SPACE probes are becoming common place. The now-familiar countdown procedure has been viewed on television by millions. The man in the street is growing more conversant with such concepts as lunar excursion module (LEM) and manned orbiting laboratory (MOL).
Fundamentally man is an earth-bound creature. When he sends his spacecraft up (out) from the earth, he enters into a less familiar environment. He must take vital elements of his earthly environs with him: such as food, water, and oxygen. He must maintain a compatible temperature and pressure in his spacecraft or spacesuit, and be given some protection against excessive radiation. In other words, he is pretty much out of his element.
Man's speed in space is fantastic compared with ordinary speed on earth. A car on the highway at 60 mph travels 88 feet in one second. The latest spaceship, Apollo, can travel about four hundred times as fast, covering approximately seven miles per second. On the other hand, compared with the speed of light at more than 186,000 miles per second, man is still a fledgling in space.
At man's present speed of space flight he can visit the moon and return in about a week. A round trip to Mars or Venus, two of our closer planets, would require a period of months. It would take years for a round trip to Jupiter or Saturn, while life would be far too short for such a journey to the closest stars.
Man's measure of distance to the stars is the light-year. This is the distance that light travels through space in one year, or about 6 trillion—6 million million—miles. Light from the nearest star, alpha Centauri, requires about 4.3 years to reach the earth. Even if man, by some future phenomenon, were to reach this astral locality, he would still be only on the doorstep, as it were, of true interstellar travel. Stars and galaxies (star cities) continue on in all directions for unknown billions of light-years. Our largest telescope at Mount Palomar is able to reach a billion or more light-years into space, while radio astronomical observatories are able to penetrate a good deal farther. Yet, there is no apparent end of the universe!
Jesse L. Greenstein, an astrophysicist at the California Institute of Technology, and "an authority on the final stages of stellar evolution," recently stated, "We cannot physically travel to explore the stars, in the hope of finding habitable worlds." a He was pessimistic also on the subject of long-range communication in the universe with the observation that, "if the nearest civilization were 10,000 light years away, we would need an aerial as large as the earth to catch its signal." 2
The stars and galaxies are there. Some how they exist. Somewhere there is a cause and a reason. Somewhere there is infinite power. Somewhere there is God!
What man does not understand, he tends to doubt. He usually accepts what his senses and scientific methods appear to con firm. He often questions and rejects what they do not. But the earth is only an infinitesimal part of the universe; there is much that man does not know. Is there any knowledge or wisdom from outside his realm that can be brought to bear upon his unsolved mystery of the universe?
The Christian, by faith based on the Bible, may obtain insights and concepts not possible from the present state of scientific development. "We have received . . .," says the apostle Paul in First Corinthians, "the Spirit that comes from God, that we may understand what God bestows upon us" (1 Cor. 2:12, Moffatt).*
Instant Communication
"Give us this day" (Matt. 6:9-13). Practically all Christians are familiar with the Lord's Prayer given by Christ in His sermon on the mount. They directly address their Father in heaven, praying for the coming of His kingdom to this earth. Then they turn to their daily need of food, forgiveness, and deliverance.
God's throne and administrative center are in Paradise, which Paul declares to be in "the third heaven" (2 Cor. 12:1-4; Heb. 8:1). Here God receives the prayers of His people in the "true tabernacle" (Heb. 8:2; Rev. 8:34, R.S.V.) of which the risen Christ is the high priest. This is the concept of instant communication. The Christian's needs are for "this day"; tomorrow may be too late. The "throne of the Majesty in the heavens" (Heb. 8:1) may be countless light-years distant, yet His response is expected without delay.
"If it be possible, let this cup pass from me" (Matt. 26:19). This same thought of immediate or direct communication with the Father was demonstrated by Christ Himself. In His anguish in Gethsemane, the evening before His mockery of a trial, and crucifixion, Christ prayed earnestly— even desperately. His disciples slept as He wrestled alone with God in prayer. He had foreknowledge of His betrayal, humiliation, abuse, suffering, and final agony on the cross. In His human strength it seemed impossible that He could endure. So He prayed!
Even as He talked to the Father the mob was forming, and then approaching. The petition was made, and an immediate response was expected. The answer was given, not according to the weakness of humanity, but according to the infinite power of the omniscient God. Christ was strengthened to drink of the "cup" that man might be saved from the eternal consequences of the malignity of sin. As the rabble led by Judas arrived, He could step forward asking whom they sought. Then, as His name was given as their intended victim, He could calmly reply, "I am he" (John 18:6).
Instant Transport
"I am ascending" (John 20:17, R.S.V.). It was the predawn hour of Sunday morning—later to be known as Easter Sunday. The women who had faithfully watched Christ die on the cross and be buried late on the preceding Friday afternoon had rested over the Sabbath and were now bringing spices to embalm His body. They came from their homes in various parts of the surrounding area. Some met and conversed, but Mary Magdalene reached the tomb first, while it was still dark. She saw the great stone rolled away, and concluded that someone had taken away the body.
She left immediately to tell Peter and John the sorrowful news. They in turn ran swiftly and found an empty sepulcher, for Christ had indeed risen from the tomb. Mary, who had followed them back, now elected to remain alone for a time, meditating and weeping. While she lingered in sorrow she stooped to look into the sepulcher. Here she saw two angels and conversed with them. Turning back, she saw Christ standing beside her, but mistook Him for the gardener. When He called her by name she recognized Him as the Master.
As she endeavored to touch Him, He prevented her, saying, "Do not hold me." He then gave her the all-important reason, "I have not yet ascended to the Father." This was followed at once by a vital message to be conveyed by Mary to the disciples, "I am ascending to my Father."
How long did it take Christ to make a round trip to His Father in heaven? The Bible gives no direct answer, but circumstances indicate it was a very short time indeed. Even before the Roman soldiers guarding the sepulcher had reported the empty tomb to the chief priests, Jesus appeared a second time to the other women (Matt. 28:9-11, R.S.V.). This time they were allowed to take hold of His feet and worship Him. Ellen G. White comments upon this experience as follows:
Jesus refused to receive the homage of His people until He had the assurance that His sacrifice was accepted by the Father. He ascended to the heavenly courts, and from God Himself heard the assurance that His atonement for the sins of men had been ample, that through His blood all might gain eternal life.3
"/ will . . . take you . . ." (John 14:3, R.S.V.). Instant transport is not only a phenomenon of the past; the Christian, in faith, looks forward to a like experience in the future. Christ has referred to the uncounted worlds of space as "my Father's house" (John 14:2). He has told us that there is ample room for all who fully accept Him as their Saviour, and thus make their celestial reservations. Soon He will return again to the earth to gather his faithful for their ascension.
The Christian does not envisage a mass exodus of sophisticated spacecraft with earth-oriented passengers. Rather, he believes with Paul that "we shall be changed" (1 Cor. 15:52). "In a moment" mortal man will become immortal. He will no longer be a creature of this earth only. He will be adapted to space travel on his own without need of a special spacesuit or even a flying saucer.
We are given a glimpse, in the Bible, of the worldwide gathering of the faithful preparatory to their transport to the realms beyond our earthly horizon. At the sound of the heavenly trumpet the righteous dead will be raised and joined by those then living. All will be changed instantly to the likeness of Christ's glorified body, and be ready for space travel in company with their Lord and Master.
They know not what portions of the universe they may visit, or what their route may be. They know only their destination —to stand, "without fault before the throne of God" (Rev. 14:5).
Instant Creativity
God, who rules the universe, does so by virtue of being its Creator. "In the be ginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1, R.S.V.). The fact that light from some stars requires millions or even billions of years to reach the earth does not justify the assumption that their creation required long, indefinite periods of time.
The Fiat Creation of the Bible
The Bible does not limit God's ability to create instantly at any time that He chooses. "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made" (Ps. 33:6), says the psalmist. To make certain that we understand that this is a fiat creation he adds, "by the breath of his mouth." The writer of Hebrews makes it doubly sure by asserting, that "what is seen was made out of things which do not appear" (Heb. 11:3, R.S.V.).
In these days of atomic power, scientists state that matter and energy are inter changeable. The atomic bomb releases tremendous power instantly from matter. Should it then be thought incredible that a God of infinite power should be able instantly to speak matter into existence? Some recent scientific studies have thrown more light on fiat, or instantaneous, creation. Robert V. Gentry, of the Institute of Planetary Science, affirms:
Halos from various short-lived polonium isotopes are found in Pre-Cambrian mica. . . . These place restrictions on the time period of formation of the basic crustal material of the earth. . . . Thus for Po-218 (T—1/2= 3 minutes) only a few minutes could elapse between its formation and subsequent crystallization of the mica. ... It is suggested that these halos are more nearly in accord with a cosmological model which would envision an instantaneous fiat creation of the earth. *
Surrounded by Inhabited Worlds
Not only did God create numberless worlds as He willed, He also created uncounted multitudes of inhabitants of those worlds. Speaking of this earth, Isaiah declares, "He created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited" (chap. 45:18). By inference, other worlds are inhabited also, as God would not create them "in vain." We have more than inference, however, because the Bible plainly speaks of "myriads of myriads" (Rev. 5:11) of angels surrounding the throne of God. His "house" is truly great.
Speaking in this vein, William Wallace Campbell, back in the twenties, when he was astronomer-president of the University of California, put it this way:
In the latter days of my life ... I have been gratified to think that there are other representatives of life scattered through the universe. Probably we could not point the finger in any direction and miss the truth if we said that there was some form of life in that direction.5
Man first entered the space age in the twentieth century. God has been Lord, Master, and Creator of space and all that it contains throughout the eternity of the past. The Christian has all faith and confidence that He will continue to be our space-age God throughout the eternity of the future!
REFERENCES
1. Julius Duscha, "Scientist Says Man Cannot Visit Stars," The Washington Post, Oct. 26, 1966.
2. Ibid.
3. Ellen G, White, The Desire of Ages, p. 790.
4. Robert V. Gentry, "Cosmological Implications of Extinct Radioactivity from Pleochroic Halos." Reprinted from Creation Research Society, July Quarterly, 1966.
5. J. Walter Rich, The Message of the Stars. Southern Publishing Association, Nashville, Tennessee, 1950.
* The Bible: A New Translation by James Moffatt. Copyright James Moffatt 1954. Used by permission of Harper & Row, Publishers, Incorporated.
