Jesus: Creator and Lord of Time and Space
By Armin A. Wolff
While there is no proof for the existence of God and the truth of the Bible, there is an increasing body of evidence that the God of the Bible is the One who created the universe that scientists are so avidly studying. The hoped for goal of this presentation is to persuade you to consider the evidence and entrust your life to the one true God whose human and eternal name is Jesus. If you have already allowed Jesus to be Lord and Savior, may these words strengthen your faith in Him as you understand a little better that you indeed are serving the Lord of Time and Space.
Not just blind faith
Any belief system that is not based on at least some observable, objective facts is not worthy of consideration by anyone who is in any way interested in science and would also like to be a person of faith. If a person's belief system flatly contradicts some of the established facts of science then that person is believing falsehood. All truth is one. While there are plenty of theories that contradict the Bible, nothing has ever been observed in science that does. Theories are in part, man's explanation of often puzzling observations.
Evolution as a theory
Evolution is a theory and has never been shown to be factual. It is a workable theory in certain limited areas of science, but the new discoveries in many realms of science have created large, and in some cases insurmountable difficulties for many aspects of the theory of evolution. Discoveries in physics, mathematics and astrophysics in particular have shown that the observable universe is finite in age and size and far too young to allow random chance evolution even to create the conditions needed to have a place where life could possibly evolve later.
Science is limited
In considering all this, it helps to remember that science is limited to the dimensions of our time-space-matter-energy reality and cannot address anything outside of these limits other than saying that certain evidence suggests that the Creator (whoever He/she/it may be) must be able to operate in dimensions outside (of our own) in order for the observable realities to be as they are.
Amazing coincidences
In the Beginning, when the God created the universe , he set up what many scientists have called amazing coincidences in the laws and constants that govern the universe and make human existence possible. The evidence strongly suggests that the entire cosmos was crafted for human existence. If any one of the factors outlined below were made either greater or smaller, no life could exist anywhere in the entire physical creation.
Carbon based life
Some have postulated that the chemistry of life could be based on elements other than carbon and thus allow for a greater latitude of temperature. However, the extremely complex structures needed for storing the information codes in living cells cannot be built in any other way that with the element the Creator made for just this purpose.
Overwhelmingly precise
The laws of physics are just so we could exist and marvel at His work. Not only must these relationships be just so, but certain thing have to happen at the right time in order for life to be anywhere in the universe. Listed below are just a few examples.
€ The force of gravity must be just right, since it determines what kinds of stars are possible. A slightly stronger force would allow only huge stars, much larger than our sun. These large stars are needed to make such things as iron, copper, i.e. the heavy elements needed to make planets and all life processes. However, these giant stars burn too fast and unsteadily to maintain life on any planet. A slightly weaker gravity would allow only small stars such as the sun that can¹t make the heavy elements. Thus God made gravity just so!
€ The strong nuclear force holds the inner parts of all atoms
together. If this nuclear force were slightly less, then the larger atoms would
not hold together to make heavy elements. A stronger force would make hydrogen
(and thus water) rare. Thus God made the strong nuclear force just so!
€ The electromagnetic force holds the electrons to the nucleus
and the atoms to each other. If this were a little smaller, the atoms could not
combine to form molecules since the latter would fall apart too readily. A
larger force would prevent atoms from ³sharing² their electrons in order to
form molecules. Either way, there could be no life. Thus God made the
electromagnetic force just so!
Three is foundational
The above three items are just a few of the many basic threes that are at the core of many fundamental characteristics of the physical creation. The three in one God of the Bible reflects Himself here and teaches us something about His nature. In the common substance --water-- which can exist as ice, liquid and steam and yet is always one substance, namely just water, God gives us another illustration of Himself. Atoms are made of protons, neutrons and electrons. The proton contains 2 groups of three kinds of quarks. There is only one God, but manifested as three personalities.
€ The mass (weight) relationship between protons and electrons (parts of the atom) is exactly 1836 times. If protons were either heavier or lighter than this precise ratio, no molecules, and hence no life could exist. Thus God made the proton just so, exactly 1836 times heavier than the electron.
€ The age of the universe determines what kind of stars there are. A younger universe would not have given the big stars enough time to manufacture the heavy elements in their nuclear furnaces. Also, it takes a fixed amount of time for the smaller stars, such as the sun to settle down to constant energy output. If the universe were too old, then all of the small stars would already have burned up all of their fuel by now. Thus God put us here at just the right time in the life of the universe.
€The rate at which the universe expands determines the kind (or if any at all) of stars which form. Slightly less, and the young universe would have collapsed before any sun type stars could have settled down to steady operation. Too fast an expansion would have prevented galaxies and also stars from forming at all. Thus God made the universe expand just so!
€ The smoothness and lumpiness of the universe determines what kind of stars and galaxies can form. Our universe is very smooth, with stars and galaxies distributed quite evenly throughout all space. If however the universe were too smooth, the whole universe would be evenly filled with just a thin gas, and no lumps such as stars or planets would exist. If the universe were less smooth most of it would have collapsed into a number of isolated black holes with few if any galaxies or stars. Thus God stirred up the beginning universe just so!
€ The relationships between certain fundamental forces (fine structure constants) of nature must be just so. How easily light and other forms of energy travel through matter and what effects the energy going through will produce also determines the size of the stars. Gravity acts to pull them together and the energy acts to push them apart. God knew that a delicate balance is needed and made all of these relationships just so!
A steadily rising number of "coincidental" combinations
The above list is by no means complete. The number of ³just so² relationships in science that are being discovered are rising steadily. In the above list we see that the universe as a whole exhibits a very detailed design, of which more and more physicists and astronomers are becoming convinced as time goes on. However, little, if any of this new knowledge has filtered down to our schools, textbooks and popular media. As American astronomer George Greenstein put it:
Our own planet is very special
Not only the universe as a whole, but also especially the planet Earth and the solar system bears the hallmarks of precise design with the goal of supporting human existence.
€ Only one parent star ( our sun) per planetary system please. More than one would result in irregular planetary orbits, less than one makes it way too cold for life. Another sun sized star closer than about 3.8 light years would mess up the earth's orbit and make the long term climate of Earth inhospitable to life. Only about half of all the stars in the universe qualify on this distance specification. God gave us only one sun and made sure that the nearest other star is over 4 light years distant.
This proves how unscientific some science fiction stories are, showing two or even three suns in the sky.
€ Birth date of the parent star in relation to the rest of the universe must be just so. Too long ago, and a star would not have collected enough heavy elements to make planets, because elements first have to be made by the older huge stars. Too recent birth of our star would not have let it settle down to a steady energy output. Thus God created the sun at just the right time in the life cycle of the universe.
€ A star that is too young or too old does not produce its energy steadily enough to allow life on any of its planets. The energy output of our sun is remarkably steady. Thus God made the Earth and put us on it at just the right time in the life cycle of the sun.
The long term average power output of the sun is far steadier than man made energy sources, such as for example the power in our wall outlets.
€The sun and its planets are just the right distance from the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. If we were too far away, there would not be enough heavy elements out of which to make planets. Too close to the center would subject us to too much radiation from the many huge stars found there. Also, as discussed above, the orbits of planets would be too irregular. Thus God made sure that our placement in one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way was just so.
This exposes the untruth of Mormon doctrine which claims that man came from colonies in the center of our galaxy.
€The mass of the sun has to be just so. Too large a sun would cause the energy output of the sun to vary more than living things could stand. A too tiny sun would force the Earth to be too close to the sun to get enough heat for life. This would mess up the rotation time of the earth tending to make a day and a year the same length, such as the planet Mercury. Also excessive tidal forces that would eradicate all life.
€ The color (surface temperature) of the sun has to be just so. Too much red light (cool) or too blue, (hot) and the plants would not be able to use sunlight to make food. (photosynthesis needs just the right light) If the light were not as it is, then nothing green would grow on Earth.
€ The gravity at the surface of the planet must be just so. Too strong gravity causes the atmosphere to contain too much methane and ammonia, both very poisonous to life. Jupiter for example has too much gravity and its atmosphere is mostly ammonia and methane. Too little gravity will produce a planet like Mars with too little water.
€ The crust of the Earth (outer solid layer) has to be the right thickness. If it were too thick, most of the oxygen in the atmosphere would be tied up in it and we wouldn't have enough to breathe. Too thin a crust would result in too many severe earthquakes and volcanoes to allow any of the more complex life forms to survive. The crust of the Earth is thinner than the skin on an onion at the relative scale. Thus we see that God made the skin of our planet just so.
€ The 24 hour rotation time of earth is just so, exactly right. If the earth rotated more slowly, then everything would freeze solid every night and cook during the day. A faster spin would make for terrific storms in the atmosphere all the time, preventing survival of higher life forms. The winds on Earth are caused by a combination of heating and cooling and the rotational velocity. The westerly flow of the jet stream is in that direction because of the rotation of our planet. The rotational speed of Saturn and Jupiter are very high and the winds in its atmosphere are phenomenal. (hundreds of miles per hour)
€ The Earth¹s magnetic field is just the correct strength. If stronger, then there would be incredibly violent electrical storms on the planet, but if the field were too small the deadly solar particles would not be deflected away from us. God made it just so, because He didn't want us to get fried by the sun or get zapped too often by lightening bolts
€ The tilt of the axis of the earth with respect to its orbit causes us to experience the seasons. Too much of this would make winters too cold and summers too hot resulting in only a narrow region of the planet hospitable to complex life forms. No tilt would mean no seasonal variations. There is evidence that this tilt was not there before the flood of Noah. God tilted the Earth at that time just so we could enjoy the four seasons.
€ Ratio of oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere is just so. Too much oxygen would make life functions run too fast and allow any fires to burn whole continents over in devastating fire storms. Too little oxygen would not allow us to do much of anything because life processes would proceed too slowly.
€ The right amount of ozone in the upper atmosphere prevents us from getting severely sunburned or developing many skin cancers. Too much ozone would result in a planet too cold for complex life. There is mounting evidence that the activity of man is releasing certain chemicals that are upsetting this delicate balance causing the depletion of the protective ozone layer. One might ask: "How did this delicate balance come about in the first place? By chance? God made the ozone just so you could enjoy the great outdoors.
€ The number of lightening bolts that strike the Earth each day is just so in order to keep charges in balance and to aid in returning nitrogen to the soil in a form that plants can use. Too much lightening would cause too many fires and upset the delicate electrical charge balance of the upper and lower atmosphere.
€ Even the number of earthquakes is calculated by God to be just so! If they were too abundant, then too many of living creatures would be destroyed, but if there were too few quakes, especially under the oceans, the new minerals needed by the green plants and organisms in the oceans (plankton) would not be raised to near the surface where the sunlight penetrates and the oceans soon would be devoid of life.
Another Earth? --- No way!
In addition to the narrowly defined conditions for Earth outlined
above dozens of others are still being researched by many scientists.
Statistical analysis of the above by modern computer methods shows that by
random processes alone much fewer than one trillionth of one trillionth of one
percent
(10-24) of all stars
might have a planet that could sustain life. Since the universe contains about
a trillion galaxies 1012, with each galaxy some 100 billion stars,
that leaves us still far short ( 10-15) of even one planet such as Earth coming into existence by
any random evolutionary process. It is abundantly evident, that our beautiful
home planet is a one of a kind creation by the transcendent creator God just as
He revealed to us in Scripture.
Reincarnation is bogus
Other discoveries and mathematical studies show that both time and space have a beginning and will also someday end. Eastern religious teaching of the eternal cycles of time and existence through reincarnation doctrines clearly conflicts with the established scientific fact of a single arrow of time moving in the forward direction only. God, in His word tells us this is true.
Hebrews 9:27 Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,
Origin of Cosmos outside time and space
By means of computers it has been shown that the universe had to come into being from beyond the dimensions of time and space, outside of itself. Of all holy books and religions, only the Holy Bible reveals God to be personal and transcending all time and space. In all other religious teachings, their view of God is always part of or contained in our time - space universe.
The Miracle of Life
All of the above points concern only a few of the non-living aspects of creation. In these, the order in which individual atoms assemble to form compounds is usually not important. Only the right proportions of sodium and chlorine atoms for example need be brought together under the proper conditions to form salt. The order in which these atoms assemble is not important. Living systems by contrast are vastly more complex than all of physics and astronomy. In living things, the order in which components are assembled is critically important.
Information codes
The blueprints for how, and in what order to assemble all living things are encoded in a four level digital code stored in the DNA molecule. To make DNA requires enzymes, but the information on how to make the enzymes is stored in the digital codes of the DNA.
The ultimate chicken and egg problem
If evolution were true, then either one or the other would have to take precedence, either the DNA somehow came first without the needed enzymes or the enzymes would somehow have to contain the data to make the DNA molecules. The answer of course is that the Creator made them both together at the beginning.
Origin of information
Anyone who has ever dealt with computers knows that they need to be programmed and supplied with data the program can then manipulate. Where did the complex information originate that is carried by the DNA molecules. The DNA is equivalent to the computer hardware, the disk drive or memory, but where did the software that is stored thereon originate? Computer software originates in the mind of a programmer, and the software of life originated in the mind of the Creator.
Simple Organisms?
Many of you took science courses in school. Some of you younger ones are perhaps struggling with that in school these days. In biology class the teacher used to tell us (and sadly, most still do) that life began in the primordial ocean and some of the first life forms that evolved were "simple one cell organisms".
Back in Darwin's days and as recently as 15 years ago it was impossible for any scientist to really see what goes on in such a so called "simple organism" such as an amoeba or even one of the cells of your own body.
Ordinary microscope shows very little
Viewed down a light microscope, at a magnification in the hundreds of times, a living cell is relatively uninteresting. This was all that was possible in Darwin's day. The inside of a cell seen this way appears only as ever changing and apparently disordered blobs and particles which seem to be continually tossed haphazardly in all directions.
Electron Microscope --- journey into inner space
The electron microscope, combined with computer technology from the space program has allowed the safe study of life at magnification of millions of times or more. To grasp a little what God has accomplished when He created life, imagine a single cell at such magnification that it would cover a great city such as Los Angeles or Tokyo. Let's go on an imaginary journey into your body and enter only one of its about 3 billion cells. You will be astounded by the vastness of understanding of the Creator.
Your body -- 2 miles long
Look at any part of your body now, your right hand for example, and imagine it along with your entire body growing larger and larger. For a moment the magnification process pauses as your body is about 2 miles long, at the limit of ordinary light microscopes. You can see cells nearby ranging in size of several inches to only a fraction of an inch. In imagination you enter your body and see that there are many different kinds of cells, each made for certain functions.
A billion mile giant
Under the rapidly accelerating magnification, your body continues to grow in length and it reaches the diameter of the Earth when you can begin to see some of the internal features of each cell. You pick out a nearby cell as the magnification now proceeds at nearly the speed of light until your body is just over a billion miles tall. You have to wait almost one and one-half hours for this to be completed since it takes light that long to travel that far. Finally, your body reaches the required dimensions where each cell in it is the size of the city of Los Angeles. At this magnification you are able to clearly see some of the intricate molecular processes of life. Your body height at this scale would stretch about 323 times as far as the distance from the Earth to the Sun.
A cell -- as big as Los Angeles
You take courage and at last you enter the cell you have chosen through one of millions of openings, some larger, but most like portholes, opening and closing like on an enormous spaceship the diameter of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, but not flat on a surface, but three-dimensional. You find yourself in world of supreme technology and bewildering complexity far surpassing anything that man can even imagine. First you see endless highly organized passageways branching in all directions but predominantly towards the center of the cell. Some larger highways lead to the nucleus and others to numerous complex assembly plants and processing units. Thousands of transport vehicles of many sizes and shapes (molecules) zip along these highways at hundreds of miles per hour.
Life codes --- Miles of DNA chains
You travel for miles along these roads toward the nucleus carried along on one of many transport vehicles which move at speeds of several hundred miles per hour. Suddenly you enter the nucleus, a vast spherical chamber about 3/4 mile in diameter resembling a geodesic dome. Once inside you see neatly stacked many miles of coiled chains of DNA molecules. Along the passageways inside and outside a great range of products and raw materials moves at great speeds to and from the outer regions of the cell. You watch in fascination as DNA chains unroll and send instruction codes via complex high speed messengers to the various factories all over the cell. These messengers carry the detailed instructions that tell the various factories in other parts of the cell how to make the complex proteins. Many of these are exported by the cell to other parts of the body to regulate such things as growth, metabolism and all the other complex function of your body through hormones and thousands of other substances needed to keep your body in proper operation. You marvel because you realize that you are inside a factory, a completely automated factory that is carrying out as many unique manufacturing and building activities as mankind does on earth.
After cell division --- home again
However, this factory has a capability not matched in any of our most advanced systems or machines. In a matter of hours, the entire cell has duplicated itself completely with all of its complexity. Imagine duplicating Los Angeles, Tokyo, New York or any other great city in that time. After the cell division is complete, you are swiftly carried out of the cell by the molecular rapid transit system. You are back on your way to your own dimension as your body shrinks for one and a half hours at almost the speed of light until it's back to its normal size.
Modern technology reveals complexity
As modern technological innovations such as the space telescope, scanning electron microscopes and magnetic resonance imaging systems allow scientists to observe in ever increasing detail both the immensity of the starry universe and the previously unimagined complexity of the mechanisms of living things it becomes increasingly clear that there is a great and incredible design before us.
Incredible reliability of your body
Despite all of the medical problems that plague us, the reliability of the design is incredibly high. Taking into account the number of components that have to function correctly, the reliability of living systems such as our body is far greater then anything that man has ever built. If all of the technological devices man produces were as reliable as the human body, considering the number of individual parts involved, no car, TV or any other device should ever fail anywhere on Earth in several human life times. If for example, the parts of the human body were only as reliable as the parts in the best computer man can make, then a person would not even live one minute before there would be a fatal malfunction. This is true because man made things contain very few parts when compared to the astronomical number of components in your body that have to operate reliably for years. Highly redundant design in living systems is one key to this great reliability.
Oh say can you see...?
For example, the human optical system (your eyes) has a real time dynamic range far greater than any light sensing device man has managed to build. The visual system is sensitive enough to register a single photon (the smallest unit of light) and yet is not destroyed by the light intensity of a bright sunny day at the beach or on the ski slopes. No man-made optical sensor even comes close. Computer scientists have been trying for years to come up with a reliable object recognition system. Even the most advanced such systems still don't begin to approach a three year old child in this skill. A true spoken word to written text system, ie. an artificial secretary that can take error free dictation is still a distant dream.
Many mysteries yet to be soved
To understand most of the complex functions of the human mind/brain is still a deep mystery that will keep researchers busy for a long time. Our libraries are full of materials detailing all of the wonders of the world we can perceive through our senses. Only an infinitesimal fraction has been mentioned in these few paragraphs. Consider the evidence for intelligent design presented here and be challenged and inspired to get to personally know (if you don't already) the great designer behind it all.
Our Incomparable God
Having looked at a little at the first witness, evidence for the greatness of God in His creation, let's look a bit at the second witness He has given to humanity, namely the holy Word, the Bible. Please get out your favorite translation of the Bible to get a better understanding of the scriptures excerpted below (NIV) and to get the context in which these verses occur. Open the book of Isaiah.
Isaiah did not know any of the things that modern science has discovered, but the questions he asked might be on our minds also.
Turn to Isaiah 40:12-31 and focus on 40:18 and 40:25
Isaiah 40:18 To whom, then, will you compare God? What image will you compare him to?
Isaiah 40:25 "To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.
God knows what He is doing
The One who created life, the maker of all is incomparably great. Think about it; What other god could or would you logically place all your trust and confidence in? Then Isaiah tells us about some parts of the creation he could marvel at.
Isaiah 40:12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?
Isaiah 40:13 Who has understood the mind of the LORD, or instructed him as his counselor?
Isaiah 40:14 Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding?
Stand in awe of God --- your father
In view of all this, God shows Isaiah and you how small you are and how awesome He is. All the glory of mankind is insignificant compared to the transcendent splendor and majesty of the one that allows you to call Him father, Abba, Daddy and stand in awe of Him as you do so.
Isaiah 40:15 Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.
Isaiah 40:16 Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires, nor its animals enough for burnt offerings.
Isaiah 40:17 Before him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing.
Isaiah 40:18 To whom, then, will you compare God? What image will you compare him to?
Do you have a modern idol?
Why then would anyone want to worship an Idol? In our day idols are not commonly carved out of wood or stone, but some are made of steel and chrome and run on petroleum fuel. Some other idols in our homes are powered by electricity and many hours are spent watching the flickering image, especially during football season. You may not fall on your knees in front of that box, but how many of the 86400 seconds that God has given you each day on this Earth is taken up by it?
Isaiah 40:19 As for an idol, a craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and fashions silver chains for it.
Isaiah 40:20 A man too poor to present such an offering selects wood that will not rot. He looks for a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not topple.
Isaiah 40:21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
Isaiah 40:22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
Notice the circle of the Earth, not a flat Earth like the people of Isaiah's day and other ancient societies believed. Also, He stretches out (expanded) the Universe. The recent discoveries concerning the creation event ( the Big Bang) and the subsequent expansion of the Cosmos is what God inspires His prophet to write about here.
Our sojourn in time and space is brief
Looking both into God's great creation and into scripture ought to make us very humble. We must understand that we are an extremely transient blip here in our earthly existence.
Isaiah 40:23 He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
Isaiah 40:24 No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.
Isaiah 40:25 "To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.
He knows your deep, dark secrets
The Almighty One commands you to look into His creation and realize that He who counts stars, atoms and the hairs on your head, knows you and me and all the trials, frustrations and joys and triumphs of daily life. Just think, He knows all about you, including all the deep dark secrets of your life and even so still loves you.
Isaiah 40:26 Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.
Isaiah 40:27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God"?
Isaiah 40:28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
Are you weak or tired?
Because of His love, as a true Father, He takes action for you, especially if you are willing to totally trust Him. He never gets tired of looking out for your best interests, even though you may not always agree what is really best for you. He gives you strength to live each day. If you do watch (or play) football you can see that verse 30 is true.
Isaiah 40:29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
Isaiah 40:30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
Isaiah 40:31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
The word hope here may also be translated "wait" , that is to expectantly wait that God will act in His time to do what He deems best for you. This waiting is often difficult, especially for young people. We sing "In His Time". Of all things man can measure, time can be measured more accurately than most anything else. Yet no one but God knows the mystery of time. The promise of verse 31 is that exactly in His time He will let you soar, run and walk and do it with endurance.
The Incomparable God Made
Manifest
Invisible and eternal, the God of creation communicates Himself to you today through the person of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit.
A mother who saw her little son drawing a picture asked: "What are you drawing?" "I'm drawing a picture of God" he replied. "But no one knows what God looks like" she replied. "Oh but they will when I get finished" the boy replied.
God is drawing a picture for you of what He is like by showing you Jesus. Jesus Himself said:
John 14:9 Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
Jesus then is your picture (image) of God, drawn for you by God. The Apostle Paul writes of Jesus:
Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
Colossians 1:16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.
Colossians 1:17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Jesus controls the fundamental forces
He (Jesus) holds the atoms together and the stars and planets in their courses and everything that God is Jesus is also. He is the maker of both the old (present) creation and the new creation of which you are a part right now if Jesus is both your Lord and Savior. Remember, Jesus is LORD, He is supreme.
Colossians 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
Colossians 1:19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,
Colossians 1:20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
The greatest name
There is no greater name than His, anywhere in this time-space universe or in any other dimensions beyond our own.
Philippians 2:9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,
Philippians 2:10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
Philippians 2:11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Share His suffering and perfection
Jesus, the head of the church, is the perfect and total combination of all that God is and all that man is designed by God to be. He promises that one day you will be allowed, yes required to share in this perfection if you are willing to lovingly serve and because of that love may need to suffer with and for Him now.
1 Peter 4:13 But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.
1 John 3:2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
Romans 8:17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
All futile religious effort upward directed
All religious effort except the Christian gospel (good news) is upward directed as people of all cultures have a sense of the eternal and try by self effort to come into some kind of relationship with whatever their idea of God happens to be. The good news is downward directed in that Jesus left the glorious dimensions beyond time and space and entered our material world.
Philippians 2:6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
Philippians 2:7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
Philippians 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!
God stepped into time and space
He voluntarily surrendered His prerogatives as God and was willing to live under the same time-space limitations and by the same rules He expects us to abide by. He allowed Himself to be subjected to the abject hatred and the worst that humanity is capable of dishing out. Finally He allowed Himself to be murdered so that he might in the end conquer that ultimate enemy of the human race — death.
Perfect life destroys death
Because He kept all of the rules and never missed, even once, death could not hold Him. If you believe and trust in that God, and His human name is Jesus, then He will bring you out of death, back into life at the instant you trust Him. This bringing back from death will also include your renewed physical body at the designated point in time and space. You now live in an "Earth Suit", but in due time, that will be left in the ground here on Earth and you will receive a "Heaven Suit" which is incorruptible and immortal.
Romans 8:11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
1 Corinthians 15:53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
1 Corinthians 15:54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."
Are you smart or rich enough to please God?
Since science cannot probe beyond the dimensions of our time-space matter-energy universe, you have to come by the one method that any human being is capable of. This the door of faith. If He required the payment of money, the poor would be lost. If it were a matter of IQ or education, the simple-minded folks or unschooled would be left behind. Any criteria other than simple faith in Him would always leave some out in the cold, but everyone can believe.
Are you WILLING to believe?
The question is not whether you are able or unable to believe but whether you want to or not. It is an act of your will and obedience. If you have not already made this most important decision of your life, it is my prayer that what you have learned here will help you to surrender to Him who loves you deeply, the incomparable Christ. Turn from going the way you have been, repent, and come to the King of Kings for He will never turn you away.
Are you the ultimate fool?
In conclusion, the heavens, and indeed all of creation is telling of the greatness of our Creator. God never defends the fact of His existence but simply calls anyone who rejects the overwhelming evidence a fool.
Psalms 14:1 The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.
Are you lovingly serving and honoring (by obeying) this one true God who created you, or are you a self-loving fool? Please don't be the ultimate fool by deceiving yourself in your relationship to the living Lord of Time and Space.
If you ignore His love and call, you will have all eternity to regret your stubborn foolishness.