the dominion God gave him like at the Tower of Babel, he confused them and changed their language and destroyed their progress. Our concentration should be in His Word. Despite what man shows us his word is true. And if you believe it, explain how the stars will be cast to earth Revelation 12:4 (KJV)
And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

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Gona
Let them buid the most powerful telescope to tour the universe. All i have to do is be righteous and THE CREATOR will one day give me a free tour
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Rebecca
One of my favorite Bible texts…thanks
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JM
Why did they waste all those billions of dollars and years of work to create something that would only tell them what they want to know. Wouldn’t it be amazing if they allowed it to show truly what God created?
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Who Is Unknown God?
Reading this from Papua New Guinea, SPD. Though mankind think they are discovering the universe in her humblest naked way, 95% is still yet to be discovered and this qualifies God the Creator is outside of space, time and matter. Through Isaiah 40:12, we can confidently say that God's size is still bigger than our known universe or multiverse (as some theorises). Isaiah 66:1 and Acts 7:49 in unison backs Isaiah 40:12 to be valid. Before Humble and James Webb Telescopes discovered our known universe, how did Job (Job 9:9) almost 2,000 years ago acurately named stars and star groups we now know today as Arcturus, Pleiades and Orion Nebula?
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S
Ditto, you've hit the nail on the head, only that Job's period is much further back than when Christ was born. Check it out lovely.
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Gregory
Amen, We are discovering Nothing that has Already been Discovered!!!