| HIGHLIGHTS OF DAWN | November 2001 |
The Everlasting God
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“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” |
THE GREAT SUPREME Creator of the universe, whom we worship, is known in the Holy Bible as Jehovah, or Yahweh, the self-existing one. He dwells “in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting.” (I Tim. 6:16) We see evidences of his glory in the heavens and in all the creative works on earth, from the tiniest microbe to the largest whale, elephant, or ancient dinosaur, to the smallest grain of sand, and to the highest and most majestic mountain.
THE GLORY OF THE HEAVENS
David expresses this glory very well in the nineteenth Psalm. It reads, “The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the work of his hands the expanse is declaring; Day unto day doth pour forth speech, And night unto night doth breathe out knowledge. There is no speech and there are no words—Unheard is their voice! Yet through all the earth hath gone forth their voice,— And to the end of the world their sayings.”—Ps. 19:1-4, Rotherham
This majesty of Creation cannot be missed by the naked eye. We do not need powerful telescopes to view the timeless and exact pageantry of the heavens. Our time clocks are set by checking the precise and exact movement of the stars. All orbit in exact harmony to one another.
The common man knows this and accepts it without a second thought. Yet in recent time some of the great thinkers of our era have continued to probe the unknown vastness of space with an intent to describe how the god of ‘chance’ seems to work. Ever since a concept of evolution for life upon earth was put forth as a theory, the element (god) of chance has been adopted to replace a god of intelligence, morality, and supreme, unfathomable power. It is not surprising, therefore, to see an article published in the June 26, 2001 “Time” magazine, entitled “The End,” or “How the Universe will End.” In advertising this article, the front cover claims, “Peering deep into space and time, scientists have just solved the biggest mystery in the cosmos.”
The article begins by saying, “For those who live in a city or near one, the night sky isn’t much to look at—just a few scattered stars in a smoggy, washed-out expanse. In rural Maine, though, or North Dakota, or the desert Southwest, the view is quite different. Even without a telescope, you can see thousands of stars twinkling in shades of blue, red and yellow-white, with the broad Milky Way cutting a ghostly swath from one horizon to the other. No wonder our ancient ancestors peered up into the heavens with awe and reverence; it’s easy to imagine gods and mythical heroes inhabiting such a luminous realm.”
BEYOND THE VISIBLE
“Yet for all the magnificence of the visible stars, astronomers know they are only the first shimmering veil in a cosmos vast beyond imagination. Armed with ever more powerful telescopes, these explorers of time and space have learned that the Milky Way is a huge, whirling pinwheel made of 100 billion or more stars; that tens of billions of other galaxies lie beyond its edges; and, most astonishing of all, that these galaxies are rushing headlong away from one another in the aftermath of an explosive cataclysm known as the Big Bang.
“That event—the literal birth of time and space some fifteen billion years ago—has been understood, at least in its broadest outlines, since the 1960’s. But, in more than a third of a century, the best minds in astronomy have failed to solve the mystery of what happens at the other end of time. Will the galaxies continue to fly apart forever, their glow fading until the cosmos is cold and dark? Or will the expansion slow to a halt, reverse direction and send the stars crashing back together in a final, apocalyptic Big Crunch? Despite decades of observations with the most powerful telescopes at their disposal, astronomers simply haven’t been able to decide.
“But, thanks to a series of remarkable discoveries—the most recent just two weeks ago—the question may now have been settled once and for all. Scientists who were betting on a Big Crunch liked to quote Robert Frost: ‘Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire.’ Those in the other camp preferred T.S. Eliot: ‘This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.’ The verdict seems to be in: T.S. Eliot wins.
“Why do we care? For one thing, this is a question that has haunted humans for as long as we have walked the earth. A definitive answer—if that is indeed what we have—will force philosophers and religious leaders to rethink their assumptions and beliefs about eternity and how the world will end. For scientists, meanwhile, there are certain details in these discoveries that have profound—and bizarre—implications. For example, the new observatons bolster the theory of inflation: the notion that the universe when it was still smaller than an atom went through a period of turbo-charged expansion, flying apart (in apparent, but not actual, contradiction of Albert Einstein’s theories of relativity) faster than the speed of light.”
DARK ENERGY AND DARK MATTER
To the layman, all this language can be confusing and meaningless. To many scientists, the so-called proofs may be questionable. There is talk of ‘dark energy’ and ‘dark matter,’ all new concepts to the scientific world, and an older concept of ‘antigravity’ has been infused with some new life. As the article continues:
“An equally unsettling implication is that the universe is pervaded with a strange sort of ‘antigravity,’ a concept originally proposed by and later abandoned by Einstein as the greatest blunder of his life. This force, which has lately been dubbed ‘dark energy,’ isn’t just keeping the expansion from slowing down, it’s making the universe fly apart faster and faster all the time, like a rocket ship with the throttle wide open.
“It gets stranger still. Not only does dark energy swamp ordinary gravity but an invisible substance known to scientists as ‘dark matter’ also seems to outweigh the ordinary stuff of stars, planets and people by a factor of ten to one. ‘Not only are we not at the center of the universe,’ University of California, Santa Cruz, astrophysical theorist Joel Primack has commented, ‘we aren’t even made of the same stuff the universe is.’”
“These discoveries raise more questions than they answer. For example, just because scientists know dark matter is there doesn’t mean they understand what it really is. Same goes for dark energy. ‘If you thought the universe was hard to comprehend before,’ says University of Chicago astrophysicist Michael Turner, ‘then you’d better take some smart pills, because it’s only going to get worse.’”
To compound the ignorance on this speculation called a theory, the timing for the universe to burn out is estimated at ten thousand trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion (10100) years. That time is so large a number, that for all practical purposes it approaches saying it will never happen.
THE BIG BANG THEORY
The article continued by describing how, in the 1960’s, the ‘big bang’ theory was postulated:
“Things seemed a lot simpler back in 1965, when two astronomers at Bell Labs in Holmdel, NJ, provided a resounding confirmation of the Big Bang theory, at the time merely one of several ideas floating around on how the cosmos began. The discovery happened purely by accident. Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson were trying to get an annoying hiss out of a communications antenna, and after ruling out every other explanation—including the residue of bird droppings—they decided the hiss was coming from outer space.”
The reasoning that went into the big bang theory of the universe’s beginning was that this radio hiss from the dawn of time was the cosmic microwave background radiation left over from the initial big bang beginning of the universe fifteen billion years ago. Based on this reasoning is a concept that initially the universe was nothing but space, and that a particle smaller than an atom grew with explosive power from nothing to the matter and energy as we know them today. All this came from investigating a radio hiss, for which a Nobel Prize was received.
IN THE BEGINNING
The Bible does not tell us how the universe came into existence, although it does tell us in general of the development of the heavens and earth, as seen from the standpoint of a hypothetical earthbound observer. Rather, it tells us of a supreme, intelligent Creator, who always existed and is infinite. There are beginnings mentioned in the Bible. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Another beginning is mentioned in the first chapter of John’s gospel, “In a beginning was the Word, and the Word was with the God, and a god was the Word. This was in a beginning with the God. All through it was done; and without it was done not even one, that has been done.”—John 1:1-3, Interlinear, Wilson’s Emphatic Diaglott
Thus we see that there is more than one beginning in the Bible. The one mentioned in John must have been the principal beginning work of the Heavenly Father when he created the Logos, his spokesman and his ‘right hand’—to use an expression denoting his principal assistant. As John informs us, the Logos was involved in every creative work of God. (see also I Cor. 8:6, Eph. 3:9) This includes all of the heavenly host, of which scientists know nothing by scientific investigation.
After his conversion, the Apostle Paul was given special revelations which transcended the knowledge of all the other apostles at the time of which he writes in the book of Galatians, “I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: And profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.”—Gal. 1:11-17
This special revelation enabled him to write in a more definitive manner of the role Jesus had in his prehuman existence as the Logos, saying of him: “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.” (Col. 1:15-18) This description of Jesus as the first direct creation of God is confirmed by the Apostle John in the revelations he received. He writes of the messages given to the Laodicean Church, “These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.”—Rev. 3:14
THE SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE
The beginnings told us in the Bible were those of an intelligent creator creating other intelligent beings. We ask, ‘Where did intelligence come from?’ ‘Where did the scientists of our day receive their rudimentary knowledge and their advanced knowledge?’ Everyone receives knowledge from another. We have teachers and written records that are studied by novices who then, as they learn, impart their knowledge to others.
In our day, science has become respected and highly esteemed. What is science? Science was originally defined as an orderly classification of knowledge on a given subject. This definition was expanded to that knowledge obtained or tested by the scientific method, which required a hypothesis, testing of the hypothesis; making the necessary observations and comparing results with the hypothesis, revising the theory if necessary. In the early days of science, no one dared to question the teachings of Aristotle. Any difference between the experiment and the teachings of Aristotle had to be blamed on an error in the experiment. Therefore, the claims of the astrophysicists about the end of the universe cannot be science because no human will be around to observe it. As these talk about dark matter and energy comprising most of our universe, then most of the universe cannot be tested and therefore is also outside the realm of science. To quote one of the astrophysicist’s statements in the “Times” article, “We’re really living dangerously. We’ve got this absurd, wonderful picture of the universe, and now we’ve got to test it.” We must remember that science is not the opinion of scientists. Cosmological ideas which cannot be tested by the scientific method are not science, but merely metaphysics.
What does the Bible tell us about the transfer of knowledge in the heavenly realm? The Apostle Paul says of the Father, and of Christ, “In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (Col. 2:3) When Hannah was granted her desire to have a son, and a son was born to her, she called him Samuel, because she had asked him of the Lord. (I Sam. 1:20) She had promised to dedicate him to the Lord, and did so when he was weaned. In her beautiful prayer of thanksgiving to God she said, “for the Lord (Jehovah) is a God of knowledge.” (I Sam. 2:3) Likewise, Job asked, “Shall any teach God knowledge?” (Job 21:22) Wisdom is the proper application of knowledge. Jesus, in his prehuman existence, is personified by wisdom. (Prov. 8:22-31) How appropriate that the first direct creation of God should be personified by wisdom.
GOD’S AWESOME POWER AND KNOWLEDGE
There has to be a fountain of knowledge and wisdom. It is logical that such a fountain comes from the Heavenly Father, the great supreme Creator of the universe. Isaiah tried to direct our attention to this fact when he asked the questions, “Who hath directed the spirit of the Lord (Jehovah), or being his counsellor hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?” (Isa. 40:13,14) It is one thing to have knowledge, and another to know how to use it wisely and well, with judgment for the good of others.
The prophet also probes the mighty, and precise power of God, asking, “Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?” (Isa. 40:12) The picture given to us is that of a workman using measuring and weighing devices to make a precise landscape of earth’s surface. Also, the workman, by using a measuring stick, places all the stars and constellations in their proper positions in the skies. As we try to visualize the vast power that created the heavens and the earth, we realize how small and insignificant we are as people upon this earth. Isaiah says, “The nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance.” (Isa. 40:15) He continues, “All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.”—vs. 17
As we ponder this state of affairs, he asks, “Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreaded them out as a tent to dwell in.” (Isa. 40:21,22) As man in his futility has tried to give credit to other gods, as the ancients did in making them of stone, gold, and silver, and those of today who believe in a god of chance, they miss the only logical and obvious answer—the existence of a supreme, intelligent Creator who alone could make possible all the works of heaven and earth which we observe around us. Yet this is exactly what is happening today in the putting forth of questionable theories based on limited evidence.
WILL THE UNIVERSE END?
Mankind has developed marvelous instruments to peer beyond the known, orderly skies we see every day. In so doing, he has observed partial disorder and curious phenomenon which makes him resort to acknowledging ‘chance’ as the god of creation. He has failed to comprehend the order, and complexity of the known. This has led him to view the universe as coming to an end. We, however, can learn from the One Being who alone can alter the outcome, and he has assured us that “The earth abideth for ever.” (Eccles. 1:4) Hence, the universe will also survive.
The God we worship is eternal. To Joshua it was said, “The eternal God is thy refuge.” (Deut. 33:27) Isaiah describes God as “the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity.” (Isa. 57:15) The Apostle Paul describes him as “the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God.” (I Tim. 1:17) In the science of mathematics, there is a property of numbers known as infinity. It is when something is boundless—is subject to no limitation or external determination. Our God is infinite.
The Apostle Paul has put in words our feelings of awe in contemplating our God, when he said, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.”—Rom. 11:33-35