The speed of light

     The first recorded statement of God in the Bible is, “Let there be light (Gen 1:3)”. The next verses say, “and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day (Gen 1:3b-5)”. This is not only a statement about the beginning of the creation. It sets forth a principle that continues throughout the Bible. Light symbolically represents God, truth, righteousness, and goodness. Darkness represents the devil, sin, deception, and evil. “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all (1John 1:5)." "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life (John 8:12)." Also see John 9:5 and John 12:46.

     The church is also the light of the world. As the body of Christ, the church is the light of the world. A light does not do anyone any good unless it illuminates an area so they can see. People do not put their light sockets under their furniture or behind their walls (Mt 5:15). They strategically place them where they can bring the most light to the room. The people of God need to be witnesses to those around them, so they too can see what God has shown them.

   God meant for His church to be effective in showing God to others so they can know Him too. When we have a consistent relationship with Him, it is to our benefit and the benefit of all with whom we interact (John 15:1-16). Christians can only completely fulfill their destiny in God when they are leading others to Him. If we bury the light, we will lose it (Matthew 25:14-30). The reward is to the producers. While we cannot control the decisions of others, we can do our part by being the salt and light.

     Romans 1:18-32 is a fearful passage about what happens to people who reject the light of God. Those that suppress truth have the wrath of God against them. They know there is a God, but they refuse to acknowledge Him. Their foolish heart is darkened. They give God’s glory to created things instead of the Creator. God gives them over to the sinful desires they have chosen instead of Him. As the downward spiral continues, they eventually become reprobates. Ephesians 4:17-19 describes them as having their understanding darkened, blind, and being past feeling having given themselves over to uncontrolled lust. 1Timothy 4:2 says that their conscience is seared with a hot iron. The phrase “seared with a hot iron” is translated from the Greek word kaustēriazō, which is where we get the word cauterize. When a wound is cauterized, the nerves can no longer feel pain. There is no message going to the brain that something is wrong. The most dangerous place to be is not where we feel shame, guilt or remorse for sin. It is where we no longer feel anything about it. Clinicians call this psychopathy. God wants us to repent and not stubbornly stomp away from Him to where we have crossed a line past which there is no return. If Manasseh (2Chr33) and Paul (Acts 9) could repent, then so can we. It is God’s will (Rom 2:4, 2Tim 2:25, 2Pet 3:9), but is it ours? Sometimes people whp have erred wonder if there is still hope for them. The fact that they are even asking this question shows that their conscience is still at work.

     Within the passage cited above, Romans 1:18-32, there is verse 20, which says, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse”. Hebrews 11:3 says, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear”. The problem is not that God has not given us any evidence of His existence, it is that some people refuse to consider it as such. Like Adam in the garden, the problem is not that God was not present, it was that Adam tried to hide himself in his shame because of his sin (Gen 3:6-10). Adam and Eve made a vain attempt to cover their sin, but only God can resolve this problem (Gen 3:21, Jn 14:6, Acts 4:12). These verses show us that the creation bears evidence of the Creator. Today there is a false dichotomy between faith and science. The only way to do science is if there is a Creator. If there is no Creator, there is no basis for the laws of nature by which we can study creation. If everything is only material, random, and unguided, then how can we study nature? How can we know anything at all? Information only comes from an intelligent source. One of the strongest arguments for the existence of God is the fine-tuning argument. There is abundant evidence throughout all of creation, from the universe to the subatomic level and in between, that everything needed for life requires an immensely precise fine tuning. There are many, many  examples of this, and the odds of just one of them coming about by chance is so remote they are essentially zero. The founders of many branches of science believed this. Here are some examples:

     1. Galileo - astronomy

     2. Newton, Faraday – physics

     3. Mendel – genetics

     4. Kepler, Mather – astronomy

     5. Pasteur, Boyle – chemistry

     6. Linneaus – botany

     7. Steno – geology

     8. Bacon – developed scientific method

     9. Pascal – hydrostatics (barometer)

Many modern PhD scientists also believe this.

     Light not only has spiritual implications, it provides a fascinating study in nature as well. We can learn some things about God through the study of light. It has properties of both a wave and a particle. A wave has characteristics of something immaterial. A wave is generated by something moving through a medium. When you throw a stone into a body of water, it creates waves. The waves are the water reacting to the stone. You can’t go to aisle 3 in the store and buy a wave. Light does not travel in the traditional sense. It doesn’t operate in time the way we do. This is not just a thought experiment like Albert Eistein did. This has been substantiated through experiment and observation. The speed of light had been calculated to be about 186,000 miles per second. A light year is not a measurement of speed, but of distance. It is how far light travels in one year. Einstein showed that the faster someone travels, the slower time passes. He showed that time is not fixed, but relative. He said that space and time are not two separate things but are together. This is seen by clocks moving at different rates at different altitudes. Even the most precise clocks, atomic clocks, do this. This seems hard to understand because this is not how we experience daily life, but knowing this is essential to things we do experience. For example, the satellite GPS in our phones constantly corrects for this or it would not work, and that is just the distance from earth to a satellite. We cannot travel huge astronomical distances or near the speed of light, but if we could, the faster we went, the slower time would pass for us relative to others. Apparently, if we could travel at the speed of light, time would completely stop.

     Is there a possible spiritual correlation? 1Corinthians 15 speaks of the resurrection. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then He lied, the gospel is wrong, the apostles were wrong, the faith of Christians is in vain, and nobody can be saved (vs 12-19). Christ did rise, and so there is hope for Christians that they too will rise (vs 20-26). There will be two resurrections. The first is for believers and will have several parts (vs 42-58, Jn 5:35-39, Rev 20:1-6). The second one is for the judgment of the unbelievers (Rev 20:11-15). 1Corinthians 15:50-59 and 1Thessalonians 4:13-17 speak of an event called the rapture. This word is not specifically in the KJV, but the event is. Also, the word rapture means to be caught up or caught away, which is how this event is described. 1Corinthians 15:52 says this will happen “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye”. The word moment it translated from the Greek word atomos, which means “that which cannot be cut in two, or divided, indivisible”. The word twinkling is translated from the Greek word rhipe, which means “a jerk (of the eye, i.e. (by analogy) an instant):—twinkling”. This indicates that the rapture will happen at or near the speed of light. When the dead and living Christians are caught up to be with the Lord, they will travel that fast and will enter into eternal life. There will be no time for someone to realize what is happening and seek to join them. They will have missed it. The time for that is now. This is the window of time to find salvation. “(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation (2Cor 6:2)”. “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2Pet 3:3-9).”