Rapture and End Times

Do you know the laws of heaven?
Can you impose its authority on earth? (Job 38:33)

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The Laws of Heaven

The metaphor of a clockwork universe compares the cosmos to a mechanical clock. It continues ticking along, as a perfect machine, with its gears governed by the laws of physics. In other words – it is designed.

This corresponds to the concept of natural law – that the world is governed by cosmic laws. Nature’s God created an ordered universe.

The invention of clear glass in the 13th century paved the way for the development of the lens. Glass lenses inspired the creation of two of the most important scientific inventions of 16th century – the telescope and the microscope. They demonstrated that ordinary observers could see things that the Greek philosophers had not dreamed of. The telescope and the microscope helped prove that we do live in a clockwork universe, driven by natural law.

Using the telescope, we now know there are around 1 septillion (10^24) stars in the universe. This calculation assumes there are around 10 trillion galaxies in the universe, multiplied by the Milky Way’s estimated 100 billion stars.

Science has been able to derive the vast bulk of phenomena in the universe from first principles. The laws can be described mathematically.

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The greatest discovery in science was the verification that all matter is composed of atoms, first proposed in 1803 by English chemist John Dalton. All disciplines of science are derived from that fact. The second greatest theory came in 1905 when Einstein published general relativity, showing that the presence of mass and energy “curves” space-time, and this curvature affects the path of free particles (and even the path of light).

Almost everything in the universe can be explained in terms of fundamental laws like Einstein’s theory of gravity or the laws of quantum mechanics.

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In physics, there is a deep symmetry that unifies electricity and magnetism…

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On a microscopic level, new life forms were discovered and the germ theory of disease was born..

The Cell Theory emerged from early work with microscopes. The notion that all living things are composed of cells, that cells are the units of structure and function of living things and that cells arise from pre-existing cells were all powerful ideas.

The molecule now known as DNA was first identified in the 1860s by a Swiss chemist called Johann Friedrich Miescher, who called it nuclein. In 1881 Albrecht identified nuclein as a nucleic acid and provided its present chemical name, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). It was by following the work of the pioneers before them that James and Francis were able to come to their ground-breaking conclusion about the structure of DNA in 1953.

Watson and Crick themselves felt that the double helix was so simple, so beautiful (it’s sometimes described as the “Mona Lisa” of science), that it had to be right, while its enigmatic symmetry made a powerful prediction about how genetic information is stored and transmitted from one generation to the next.

Even in life itself, scientists confirmed the truth of a clockwork universe. Like a recipe book, DNA holds the instructions for making an organism. Biology follows the cosmic laws of physics.

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Before the Big Bang, all of the laws of the Universe were set in place by the Lord. The universe was finely tuned for us. The degree of fine-tuning of these laws, at the quantum level, is difficult to imagine.

The fine structure constant, usually written as alpha, governs the strength of magnetic interactions. It is about 0.007297. What makes this number odd is that if it were any different, stable matter wouldn’t exist. Another is the ratio of the masses of many fundamental particles, such as electrons and quarks, to the Planck mass. Physicists would love to figure out why those particular numbers have the values they do, because if they were very different, the universe’s physical laws wouldn’t allow for humans to be here. And yet there’s still no compelling theoretical explanation for why they have those values.

The four key elements for life are Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen. A typical star produces these elements more than any other, with the exception of Helium. In other words, the Universe is engineered for promoting life!

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)

For most of history since Adam and Eve, philosophers believed in a “steady state” Universe, where there was no beginning and no end. In the 1960’s astronomy advanced enough to prove that the Universe began with an enormous explosion of light, and has been expanding ever since. This explosion was the beginning of time.

The Bible has a lot to say about the Lord, the creation, and time:

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
All things were created through Him,
and apart from Him not one thing was created
that has been created. (John 1:1-3)

However, we do speak a wisdom among the mature, but not a wisdom of this age, or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. On the contrary, we speak God’s hidden wisdom in a mystery, a wisdom God predestined before the ages for our glory. (1 Corinthians 2:6-7)

If we could stand outside of our Universe, we would see an expanding bubble that contains everything we experience:

The Lord told us about our expanding Universe from the very beginning. Over and over in the Holy Bible, the Lord speaks of “stretching out” the heavens:

A declaration of the Lord,
who stretched out the heavens,
laid the foundation of the earth,
and formed the spirit of man within him. (Zechariah 12:1)

In the story of Job, the Lord is asking Job if he knows the physical and moral laws by which the course of nature is governed (Do you know the laws of heaven?) In asking Job that question, God was helping His troubled servant to understand just how little humans really know in comparison with the limitless wisdom of the Creator.

Paul stated the position very clearly to the Romans:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. For in it God’s righteousness is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.

For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what He has made. As a result, people are without excuse. (Romans 1:16-20)

Paul appeals to the natural revelation of God and His will to establish humanity’s knowledge of sin and God’s justice in the coming judgment.

The natural law itself doesn’t reveal the Good News of salvation. There’s a natural law, but there’s no natural gospel. A conception of natural law does, however, provide theological explanation for why the Son of God became incarnate, died, and rose again. The church doesn’t preach the gospel into a vacuum, but to real people whom God created for good purposes and who failed to attain those purposes.

The Lord’s clockwork universe preaches to people who are hurt and needy—hurt and needy not because they’re lost in a sea of chaos, but because they’re out of alignment with the moral laws by which God governs this world. Natural law explains the biblical teaching that, deep down, all people know that there’s a God, a moral order of the world, and a final judgment. Thanks to the natural law, every person is ready, at some level, to hear and to understand the gospel, even before any Christian explains it to him. 

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The Good News

What is the gospel – the Good News?

Jesus lived a perfect life and did not sin. There were some people who did not like what Jesus was doing and plotted to have Him crucified. He was scourged, mocked, and hung on a cross until he died. Then, he was placed in a tomb. Just like the Passover lambs were offered and their blood was shed for the forgiveness of sin, Jesus was offered and his blood was shed. His perfect sacrifice was better than an animal sacrifice and by the shedding of his blood came the forgiveness of sins for all people once and forever.

Jesus paid the price for all mankind when he suffered on the cross. He took on himself the rebellion and sin of all mankind from the past, present and future.  So, even we have caused him the pain he suffered. He was the final sacrifice, the perfect sacrifice for all time.  No longer did man have to sacrifice animals to cover their sin because his ultimate sacrifice PAID the price for all time.

He arose from the dead three days later and appeared to his disciples and apostles and many witnesses. He returned to his Father in heaven, but before ascending he charged them to spread his teachings to all the nations of the world. He promised to come again to take his people who believe in him and look for his appearing to be with him in the clouds.

For those who know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he sent, there will be no more death, no more sorrow, and no more crying or pain. God will be with his people and he will wipe away all tears from their eyes. The former things will pass away and all things will be made new. This will continue forever.

Those who continue rebelling and reject this sacrifice for their sin will remain spiritually dead for all eternity, and will be sent to the bottomless pit along with Satan and his evil angels…

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If you are not sure that you are saved, you can accept Christ into your life right now, by praying:

“Lord Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins.  Please forgive my sins and give me the gift of eternal life.  I ask you into my life and heart to be my Lord and Savior.”

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