With all the hype about space surrounding the Artemis project and the Voyager spacecrafts that are reaching or have reached the outer edges of our solar system, there is renewed interest in exploring the cosmos and trying to determine where God might live. I admit that when I think of heaven, I think of it as “somewhere out there” but I have never tried to put God in a box and make a distinct determination as to where God actually resides.
However, there is a renewed effort by scientists, with the additional knowledge that has been discovered about the known universe that there may actually be growing support for trying to locate the habitat of God, the Creator. Scientists, citing the Bible as reference believe that there are three different levels of heaven. The first level is our atmosphere, the air that surrounds the earth; and the second, or mid-level heaven, is what we refer to as outer space. They believe that there is one more level of heaven – more difficult to explain, that is the highest level of heaven. This is where God dwells, or so they say…
I admit that I am not a scientist. I have learned enough to be dangerous when it comes to space, however I am woefully under-educated when it comes to a deep explanation of what they are trying to convey. But I’ll try…
The whole idea started in 1929 when an attorney turned astronomer discovered that the farther away galaxies and objects are from us, the faster they move away from us. This discovery was made by Edwin Hubble, after whom the famous space telescope was named. What he said is that the universe is scattering like shrapnel from a bomb but as objects move through space, they pick up speed. So things that are farther away are moving faster than things that are closer to us. The concept is actually called Hubble’s Law.
So, theoretically, a galaxy that is 273 billion trillion miles away from us would move farther from us at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second). The place where this occurs is called the Cosmic Horizon. What this means is that since the speed of light is the fastest thing in the universe, we will never be able to get to, or “see” the Cosmic Horizon. We can’t move fast enough to get there. Scientists surmise that God lives on the other side of the Cosmic Horizon.
It is thought that additional universes exist beyond this Horizon but we can’t get there from here. Einstein and his theories of relativity have convinced scientists that as speed increases, time slows down until time literally stops at the Cosmic Horizon. So time has no meaning in this place where things travel at or beyond the speed of light. Furthermore, it is thought that this alternative universe is inhabitable by light or light-like entities.
Additionally, scientists surmise that the oldest known entities are located beyond the Cosmic Horizon. This leads to the determination that this area is inaccessible to us as mortals. But, it is thought by this same group, that this “heaven” is inhabited by non-material timeless beings, as the Bible indicates. The conclusion they arrive at is that this is the domain of God and that when we end our earthly existence, our souls can exist beyond the Cosmic Horizon and share eternity with God and His Son, Jesus.
In all honesty, there is much more to this argument that is too complex for me to fully understand. There are terms such as Particle Horizon, Event Horizon and more data about Hubble’s astronomical observations that seem to explain why we have a larger observable cosmos as light travels farther and farther from the past to get to us. Clearly, this is beyond my understanding.
Where I get sidetracked with all this is that many of the scientists aren’t satisfied until they can “prove” a point and explain every element of something. But that isn’t “faith.” Jesus makes many references to having the faith of a child and that heaven belongs to those who have childlike faith. At some point in our theological journey, we must take a leap of faith, or at least a step of faith realizing that we can’t connect all the dots to explain exactly how heaven works, where heaven is located or what what each day there will look like. It must be enough for believers to know that they will be in the presence of God when they arrive in heaven – and that they will be greeted by God Himself upon arrival.
Our verse for tonight is the famous verse on faith given to us by the writer of Hebrews. We are told in Hebrews, 11:1-3, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”
My encouragement this evening is that as long as we have the promise that we will be eternally with God, it really doesn’t make any difference where heaven is located. My prayer is that evil will eventually be defeated and that we will, for sure, dwell with God in an endless eternity where time is meaningless and love rules. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…