1. GOD'S GREATNESS
Sometimes one starts with little things to work up to the big things, the easy
things to get to the hard ones. First, take this easy series: 2, 4, 6, 8.
What is the next item in the series? If you said ten, you’re right, and
you know what I’m doing. Here goes.
In the series a point, a line, a plane. What’s next?
If you said "a solid", great. The point is a single but invisible dot and
it has no dimensions. A line is a collection of multiple points, one after
another, and has one dimension, length. A plane is a collection of
multiple of lines, one next to another, and has two dimensions, length and
width. A solid can be thought of as a collection of multiple of planes,
one on top of another, has three dimensions, length, width and height. Stretch
your mind, what’s next?
This is not so obvious, if you make a collection of multiple
of solids, one on top of another, you just get a bigger solid, it takes a
different dimension besides direction to move on. Scientists suggest that
the next, the fourth, dimension is time. A solid in time would work.
If, for example, the original solid is an ice cube, in time it changes shape as
it melts. Pretty soon it’s not as tall, it’s edges become rounded, it
puddles out, and eventually evaporates. A solid takes space, and a solid
described in time becomes what scientists call the space-time continuum, which
is also a description of our universe. Our Universe is a collection of
multiple spaces (solids) through time. Sometimes even our universe becomes
distorted, stretched or compressed, as near a black hole for example Now
stretch, what’s next?
This is even less obvious, but one solution is a solid/space
in time in other universe, or a collection of multiple universes, or parallel
universes. Which universe is the solid in, ours or a different one?
It’s ice in our universe, but maybe it’s wood or iron in the next. It’s
transparent in ours, but maybe it’s red or blue in the next. It could be thought
of as being in another dimension.
According to the Bible, God lives in another dimension, not a
parallel dimension, but a higher one yet. The Bible starts out in Genesis
1:1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." The very
fact that God existed before our Universe was created shows that He is in
another dimension beyond ours. Solomon recognized this in 1 Kings 8:27
when he said of God ‘the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee."
If God was only a part of our Universe, he couldn’t have made it. He is
omnipotent because He is beyond it. Because he is outside of our Universe
"looking in" that he is omniscient, He knows everything that has happened and
will happen. Because God is of another dimension, He is also omnipresent.
Yet God is also part of our Universe, part of it and much more.
Although we sometimes lovingly think of God as "The Man
Upstairs", he is so much beyond that description, it is not really possible for
us humans to understand Him except in these abstract thoughts and lowly word
pictures. He is an awesome God.
Read Psalm 19 and 139.
continue to Part 2