What does “Does the Universe Really Exist?” mean?

It’s a theological idea exploring whether God created only what humans can observe from Earth, suggesting the unseen universe may not truly exist.

How does this idea relate to the Bible?

The hypothesis follows a literal 6,000-year creation timeline, using Genesis 1:16 and other verses to suggest God created light that only extends as far as we can see.

Does this article claim the universe doesn’t exist?

No, it presents a hypothetical perspective meant to encourage thought and discussion among believers, not a definitive scientific or doctrinal statement.

What does this mean for Christians today?

It’s a reminder of God’s limitless power and a call to trust His word over human understanding, in line with Proverbs 3:5–7.

What is the main takeaway from this article?

Whether or not the universe extends beyond what we can see, God’s creation is purposeful, and His new heavens and earth will be eternal.

Does The Universe Really Exist?

September 15, 2025
5 minutes

A Thought That Challenges Our Understanding of Creation

This isn’t an article typical of our website, but just an idea that might be interesting to some people and possibly be an impetus to a healthy discussion about the full extent of creation. We are going to venture into all new territory, where our topic has absolutely nothing to do with salvation. Hopefully this might spark some interesting conversation among deep thinking Christians.

A thought, perhaps an original one, came to one of our members some years ago, that just maybe the universe does not have to exist at all. Now this seems impossible as we can all look out at the night sky and see it for ourselves, the stars in the Milky Way, estimated between 100 and 400 billion stars, and the many other lights of the universe representing countless billions of galaxies. Our understanding of the reality of the universe depends on what can be observed from earth with land based or orbiting telescopes as the naked eye cannot observe very much.

The Speed of Light and the Limits of What We See

The interesting thought, that “there doesn’t have to be a universe,” comes from a construct based on the speed of light, which happens to be 186,000 miles per second – extremely fast, and the fastest known thing in the universe! We know that light coming from our sun takes 8 minutes and 20 seconds to reach earth. We know that the nearest star to earth is Proxima Centauri which is 4.24 light-years from us, meaning if we could travel to that star at the speed of light, it would take us about 4 years and three months to get there.

To travel from one star on the outer edge of the Milky Way, the galaxy we live in, through the center of the galaxy to the furthest star on the other side would take about 100,000 years traveling at the speed of light. In our current understanding of the size of the universe, we think there are billions of other galaxies; this helps us imagine how big the universe is, or so we think?

Creation Week and the Reach of Light

We should all be able to agree that the light we see today on earth has only traveled a 6,000 light-years distance since creation, as viewed from any location on earth. We believe the whole of creation was made 6,000 years ago as God told Moses He made the stars, Genesis 1:16, on the fourth day of creation. Believing the Bible to be inerrant and following the timeline the Bible gives us, we arrive at a creation week about 6,000 years ago.

Did God Create Light Without Its Source?

This is where it gets more interesting. Just think, for there to be light for humanity to see at the end of creation week, assuming the whole of the universe exists, God would have had to make the fully developed light rays when he made all the celestial bodies, in their present state, in order for visible light to be seen on day four, just as Adam and Eve were made on day six as fully formed adults, not embryos.

The Coming End of the Heavens and the Earth

Today, all the light emitted from celestial bodies further away from us than a 6,000 light-years distance, has not reached us yet. If the millennium lasts 1,000 years and we are nearing the end of this pre-millennial 6,000-year age now, at the end of the millennium we will have only seen light traveling for 7,000 years, a 7,000-light-year distance. From 2 Peter 3:7-10 and Revelation 21:1 we know that following the millennium, the old earth and old heavens will pass away in fire and with a great noise, after a total of 7,000 years from the date of creation. So, what about all the rest of what we think is “out there”, all that light that never reached earth except for the very small part that was observed for the last 7,000 years and the perceived light sources? It all gets destroyed, right? The point is then, if all the rest of the light beams and their light source are destroyed without ever being observed, do they need to exist at all?

No, only the light that reached earth over the 7,000 years matters. Everything further away from us will be destroyed before anyone can observe it. Because God made light rays on day four of creation, He could have done so without the assumed light source; nothing is impossible for God. And those light rays could have been only 7,000 light-years long in the first place, so when the last of those rays reach earth, the light stops, and the heavens go dark, thus the “universe” is destroyed.

What about the “fire” and “great noise”? That might describe a catastrophic explosion of Biblical proportion, maybe, as God can and does work outside the laws of natural science. But the speed of sound is zero in the vacuum of space. Whatever the fire and great noise is that will be heard, God will have created that for us at that time so that it can be seen and heard, as within the laws of nature, it cannot be from the destruction of a distant universe.

Could the Universe Be Smaller Than We Think?

And just think, if this were true, the entire creation that humans on this earth will ever observe from here fits inside a sphere that is only 14,000 light-years in diameter. If you have been able to follow our logic, this is a very small amount of space. And we ponder, how smart man thinks he is, and how ignorant he really is. It is no wonder that God tells us not to lean on our own understanding, Proverbs 3:5-7. Scientists can’t explain fully how the universe, as they perceive it to be, works. This in part is the impetus behind theories concerning dark matter, needed, we are told, to explain gravitational forces that must be out there to support what we see, and are we seeing what we think we see?

Faith, Science, and the Wisdom of God

Yes, this is a very whimsical hypothesis, but still, it makes us think – God can do anything. This thinking does not make God appear smaller in His achievements of Creation in our humble opinion, just more expedient, and the new heavens and new earth which God will create, Isaiah 66:22, will be eternal, no longer bound by the scientific laws of a cursed creation. And if this hypothesis were true, it really blows away all that human wisdom and postulation of an old universe that seems to defy a young creation. So, what do other people think about this idea?

Do we say this is true? No, there is really no way to prove the universe exists or not; all we must go by is the light we observe and whatever else is radiated towards earth that was made on day four as interpreted though our understanding of the current laws of science, so this idea is just hypothetical. What we can be certain of however, as Christians, is that all we can see, or observe with specialized equipment, is approximately 6,000 years old. If we don’t believe this is true, we don’t believe the Bible is giving us an accurate account of creation, and where does that leave us?