What is light?

[Akiko]

"...The student continued, "Professor, does darkness exist?"

The professor responded, "Of course it does."

The student replied, "Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact we can use Newton's prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn't this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present." "

This is taken from a one-page essay I recieved about a year ago, and it speaks truth. In layman's terms, sin is 'darkness' and rightiousness is 'light' (if you'll excuse the spelling). So things associated with sin, such as Satan and demons, are 'darkness' and God is 'light.'

Interesting topic.

Think of this in light of scripture...Ahem...

I wasn't sure exactly what you were asking about, so I added a bit of both. There are references to Scripture in that post, however...

[MrsSealedEternal]

There are many who claim that the earth and the universe must be old or that creation did not occur 6,000 years ago.

I think that God is eternal and God is light, the light of world, the daystar that arises in our hearts.

I sometimes wonder if it has something to do with it appearing that old to some because of a lack of comprehending what it is fully or if light is more properly understood as something that transcends all time.

By adding millions or billions of years into ones understanding of evening and morning, one day, it is like trying to stretch it out into something out of the reach of time. Since all created beings have a beginning, we start off finite, but it as if this is an attempt at walking off into infinity or eternity... Have my ponderings made any sense...?

For instance, God says...

Ecc 3:11 He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.

What is so amazing is that God says it and it is so! How true!

[LightofJesus]

One time I heard a minister say something a few years ago and I have never forgotten it; now this may not be word for word but still is very thought provoking;

"When God said, Let there be light, He never told light to stop."

The revelation I got from that statement was that light is still going and I sometimes think that is why they see the universe growing. They seem to be finding new galaxies all the time. I just thought I would throw that in

[MrsSealedEternal]

Quote:

"When God, a spirit, speaks in Genesis, "Let there be light," do you think it is both intrisically spiritual and physical or just one or the other???"

I believe that it is the strictly physical kind of light, but also possibly God manifesting himself in a physical form. (in Revalation, it talks about how there is no sun, because the glory of God lights Heaven). Sin did not enter the world until Eve ate the apple, so there would be no sin/darkness before that time. God would not have needed to create spiritual light to combat sin, because it wasn't there yet.

Other opinions?

In the preceeding verses, it states. 'darkness was over...'

Do you think this establishes its existance prior to light...?

God then says, 'Let there be light' and there was light...'

Whatever it was, it did not eminate from the solar luminaries, but the solar luminaries originated with the command of the Lord afterwards. If God can create such amazing things as these luminaries by the very power of His word, it must certainly not be difficult for Him to call light forth without them, although this strikes me as something I am unable to explain physically, because I do not understand how He does it...

Did light always/already exist and suddenly manifest itself physically...In the beginning from day 1?

Remember, God is eternal and God is light...

I think it seems plausible, if not likely.

[MrsSealedEternal]

One time I heard a minister say something a few years ago and I have never forgotten it; now this may not be word for word but still is very thought provoking;

"When God said, Let there be light, He never told light to stop."

The revelation I got from that statement was that light is still going and I sometimes think that is why they see the universe growing. They seem to be finding new galaxies all the time. I just thought I would throw that in

Ahh, quite thought provoking...

[MrsSealedEternal]

Rev 21:22 I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

Rev 21:23 And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.

Rev 21:24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.

Rev 21:25 In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed;

Rev 22:5 And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.

'and the darkness He called night'...

What do you think...?

Will darkness cease to manifest itself and/or therefore cease to exist in the new heaven and the new earth...?

Just try to imagine that...no sun and no longer any night...

Revelation is commonly understood spiritually and propheticly, which has a pattern of manifesting it's presence in the physical realm.

Could this not also be applicable to a physical understanding...?

[MrsSealedEternal]

Gen 1:14 Then 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;

Gen 1:15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so.

Gen 1:16 God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also.

Gen 1:17 God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth,

Gen 1:18 and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good.

Gen 1:19 There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

Why would God wait until day four to create the luminaries...?

They are for signs and for seasons and for days and for years, so how anyone can ascertain this day does not also include a 24 hour period of time is missing something if you ask me. What I find interesting is that scripture translates a day=24hrs=1,000years and if you follow the biblical geneolgy of Adam to Yeshua you have 4,000 years following a pattern of 4days=96hrs.=4,000years. Seems prophetic, if you ask me.

So, what is the next leap in time eventually leading to...eternity or shall I say the eternal day?

[Openly Curious]

I understand that there is a spiritual and physical sense to light.

When God, a spirit, speaks in Genesis, "Let there be light," do you think it is both intrisically spiritual and physical or just one or the other???

Some will ascertain that Genesis only makes sense spiritually and prophetically, that as a physical account it makes absolutely no sense.

I think it lends itself to both.

Afterall, God did create the physical & the spiritual realms and operates in and through both.

Hello MrsSealedEternal,

It is important to understand that everything that we see and feel in the natural already existed in the spiritual before it came into being in the physical realm. The natural things are only the manifestation of the spiritual things. This is what the scripture in Hebrews teaches us about faith. as faith is the evidence of the things hoped for. In other words we believe by faith for something that is not yet manifested or given to us in the natural realm but yet it exist already by faith in the spiritual realm as we are believing God trusting in Him until we get what we are hoping and praying for. Hope that makes sense.

The Genesis account of creation is a vast subject it covers so much doctrines and truths that are astounding to my mind. I do however believe and have no problem at all making sense out of Genesis in fact it makes perfectly good sense to this mind of mine.

It does lend to both sides the spiritual and the prophetic as what was in the beginning in Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created heaven (His abode) and the earth (our abode) and it will be in the end as well. As death will only be the beginning to us believers to the things that has been before the world was created which is the place of God's abode.

But I think it when God said "Let their be light" it was at that time that the "evening" and "morning" was created and both shined all the time until it was regulated by the sun and moon later on. And this was a literal physical manifestation of the light of God that radiates from His throne in heaven that has always existed in the spiritual realm and it was known in the darkness of this world when God said Let their be light as it exposed or made known the darkness that the world was in. As the evening and the morning were the first day.

Both were manifested. the light from the beginning and the darkness that was present in the natural realm of the earth as the spirit of God it says brooded over the waters of the face of the deep wanting to create something. but anyways just some of my thoughts

blessings

OC