Parallel Universes
Let’s take a look at Christmas - from an unusual perspective.
The other day a
commentator on television was talking about ‘parallel universes’ – how
scientists of today are speculating that our universe is not the only one, but
that billions of others also exist. Public television and other channels like
Discovery have had long programs where ‘science-guys’ have expounded “look what
we have found”. In fact, if you Google
‘parallel universes’ you get over a million hits. Ever since ‘string theory’ came along, it
seems that the idea of real parallel universes has gained credibility in
the scientific community, and serious study is underway. The picture they use to help us understand
what they are talking about is a bubble pipe.
You blow bubbles in the air. The
bubbles float about. Some are small,
some are large. Sometimes they join and
merge to form funny shaped bubbles or even twin spheres, etc. Universes are said to float about in what is
called ‘hyperspace’, rather like soap bubbles.
Once in a while
they touch each other, it is claimed.
The magazine Scientific American had a long article on how our universe
may have once collided with another one, and an interconnecting portal was
formed and a massive exchange of matter and energy took place. Interconnecting portals? You would think from the wide-eyed enthusiasm
of the TV scientists that they are convinced that they have discovered something
new.
But the idea
of parallel universes is not a new one. Those
familiar with science fiction and fantasy literature, as well as TV like ‘Star
Trek’, have seen this idea used time and again to generate many kinds of
stories. Remember C.S. Lewis’ ‘The
Chronicles of Narnia’? The children
crawl into a big wardrobe and discover a portal to a parallel universe, a place
called Narnia, where strange creatures live and where the children embark on
amazing adventures.
Now the claim is
being made that this is not science fiction any longer, but a valid model of
reality. A valid model? An actual new idea? I got to thinking. It’s not a new idea at all. It’s actually a very old idea. And yes, it is a valid model. It dawned on me that the Bible has been
talking about parallel universes for three thousand years, and although the
terminology is different, the concept is the same.
Back to Christmas. What on earth does the idea of parallel
universes or alternate realities have to do with Christmas? Quite a bit, actually. Christmas can be said to be a celebration
of the interaction between alternate realities. That may sound like a bit of a stretch, but
consider this. Alternate realities
appear in the accounts of the birth, life, and ascension of Jesus. You see this
concept in several Bible passages. Let’s
look at a few. The angel Gabriel
appeared to a man named Zechariah and then later to a young teenage girl named Mary. He’s talking to Zechariah, but Zechariah
seems to doubt him. So in Luke 1:19,
Gabriel says, almost as if to authenticate himself: “I am Gabriel. I stand in the
presence of God. I have been sent to
speak to you.”
‘Sent’? From
where? Outer space? Did he land nearby in a flying saucer? Hardly.
The Biblical text suggests that Gabriel had traveled through a portal, a
passage or doorway from the ‘throne of God’ to our Earth. And when he had delivered his messages he
returned back through that portal to take his place again in the presence of
God, to be ready for his next assignment.
In another passage
angels appeared to the shepherds, in a brilliant show of glory and sound,
something like I-MAX to the 4th power. Where did they come from? Outer space?
No. They also had come through a
portal from the heavenly realms to our Earth, specifically to a sheep pasture in
Israel, near the little town of Bethlehem.
They delivered their message, sang their songs, and then returned into
heaven. We even have an old Christmas
carol that describes this – Angels from
the Realms of Glory. “Realm of
Glory” is another term for an alternate reality, a parallel universe, if you
will.
And then, the Son
of God came himself. ‘And the word was
made flesh and dwelt among us.’ He had
entered into our reality as a babe, through an act of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus stayed with us for 33 years or
so. After his death and resurrection, he
appeared and disappeared at will, as if he could step in and out of alternate
realities. Eventually Jesus ascended
into heaven as recorded in the first chapter of the book of Acts. Where did he go? Up in the sky, past the clouds, into space,
past the moon, past the planets, into the void between the stars? No, Jesus moved through a portal, a doorway into
another realm or reality, and he’s now, temporarily, ‘at the right hand of the
Father’, as per the Biblical phrase.
There are many
other accounts in the Bible about alternate realities, especially in the books
of Daniel and Revelation. Even Paul the apostle had a brief excursion into an alternate reality. Also, Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am you may be also.” That “place” is very likely not in this
universe, but is in an alternate reality, i.e., a place parallel, if you will,
to our reality. Someday God will make a
new heaven and a new Earth, including a ‘new Jerusalem’. What universe will those places be in? We don’t really know, but it’s going to be
exciting to find out.
What do all these
visitations from other realms reveal about God?
It means this: God is very aware of us and cares about us. He
has not left us stranded in our place in the cosmos. He has come to us, both by his own appearance
and by sending his angels. Without his
interventions we would have no hope for salvation and our eternal destiny would
be anyone’s guess. We would literally be
‘lost in space’. But in the last few
decades, through books and television, scientists who are also Christians have
communicated to the Christian community how God took great care in making our
universe and our little planet. God
endowed our particular world with the amazing property of being ‘just right’
for the existence and survival of life – like us, and like all the animals and
plants around us.
The universe
itself appears to be ‘calibrated’, as if a cosmic engineer was sitting at a
long row of dials, adjusting each one to a precise value to permit the
existence and flourishing of the life we see around us. Apparently, God places great value on human
life, and interacts directly with us to bring about our redemption and a
completion of his grand cosmic plan. And
after creating us, he didn’t just abandon us and go off somewhere like the
Deists claim, but he actually became one of us and selectively interacts with
us on an ongoing basis.
What is the golden nugget in this discussion? What
can we take away and embrace? Simply this; the realization that the transcendent multidimensional creator of the universes has crafted a space/time continuum where carbon-based life (that's you and me, the animals, the plants, etc.) can flourish. And that this creator God cares
about you, me and every human being. Proof? His
willingness to interact with us, where we live - this proves his love, his
provision, and his promise. He came
himself in the form of a babe, born in lowly estate on that holiest of
nights. The hopes and fears of all the
years were met in little Bethlehem. And
after he departed our world he sent his Spirit to abide with us. And sometimes he sends his angels to stand in
the fiery furnace with us, to guard us, and help defend us against those evil and malevolent principalities and powers mentioned in Paul the apostle’s letter to the Ephesians. And when we die, it is said that the Lord
sends his angels to escort us through a ‘portal’ into his presence. God is in total control of the doorways and
portals between the alternate realities.
So in conclusion,
if you decide to watch any TV programs on parallel universes, you are free to
yawn and take a ‘been there, done that’ sort of attitude. Why?
Because you’ve been reading your Bible.
So you know something about the alternate realities that the scientific
community is only now discovering. And the
destination of every one of us is in one of God’s many alternate realities – a
very good place if you are a
Christian. By his awesome power and
love, on full display during the Christmas season (and again at Easter), the
believer’s future can be a bright one indeed.
And we need to
get our little minds around the awesome concept that the very Lord of the
Universes invites little us to come boldly before him with our prayers
of repentance, worship, praise, adoration, thanksgiving, confession,
intercession, and supplications. And our
little prayers go through ‘thought-space’, straight to the heart of God,
through the portals and across the boundaries of alternate realities. Amazing.
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