A COSMIC MYSTERY! |
Well, today brings us to a new broadcast weekend, and always offers us a time for us to consider a new topic to explore and exam in the light of God's Word. Our subject today is therefore appropriate as we are going to explore perhaps the most mind-boggling news we could ever hear these days. Sound interesting? I hope so for after we pause, we are going to reach for the stars and learn some important truths about God, and our place in His plans for the universe, and what is going on these days there.
Back in the early part of October 1995, two independent teams of astronomers came upon what might be this centuries most fantastic find. One team, one night, in the San Jose mountains of California, were star gazing through a powerful telescope at Lick Observatory, and suddenly saw a most amazing thing occur. A star named 51 Pegasus, that shines about 40 light-years from Earth, revealed a slight wobble in its movement. Quickly Dr. Geoffrey Marcy of San Francisco State University took note and trained his attention to this phenomena. He speculated such a wobble in a star's movement meant only one thing! A gravitational pull and tug had been made upon it by some orbiting object, that could be nothing less than an actual planet. At almost the same time Swiss astronomers Michael Mayer and Dider Queloz on the other side of the world, both saw the same thing. (1) By using what calculations they had, the came up with the identical conclusion. A new planet had been discovered outside our solar system! This fantastic discovery may be the an astronomers find of this century, perhaps many centuries. You see, to date there has been no evidence of any existence of planets outside our solar system. None whatsoever! Yet, here is mounting evidence a planet possibly exists orbiting 51 Pegasus! This astounding find opens for many new possibilities of thought in the world of philosophy, not to mention rethinking some popular theology held these days.
Once this news of a new planet being discovered surfaced, George Gatewood of the University of Pittsburgh said, "I'd like to yell, yes! But I've seen these things fall by the wayside,... the byways are littered with the corpses of (alleged) planetary systems"(2). It appears not everyone is rejoicing in this mind boggling find. Some scientists remain skeptical of this new discovery. Yet this finding does open the possibility of serious thought about the fact that this new planet, half the mass of Jupiter orbiting the star 51 Pegasus in another solar system, should cause everyone to think.
First, for those who adhere to thoughts of evolutionary origins, their hopes are raised that life exists outside our planet. Not so much on this newly discovered planet, for calculations tend to show it orbits its sun, 51 Pegasus at a distance of only 5 million miles away. This means the temperature on this planet averages on a balmy and mild day about 1,800 degree! A bit too hot for any life as we know it to exist there. Now earth is 93 million miles from our sun, which is precisely the exact distance to allow for life to exist. But still evolutionists say, with the billions of solar systems existing in the universe, and if life evolved on one planet in our solar system, then the billions of changes of it evolving on another planet in another solar system is great and plausible! To this we of the Creation party must say that is indeed a plausible response! But note the key word -- "if." For today there is no plausible proof even in our own solar system, not to mention our own planet, that our life is the product of evolution! On the contrary, there is much tangible evidence our very life and existence, alone in our solar system, came about by the placement hand of a mighty omnipotent Creator!
Yet as Christians, we must begin thinking or maybe rethinking our theologies of life and God's work of placing it here. Could there be life on other planets? If so, what does that mean to our teachings of God's dealings with us? Are we the only life that He has created in the universe? Well, we don't have to look far for the Bible tells us and we read in,
Isaiah 45:11-12 NIV "This is what the LORD says-- the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: Concerning things to come, do you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands? {12} It is I who made the earth and created mankind upon it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts."Psalm 33:6 NIV "By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth... 8 Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the people of the world revere him. 9 For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm."
Yes, the Bible tells us that what we see when we gaze at the stars is all the fingerprint of His handiwork, the product of His omnipotent Creation. Yes, all that we see is there not by chance, or some random evolutionary process - but by a fiat creation out of nothing -- God indeed brought it forth. Now, Job learned this from God Himself and declared,
Job 26:7-13 NIV " [It is God] who spreads out the northern <skies> over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing... 11 The pillars of the heavens quake, aghast at his rebuke... 13 By his breath the skies became fair; his hand pierced the gliding serpent."
Paul the apostle learned this from God and wrote in His epistle to the Romans,
Rom 1:20 NIV "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." So, this newly discovered planet is but a fantasy sized helping of mind-boggling news and truth when it comes to learning about God! "Yet, every bit of discovery we find sends the imagination spinning through the immensities of outer space, and puts our life on earth in a humbling perspective."
Now today many Christians are worried about discoveries such as this. They fear that if life does exist outside our planet, then all that they know about God, redemption, man's existence and relationship to God, is in jeopardy. However, may I as a Christian minister allay all those fears?
First of all, God's Word does not stand or fall on what is found in the creation, whether it be on our planet or any other that may exist in our universe. And, the vote is still out whether this finding of sorts is really the evidence of a newly found planet anyway. For, many scientists say all the data gathered so far only points to the extrapolation of concluding there is a planet orbiting 51 Pegasus, not tangible proof, since we cannot see it. So, at this point it is still purely speculative, remember that. Secondly, even if it is true, that doesn't mean life exists anywhere else in our universe. We have many other planets in our solar system and life as we know it simply cannot exist on them. We have discovered that our life on this planet is very fragile, for it requires a very complex combination of environmental factors to exist. For instance, an abundance of water is absolutely needed, along with many complex chemicals, and an atmosphere to house it and replenish it. The truth is, there is no evidence anywhere that other planets have such a perfect combination to support life. Earth is, for all we know, alone in the billions of galaxies of space and time.
Now the reason so many are gleeful at this find is not purely for scientific reasons. The other side of the origins theory of the beginnings of life, wishfully searches for any evidence that life evolved, to support its crippled and dying theory. To date whether you know it or not, scientifically evolution is a dead horse that has been ridden into the ground where it lies in heap of ashes. Oh, you are not told that because and simply there is no other alternative to present that there is no God who has created all things and has the right to rule our lives. So the dead and ridiculous theory of evolution rides on in the ghostly image of truth, and unfortunately believed by millions.
Now, let's do some exploring of thought ourselves. If we are the only life to exist in the Universe, then why did God make the billions and billions of stars and possible planetary solar systems out there? Well for one reason the Bible tells us they exist for us to see the marvel, power and immensity of the God who created us all, and to realize that God is indeed there and over all. We read in,
Rom 1:20 NIV "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."Psalm 19:1-2 NIV "... The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. {2} Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. "
Then again, another reason may lie ahead of us as to why God made all the other heavenly bodies. The Bible tells us that man is made in the image of God and He has put eternity in our hearts (Ecc. 3:11). We are told in Scripture that for those who seek the one true God and return to Him through Jesus Christ - an endless eternity of joyous existence awaits them. Even though for the moment the obvious function of the stars is just to cause us to acknowledge God and His greatness, it may well be they are awaiting a more fantastic purpose for man in eternity and the ages to come. When God has completed His redemptive work, He may have planned that man will have the joy of exploring the stars, the endless galaxies, and the billions of light years of time and space, to find wonders more beautiful than even the recent Hubble Space telescopes rendering of those marvelous "fingers of space," news magazines showed us that seems to still be hurtling new stars into space! (3)
Yes, God is magnificent when you think that right here on a "small planet circling a minor sun in a backwater galaxy of the universe," God chose to create life in His image. To make mankind so that we could be His companion for the ages to come. That boggles my mind, and should yours as well. Yet, should we find more planets and perhaps even find one that might be suitable for life as we know it -- it wouldn't change our theology. For we remember that God chose earth among the uncounted billions of heavenly bodies, to be the place of His greatest act of love and accomplishment. Here God chose Himself to become a man, and to enter the human race for all eternity. Therefore regardless of what other life He may have or may not have created, we are assured of God's special interest and proven love. Moreover, it appears from a number of Scriptures that we are indeed the only creation apart from the angelic world. We read in,
John 3:13 NIV "No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven--the Son of Man."1 John 4:9 NIV "This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him."
In fact as I read God's Word I find that it may well be conclusive that all that exists in the universe - our sun, moon, the planets of our solar system and the billions of stars and galaxies were made exclusively for mankind's joy and wonderment. That should be enough for any of us to "bow the knee," and worship the one true God. Why the Psalmist came to this conclusion when pondering the stars one night and so wrote,
Psalm 8:3-9 NIV "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, {4} what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? {5} You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. {6} You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: {7} all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, {8} the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. {9} O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"
Indeed I am speechless .... Yes, God is the author of all, and this new discovery of a possible planet outside our own solar system orbiting the star 51 Pegasus is a wonderful find indeed, but it proves nothing of life anywhere else in our universe, not to mention if there, that it evolved. Friend, God nor His Word can ever been shaken by any findings of men. Even if life, intelligent life existed outside our own, we know it would be the creation of God. In fact, know this there is extra-terrestrial life out there already! The Bible says that God created the trillions and billions of beings called angels, who are living intelligent beings who exist in spirit form. For all we know they live on the stars in the galaxies. Much Scripture points to the fact that the stars in Scripture have an amazing relationship to God's angelic hosts, far beyond any poetic imagery. However, we'll leave such speculations to others.
Right now, we must draw this to a conclusion. This newly discovered planet should bring rejoicing to Christians to know God's plans far exceed our human understanding and knowledge. Our deep desire to explore the earth and even outer space points to the fact that man indeed has eternity in his heart, put there by God Himself (Ecc.3:11). Yes, we are all planned by God to be created creatures living on into eternity with Him. However the bad news is the multitudes of created beings, called man, will not live on with God in eternity. They will exist in eternity but separated from God, and suffering for their wicked sin of rejecting God's great goodness of redemption through Jesus Christ. You see, man is as the Bible says "without excuse." As one looks out at the stars at night, especially the fantastic photos we now have of space, we should all drop to our knees and declare - there is a God who made us, and His magnificence is worthy of all our adoration and love, for He has demonstrated that love for us as the Scripture says,
Rom 5:8 NIV "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ [came] and died for us."John 1:10-12 NIV "He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. {11} He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. {12} Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name,he gave the right to become children of God.."
Friend look out there, anywhere, the glistening hillsides in the wintry snow, or the flowery fields of a summer's day -- all point to God's handiwork and power. I trust you have yielded your heart to this Creator who loves you enough to offer you reconciliation - for your sins and separation from His presence. Come my friend, seek the Lord while He may be found, and the beauty of His presence and power will be yours for all eternity. Put your trust and faith now, and alone in Jesus Christ, the infinite God-man who is our Creator of all, and you will one day reach the stars and who knows, perhaps inhabit and explore them for all eternity with God's blessing and joy. For that I await the majesty of His power and coming presence. Amen.
Billions of galaxies and more billions of stars -- they all exist out there with a lot more than we can ever know. As God allows us to see a minuscule glimpse into His greatness, would to God it leads us to see Him more clearly through His Word, and to answer His call. Jesus still says to you and me today,
Mat 11:28 NIV "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."John 14:1-3 Paraphrased "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God ; by believing in me. {2} In my Father's abode and existence, there is an eternity that awaits you; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a special place for you there. {3} And if I go and prepare this place for you, I will assuredly come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I exist for all eternity."
My friend, take hold of these truths, and enter into God's great blessings here and now.
ENDNOTES:
- San Jose Mercury News, Oct. 19, 1995; "Astronomers Say Planet Exists in Other Solar System."
- Chicago Tribune, Thursday, November 16, 1995 "Anyone Home Out There?"
- Newsweek, November 13, 1995, "Witness at Creation."
The World, the Word & You! Broadcast is a non-denominational ministry based on the historic fundamental evangelical interpretation of the Scriptures.A copy of our doctrinal statement is available upon request.These weekly radio commentaries can be heard in selected areas around the nation. Dennis Finnan has been the speaker for 16 years, and serves as General Director. These transcripts are available free of charge to all who desire them. Also available are radio cassette tapes and printed booklets of each message. A free listing of all messages is available upon request also.
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