Creation Moment 6/2/2019 - That Greater & Lesser Light

And God made two great lights;

the greater light to rule the day,

and the lesser light to rule the night:

Genesis 1:16

"The earth is not by any means a self-sustaining body. Its internal heat, whatever its explanation or origin, has no power to warm its surface. Nor is its illumination a product of its own chemical action or energy of any kind. It is a dependent body in all its distinctive

characteristics. It is inherently desolate apart from external influences which act upon it: notably the sun, whose beneficial influence is contingent on many precise and delicate conditions providentially provided and maintained.

This heavenly body, which is ninety-three million miles away (approx.) from the earth, is at exactly the right distance to perform the countless miracles advantageous to our planet and the life it bears.
This cannot be said of any other solar body. It is now recognized that none of the other planets could sustain life as we know it, either because they are too near the sun and, therefore, too hot, or too far away and much too cold.

It is the power of the sun which provides the winds of the world and these, in turn, carry the rain clouds over the land.

Sir John Herschel, the astronomer, suggested what would happen if the sun were suddenly extinguished:
 

In three days (72 hours, for there would be no days) - there would, in all probability, not be a vestige of animal or vegetable life on the globe —. The first 48 hours would suffice to precipitate every atom of moisture from the air in deluges of rain and piles of snow, and from that time there would set in a universal frost such as Siberia, or the highest peak in the Himalayas, never felt: a temperature of two and three hundred degrees below zero.

These are some of the more direct calculable effects of the sun's vital contribution to our existence. There are many others, ranging from the beneficial influence which we personally experience, to the mysterious chemical process induced by sunlight which occurs in vegetation. I refer, of course, to what is known as photosynthesis: a process by which a plant is enabled to build up in its chlorophyll cells, carbohydrates from the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and from the hydrogen of water in the soil. Animals live on the organic food manufactured by the plants in this way.
It follows that all living creatures, either directly or indirectly, not only depend on the sun for light and warmth, but in a miraculous way for all the food they eat. This profound truth was revealed to Moses in words which we can only now begin to understand. He wrote:
 

And God said, Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; and to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth on the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so (Genesis 1:29-30).

It may be argued that the Carnivora are flesh-eaters. Even so, were it not for vegetation, both they as well as every other living creature, would quickly die.

Apart from the reflected light from the sun which the moon sheds upon our planet — adding a rare beauty to the night — it has other functions which have a beneficial influence on the earth.

We refer to the ocean tides. These result from the differential gravitational attraction of the moon measured from the near and far sides of the earth, thus giving us high and low tides. Owing to its vastly greater distance away and despite its mass, its differential attraction is much less noticeable as regards the sun, but it is sufficient to cause Spring and Neap tides when these two heavenly bodies are in conjunction or in opposition, respectively.  As with the sun, it is the size and distance of the moon which makes it our good servant, for if the moon were only half its

distance away, or if its size were doubled, the rise and fall of the tides would submerge and destroy all harbors in the world as they exist today. Many islands would be covered, together with all coastal plains, and the tidal waves would drive inland for great distances twice every day.

The disastrous consequences can barely be imagined.
If the moon were much smaller, or further away, the almost tideless seas would lose their effectiveness in cleansing our harbors. This would apply also to narrow seas and converging coastlines, because a speedier flow of water helps to carry away impurities in heavily populated areas, and, incidentally, improves fishing prospects."
From A Symposium on Creation Hewitt Tier