The Matchless Mystery: Part Two
This is a rerun on a vital topic deserving of being repeated. Occasionally we need to take a deep dive in considering a complex spiritual issue. Following is certainly one. Try this, what is eternity, that is, there being no time. We live in a parentheses called “time.” We are so sensitive to it we count seconds. When thinking of spending eternity in heaven or hell we question won’t that get boring?
We ask what age we will be in heaven? We are so preoccupied with growing old that we think the aging process will be a part of the afterlife. No it won’t. Remember we are considering eternity where there is no time, hence no age.
Three things were created simultaneously: time, matter, and space.
John 1: 1 states, “In the beginning was the Word…” Theological scholar Hershel Hobbs says the Greek literally states, “Before time began to begin was the Word….” Sounds confusing but there was a time when there was no time.
Want to go deeper? There was a time when there was no space.
Now the third creation, matter. There was a time when there was nothing, no matter. According to most astrophysicists, all the matter found in the universe today — including the matter in people, plants, animals, the earth, stars, and galaxies — was created at the very first moment of time. They agree, there was an occasion when there was no time. Remember, it was created.
Before these three were created the Trinity existed in eternity. There will be an occasion when this will be true once more.
Following are three examples illustrative of relative facts. Consider a weight, a clock, and a ruler. They aren’t always the same.
A one pound object here on earth weighs one pound because of the gravitational pull on it. On the moon that same object weighs three ounces. Could it withstand the heat on the surface of the sun it would weigh 28 pounds.
The ruler represents mass. Mass, that is the size and density of an object also varies depending on speed. Driving at 50 miles an hour your car is three ten-millionths of an inch shorter. Traveling at 90% of the speed of light it would be half its length.
Now the mind boggler that hints of a state of there being no time. The star Sirius is nine light years away. If traveling there and back you could travel at 99.99999% of the speed of light the following would occur. Your friends on earth would be 18 years older and you would be only 12 hours older.
To conclude by saying we can’t understand this is a bummer. It should not be because no such state where there is no time, space, or matter with which to compare it exists. Even the wisest physicists can’t explain it, yet they believe it. Knowing we live on the vortex of such a state which we enter at the moment of death makes it wise to decide in what state we want to spend eternity.
If the state God was in before He created the heavens and earth was good enough for Him, I want to spend eternity in it with Him.
Jesus stepped through the veil between heaven and earth, died an atoning death on the cross, and rose again to open the portal into heaven to all who by faith believe in His redemptive work and submit to Him as Savior and Lord might spend eternity with Him.
The Matchless Mystery: Part One
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1: 1).
Who doesn’t like a good mystery? There is no single verse in the Bible consisting of more mystery than John 1: 1. It even surpasses Genesis 1: 1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
This pulls back the curtain and reveals the production: “the heavens and the earth.” The earth is comparable. The heavens are incomparable. The vastness of the created universe is beyond human understanding.
An even more incomparable factor regards how or rather who created all of this.
To explain this the English Bible utilizes a known title with a glorious meaning. That word is “the Word,” which translates the word “Logos.”
In the Jewish mind the phrase “the word of God” was used to refer to God Himself.
In Greek thought the logos was the “Ultimate Reason” that controlled all things. To them the logos brought the orderly world into existence.
Hence, these two cultures formed a glossary interpreting who was meant by Logos. It was God. They didn’t equivocate about how the heavens and earth came into existence. To them it simply was the act of the ever not so simple God. God created the heavens and earth.
Pause now and clear your mind before the beginning of act two of this mystery.
This happened “in the beginning.” A modern English version renders the verse, “Before time began to begin the Word was.” Another, “When the beginning began, the Word was already there.” The idea is that the Word existed before creation which included time, space, and matter.
Here is a classical part of the mystery. Once there was nothing, nothing, not even space before the heavens were created. There was no time and no matter. There was nothing, just our timeless God. That is an intriguing part of the mystery of the beginning. This was just the beginning of the beginning.
Fast forward once more. The Logos, in the person of Jesus Christ, slipped into an even more remarkable role and stepped on stage, planet earth. His was an even more remarkable role. He came to seek and to save the highest form of His creation, human beings, who had spoiled His creation physically and even more incredibly, spiritually.
These compounded principles just hint at the nature of our incomprehensible, eternal, and all powerful God. Just think He loves you. You are so important. He did this just for you. That is the matchless mystery.
The God of Angel Armies: Part Four
The “God of the Angel Armies” is referred to in Haggai 2: 7. The theme is given contemporary life in the popular song by Chris Tomlin in which are these lines: “The one who reigns forever He is a friend of mine, The God of angel armies Is always by my side.”
This God, the God of the Angel Armies, has engaged in many military conflicts. Secular history omits some of the most inspiring accounts of action in military conflicts. Following is an account of such a conflict in which He was the determinant of the outcome.
FEBRUARY 23, 1991, DATELINE, SAUDI ARABIA – IRAQ – KUWAIT,
The ground battle of Operation Desert Storm broke.
We, the people, prayed in our churches, homes, and, YES, even our schools.
The American press had virtually intimidated the public with reports of the superior battle-hardened Iraqi army, their Russian-made tanks, their impenetrable bunkers, their formidable Republican Guard, and their frightening chemical and biological warfare capabilities.
We, the people, prayed — no, we pleaded with God.
30,000 body bags were shipped to the region.
The mother of all battles was threatened. We, the people, prayed.
Unexplainably, Saddam Hussein acted out of character and released all hostages which he had threatened to use as human shields. Pressure was taken off our president. We, the people, prayed.
Before the battle, General Schwarzkopf described “the nightmare scenario” as getting hung up in the Iraqi trenches “and then having the enemy artillery rain chemical weapons down on troops.”
After the battle, large caches of chemical weapons were found unused. Why? Prevailing winds at this time of the year along the Persian Gulf are from the northeast and northwest. Vice Admiral Stanley Arthur, Commander of the U.S. Naval forces in the Gulf, said, “Right after the land campaign kicked off, the wind started going a little squirrely. We started picking up some southerly winds which would have put it right back in his face. I’m fairly sure the poor [Iraqi] folks who were sitting in the field looked at the prospect of the stuff [chemical weapons] flowing right back on them” and decided against using them.
General Schwarzkopf commented, “I say thank God they didn’t” [use them]. (MDJ 3/1/91, p. 4A) God confounded and perplexed the enemy.
When our pilots went in to do aerial reconnaissance for the 24th Infantry Division, they had to reconfirm their reports. They kept coming back saying there is nothing out there but sand. Mysteriously, the Iraqi army had left unprotected an ideal corridor for their swift advance deep into Iraq. They had been confounded.
Remember, the word “confound” means to confuse and cause disorder, to put to shame and ruin.
One young Son of America said it best, “I am thankful I know who my Commander-in-Chief is.”
It is this God who said, “For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13: 5). Dare we cower in the face of our own needs with the God-of-the-Angel-Armies always by our side.
The God of Angel Armies: Part Three
The “God of the Angel Armies” is referred to in Haggai 2: 7. The theme is given contemporary life in the popular song by Chris Tomlin in which are these lines: “The one who reigns forever He is a friend of mine, The God of angel armies Is always by my side.”
This God, the God of the Angel Armies, has engaged in many military conflicts. Secular history omits some of the most inspiring accounts of action in military conflicts. Following is an account of such a conflict in which He was the determinant of the outcome.
In 1814, the French military genius Napoleon, arrayed his army on the battlefield of Waterloo near Brussels. Napoleon’s force of 74,000 had superior cavalry and artillery. The very presence of Napoleon’s “Old Guard” was more imposing than the Republican Guard. Victory once again seemed to be easily within Napoleon’s grasp.
The night before the battle, as the churches of England were again filled with people praying, a strange wind blew an unexpected downpour onto the battlefield at Waterloo. At dawn, Napoleon decided to delay the engagement to give the field time to dry a bit. This delay until noon allowed a window of opportunity for the reinforcing army of Marshal Gebhard von Blucher to arrive to strengthen the forces of the British general, Wellington. That rain-resulting delay is credited by many as tilting the battle in favor of the victorious British.
Because of the indelicate nature of this part of the story most histories omit it. The rain and a microscopic bug defeated Napoleon. You see, this was before the days of Pepto Bismol and things were moving too swiftly for Napoleon to enjoy a Maalox moment. When the time for battle came, Napoleon was not only not in command of his forces, he wasn’t even in control of himself.
40,000 of his men lay dead on the field of Waterloo when the battle ended and in answer to the prayers of God’s people, the British victory was enabled by God’s grace.
It is this God who said, “For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13: 5). Dare we cower in the face of our own needs with the God of the Angel Armies always by our side.
The God of Angel Armies: Part Two
The “God of the Angel Armies” is referred to in Haggai 2: 7. The theme is given contemporary life in the popular song by Chris Tomlin in which are these lines: “The one who reigns forever He is a friend of mine, The God of angel armies Is always by my side.”
This God, the God of the Angel Armies, has engaged in many military conflicts. Secular history omits some of the most inspiring accounts of action in military conflicts. Following is an account of such a conflict in which He was the determinant of the outcome.
In one of the most decisive encounters of the Revolutionary War, General Washington and his outnumbered rag-tag army was pinned against the East River. Annihilation awaited them. The superior British force did not press the conflict, but paused near the end of day. Doom was certainly to come for Washington and his army at dawn.
Weather kept the British from sailing up the river and further assured a British victory.
Washington’s only hope was to feverishly build rafts under the cover of night and try to withdraw across the river to live to fight another day.
As they hurriedly worked, constructing rafts during the seemingly short night, it soon became apparent they would not finish before dawn and the breaking of the battle. A group of skilled oarsmen were in Washington’s army. Silently, he feverishly worked to carry many of his forces across the river.
As dawn drew near, something eerie happened. Fog was unknown and unheard of in that area in that season of the year. Mysteriously, the mist began to form and shroud the would-be battlefield. Washington’s withdrawal was made possible by this weather phenomenon. As the last of the retreating army moved across the river just out of range of the British rifles the fog lifted.
General Washington called such divine aid “a remarkable interposition of Providence” (“The Light & the Glory,” Revell, 1977, p. 300).
Again, in answer to the prayers of His people, God had intervened and won the day.
It is this God who said, “For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13: 5). Dare we cower in the face of our own needs with the God-of-the-Angel-Armies always by our side.