Relativity

When Einstein propounded his theory of relativity, the average mind was confused and baffled by the formulae developed and by their implications. But there were physicists, and others, who stepped out on these hypotheses, proved them to be true and came up with practical discoveries which not only opened up the atomic age but an era of yet other amazing discoveries—discoveries of things God created, of laws he established and most important of all, the interrelation and relativity to be found in all the universe.

Are there not vistas of supernatural truths available for the Christian, truths which have tremendous bearing on our concept of God and his infinite power? And is not even the theological world blind to many of these revelations?

To begin with we need to appropriate the implications of God in relationship to time. For him time, as we understand its meaning, does not exist. Let us illustrate: God in his infinite wisdom and power (something which man cannot comprehend) sees all of eternity at once. Speaking in terms we humans can understand, God sees all of the past, all of the present and all of the future at exactly the same time. Once grasp this and many of our intellectual problems and difficulties cease to exist.

In the second place, let us grasp the fact that the power and act, or acts, of Creation were in the hands of Christ, the eternal Son of God. We are told that “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). How this was executed we do not know, but Genesis 1:1 and this statement must fit together for Paul writes to the Ephesian Christians, “… which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ” (Eph. 3:9). Writing to the Colossian Christians Paul says, “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”

There is probably deep significance in the words “visible and invisible” and we will be wise to consider how very little we know about His creation. Wonderful are the works of God.

The writer to the Hebrews corroborates these affirmations having to do with Christ as Creator in these words (1:1, 2): “God, … hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom he also made the worlds”; while the aged apostle, John, saw in his vision the four and twenty elders falling down before Him “which is and which was and which is to come,” and saying, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Rev 4:11).

Once grasp the fact that Christ was pre-existent with the Father, that it was he who created the world, that it was he who came back to redeem the world; and that it is he who will come again; then we have immediately taken the intellectual step, also a step of faith, which can dissolve our human problems relative to time ad eternity and Christ’s place in it.

Only by faith can we grasp the fact that with God a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day. In the same way we come to accept the paradoxes of Christianity; for instance, that a man may save his life and yet lose it or lose his life (by the standards of the world) only to find it.

For too long men have tried to rationalize the supernatural and in so doing have become ridiculous. When time merges into the eternity of which it is a part; when space as we know it merges into the new heaven and the new earth, how easy it is to believe that we shall see “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband,” and to believe that, “the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God” (Rev. 21:2, 3).

No longer do we laugh at the Buck Rogers-type concept of outer space. No longer do we look with amusement on the scientific prognostications of tomorrow. We have now seen enough to know that all of these things and many more will eventuate before our eyes.

Why then do we attempt to rationalize or explain away the miraculous and supernatural in Christianity? Not only should we accept the manifestations of a supernatural God in his dealings with men, but we should cry out for forgiveness for ever having doubted him.

The passage of the body of our risen Lord through closed doors is a phenomenon to be accepted without question. His miraculous acts were perfectly natural and easy reflections of his eternally majestic personality.

Einstein propounded theoretical formulae which were demonstrated to be correct and in some cases scientists have looked back and marveled that they themselves had not thought of them, because, after confirmation they seemed so normal and right.

How much more should the Christian, by faith, grasp the eternal and unchanging verities which are given by divine revelation! The tragic fact is that some day, as we look back from the vantage point of eternity, many of us will realize what fools we have been. Accepting that which man can accomplish, and glorying in his achievements, many who now ignore the eternal Son of God will gnash their teeth that His truth was placed in their hands—AND THEY REJECTED IT.

Liberal theology, so aware of and subservient to modern scientific achievement, will have much to answer for wherever and however it has rejected the supernatural and the miraculous in the Christian faith. The apostle Peter, speaking of his experience on the Mount of Transfiguration, and blending it with the glories of the future says: “For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty … We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts” (2 Pet. 1:16, 19).

Einstein jolted science and led it into new fields of discovery. We will be more than wise if we take the Holy Bible and study it to see what God has to say about the relativity of man to his God. We all need a jolt—a realization of the bewildering and awe-inspiring fact that the God with whom we have to do is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent.

The three disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration were bewildered and frightened by that which they saw and heard—supernatural manifestations of men long since dead, and they were moved to accord to them some form of equality with the transfigured Christ.

At that instant there came a voice from heaven saying: “This is my beloved Son … hear ye HIM.”

Nineteen centuries ago the apostle Peter, a rough, unlearned fisherman with a gloriously transforming experience with the living Christ, wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:10–12).

Einstein advanced a revolutionary hypothesis which science tested and acted upon with amazing results. Has not God opened up to us vistas of the lost dimension of man and God and eternity? Omitting the spiritual implications of Peter’s prophecy, it could well have been made in Los Alamos, or Oak Ridge—certainly the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki experienced its devastating reality on a limited scale.

In all of the bewildering achievements of science and the discoveries of laws and factors hitherto unsuspected, we must keep our perspectives straight. Some day we will see with our eyes, hear with our ears and experience in reality things but dimly revealed at the present time. Our constant attitude should be: WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE, and—we have many glimpses of this at hand in Holy Writ. Einstein was a scientific genius. The humblest Christian can become a Spirit-directed power if he will but accept the wisdom which cometh down from above.

L. NELSON BELL

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