Scientific Proof of God’s Love for His People
The year was 1905. This was to be a very special year for science, and in particular for a young Jewish patent clerk from Bern in Switzerland who went by the name of Albert Einstein. This phenomenal young man published no less than four scientific papers in this year, one of which was on the topic of Special Relativity. These four papers were instrumental in starting a golden era in physics.
But this theory, which is one of the most accurately and well tested scientific theories of all times, had some very special theological implications. For you see, the nation of Israel was about face a new scientific discovery that would turn out to be a massive theological crisis, they were in serious danger of being abandoned by God…at least according to the science and theology of the day.
Jer 31:37 Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.
The problem was that physicist was on the verge of measuring exactly the size of the universe, and as it is clearly stated in Jer 31:37, this would also mark the day that God will ‘cast off all the seed of Israel’.
The Big-Bang and a not-so-infinite Universe
This fateful day nearly came about in 1927 when a man by the name of Edwin Hubble discovered that our universe is actually much, much bigger than just the Milky Way (the galaxy of which we are part of). In fact there were billions of other galaxies out there, many much bigger than our own. At the time it was thought that we were a lonely speck floating around in an infinite universe which existed without beginning or end.
Hubble also went on to prove that everything in space is moving away from everything else. He postulated that, since everything is moving away from each other, they had to be closer together in the past. In fact, everything might even have started from the same point in space…and so was born the Big Bang.
The theory of the Big Bang ruffled quite a few feathers of people from all walks of life. Christians were all upset because it appeared as if the universe might be much older than 10 000 years. But this was NOTHING compared to the problems that astronomers now faced, suddenly the universe had a beginning, which means that the universe also had to have a Creator… Einstein was one of the people who was very unimpressed with the concept of the Big Bang as he preferred a static, infinite universe where there was no need for a Creator-God. To this day, astronomers and physicists have not been able to explain away the need for a Creator-God and the evidence for a Creator just keeps on piling up from all disciplines of science.
But we digress, let’s get back to the other major implication of Hubble’s finding. Not only did the universe have a specific beginning, it also was not infinite in size as everyone previously thought. In fact, it would only be a matter of time before scientists would be able to detect and measure exactly how big our universe is.
Hubble’s measurements suggested a theory wherein the universe is expanding outward, but it should also be slowing down due to the effect of the gravity from all the ‘stuff’ in the universe. Various physicists speculated whether the universe would one day stop expanding and reverse direction and end in a Big Crunch. Other speculated that the universe does not have enough ‘stuff’ in it and will forever expand. In either case the theological problem for the nation of Israel remained.
For the rest of the 20th century measurements of the size of the universe got more and more accurate as our telescopes became more and more powerful. It started appearing as if God made a massive mistake. Could it be that science would forever banish the Israelites away from God by measuring the size of the universe accurately? Would this be the final death-knell for the Bible? Was the Bible about to be proven unreliable?
Dark Energy
But God was not about to have a fool made of Himself. In 1998 a team of scientists from France set out to measure exactly how much the expansion of the universe was slowing down. By measuring this parameter accurately, they would be able to determine exactly how big the universe is, among other things. And then came one of the most unexpected discoveries of our time.
Our universe’s expansion was not slowing down, it was in fact accelerating! It turned out that there was some kind of unknown energy that is inherent in space itself and it is slowly pushing on everything. Everything was moving away from everything else at an ever increasing rate. This energy is so mysterious and strange that it was called ‘Dark Energy’.
The discovery of Dark Energy also had some significant implications for those trying to figure out how big our universe is. Suddenly all our theories and assumptions used to calculate the size of the universe was proven to be incorrect. Those stars and galaxies that are the furthest away from us are being accelerated away from us at a massive rate. In fact, it can be shown mathematically that those stars and galaxies are moving away from us at speeds in excess of the speed of light!
The cosmic speed-limit
So what, you may ask. Well, let’s have a quick look at one of the findings of the Theory of Special Relativity that the young Jewish patent clerk from Bern came up with. His theory stated that nothing can be accelerated to move beyond the speed of light. Thus, any object moving away from you at faster than the speed of light effectively becomes completely and utterly unreachable, it effectively disappears from your realm of existence. (If you are now utterly confused, see the resources at the end of the article). This means that we would never, ever be able to see those stars that are beyond a certain distance from earth. It is important to realise that this is not simply due to a shortcoming in our technology which we may one day overcome, these are the fundamental laws of nature. IT IS PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE to see or reach those stars at the farthest end of the universe, because they are moving away from us faster than the speed of light. In fact, this simple fact means we will can’t even be sure whether the universe is infinite or not, never mind measuring its size.
The long and the short of the story is that the laws of physics effectively state that it is physically impossible to measure the size of the universe! Let’s read that Bible verse again:
Jer 31:37 Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.
To recap, it turns out that the heavens above CANNOT be measured. It is physically impossible. The laws of nature does not allow it no matter how technologically advanced we become. In spite of our own self-importance, Israel was never in any danger of being abandoned by our loving God.
For you see, there is no end to the loving-kindness and mercy of our Creator-God toward His people. In fact God uses this very same law of nature to illustrate exactly this point in Ps 103:11
Psa 103:11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
How great is His mercy? Space (or the heavens as the Bible calls it) is so big and is growing bigger so fast that we will never ever be able to see or reach the end thereof because of a beautiful law of nature that is described by Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity.
Some background information:
Albert Einstein’s Annus Mirabilis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein#1905_.E2.80.93_Annus_Mirabilis_papers
http://www.einstein-online.info/elementary/specialRT
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_relativity
How is it possible for galaxies and stars to move away from us at more than the speed of light, if nothing can move faster than the speed of light?
http://www.universetoday.com/122768/how-are-galaxies-moving-away-faster-than-light/
Dark Energy
http://www.space.com/20929-dark-energy.html
http://www.reasons.org/articles/rtb-s-dark-energy-articles
How big is our Universe?
“Because we cannot observe space beyond the edge of the observable universe, it is unknown whether the size of the Universe is finite or infinite.” – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe#Size_and_regions