New Frontiers

More knowledge gained . . . and more to go. by Calvin Burrell and Sherri Langton

 

Sometime this century, the old frontiers of discovery and exploration were fully extended. The boundaries we operated within were visible things on earth, and most of them fell to human assault in modern times: the American West and the Australian outback; Antarctica; the north and south poles; Mt. Everest and the Grand Canyon, etc. The great oceans were easily and constantly traversed. And wherever we went on the planet's natural surface, the gospel of Christ went along.

As the earth's surface space was conquered place by place, the attention of venturous man turned to other kinds of space, both "on" and "not on" the terrestrial surface. The work of atomic scientists, for example, has opened up the new world of the atom and subatomic particles - just since 1900. Atoms have provided a new frontier that may be called microspace. Genetic engineering is another example.

 

Cyberspace

A most remarkable example of aggressive human adventure into microspace is the communications and information boom in this generation. Speed, savvy, and fingertip convenience - these and a world more have become readily available to the average person through personal computers and the Internet. Invented in the 1960's to help the military's research network survive a nuclear attack, Internet technology steadily grew until it boomed in the nineties with the creation of the World Wide Web.

With the new technology emerged a new attitude: To be on the cutting edge of anything, you must establish a presence on the Internet. Christian organizations and ministries, urged to take the cyber plunge or face extinction in the next millennium, joined the rush. Online shopping malls popped up, and Pizza Hut made it possible to order a pizza online. Consumers can also post a virtual monument to a deceased loved one at the World Wide Cemetery and achieve a million other tasks.

Like everything else in the grip of sinful man, the Internet quickly became a purveyor of filth and the dark side of life. Sites promoting suicide and euthanasia, Satanism, atheism, homosexuality, and other social and religious ills sprang up. Pornography could be downloaded in the privacy of one's home. Children could access it with the click of a mouse.

It was this proliferation of evil that Christian ministries aimed to counteract with good and the gospel. Most denominations now have Web sites, and local churches offer home pages where visitors can access information about worship services and send the pastor e-mail. Sites like 2 Jesus (www.2jesus.org) are more elaborate and evangelistic. Users can visit a prayer garden, view a prayer list, and submit requests. They can browse in a gift shop and read answers to questions regarding any biblical topic. There's even the First Church of Cyberspace (www.execpc. com/~chender/) where users can enter a sanctuary, listen to hymns, download sermons, read movie reviews, and explore social and religious issues.

All this has serious overtones for the church. Christian researcher George Barna says that 25 million of adults use the Net each month for religious expression. He predicts that use of the Internet for religious experiences - especially for American teenagers - will increase in the next millennium. One out of six teens said that within the next five years they expect to use the Net as a substitute for going to church.

 

Under space

The daring-do of this century also opened up physical regions previously closed. Ocean depths and floors, subterranean regions, and geological strata were explored, either by human presence or by means of mechanical and electronic probing.

 

Outer space

The best example of human ingenuity this century may be the exploration of macrospace. And the brightest "eye in the sky" for 1999 may be the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).

The HST is a cooperative program (Europe, U. S.) to operate a space-based observatory for the international astronomical community. Conceived in the 1940's, designed and built in the seventies and eighties, HST is a 2.4-meter reflecting telescope deployed in low-earth orbit (600 kilometers) by the space shuttle Discovery on April 25, 1990. Above the earth's atmosphere, it produces high-resolution images up to ten times better than ground-based telescopes.

Images received from HST this decade have apparently confirmed the Big Bang in the minds of many scientists. This theory says everything began at one moment in time. In that initial instant the universe exploded into being, and it has been expanding at the speed of light for more than fifteen billion years since. In that case, the number of miles from the center of the universe to its outer edge would be about 6.7 x 1022. Such a vast world is impossible to comprehend, but not for an infinite God to create.

The apparent vastness of space carries some good news for Bible students. Current scientific consensus seems to be nearer than in pre-HST days to the idea that the universe began at a point in time ("In the beginning . . . ," Genesis 1:1) and without preexisting matter ("things which are seen were not made of things which are visible," Hebrews 11:3). Believers in the Bible's account of Creation may rejoice at these trends, and should not fear any other "fact" proposed or demonstrated about the universe. After all, HST has been at work for only about nine years and still has a lot to learn, as do those who interpret the data.

Modern theories about the origin and age of the universe have always been rather fluid. Wise scientists, like wise Christians, hold their theories tentatively and with humility. What astronomers observe through HST is true, of course, as is what we read in the Bible. It's the interpretation of both that is subject to human error!

Thank God for the HST: It reveals data about the creation. Much more, thank God for the Bible: It tells us truth about the Creator and ourselves.

 

Conclusion

The Bible recognizes earth (cyber) space, under space, and outer space, and sees a time when "every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:10, 11). Whatever space may be explored by humans, let's take the name of Jesus with us!

 

Sources

This article appears in the January-February '99 issue of the Bible Advocate print magazine. For a free subscription by regular mail, contact us at bibleadvocate@cog7.org.

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© 1999 The General Conference of the Church of God (Seventh Day)