“The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.” (Psalm 115:16)
Secularists like to consider Earth as just one among many millions of planets, occupying an obscure place in an insignificant galaxy in a sea of nothingness. The Bible teaches, however, that Earth is very special to the Creator, performing a crucial role in the universe today and playing an unending role in the cosmic saga.
Earth is the only planet circling our sun on which life as we know it could (and does) exist. Other known planets are either “gas balls” or are covered with lifeless soil or frozen chemicals. From the apex of the atmosphere to the bottom of the oceans, from the coldest part of the poles to the warmest part of the equator, life thrives here. To this day, no evidence of life has been found on any other planet.
If the earth traveled much faster in its 584-million-mile journey around the sun, its orbit would become larger and it would move farther away from the sun. If it moved too far from this narrow habitable zone, all life would cease to exist. If it traveled slightly slower, the earth would move closer to the sun, and if it moved too close, all life would likewise perish.
The chances of a planet being just the right size, the proper distance away from the right star, etc., are extremely minute. The mathematical odds that all of these and other essential conditions happened by chance are astronomical—something like billions to one!
“I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me” (Jeremiah 27:5). HMM III
Adapted from Unlocking the Mysteries of Genesis by Dr. Henry Morris III.
