From Creation to Eternity

Prefacing today with some scientific information, and I certainly do not profess to be a competent scientist. I took physics in high school. Basically I didn’t know very much of what was going on there. The truth is they passed me, I think maybe partly to get rid of me. And I left science alone when I was going through college. And of course seminary doesn’t require it. But in recent years I’ve been trying to bring myself up to date on what is going on in the world of physics, particularly as it relates to creation and the universe and so on.

The information that I will be citing at various points today is all found in a book that has been published this year called The Elegant Universe. Its subtitle is a little obscure to us to read it: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory. The author is a man named Brian Greene who is a professor at Columbia University. He’s a professor of physics and mathematics. And he’s written this book not for specialists but for those of us who are willing to beat our heads against the pages a few times and try to work our way through it.

So if you are interested by anything that I say today on a scientific level and would like to acquire a copy of this book, feel free to come over here and look at it. Take down the data and everything in case you should wish to pursue any of this yourself. But this is a book that you will find in all of the good bookstores. And the author was interviewed on public television by David Gergen, I believe. So he’s a very competent and knowledgeable man in terms of contemporary science.

We will be referring to some things the support of which would necessarily be found in a book like this.

My discussion today is designed to conclude our discussion of the future, particularly as it relates to co-airship with the Lord Jesus Christ. The one area of discussion that we had avoided thus far was the subject of eternity. We had dealt in our last discussion, you remember, with the thousand-year reign, the Millennium as we call it. But we left eternity for another discussion.

And so with your permission I’d like to take you on a very, very quick trip from creation to eternity future. And I want to make a number of points which I think will help us to get a little clearer fix on our destiny as individuals who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ and whose future is with Him forever and forever and forever.

My artwork here, as I have already said to somebody, the table will never make it into the Mellon Art Gallery or any other art gallery for that matter. Feel free to take it home, mash it, don’t tell me about it. But hopefully it will help us through the discussion today. And most of the scriptures that I’ll be referring to are on here. So I would like you to begin with me at Genesis 1:1. And if you don’t mind, take your Bibles on these. These are scriptures worth looking at.

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 waters.

Then follows, as you well know, the account of the creation of the world in seven days.

Now based on the passage that we read from Isaiah, one way of thinking about our universe, the heavens and so on, is to visualize that it’s a great big tent. Remember the verses that we read in Isaiah 40. He spreads the heavens out like a curtain and like a tent to dwell in.

And you may have wondered what my big figure here is. But that’s supposed to be a tent with perhaps through which you would enter the tent. And this tent in the foreground represents our universe, the universe that God created in Genesis according to Genesis 1:1 and 2.

Now all of you know that the universe in which we live has been discovered to be a truly huge universe. And even though you know that, the figures are mind-boggling. Notice on my diagram here I have arrows reaching from one side to the other. And I labeled them 15 billion light years.

Now if you will understand, of course, that our universe has three dimensions, height, width, depth, the present scientific idea is that the length of the universe in each of these three directions is 15 billion light years. 15 billion light years up and down. 15 billion light years across. 15 billion light years in that direction.

Now notice in the parentheses here underneath that I’ve mentioned the fact that one light year equals 6 trillion miles. And in case you’re a little vague about the value of a trillion, which I am, I have a little note down here. One trillion is the figure that I’ve written down here. It’s a 1 in front of 12 zeros. So one light year is 6 trillion miles. That’s how far light would travel in a year.

Now you take the 6 trillion miles and multiply it by 15 billion light years. And the distance in miles from one side of the universe to the other, it turns out to be 90 billion trillion miles. 90 billion trillion. It really is staggering.

So we have an immense universe here. And in this huge universe there’s a little tiny ball. I mean really tiny. This is planet Earth. We live on this planet. And this is where Christ came to live and to die for us. Out of the humongous universe.

All right. Now turn to Genesis 3:1.

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Has God indeed said, “You shall not eat of every tree of the garden”?’

Now if when we had only the book of Genesis we would understand that God had made a serpent, right? But with the rest of the Bible in our hands we understand that the one speaking through this serpent is another being whom we know as the devil and Satan.

We also know that God created an uncounted number of angelic beings. Ten thousand times ten thousand. Quite a revelation. And thousands of thousands. And yet in Genesis chapter 3 we suddenly meet one of these beings in the background, of course.

And the question that naturally arises in our minds is, when were they made? Right? I mean here thinking already is, when did God make Satan? When did he fall? When did the angels come into existence?

Now that brings us down to Job. Turn to the book of Job, verse 6.

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. And Satan also came among them.

Notice the term “sons of God.” This sounds as if it’s a way of referring to the angels. And Satan comes in the midst. And angels are gathered before God. And then Satan comes into their midst.

Turn over to chapter 2 and verse 1. Look across the page. It may be in your Bible.

And there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. And Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.

Again the term “sons of God” appears to be a reference to angelic beings.

Now turn to Job chapter 38. Chapter 38. We have God in the midst of his response to Job. Notice 38:1. “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said.” Now let’s read verses 4 to 7. He’s saying this to Job.

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know. Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Notice the reference here to the sons of God shouting for joy when God laid the foundations of the earth.

It is possible to draw from this scripture the conclusion, it’s perhaps not the only way of understanding it, but it is possible to draw from this scripture the conclusion that at the time, if this scripture goes back to Genesis 1:1 and to that, at that time as God began to create the heavens and the earth and laid the foundation of the earth, that the angels were already present. And when he laid the foundation of the earth they shouted for joy at the greatness of the operation that God was undertaking.

That would imply that the angels existed before the universe in which we live. Are you with me at this point? That implies that, well I don’t know that we have a statement that is airtight in Scripture that we could say makes it airtight. But we notice that Satan is already around in Genesis 3. He came from somewhere. And the sons of God are already around when God lays the foundations of the earth.

And therefore it seems quite possible that the angels existed before our universe existed.

That leads to an idea which now is floating in scientific circles and which is discussed by this writer. That our universe may not be the only universe. Therein let me repeat that. That our universe, the one that God created when he created the heavens and the earth, may not be the only universe that there is. And the possibility is considered open by the scientists that there may be an enormous number of other universes.

Now I don’t know. A lot of you probably don’t read science fiction as much as I do. But if you’ve been reading science fiction over the last number of years you will know that an idea that’s crept into science fiction is what is called the multiverse. The universe of course means one cosmos or our universe. Multiverse means many.

Now the scientists realize that they don’t have any scientific proof of this. And there are various reasons why they are speculating along those lines. But they don’t have any scientific proof. But they don’t have anything to disprove it either. And they recognize the fact that if there are other universes the physical laws within these universes might be quite different from the physical laws that operate in our universe.

Another way of saying this is that we could accommodate within the scriptural presentation the thought that before our universe was created there was already a large number of universes inhabited by the angels and who knows what other creatures also.

But basically we can fit into the Bible the idea of a multiverse. We can’t prove it from the Bible. But neither can we exclude it from the information that the Bible gives us. Are you with me so far?

So God creates the heavens and the earth, our universe in which we now live. And we know from Ephesians that the angels watch the things that go on in the church. It may well be that we could think of our universe as a kind of a stage. And all the other universes, as many as there might be, obtaining the spectators of the drama that is playing out in our universe and down on this little tiny ball that we call planet Earth.

We do know that the angels were present when God laid the foundations of the earth. We do know from Ephesians chapter 3 that they learn from the church the manifold wisdom of God.

I’ve always felt it a very compelling thought to say, no matter whether we think of a multiverse or not, that we’re on stage. All of us are on stage. We are engaged and caught up in the greatest drama of history. A drama at which the Lord Jesus Christ stands at the center. And we’re the people who worship him in the midst of a world that doesn’t recognize him and doesn’t know him. And the angels are watching the way we do it.

One of the reasons that women are to have their heads covered when they pray or prophesy is because of the angels. We are not alone in this universe. I’m sure we all know that. And neither are we unobserved by what goes on in this universe.

Do you remember that when the women came to the tomb of Jesus and they were perplexed by his absence there, the angels said, “He’s not here. He’s risen. Don’t you remember how he told you this?” The angels remembered it. But the people didn’t. So the angels were observers of all this.

Now however we also know that our universe is headed for destruction. Right? Look at the bottom of your page. We start with creation of course, Genesis 1:1 and 2. After several thousand years Christ comes to earth and dies on the cross. And then after a period of time, we don’t know how long, the rapture will take place in which the Lord Jesus Christ will catch us up.

And there will be a seven-year period. We’ve discussed all this. And then the Lord will come to earth to establish his kingdom and reign on the present earth for a thousand years. Okay. This is all the material that we have covered.

But now after the thousand years are over a dramatic change occurs. Turn to 2nd Peter chapter 3.

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?

Now turn also to Revelation 21.

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.

So at this point we have entered into eternity in the book of Revelation. And we are talking about the new heaven and the new earth.

Now you will notice that just to the right of my burning world here, that by the way there were some guesses of what the world’s circle represented and the little line in the background supposed to represent the heavens and everything’s on fire and being destroyed. Just to the right of this I have an arrow drawn with a question mark here.

Because now we come to the interesting subject of black holes in space. And I have secured the gracious cooperation of Lewis and fellows and a little demonstration that I would like to use here. So let me get them. You can lay that down till I come over there. Thank you.

A black hole is a distortion in space. Kind of what we might call a hole in space. And when matter falls into a black hole it’s trapped in there. Even light can’t escape from a black hole. And you will notice that my black hole which looks like an ice-cream cone or a chicken drumstick or something here, it gets narrower and narrower down at the bottom. And if matter falls in there it goes all the way down. And this it becomes very greatly compressed according to the scientists to the microscopic, very, very microscopic level.

Now to understand what’s going on here we need this demonstration. And that means, see if I can get up here with Lewis and fellows. We’ve been accustomed to thinking of space as empty. But one of the discoveries of physics is that space is not empty. We could perhaps describe space as having a kind of a very thin fabric. Or we could describe it as having a force field. But it’s not empty space.

Now this has changed our whole concept of gravity. Because the previous idea of gravity was that the sun for example sent out some kind of gravity waves and held onto the earth and made the earth go around it. But that’s not true.

Actually what gravity is, is the effect of the warping of the material in space. Now you will notice the limitations of this illustration because this is really a kind of a two-dimensional thing. Right? We’ve got an infant and breadth but we don’t have depth here. So I’m going to ask you to use your imagination and imagine that there are 500 more handkerchiefs underneath it so that we could go right down into it. In other words we’ve got a cube, a handkerchief cube here.

Right now what happens in space is that when mass bodies that have mass move through space they cause a warping of space. I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen. This is a pretty heavy battery that I have here. Notice what happened there. Hold tightly folks. A warp has been created in space like that.

Now that’s the most that this is. The sun has created this big old warp in space. And then here’s the earth, a nickel. The earth is rolling around in the curvature like that. It’s not energy that the sun extends from itself to the earth. It’s the curvature of space. That’s one of the discoveries of modern science and one of the brilliant insights really of Albert Einstein which has been developed since his time.

So you can see that a body with mass with the kind of dense content that space has is going to create these warpings of space.

Now let’s suppose, hold tight folks, let’s suppose that this is really, really heavy. And I would go down, down, down, down, down, down, down. I will create a black hole there. Right?

Now one of the things that modern scientists think is possible is that the so-called big bang that they think started our universe was the explosion of matter that had been very deeply compressed into a black hole. And the pressure and heat and everything was so intense, boom. Of course this is a fantastic idea without the intervention of God. But it could represent something close to the way in which God Himself did this. Thank you.

Why is this relevant? For this reason. Let’s say that the scientists are right here. And this black hole is where our universe was before God created the heavens and the earth. That it was in the midst of the multiverse out here. Big old area of space. And that the material out of which our universe was made is compressed down to microscopic level in here.

How did that happen? It is possible that the universe as we now know it once existed in another form. And as many Bible scholars and students have suggested that it may have been the abode of Satan himself. Remember that there’s a passage in the Old Testament prophets that speaks of Satan being in the Eden of God. When that Eden is described it’s not described in terms quite different from the Eden in which the man and the woman appear.

So there is a possibility, I can’t say that this is absolutely the case, it is a possibility that God judged the previous universe after the fall of Satan. Collapsed into a black hole. And then in Genesis 1:1 and 2 you read His creative power blew it out into space and formed all of the stars and galaxies and planets and asteroids and everything.

And one of the things that modern physics is discovering is that every part of the universe has a contribution to make to the universe.

Now when God destroys the earth again as described in 2nd Peter chapter 3 it is possible that our universe will collapse back into a black hole. Everything is dissolved. If you notice Peter’s description everything melts. So we can imagine it. You know how things become when fire gets them. They kind of run together.

And so if you can imagine this, the universe gets on fire and kind of melts and dissolves and goes back into a black hole. And then, plot, well there, explosion, poof. God creates new heavens and a new earth which is to be eternal. No more black holes for this universe.

Now that leads us to consider therefore the new world that will emerge from God’s recreation of the old heavens and earth. Whatever the methodology is, we do have some information about the new heavens and the new earth.

Go back to your Bibles and look at chapter 21. Verse, we’ll pick up at verse 3 I think.

Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. And God Himself will be with them and be their God.’

One of the most amazing statements of Scripture. When we talk about eternity we talk about going to live with God. It would be better in the light of this Scripture to talk about God coming to live with us on the new earth in the midst of the new heaven.

The tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them. They shall be his people. He will be their God.

Then we go on with, and we should read verse 4.

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.

Now we have a description of the new city. Come all the way down to verse 24 of chapter 21. Let’s pick up the reading at verse 23 however.

And the city, this is the New Jerusalem, had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. And the Lamb is its light. And the nations of those who are saved, if you have a New King James Version there’s a little note here. It’s suggesting that maybe the words “of those who are saved” are not appropriate. Doesn’t make much difference. And I’m going to read it without it.

And the nations shall walk in its light. And the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day. There shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

This leads me to my last point before I try to wrap it up. When we read the verses we have just read our impression is that in the new earth there will be nations ruled over by kings just like there have been in the old. Would you agree with that much of it?

Then the question is, who are these nations? Well our instinct tells us to think of them as people who have been born again. I think that’s correct. But as people who have been transformed into the type of resurrection body that the Lord Jesus Christ had. We know that that is our destiny as Christians. Right? We’re waiting for our Savior from heaven who will change our vile body so that it is like His glorious body.

But nothing is said here to that effect. Let me make a suggestion. Therefore the nations that are mentioned here are said to be served by the leaves of the tree of life that grows in the city. In fact the word “healing” is used here. Although there won’t be sickness in quite the same way that we have it today. There won’t be any pain. There won’t be any crying.

If we think back to the Garden of Eden and to Adam and Eve let me ask some questions here. And maybe we’ll get some men to respond. Suppose Adam and Eve had not sinned. Would they have needed to continue to eat to stay alive? I would think so. In fact even after they fell they ate of the tree of life that they would live forever. Jesus says so. He banishes them from that.

What do you think would have happened if Adam had kind of been loping through the garden and he tripped over a log? I don’t know whether in the Garden of Eden he tripped over the garden of Eden and skinned his knee. Is it possible that the knee might have been injured? I think so. No pain probably. Maybe some blood. Remember these are not super people. Right? These are human beings. They don’t have any sin in them. But they have normal bodies. Though they need to eat. They could have accidents. Things like that.

So what we have pictured for us in the new earth is food for people and leaves for their, the word that is used here for healing is the one from which we get our English word therapy or therapy.

Now there’s no pain here. But it’s possible if we have actual human beings on earth that they will have accidents. That they’ll skin their knees or maybe a little worse than that. It won’t be painful. But then they’ll need a leaf to put on the wound. Are you following me?

It seems possible, please understand I’m saying that this seems possible, that the nations that will dwell in the new earth, we will dwell there too of course, maybe human beings like Adam and Eve who have no sin. Where would they come from? That’s where this comes in.

Notice at the bottom with my long line there I have some people who look like they’re walking off of the thousand years. And I have an arrow going back to the thousand years. These are saved people who come to the end of the thousand years. And if there are human beings they will go into the new earth as human beings with kings over them. Maybe the glorified people will be the kings. I don’t know.

But when you stop to think of it two things argue very powerfully that God has a future for human beings with the basic makeup of Adam and Eve. Number one, when God created the earth in the first place including the man and the woman what did He say about it? It was very good.

Our theology often tells us there’re never going to be any more human beings like Adam and Eve. Why not? They were very good. Right? They were very good.

If there are human beings like Adam they will be able to do something that glorified human beings will not be able to do. Which is what? Well I’m contrasting them now to us who will have resurrection bodies. What can we not do in the future? Reproduction. Jesus says they neither marry nor are given in marriage. Once you have a resurrection body type there is no reproduction. Right? No marriage in the sense that we understand it on earth.

But if there are human beings like Adam and Eve who go into the eternal earth they will be able to reproduce. There will be no infant mortality. There will be a rapid multiplication of human beings. Even though the new earth, you notice a new earth has no sea. Apparently the entire area of the earth will be inhabitable in the new earth.

But even after a reasonable number of thousands of years there’ll be too many people. What do they do? Science fiction. They begin to populate this enormous, enormous, enormous universe in which we live.

This is now. Scientists today do not know whether there are any other planets anywhere in the universe that can support life in the way that earth does. They don’t know that there are not. But they don’t know that there are.

But now we’re not, it’s irrelevant as to whether there are or are not in the present universe. But in the new heavens and new earth there could be millions of planets that can sustain human life.

And you, the Star Trek story, you know the Enterprise is to search out new worlds and to boldly go where man has never gone before. You know the famous line from Star Trek. It’s quite conceivable that man will truly do that.

Now let me try to bring this down and boil it down and bring this to a conclusion so we can have a little time for questions. Here’s a way I like to imagine it. Let’s suppose that the Lord finds me sufficiently faithful that he can give me a city to rule over. And maybe he’s very good to me. Gives me Cincinnati, Ohio.

And on the side I would say one of the things that I will do in Cincinnati, Ohio is revive the Cincinnati Reds. And if Mike has San Francisco maybe he revives the San Francisco Giants. And we’ll trade with each other and hopefully have good teams as a result.

But after a while Cincinnati is getting crowded even if we spread out through all the suburban areas. And maybe therefore a command comes down from the King of kings who dwells in Jerusalem. And he says it’s time for Cincinnati to establish a colony in outer space. And he says, “Zane this is your city. Organize it.”

And there’s a spaceship being constructed for this purpose. After all these are ordinary human beings that are going to go there. I may ride with them. I may not need to ride with them in my new body. But out they ride with them.

So we get a spaceship. We get volunteers from the city of Cincinnati. Husbands and wives and maybe kids. And we go to some planet that’s far beyond the galaxy in which we live. Way, way out of the perimeters of, you know, maybe 55 trillion billion miles, billion trillion miles, whichever way it is. And we start a colony there.

And as eternity goes the colony multiplies. More people come maybe from other cities also. And after a while that colony needs to spread out. Who? They go to another planet. And all of this amazing, astounding operation is under the governance of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Everything that happens in the universe will be under his control. And all those who have been faithful to him will share in the governmental duties and responsibilities that will go with that.

Now I’m not trying to tell you that my image of this scenario is exactly how it will be. I have a feeling that I’ve missed a lot of points here that will actually take place. And it’ll be much, much better than anything I’ve described.

My feeling is that we are headed into an eternity that is so fabulous, so amazing, so free that when we look back at the few years we spent on earth we would say that the only value they had was they brought me into contact with the Lord Jesus Christ and taught me how to serve him and live for him. But outside of that that’s nothing.

Even though I’m a science fiction reader I’ve read a lot of science fiction books. I love them. But I’m always kind of thinking when I’m reading a science fiction book now where the universe has been populated by human beings and all of the planets. There’s a huge empire there. And you know I’m thinking when I read it something like that is probably going to be true. And the Emperor will be Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

Now when we think of that kind of a future we are staggered by the greatness of God. Are we not? I mean even if we use up the universe, the tent in which we live now, there are all these other universes. And the scientists now think that maybe the universes are continually being made from black hole explosions. So this could go on forever and forever and forever and forever.

And this great God who has this great future in mind, please understand this, he became a man. And he came down to this little ball that we live on. And he entered into an experience like we have. And he died for us. And by his death he makes possible a future like this.

I think I have under-described it. I think I haven’t given it the elegance that it ought to have. That all of this is made possible because the Creator who fills all things was born as a baby in Bethlehem and died as a criminal.

Well that’s all.

Are you staggered by that? I know I am. That’s why we’re here today, isn’t it? To remember what he did for us. And to try to put His condescension, His humility, His sacrifice into the context of a future that is so amazing that we can only begin to press against the outline of it. We have no concept of how vast it is.

Peter says, “Seeing therefore that we look for such things, what sort of persons ought we to be in all holy conduct and godliness?”

I think the songwriter has put it pretty well.

O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds thy hands have made. I see the stars. I hear the rolling thunder. Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee, How great thou art.

And when I think that God his Son not sparing sent him to die, I scarce can take it in. That on the cross my burden gladly bearing he took away my sin.

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee, How great thou art.

How great thou art.

Then sings my soul, I say there’s our Tuesday. How great thou art.