Now for a different type of examination of Heaven. This is purely speculation on my part, and was something I once sincerely believed.
You may have read or watched Science Fiction entertainment. Indeed, the genre is hard to avoid. As a youngster, I devoted much time and money pursuing those mythical worlds that were yet somewhat plausible. There is within the genre certain concepts that are usually adopted by all authors, usually because it reflects the best of what's known from science. It is after all Science Fiction.
Many of those concepts are theoretical in nature. A very common theme is space travel at speeds faster than light, as a necessity to crossing the vast range of distance to other star systems. On occasion, a writer will address the actual theoretical under-pinnings of the notion of such travel. Among these efforts seems a consistent refrain: without some way of enveloping the travelers who engage in such high speed travel, they will die.
That's not just a matter of having a container that will protect them from the virtual vacuum of space. Much more than that, something must protect the occupants from the inherent result of leaving "this dimension" en route to such a massively distant objective.
One school of thought theorizes that one must leave this plane of existence, where we can vary height, length and depth at will -- that is, we can move in three dimensions. But we cannot simply get from here to there without traversing the region between. And at plausible speeds, it would take far longer than any one human life to reach the nearest star that might have planets. Indeed, it may take several generations, at the least. To prevent the difficulties that would arise from this, they posit leaving this dimension and entering another, wherein distance is a non-issue, because time becomes a variable. Time is referred to as a "fourth dimension."
For us here in God's Creation, time passes in a linear fashion. It may seem variable in the subjective mind -- "time flies when you're having fun." The reality is that devices can be made to measure time quite reliably, because regardless of our personal perceptions, all of us can depart our separate ways, then meet later with our time pieces still indicating the same amount of time has passed. If we could manipulate our "when" as we do our "where" then traveling vast spaces is no problem.
Rather than setting our time back everday while on a centuries long journey, the mathematical model consistently indicates that by moving to that "other dimension" where our "when" becomes subject to our whim, we have left this dimension. It would then be possible to return to this dimension in some other place, vastly far away, shortly after we left. It would appear that we had collapsed the linear distance between here and there, much like folding a ribbon. Distance and space becomes briefly a non-issue. Most Science Fiction movies and TV shows refer to this as "warp speed" or "going into hyper-drive" or something similar.
At this point, those not a fan of Science Fiction are likely on the verge of becoming lost, so the lesson in theoretical physics ends on this one note: human life is unlikely to survive leaving this dimension, without some sort of protective cocoon that keeps body and soul together, until it re-enters this dimension. This is the theory, despite it being ignored by most popular presentations.
There is much in Scripture that parallels some of this theoretical consideration. Of course, the reader is hardly likely to see much reference to God or His Word in theoretical maunderings of Dimensional Physics. While many Physics writers believe in God, they would not be much published if they acknowledged Him in their work. What the theorists do not write is that leaving this dimension is to leave the Universe, to leave Creation itself.
We know from the Word that one can only enter Hereafter -- the only other "dimension" recognized in Scripture -- by dying or being "translated." We know also that one cannot look upon God without the human flesh expiring. John says that on that Last Day that we shall see Him as He is, and shall become like Him (1 John 3:2).
We also know from the gospels that in His resurrected body, He could materialize out of thin air, passing through walls (Luke 24:31, John 20:19). While the literal substance of His body was there, it was not bound by space. Those few recent reports we have of Christians having been resucitated back to life confirm that "on the other side" one can travel at a mere thought, without the need to tread the ground between start and finish.
We also know that God could do that with someone not yet dead: Philip, having fulfilled his mission with the Ethiopian Eunuch, was yanked off to Azotus by God (Acts 8:26-40). At no point does the named road between Jerusalem and Gaza come within 20 miles of Azotus. We also know that men of God spoke of passing into another dimension. Paul writes he could not tell if he left his body, but thought he had, when he met the Ascended Jesus face to face (Galatians 1:15-18; 2 Corinthians 12:1-6, normally taken to be a reference to himself).
I have long believed that all Creation is more easily seen as a bubble within Eternity -- that other dimension -- and theoretical physics seems to back this up, referring to all space as curved back upon itself. Thus, if one could travel in a perfectly straight line across the universe (never mind how long it takes), he would eventually find he had returned to his point of origin.
And so it goes. Scripture and theory agree on one point: there is at least one other dimensional plane out there. Our Bible hints that both Heaven and Hell, as "places," will be found "there" -- insofar as we can use those terms. Our current universe, the reality in which we now exist, is a limited bubble, a place of distinct limits. To escape it would mean leaving the mortal flesh behind. It is also plausible to say that all those leaving this plane go out to God's presence. Those who rejected Him here would find His presence "Hell" -- those of His children will find it Paradise.
Ed Hurst
25 May 2003
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