Light before the lights
The teaching begins from the creation account in Genesis, in which light is called into being on the first day, before the sun, moon, and stars are created on the fourth. In this reading, the earliest light is not the light of any celestial body but is identified with God directly, described elsewhere in scripture as the "Father of Lights." The sun, moon, and stars, created afterward, are read as later "greater and lesser lights" set to mark days, seasons, and years — reflections of an original light rather than sources of light in their own right.
Read as more than objects
The teaching draws on poetic passages such as Job 38:7, where "morning stars" and "sons of God" appear side by side, to argue that biblical writers treated the sun, moon, and stars as figures for spiritual beings and, later, for chosen peoples — first the descendants of Abraham, described in Genesis as being as numerous as the stars, and later, in this reading, the Christian Church. This is presented as a symbolic or figurative interpretation of the biblical text, not a claim about the physical nature of the sun, moon, or stars.
Timekeepers of a new creation
Extending this reading into the New Testament, the teaching holds that the imagery of a darkened sun, moon, and stars used around the fall of the Jerusalem temple in AD 70 marks the end of one era's spiritual "timekeepers" and the start of another, with the Church understood to take up that role. In this account, the authority to mark and hold sacred time is described as having passed, in turn, from the sun, moon, and stars of Genesis, to Israel, to the Christian Church.