Ok, let me ramble for a few moments with some thoughts I had this
morning. (As I reread this post that I wrote a couple of months ago, I realized that I began by talking about Jesus' physical body and some necessary attributes of Heaven and then move on to physics speculations. Rambling, indeed!)Last night, my family sat down to watch Louie Giglio’s DVD entitled “Indescribable.” In that presentation, he spoke of how incredible our God is and showed pictures taken by NASA, the Hubble telescope, Voyager 1 and other sources that provide glimpses of our massive neighborhood we call “outer space.”
As he spoke and as I took in those incredible sights, it reminded me of a presentation we saw in the IMAX Theater at the Kennedy Space Center last year. For an hour or so (it seemed like only a few minutes), we donned our oversized 3D glasses. We watched a 5-story screen come to life with breathtaking pictures of our universe taken by the Hubble Telescope as incredible sounds and music filled the auditorium.
As I watched that video last night with my family, it caused me again to ask the question: “Why would God have created things trillions of light years away from us, so far away that we cannot see them with our most powerful telescopes not to mention that we could never visit and explore them?”
After all, God created the farthest star to glorify Him and for mankind to enjoy and move us to praise Him. But, if we can’t explore them or even see them, what’s the purpose?
Then, I had a “eureka” moment this morning. If you’re still reading, try to follow me on this…
When Jesus went to Heaven on the cloud, He took his physical body with Him. (Reread that last sentence. It is extremely important.) In His physical, resurrection body He walked beside disciples on the road to Emmaus without them suspecting that He was anything other than just a traveler from Jerusalem. He ate fish on the seashore just like anyone with a physical body could do. He did all sorts of things in His resurrection body that we do.
When He was lifted up out of the sight of His disciples and went back to Heaven, His physical body didn’t drop to the ground as His spirit ascended. He took His physical body with Him.
Now, if the Heaven that exists right now isn’t physical, Jesus is
really out of place because He took His physical body with Him. From that and
other truths in Scripture, I am absolutely convinced that Heaven is a physical
place (like earth is "physical") that exists “out there” somewhere.
It isn’t just a spiritual, invisible location. Again, if it was, how is Jesus able to breathe? His physical body needs air. The temperatures in Heaven would also have to be very close to what it is on earth, again, to maintain the integrity of the physical body that Jesus took to Heaven. He still has His physical body, right?
So, if Heaven is a real location somewhere out there far, far away that we’ve never discovered with our most powerful telescopes then Jesus had to exercise some laws of physics that we don’t yet understand. Why? Because even if Jesus, in his physical body, took off to Heaven at the speed of light, He would have had to hold His breath for 4 years and 3 months before He passed our closest star (besides the sun) and we have no reason to suspect that Alpha Centauri (our closest star) is Heaven so He would have had to keep going.
Besides, it isn’t just Jesus that made the trip from Heaven to Earth. Angels constantly make the trip. Jacob, in the Old Testament, had a vision of angels going back and forth. Gabriel who announced the coming of the Messiah to Mary had been in Heaven, came to earth and then headed back.
So, this trip between Heaven and Earth is made often. Unless we acknowledge that there are laws of physics that we don’t yet understand, there is really no way to explain how this unimaginable space between Heaven and Earth can be spanned in such short periods of time.
It isn’t just a spiritual, invisible location. Again, if it was, how is Jesus able to breathe? His physical body needs air. The temperatures in Heaven would also have to be very close to what it is on earth, again, to maintain the integrity of the physical body that Jesus took to Heaven. He still has His physical body, right?
So, if Heaven is a real location somewhere out there far, far away that we’ve never discovered with our most powerful telescopes then Jesus had to exercise some laws of physics that we don’t yet understand. Why? Because even if Jesus, in his physical body, took off to Heaven at the speed of light, He would have had to hold His breath for 4 years and 3 months before He passed our closest star (besides the sun) and we have no reason to suspect that Alpha Centauri (our closest star) is Heaven so He would have had to keep going.
Besides, it isn’t just Jesus that made the trip from Heaven to Earth. Angels constantly make the trip. Jacob, in the Old Testament, had a vision of angels going back and forth. Gabriel who announced the coming of the Messiah to Mary had been in Heaven, came to earth and then headed back.
So, this trip between Heaven and Earth is made often. Unless we acknowledge that there are laws of physics that we don’t yet understand, there is really no way to explain how this unimaginable space between Heaven and Earth can be spanned in such short periods of time.
I just wonder if what we have been dreaming about in our science fiction movies about space travel and warp speed are actually possible. I’m really allowing my imagination to take off here but I just wonder if when God makes the new Heavens and the new Earth (Revelation 21-22), that somehow we will be able to explore the incredible distances of outer space (His creation) and glorify Him.
Just speculation.
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