Hi DH,
Well, for me, I'm curious what you mean by 'testable predictions'. As far as I'm aware, no prediction is testable until it becomes reality. How would you possibly test a prediction? Certainly you could lay out some sort of current evidence that might lead one to make a certain prediction, but test it?
For example, I might say that I believe the stock market will continue to climb and lay out some reasons that I would think so. But then what if the stock market didn't continue to climb? Would that mean that I didn't 'test' my evidence, or just that I misread or misunderstood the future implications of my evidence.
As far as the creation goes, the whole of that event (the six days) was something that God did. As far as I am aware, there is nothing that God does for which man can test whether or not He did it or not. Can we test whether or not Mary was a virgin at the time of conception? Can we test that the water of the sea separated so as to create a wall of water on two sides? Can we test that the sun stood still in the sky for an inordinate amount of time one day several thousand years ago? Can we test that the sun or the earth somehow moved in an unconventional way as to cause a shadow cast by the sun to move back the distance of 10 steps?
As a born again believer, I think that one first comes to understand who God is and the power that He wields over His creation. Then having been sufficiently convinced that God is who He says that He is and has the power that He says that He has, we believe, on faith, that the things that He accounts for us in the Scriptures as having done...He did!
I would ask, what would we expect the earth to look like if God did create it only some 6,000 years ago? Many people say, well, there wouldn't be all these layers that we believe were established over millions of years. Why not? What if the various layers of soil and rock and sandstone were exactly how the earth had to be constructed to exist as an everlasting planet. That on the day of the earth's creation we could have drilled into the earth and found pretty much the same layering as we see today because that's what makes the earth solid and holding to its form. That the crust of the earth always consisted of a built up foundation of these various material parts.
Some would say that the light of the stars proves that the earth is as old as it is. Why is that so? God has already given examples that He can play with the natural properties of light pretty much however He wants to. There is an account during the plagues on Egypt where we are told that for three solid days it was pitch black in Egypt. Yet that same account tells us that for those same three days there was light in Goshen. Now, these two areas are just like modern suburbs of a city. Goshen isn't hundreds of miles away from Egypt. It literally adjoins Egypt and even during our darkest solar eclipses it isn't just pitch dark in one place and and normal daylight just hundreds or thousands of feet away. Not at all! It would seem that by whatever power God has over light, He literally stopped the light of the sun from shining in Egypt and even held back any refractive light that would have been created by the atmosphere.
Take the shadow moving backwards ten steps. Now, I can't even begin to tell you how God did it, but the account clearly seems to indicate that in some way God took the rays of light emanating from the sun and caused them to shine on those steps in a manner that moved the shadow backwards. He may have moved the sun or the earth in some way to have accomplished this, but that would mean that the sun's shadow moved backwards all over the part of the earth on which it was shining at the time. Or, He may have merely manipulated the light rays only in that small area so that they changed their natural straight line direction over those steps so that they moved the shadow backwards.
What about the star standing over Bethlehem during the birth of our Lord. Many will say that it was a conjunction of the light of stars that still exist today to make the pinpoint of light from each one to appear brighter. However, it could be just as possible, with the power of God, that He created a special light in the heavens only for that moment in time to announce and show the awesome event that was occurring. I mean, there also seemed to be a tear between the heavenly realm and the earthly realm at that moment that showed a gathering of shepherds a whole host of angels singing praises to God and announcing the birth of His Son. That event in the Scriptures is portrayed as a fairly spectacular sight.
All this to say, that when God created the stars and other various bodies of the universe, by the power of God the light of those stars may have been instantly visible to anyone upon the earth. If God wanted those lights in the heavens to be what God said they were created for, signs and seasons, then it would seem that He would have wanted Adam to see them just as much as any of us today.
But, is there any way to test any of this? No! There is no way that man can test how God works; the things that God does. God merely commands that something be...and it becomes! At one point Paul cautions believers to not be swayed by fine sounding arguments that are based on the natural properties of things and not on the spiritual. As I understand this warning, he is telling us that there are things that we just have to trust that they were done in the spiritual realm by the power of God and Jesus. That when men lay out fine sounding arguments against the claims of what God has told us that He has done, we need to understand that there is a power in the spiritual realm that we just honestly don't understand. Within that spiritual realm there are things that God can do that defy our understanding of them.
However, there is coming a day, according to the Scriptures, that we will see that power that God holds over this created realm. We are told that in the last days the heavens will be rolled up like a scroll. That earth and sky will flee from Him who sits upon the throne. When the people who are alive in that day see this event, then I believe many will understand that God can do some pretty awesome things that we will never have any understanding of how He actually accomplishes them, other than to just command that they be...and they become.
The only test I can think of that one can use to confirm any of these events is the test of faith.
God bless you,
In Christ, ted
