Does The Bible Speak of Black Holes?

This is the first image ever taken of the event horizon of a supermassive black hole, captured by the Event Horizon Telescope in 2017. (Event Horizon Telescope)

By Mike Shoesmith

I was involved in a debate with an atheist some years ago in which I was confronted with the question: "in the 1000 pages of the Bible why does God not once say that all stars are suns?" My response was, obviously, that in the 1000 pages of the Bible God does not say "all stars are suns" because the fact is that not all stars are suns. Stars are defined in the dictionary as "a fixed luminous point in the night sky which is a large, remote incandescent body like the sun" or ": a natural luminous body visible in the sky especially at night." Galileo referred to the planets orbiting our sun as "wandering stars" and the Andromeda Galaxy is the most distant object you can see with your naked eyes, two million light years away. It is visible as a dim, fuzzy star from a dark sky site. With binoculars you can clearly see the elliptical shape of the galaxy. If you were to travel outside of our own Milky Way Galaxy then most, if not all of the visible points of light, or stars, would in fact be galaxies and not suns.

And so, as we look at the fuzzy image of the very first picture ever taken of a "black hole" released today, many people are asking, "does the Bible, in its 1000 pages, ever mention a "black hole?" 

In fact, now that we have the evidence that such places exist in the universe, we may have better understanding of some passages of scripture which refer to places of inescapable darkness as metaphors for places of judgment and torment. 

The Bible sometimes depicts disaster as falling inescapably into darkness—a concise description of what happens to matter approaching a black hole (see Ezekiel 28:8). Ideas such as absolute blackness (Jude 1:13), total destruction (2 Thessalonians 1:9), and the annihilation of matter (2 Peter 3:10–12) are set forth in Scripture. Coincidence is not the same as connection, however. The Bible does not present these ideas as relating in any meaningful way to the actual physical objects we call black holes. (chapter source)

However I personally find Jude 1:13 to be of particular interest in this regard. You will notice from verse 12 we see a description of wicked people: "These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm--shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted--twice dead." Now notice the judgment that will be inflicted upon them in the latter part of the very next verse: "[...] wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever."

Black holes, from the atheistic perspective, not allowing for the possibility that almighty God created them as they are (see this paper from the University of California Riverside), are expected to form when very massive stars collapse at the end of their life cycle. Could it be the Bible, when it mentions judgment against wicked "shepherds" as "stars" having reserved for themselves the "utter darkness" is actually using a black hole metaphor? It could.

Alas, the Bible is not an in-depth tutorial on all things cosmological. It will not refute the prophesied "knowledge" (scientia) we know will increase in the final countdown to His return, as long as what the so-called scientists claim to know is true and factual, and dare I say -- useful? The Bible is an historical record of God's interaction with humanity -  past, present, and future. Are you ready for what's to come?