Key Text: Gen. 1:1-5: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.”
GOD'S FOOTPRINTS IN NATURE
We have faith in God even if we haven’t seen His face not because there is no other alternative but rather because we’ve seen the evidence of His footprints. Just as He told Moses, God could not show His face to us because the glory of His presence would kill us mortals. And yet just like He did to Moses, if we really want to see God, He will let us see His back, His footprints, His signature written everywhere around us. Ariel Roth, one of the world’s most prominent Christian scientists once said, “God never performed a miracle to convince an atheist, because his ordinary works provide sufficient evidence.” A minister once preached that it takes faith to believe in God because we cannot show any evidence that He exists. I beg to differ! We believe in God, because of the evidence around us! And because of the evidence around us, it doesn’t require a lot of faith to believe in Him just as it doesn’t require a lot of faith to believe that there is a builder when you see a building standing.
To examine the evidence for God, we will first take a look at what Gen. 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” In the surface, this statement seems to be simplistic in its explanation about our origins. But when we get deeper into what Moses is trying to say, we’ll find out that today’s science sheds more light to what Gen. 1:1 is saying probably more than the light that Moses saw when he was inspired to write the words. The English translation of what Moses originally wrote in Hebrew, does not give full justice to what Moses really meant. The Hebrew word for “In the beginning” is Be’reasheet. It’s a compound word with the prefix Be’ which means “with” and reasheet which means “first wisdom.” Literally it means “with surpassing or with transcendent wisdom” God created the heaven and the earth. The Hebrew word be’reasheet is a word with dual entendre (dual meaning). It is commonly translated “in the beginning” but it can also be translated “with transcendent wisdom.” The 2,100-year old Aramaic Bible has the closest meaning to the original Hebrew, instead of “In the beginning,” it says “With wisdom God created the heavens and the earth.”
In other words, when God first created the heavens and the earth He left His signature in them, His footprints, His back. He left His wisdom in His creation so that when we look at His creation, it unmistakably points to Him, the Creator. His supreme transcendent intelligence can be seen in all of His creation. Even by just looking at the surface we can see it, that’s why the Psalmist says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge” (Ps. 19:1-2). And again David echoes what Moses said in Genesis 1:1, “How manifold are Your works, Eternal, You made them all with wisdom” (Ps. 104:24).
EVIDENCES THAT WE TAKE FOR GRANTED
Indeed only a fool can say that there is no God because it only takes a normal brain and eyes that work to see the footprints of God. We take everything for granted around us as a given and don’t see the intelligence and wisdom in all of creation. Just look at a banana for example. God is so good to create a banana with us in mind. It is color coded. He lets us know that it’s not yet ready when it’s green, ready when it’s yellow and too late when it’s brown, use gloves when it’s black. It’s also user friendly. Notice how it fits snugly in your hand with a non-slip surface, the tab on top makes it easy for you to open and unlike Coke, even if you open it quick, it doesn’t squirt in your face. Not only that, it perfectly fits in your mouth and curves towards your face to make everything easy for you to eat. Thank God for making bananas the way they are.
If you still can’t see the wisdom of God in the banana, go to the mirror and look at yourself without taking anything for granted. Can you imagine yourself if there was no wisdom in your design, your anatomy? Can you imagine if we just happen to exist by accident? Can you imagine if your eyes were between your toes instead of in front of your face? You would all be sitting there in the pews this morning with your heels over head instead of your head over heels. Can you imagine if your nose were in your buttocks instead of above your mouth? You’ll probably be covering them with your hands all the time. What if it happens to be in your face but it’s upside down, can you imagine the hassle when it rains? What if your eyebrows grow like the hair in your head? Somebody in my household takes about an hour to do her hair, can you imagine the time she’ll waste if she has to comb her eyebrows too for another hour. Can you imagine trying to talk to someone with your long eyebrows in the way covering your eyes? We may laugh, but we can go on and on and talk about so many things that we take for granted, but when we consider them, we’ll realize the impossibility of our existence without God’s wisdom behind it. Look at a mother when she cradles her baby in her bent arms do you notice that the baby’s head is right close to the mother’s breast to make it easier for both the baby and the mother during feeding time? Thank God that He didn’t put the mother’s breast in her back, it would have been a challenge to feed the baby. Can you see not only God’s wisdom but also His love when He made us? Indeed only fools say that there is no God.
THE INVISIBLE (QUANTUM) EVIDENCE FOR GOD
God did not only create all living things with wisdom, He also created the heavens and the earth with wisdom. The Hebrew word used by Moses in Genesis 1:1 for “create” is bara. The Hebrew word bara in the Qal stem can only be equated with God. Man cannot bara, only God can bara. Bara means create out of nothing. Man with all his technology and knowledge, cannot create anything out of nothing, we can only make something out of something. God spoke and it was so. “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things that are seen, were not made of things which are visible” (Heb. 11:3). The author of Hebrews says that the things that we see around us were made of things that were invisible. There is an inscrutable power in the word of God that as He speaks, material things that can be seen, the worlds, the stars, the galaxies, the island universes in space, and all, come into existence from something that can’t be seen. Man often talks and utters useless words that don't do anything. But o the awesome and infinite energy, the inscrutable power of the word that comes out of God's mouth! God utters words and worlds come into existence! Man utters words and often they don't mean anything. In Genesis chapter 1, we are told that God created space – the heavens, matter – the earth, moon and stars , and time – the evening and the morning was the first day. Since God created all these, He is not confined to, He is not containable by, and He is not limited to any of them, that is, He is outside of time, outside of space and outside of matter that He created, and therefore, He can see from the beginning to the end, He can know everything and can be everywhere at the same time. “Thus says the Lord: ‘Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build me? And where is the house of my rest? For all those things My hand has made, and all those things exist’” (Isa. 66:1,2, margin).
In the early to mid 1900s, scientists including Einstein, thought that the universe was static, that is, it had always been there. But with the progress in science, particularly in physics, astronomy, and technology including the Hubble telescope, scientists have found irrefutable evidences that the universe is in fact continuously expanding at a constant speed and seemingly revolving around a common center. And they found out that there was a time when the universe was nothing. In other words, there was a time when there was no time, no space, no matter, no universe, no thing. Because of the evidence, they concluded that there was a time when the universe just exploded abruptly into being out of nothing. They call it the Big Bang, we call it Creation, fiat creation. Scientists used their methods in physics and astronomy to prove that there was no God, but look where do their evidences lead them to? To an awesome all-powerful God! Somebody bigger than the massive limitless universe made it come into existence abruptly out of nothing!
Listen to astronomer Robert Jastrow, the head of the Mt. Wilson Observatory and founder of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies, who is not a Christian: “Astronomers now find they have painted themselves into a corner because they have proven, by their own methods, that the world began abruptly in an act of creation to which you can trace the seeds of every star, every planet, every living thing in this cosmos and on the earth. And they have found that all this happened as a product of forces they cannot hope to discover….That there are what I or anyone would call supernatural forces at work is now, I think, a scientifically proven fact.” Creation of the universe out of nothing by a supernatural force, a scientifically proven fact? Wow! You think this guy is reading Genesis 1:1 or Hebrews 11:3, but he’s not, he’s saying it on the basis of evidences discovered by modern science. Atheistic scientist Arthur Eddington although feeling repugnant about the current evidence in astronomy and physics had to admit, “The beginning seems to present insuperable difficulties unless we agree to look on it as frankly supernatural.”
THE ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE
Modern scientific evidence does not only point to creation out of nothing by means of a supernatural power that is beyond time, space and matter; but also points to the fact that the universe is created with mankind in mind (the Anthropic Principle). In other words, the balance between the earth’s gravitational force and the force of the so called Big Bang (which we call God’s mighty power that holds the universe) is so infinitely precise, so that if it was off by 1 part of 10 to the 60th power (1 followed by 60 zeros) mankind will not exist. To put it simply, in order to maintain life on earth, the force that maintains the universe has to be precise like hitting a target bulls-eye 20 billion lightyears away across the universe. That’s how precise is the force that holds the universe to maintain life on earth and it shouldn’t fluctuate at any moment, otherwise it will wipe out all of mankind.
After realizing this mid-boggling supernatural accuracy, Paul Davies, who is a non-creationist, professor of mathematical physics at the University of Adelaide declares: “I cannot believe that our existence is a mere quirk of fate, an accident of history, an incidental blip in the great cosmic drama. Our involvement is too intimate….This can be no trivial detail, no minor product of mindless, purposeless forces. We are truly meant to be here.” God showed His footprints, His back, not only in all the things that we see here on earth, but out there in the starry heavens, in the limitless space, the starry heavens are crying out loud to mankind, “There is an awesome God who created us and you and there’s none like Him!” God is telling us through his vast creation in space: “I made all these things for you, because I love you! You were on my mind when I made all these things!” When we read Gen. 1:17 which says, “God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth” we better believe it. God had us in mind when He made the moon, the sun and the stars, not only to give us light, but to give us life! Technically we call this the Anthropic Principle, the universe exists with mankind’s survival in mind.
GOD CREATED LIGHT INDEPENDENT OF THE SUN
When God first created the earth, it was without form and the waters were dark, time and light were not created yet, in other words there was no first day yet, nor second day, nor seventh day, only eternity. There was no light either, it was total darkness. Gen. 1:2-5 says: “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” You’ll probably notice that the light was created independent of the sun. God created the light on the first day (Gen. 1:3), and He created the sun on the fourth day (Gen. 1:14-19). Therefore, until the third day the light existed without the sun. How can light exist by itself as an energy without the sun or the moon generating it? Here in Genesis we see that light is not an intrinsic property of the sun, it comes from God Himself. While scientists know that the sun generates light, they don’t have a clue where it got all that energy. Is the sun a mere relay point of light that actually originates from God Himself? What is light anyway? Is it a particle of matter, or is it an invisible wave of energy like radio waves?
ON LIGHT SPEED AND GOD SPEED
For years scientists had debated about light whether it was a particle or a wave. Physics which is the ultimate science of the physical universe, and is the major tool of materialistic science because the physical can be seen and tested, has never quite figured out the nature of light until the advent of quantum physics, the study of the most basic structure of the physical universe at the subatomic level. First there was Einstein who theorized that E=mc2, that is any matter (m) whether it is from uranium or petals of a rose or from your muscles, if subjected to the square of the speed of light (c2), equals to a powerful energy (E). This theory is now the Law of Relativity because it’s been proven to be true. That’s why we have nuclear bombs. For 150 years physicists believed that with the knowledge of the laws of physics in the universe, things become predictable. Einstein himself said, “The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.” With his theory he postulated that nothing travels faster than light. If we have to travel to the nearest star (Proxima Centaurus) at the speed of light which is 300,000 kilometers per second, it would take us about 4.3 years to get there, if we travel at the speed of the fastest rocket it would take us thousands of years to get there.
If it’s been proven that nothing travels faster than the speed of light, how is it then that the Bible records that when Daniel prayed, God sent the angel Gabriel from heaven to earth to answer Daniel at an instant speed even before Daniel could finish his prayer (Dan. 9:20-23)? How does God do that? Can God and angels travel faster than the speed of light? Is there a visible reality and another invisible reality? Comes quantum physics, the ultimate science of reality at the most basic level. Scientists are now able to study the atom at its minutest subatomic level with modern instrumentation in today’s laboratories. But the deeper man goes into the atom, the deeper are the mysteries that he encounters. Because the atom, which is the most simple particle of all living and non-living things, quantum physicists have found out, is not simple at all. The components of an atom the electron, proton and neutron have their own smaller components (photons, quarks and neutrinos) and they suspect that those smaller components have also their still smaller components far beyond the grasp of human perception. And what puzzles scientists, is not only the nature of these subatomic particles but also the way they behave. It defies logic and empirical observation. Scientists call this “quantum weirdness.” Niels Bohr, one of the pioneers of quantum physics says, “Anyone who is not shocked by quantum physics, has not understood it.”
PHOTONS TRAVEL FASTER THAN THE SPEED OF LIGHT
In the famous double-slit experiment which was repeated and demonstrated again and again in many laboratories, quantum scientists found out that photons, the smallest subatomic observable components of light can travel faster than the speed of light. When scientists shot photons into one hole, they were also present in the second separate hole at the same time. After observing this phenomenon, physics professor, Timothy Ferris, writes: “It is as if the quantum world had never heard of space – as if in some strange way, it thinks of itself as being in one place at a time.” Can anything or anyone be in different places at the same time? Impossible according to empirical science, but demonstrated my modern quantum physics repeatedly in laboratories.
Before, we had to take what the Scripture said about God’s omnipresence totally by faith. We had to take Jesus’ promise by faith when He said that when He comes again all eyes shall see Him even if an object as immensely big as the sun cannot even be seen by everyone worldwide at the same time. Today, God has given us a glimpse of His omnipresent power, of being able to be there for us and for everyone in the universe instantly everywhere at the same time through His footprints in quantum physics. Through the minutest observable entity of the atom, God shows us a trace of His awesome power like a wake of a boat in the water. What is impossible with man, is possible with God. God can be in all places at the same time, and the photons tell us that it’s true. The photons can do it, their Maker can.
Non-believers are at a loss about this phenomenon in quantum physics, it’s beyond their comprehension. Physicist Roland Omnes writes of quantum physics: “This theory penetrates reality to a depth our senses cannot take us. Its laws are universal, and they rule over the world of objects so familiar to us. We who inhabit the world, cannot make our own vision prevail over the arrogant laws, whose concepts seem to flow from an order higher than the one inspired by the things we can touch, see, and say with ordinary words.” In other words, modern empirical science cannot explain the most basic reality of man’s own existence. There is too much wisdom embedded in the quantum world – the most basic unit of our existence that’s beyond man’s ability to comprehend because it is the insuperable wisdom of God that designed it.
When scientists studied two groups of photons and put them in two different holes, they found out that the photons in the second hole “knew” what was going on in the first hole, that is, when the other photons in the first hole were spinning clockwise, the other photons in the second hole started to spin counter-clockwise. If scaled to life size, it’s like a ball in Australia starting to spin counterclockwise because a ball in Europe started to spin clockwise. And not only that, they found out that photons were “conscious” when they were being observed and that it changed its nature when being observed. When scientists put detectors in two holes and shot photons into them, they behaved like particles, when the detectors were removed, they behaved like waves, that is, invisible energy like radio waves. When scientists put one detector in the first closed hole and no detectors in the second closed hole, the moment scientists opened the first hole that had the detectors, the second hole that was closed and had no detectors still behaved like the photons in the first hole that was being observed, they also collapsed or changed into particles. The moment detectors were removed from both holes, the photons behaved back like waves, like the invisible radio waves. Somehow the photons in the second hole were “conscious” that the first hole was being opened and that the photons in there were being observed and so they reacted the same way as the photons that were being observed, they turned into particles. Talk about weirdness and bizarre behavior. We have this minutest entity of light or of atom, that can assume two different natures, 100 percent invisible radio wave and 100 percent visible particle, at the same time. Two natures that are mutually exclusive yet found in one entity, the photon.
The Scripture also tells us of the two natures of God: His transcendence and His immanence. He is too Holy in His eternal majesty for mortals to see, thus He is invisible, yet through His amazing love and grace, He became One of us that we might see Him face to face. Christ was both 100 percent invisible God and 100 percent visible Man in one person. The photons tell us that an entity can be both visible and invisible. The photons can do it, their Maker can do it too.
THE VISIBLE MADE OF THE INVISIBLE
First of all, we, including all the things around us are made of atoms. And if we scrutinize what we’re all made of to the minutest unit, we’re nothing but empty space. Just imagine an atom scaled to the size of the solar system, but not with nine or eight planets orbiting the sun, but only one planet (electron) orbiting the sun (nucleus), the rest is nothing but empty space. That’s what we’re made of at the minutest level – the atom. The electron orbits around the central nucleus of an atom which is about 1,800 times bigger than the electron, and yet the negative electrical charge that is generated by the orbiting electron is the same as the positive electrical charge that is generated by the proton that is inside the central nucleus. Without the balance in the electrical charge in the atoms around and inside of us, no life can exist. Why there is a balance in electrical charges between the electron and the proton (which is 1800 bigger in size than the electron of an atom) despite the big difference in size, nobody knows. And the electron that orbits around the nucleus and the nucleus itself that contains the proton, are all electromagnetic waves and not particles. In other words the most basic component of the physical visible universe including ourselves, is invisible. What is empirically visible, is according to quantum physics, is made of the invisible. Suddenly physics, the study of the physical, ends up being the study of the metaphysical. The only reason why we can see, touch, and feel things as solid is because of the varying force fields that different things possess.
For example we can’t go through a wooden door because the force field of the atoms of wood is stronger than the force field of the atoms in our body. A nail can penetrate a wood because the force field of the atoms of an iron is stronger than the force field of the atoms of wood. What if God somehow someday recreates us into immortal bodies and the force fields of our atoms become stronger than the force fields of nature around us? Is it possible then that we cannot be hurt when we fall, or we can walk through shut doors like what Jesus did after the resurrection? Just a thought, but quantum physics now gives us a clue about what’s seemingly impossible in the physical world, is possible in the quantum world. The things that can be seen in the universe are after all made of things that cannot be seen. Wait a minute, doesn’t this quantum phenomenon sound familiar in the Bible? Hebrew 11:3 says, “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” Wow! Is this quantum physics or what?
CONCLUSION
Indeed from the complex human being to the minutest one-celled organism, from the subatomic photons to the grandest island universe in space, they all declare the wonders and the glorious signature of God’s awesome power and majesty. But the most amazing of all is not God’s awesome power, not His power to create the limitless universe of stars and galaxies out of nothing, nor His power to hold all His vast Creation in place, but the most amazing of all is that this God who created and who controls and maintains the universe through His immense power, loved us so much that He came down to this one dark tiny dot in the universe called Earth, assumed our human nature, and suffered and died the eternal death condemnation that was ours. He assumed our sinfulness and our eternal death punishment, that we might have another chance and only chance at eternal life. Jesus, the transcendent, uncontainable, inscrutable, omnipotent God and Creator, is also our Savior, our Brother, our Friend and our fellow human. That my friends, is the most amazing thing in the whole universe, and it would continue to puzzle the whole of creation throughout eternity.
Because of Him it became possible for us to wing our flight throughout the realms and limitless frontiers of the universe that are outside the bounds of time and the speed of light.
I like the way how a third grade woman, described what awaits the saints; written at around the time when Darwin came out with his now proven fallacious book, Origin of the Species. E. G. White writes: “All the treasures of the universe will be open to the study of God’s redeemed. Unfettered by mortality, they wing their tireless flight to worlds afar…. With unutterable delight the children of earth enter into the joy and the wisdom of unfallen beings….With undimmed vision they gaze upon the glory of creation – suns and stars and systems, all in their appointed order circling the throne of Deity. And the years of eternity as they roll, will bring richer and still more glorious revelations of God and of Christ. As knowledge is progressive, so will love, reverence, and happiness increase” (The Great Controversy, pp. 677-678).
Doesn’t your innermost intuition, long for deliverance from this sick, miserable fleeting lifetime that is full of pain, filth, ugliness, greed, tragedy, destruction, uncertainty, fear, impermanence, death and evil? Doesn’t your heart seek for life’s eternal permanence, while knowledge, love, reverence and happiness continue to increase without end? Indeed what an amazing God we have who created us, who sustains us, who loves us with an everlasting love and who has secured for us our eternal salvation! Even so come our Creator-God, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
GOD'S FOOTPRINTS IN NATURE
We have faith in God even if we haven’t seen His face not because there is no other alternative but rather because we’ve seen the evidence of His footprints. Just as He told Moses, God could not show His face to us because the glory of His presence would kill us mortals. And yet just like He did to Moses, if we really want to see God, He will let us see His back, His footprints, His signature written everywhere around us. Ariel Roth, one of the world’s most prominent Christian scientists once said, “God never performed a miracle to convince an atheist, because his ordinary works provide sufficient evidence.” A minister once preached that it takes faith to believe in God because we cannot show any evidence that He exists. I beg to differ! We believe in God, because of the evidence around us! And because of the evidence around us, it doesn’t require a lot of faith to believe in Him just as it doesn’t require a lot of faith to believe that there is a builder when you see a building standing.
To examine the evidence for God, we will first take a look at what Gen. 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” In the surface, this statement seems to be simplistic in its explanation about our origins. But when we get deeper into what Moses is trying to say, we’ll find out that today’s science sheds more light to what Gen. 1:1 is saying probably more than the light that Moses saw when he was inspired to write the words. The English translation of what Moses originally wrote in Hebrew, does not give full justice to what Moses really meant. The Hebrew word for “In the beginning” is Be’reasheet. It’s a compound word with the prefix Be’ which means “with” and reasheet which means “first wisdom.” Literally it means “with surpassing or with transcendent wisdom” God created the heaven and the earth. The Hebrew word be’reasheet is a word with dual entendre (dual meaning). It is commonly translated “in the beginning” but it can also be translated “with transcendent wisdom.” The 2,100-year old Aramaic Bible has the closest meaning to the original Hebrew, instead of “In the beginning,” it says “With wisdom God created the heavens and the earth.”
In other words, when God first created the heavens and the earth He left His signature in them, His footprints, His back. He left His wisdom in His creation so that when we look at His creation, it unmistakably points to Him, the Creator. His supreme transcendent intelligence can be seen in all of His creation. Even by just looking at the surface we can see it, that’s why the Psalmist says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge” (Ps. 19:1-2). And again David echoes what Moses said in Genesis 1:1, “How manifold are Your works, Eternal, You made them all with wisdom” (Ps. 104:24).
EVIDENCES THAT WE TAKE FOR GRANTED
Indeed only a fool can say that there is no God because it only takes a normal brain and eyes that work to see the footprints of God. We take everything for granted around us as a given and don’t see the intelligence and wisdom in all of creation. Just look at a banana for example. God is so good to create a banana with us in mind. It is color coded. He lets us know that it’s not yet ready when it’s green, ready when it’s yellow and too late when it’s brown, use gloves when it’s black. It’s also user friendly. Notice how it fits snugly in your hand with a non-slip surface, the tab on top makes it easy for you to open and unlike Coke, even if you open it quick, it doesn’t squirt in your face. Not only that, it perfectly fits in your mouth and curves towards your face to make everything easy for you to eat. Thank God for making bananas the way they are.
If you still can’t see the wisdom of God in the banana, go to the mirror and look at yourself without taking anything for granted. Can you imagine yourself if there was no wisdom in your design, your anatomy? Can you imagine if we just happen to exist by accident? Can you imagine if your eyes were between your toes instead of in front of your face? You would all be sitting there in the pews this morning with your heels over head instead of your head over heels. Can you imagine if your nose were in your buttocks instead of above your mouth? You’ll probably be covering them with your hands all the time. What if it happens to be in your face but it’s upside down, can you imagine the hassle when it rains? What if your eyebrows grow like the hair in your head? Somebody in my household takes about an hour to do her hair, can you imagine the time she’ll waste if she has to comb her eyebrows too for another hour. Can you imagine trying to talk to someone with your long eyebrows in the way covering your eyes? We may laugh, but we can go on and on and talk about so many things that we take for granted, but when we consider them, we’ll realize the impossibility of our existence without God’s wisdom behind it. Look at a mother when she cradles her baby in her bent arms do you notice that the baby’s head is right close to the mother’s breast to make it easier for both the baby and the mother during feeding time? Thank God that He didn’t put the mother’s breast in her back, it would have been a challenge to feed the baby. Can you see not only God’s wisdom but also His love when He made us? Indeed only fools say that there is no God.
THE INVISIBLE (QUANTUM) EVIDENCE FOR GOD
God did not only create all living things with wisdom, He also created the heavens and the earth with wisdom. The Hebrew word used by Moses in Genesis 1:1 for “create” is bara. The Hebrew word bara in the Qal stem can only be equated with God. Man cannot bara, only God can bara. Bara means create out of nothing. Man with all his technology and knowledge, cannot create anything out of nothing, we can only make something out of something. God spoke and it was so. “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things that are seen, were not made of things which are visible” (Heb. 11:3). The author of Hebrews says that the things that we see around us were made of things that were invisible. There is an inscrutable power in the word of God that as He speaks, material things that can be seen, the worlds, the stars, the galaxies, the island universes in space, and all, come into existence from something that can’t be seen. Man often talks and utters useless words that don't do anything. But o the awesome and infinite energy, the inscrutable power of the word that comes out of God's mouth! God utters words and worlds come into existence! Man utters words and often they don't mean anything. In Genesis chapter 1, we are told that God created space – the heavens, matter – the earth, moon and stars , and time – the evening and the morning was the first day. Since God created all these, He is not confined to, He is not containable by, and He is not limited to any of them, that is, He is outside of time, outside of space and outside of matter that He created, and therefore, He can see from the beginning to the end, He can know everything and can be everywhere at the same time. “Thus says the Lord: ‘Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build me? And where is the house of my rest? For all those things My hand has made, and all those things exist’” (Isa. 66:1,2, margin).
In the early to mid 1900s, scientists including Einstein, thought that the universe was static, that is, it had always been there. But with the progress in science, particularly in physics, astronomy, and technology including the Hubble telescope, scientists have found irrefutable evidences that the universe is in fact continuously expanding at a constant speed and seemingly revolving around a common center. And they found out that there was a time when the universe was nothing. In other words, there was a time when there was no time, no space, no matter, no universe, no thing. Because of the evidence, they concluded that there was a time when the universe just exploded abruptly into being out of nothing. They call it the Big Bang, we call it Creation, fiat creation. Scientists used their methods in physics and astronomy to prove that there was no God, but look where do their evidences lead them to? To an awesome all-powerful God! Somebody bigger than the massive limitless universe made it come into existence abruptly out of nothing!
Listen to astronomer Robert Jastrow, the head of the Mt. Wilson Observatory and founder of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies, who is not a Christian: “Astronomers now find they have painted themselves into a corner because they have proven, by their own methods, that the world began abruptly in an act of creation to which you can trace the seeds of every star, every planet, every living thing in this cosmos and on the earth. And they have found that all this happened as a product of forces they cannot hope to discover….That there are what I or anyone would call supernatural forces at work is now, I think, a scientifically proven fact.” Creation of the universe out of nothing by a supernatural force, a scientifically proven fact? Wow! You think this guy is reading Genesis 1:1 or Hebrews 11:3, but he’s not, he’s saying it on the basis of evidences discovered by modern science. Atheistic scientist Arthur Eddington although feeling repugnant about the current evidence in astronomy and physics had to admit, “The beginning seems to present insuperable difficulties unless we agree to look on it as frankly supernatural.”
THE ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE
Modern scientific evidence does not only point to creation out of nothing by means of a supernatural power that is beyond time, space and matter; but also points to the fact that the universe is created with mankind in mind (the Anthropic Principle). In other words, the balance between the earth’s gravitational force and the force of the so called Big Bang (which we call God’s mighty power that holds the universe) is so infinitely precise, so that if it was off by 1 part of 10 to the 60th power (1 followed by 60 zeros) mankind will not exist. To put it simply, in order to maintain life on earth, the force that maintains the universe has to be precise like hitting a target bulls-eye 20 billion lightyears away across the universe. That’s how precise is the force that holds the universe to maintain life on earth and it shouldn’t fluctuate at any moment, otherwise it will wipe out all of mankind.
After realizing this mid-boggling supernatural accuracy, Paul Davies, who is a non-creationist, professor of mathematical physics at the University of Adelaide declares: “I cannot believe that our existence is a mere quirk of fate, an accident of history, an incidental blip in the great cosmic drama. Our involvement is too intimate….This can be no trivial detail, no minor product of mindless, purposeless forces. We are truly meant to be here.” God showed His footprints, His back, not only in all the things that we see here on earth, but out there in the starry heavens, in the limitless space, the starry heavens are crying out loud to mankind, “There is an awesome God who created us and you and there’s none like Him!” God is telling us through his vast creation in space: “I made all these things for you, because I love you! You were on my mind when I made all these things!” When we read Gen. 1:17 which says, “God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth” we better believe it. God had us in mind when He made the moon, the sun and the stars, not only to give us light, but to give us life! Technically we call this the Anthropic Principle, the universe exists with mankind’s survival in mind.
GOD CREATED LIGHT INDEPENDENT OF THE SUN
When God first created the earth, it was without form and the waters were dark, time and light were not created yet, in other words there was no first day yet, nor second day, nor seventh day, only eternity. There was no light either, it was total darkness. Gen. 1:2-5 says: “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” You’ll probably notice that the light was created independent of the sun. God created the light on the first day (Gen. 1:3), and He created the sun on the fourth day (Gen. 1:14-19). Therefore, until the third day the light existed without the sun. How can light exist by itself as an energy without the sun or the moon generating it? Here in Genesis we see that light is not an intrinsic property of the sun, it comes from God Himself. While scientists know that the sun generates light, they don’t have a clue where it got all that energy. Is the sun a mere relay point of light that actually originates from God Himself? What is light anyway? Is it a particle of matter, or is it an invisible wave of energy like radio waves?
ON LIGHT SPEED AND GOD SPEED
For years scientists had debated about light whether it was a particle or a wave. Physics which is the ultimate science of the physical universe, and is the major tool of materialistic science because the physical can be seen and tested, has never quite figured out the nature of light until the advent of quantum physics, the study of the most basic structure of the physical universe at the subatomic level. First there was Einstein who theorized that E=mc2, that is any matter (m) whether it is from uranium or petals of a rose or from your muscles, if subjected to the square of the speed of light (c2), equals to a powerful energy (E). This theory is now the Law of Relativity because it’s been proven to be true. That’s why we have nuclear bombs. For 150 years physicists believed that with the knowledge of the laws of physics in the universe, things become predictable. Einstein himself said, “The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.” With his theory he postulated that nothing travels faster than light. If we have to travel to the nearest star (Proxima Centaurus) at the speed of light which is 300,000 kilometers per second, it would take us about 4.3 years to get there, if we travel at the speed of the fastest rocket it would take us thousands of years to get there.
If it’s been proven that nothing travels faster than the speed of light, how is it then that the Bible records that when Daniel prayed, God sent the angel Gabriel from heaven to earth to answer Daniel at an instant speed even before Daniel could finish his prayer (Dan. 9:20-23)? How does God do that? Can God and angels travel faster than the speed of light? Is there a visible reality and another invisible reality? Comes quantum physics, the ultimate science of reality at the most basic level. Scientists are now able to study the atom at its minutest subatomic level with modern instrumentation in today’s laboratories. But the deeper man goes into the atom, the deeper are the mysteries that he encounters. Because the atom, which is the most simple particle of all living and non-living things, quantum physicists have found out, is not simple at all. The components of an atom the electron, proton and neutron have their own smaller components (photons, quarks and neutrinos) and they suspect that those smaller components have also their still smaller components far beyond the grasp of human perception. And what puzzles scientists, is not only the nature of these subatomic particles but also the way they behave. It defies logic and empirical observation. Scientists call this “quantum weirdness.” Niels Bohr, one of the pioneers of quantum physics says, “Anyone who is not shocked by quantum physics, has not understood it.”
PHOTONS TRAVEL FASTER THAN THE SPEED OF LIGHT
In the famous double-slit experiment which was repeated and demonstrated again and again in many laboratories, quantum scientists found out that photons, the smallest subatomic observable components of light can travel faster than the speed of light. When scientists shot photons into one hole, they were also present in the second separate hole at the same time. After observing this phenomenon, physics professor, Timothy Ferris, writes: “It is as if the quantum world had never heard of space – as if in some strange way, it thinks of itself as being in one place at a time.” Can anything or anyone be in different places at the same time? Impossible according to empirical science, but demonstrated my modern quantum physics repeatedly in laboratories.
Before, we had to take what the Scripture said about God’s omnipresence totally by faith. We had to take Jesus’ promise by faith when He said that when He comes again all eyes shall see Him even if an object as immensely big as the sun cannot even be seen by everyone worldwide at the same time. Today, God has given us a glimpse of His omnipresent power, of being able to be there for us and for everyone in the universe instantly everywhere at the same time through His footprints in quantum physics. Through the minutest observable entity of the atom, God shows us a trace of His awesome power like a wake of a boat in the water. What is impossible with man, is possible with God. God can be in all places at the same time, and the photons tell us that it’s true. The photons can do it, their Maker can.
Non-believers are at a loss about this phenomenon in quantum physics, it’s beyond their comprehension. Physicist Roland Omnes writes of quantum physics: “This theory penetrates reality to a depth our senses cannot take us. Its laws are universal, and they rule over the world of objects so familiar to us. We who inhabit the world, cannot make our own vision prevail over the arrogant laws, whose concepts seem to flow from an order higher than the one inspired by the things we can touch, see, and say with ordinary words.” In other words, modern empirical science cannot explain the most basic reality of man’s own existence. There is too much wisdom embedded in the quantum world – the most basic unit of our existence that’s beyond man’s ability to comprehend because it is the insuperable wisdom of God that designed it.
When scientists studied two groups of photons and put them in two different holes, they found out that the photons in the second hole “knew” what was going on in the first hole, that is, when the other photons in the first hole were spinning clockwise, the other photons in the second hole started to spin counter-clockwise. If scaled to life size, it’s like a ball in Australia starting to spin counterclockwise because a ball in Europe started to spin clockwise. And not only that, they found out that photons were “conscious” when they were being observed and that it changed its nature when being observed. When scientists put detectors in two holes and shot photons into them, they behaved like particles, when the detectors were removed, they behaved like waves, that is, invisible energy like radio waves. When scientists put one detector in the first closed hole and no detectors in the second closed hole, the moment scientists opened the first hole that had the detectors, the second hole that was closed and had no detectors still behaved like the photons in the first hole that was being observed, they also collapsed or changed into particles. The moment detectors were removed from both holes, the photons behaved back like waves, like the invisible radio waves. Somehow the photons in the second hole were “conscious” that the first hole was being opened and that the photons in there were being observed and so they reacted the same way as the photons that were being observed, they turned into particles. Talk about weirdness and bizarre behavior. We have this minutest entity of light or of atom, that can assume two different natures, 100 percent invisible radio wave and 100 percent visible particle, at the same time. Two natures that are mutually exclusive yet found in one entity, the photon.
The Scripture also tells us of the two natures of God: His transcendence and His immanence. He is too Holy in His eternal majesty for mortals to see, thus He is invisible, yet through His amazing love and grace, He became One of us that we might see Him face to face. Christ was both 100 percent invisible God and 100 percent visible Man in one person. The photons tell us that an entity can be both visible and invisible. The photons can do it, their Maker can do it too.
THE VISIBLE MADE OF THE INVISIBLE
First of all, we, including all the things around us are made of atoms. And if we scrutinize what we’re all made of to the minutest unit, we’re nothing but empty space. Just imagine an atom scaled to the size of the solar system, but not with nine or eight planets orbiting the sun, but only one planet (electron) orbiting the sun (nucleus), the rest is nothing but empty space. That’s what we’re made of at the minutest level – the atom. The electron orbits around the central nucleus of an atom which is about 1,800 times bigger than the electron, and yet the negative electrical charge that is generated by the orbiting electron is the same as the positive electrical charge that is generated by the proton that is inside the central nucleus. Without the balance in the electrical charge in the atoms around and inside of us, no life can exist. Why there is a balance in electrical charges between the electron and the proton (which is 1800 bigger in size than the electron of an atom) despite the big difference in size, nobody knows. And the electron that orbits around the nucleus and the nucleus itself that contains the proton, are all electromagnetic waves and not particles. In other words the most basic component of the physical visible universe including ourselves, is invisible. What is empirically visible, is according to quantum physics, is made of the invisible. Suddenly physics, the study of the physical, ends up being the study of the metaphysical. The only reason why we can see, touch, and feel things as solid is because of the varying force fields that different things possess.
For example we can’t go through a wooden door because the force field of the atoms of wood is stronger than the force field of the atoms in our body. A nail can penetrate a wood because the force field of the atoms of an iron is stronger than the force field of the atoms of wood. What if God somehow someday recreates us into immortal bodies and the force fields of our atoms become stronger than the force fields of nature around us? Is it possible then that we cannot be hurt when we fall, or we can walk through shut doors like what Jesus did after the resurrection? Just a thought, but quantum physics now gives us a clue about what’s seemingly impossible in the physical world, is possible in the quantum world. The things that can be seen in the universe are after all made of things that cannot be seen. Wait a minute, doesn’t this quantum phenomenon sound familiar in the Bible? Hebrew 11:3 says, “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” Wow! Is this quantum physics or what?
CONCLUSION
Indeed from the complex human being to the minutest one-celled organism, from the subatomic photons to the grandest island universe in space, they all declare the wonders and the glorious signature of God’s awesome power and majesty. But the most amazing of all is not God’s awesome power, not His power to create the limitless universe of stars and galaxies out of nothing, nor His power to hold all His vast Creation in place, but the most amazing of all is that this God who created and who controls and maintains the universe through His immense power, loved us so much that He came down to this one dark tiny dot in the universe called Earth, assumed our human nature, and suffered and died the eternal death condemnation that was ours. He assumed our sinfulness and our eternal death punishment, that we might have another chance and only chance at eternal life. Jesus, the transcendent, uncontainable, inscrutable, omnipotent God and Creator, is also our Savior, our Brother, our Friend and our fellow human. That my friends, is the most amazing thing in the whole universe, and it would continue to puzzle the whole of creation throughout eternity.
Because of Him it became possible for us to wing our flight throughout the realms and limitless frontiers of the universe that are outside the bounds of time and the speed of light.
I like the way how a third grade woman, described what awaits the saints; written at around the time when Darwin came out with his now proven fallacious book, Origin of the Species. E. G. White writes: “All the treasures of the universe will be open to the study of God’s redeemed. Unfettered by mortality, they wing their tireless flight to worlds afar…. With unutterable delight the children of earth enter into the joy and the wisdom of unfallen beings….With undimmed vision they gaze upon the glory of creation – suns and stars and systems, all in their appointed order circling the throne of Deity. And the years of eternity as they roll, will bring richer and still more glorious revelations of God and of Christ. As knowledge is progressive, so will love, reverence, and happiness increase” (The Great Controversy, pp. 677-678).
Doesn’t your innermost intuition, long for deliverance from this sick, miserable fleeting lifetime that is full of pain, filth, ugliness, greed, tragedy, destruction, uncertainty, fear, impermanence, death and evil? Doesn’t your heart seek for life’s eternal permanence, while knowledge, love, reverence and happiness continue to increase without end? Indeed what an amazing God we have who created us, who sustains us, who loves us with an everlasting love and who has secured for us our eternal salvation! Even so come our Creator-God, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
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