Humans are aware of and live in a
four dimensional universe. We have three spatial dimensions and
one dimension of time. Dimensions are simply the structure of the
universe. Dimensions provide for us the manor of our
existence. We move around within a 3d space as we are forced
along the path of time.
String theory physicists believe that there are many more
dimensions. They are not sure how many, they guess at ten or
eleven and maybe more. And for some reason we are not able to
experience these other dimensions. It is possible that some of
them are rolled up and not in use currently, or that our current bodies
are simply not capable of interacting with these other dimensions.
Trying to imagine life with more dimensions is difficult. Let's
first look to the bible…
God does seem to at least hint at
more dimensions. Here are five places we find some of those hints…
Jesus walking
through walls…
After Jesus was crucified the disciples were afraid. Their leader
had been killed and they feared they would be next. They shut
themselves up in a room. Jesus came and stood in their
midst. The implication of the verses is that He simply appeared in
the room. We can at least speculate that His resurrection body
was able to travel in another dimension that allowed Him to enter the
room, bypassing the doors and walls. And since our redeemed
bodies will be like His at the rapture we can speculate that we will
have this same capability…
John 20:19 Then the same day at evening, being the first day of
the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled
for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto
them, Peace be unto you.
John 20:26 And after eight days again his disciples were within,
and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood
in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.
Possibly a
Second 'Time' Dimension…
Satan tried to tempt Jesus in the wilderness. Somehow Satan was
able to show Jesus all of the kingdoms of the world in a single moment
of time. Very interesting as it implies the possibility of a
second dimension of time. In our current bodies we are only able
to look at one thing at a time. However a second time dimension
would allow us to look at many things at a moment in time. This
is rather difficult to grasp, so we will save the explanation for later
in the discussion when we get to the section speculating what life
might be like with more dimensions.
Luke 4:5 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain,
shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
God’s army
protecting Elisha…
In Second Kings the king of Syria sent a great host after Elisha.
Elisha was not afraid because he by faith believed that he had God’s
protection. However Elisha’s servant was afraid when he got up in
the morning and saw the great host of the Syrian army compassed about
the city. So Elisha prayed and asked God to open the servant’s
eyes to allow him to see God’s army. God answered the prayer and
now the servant was able to see the army of God that surrounded Elisha
and protected them. This implies another spatial dimension.
God has creatures in His army that are able to reside here on earth and
yet not be seen. A fourth spatial dimension would explain this…
2 Kings 6
[15] And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone
forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and
chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we
do?
[16] And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than
they that be with them.
[17] And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes,
that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he
saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire
round about Elisha.
Was Paul
aware of a Fourth Spatial Dimension…
One of the things that Paul prayed for the Ephesian’s is that they
would be able to comprehend the greatness of God’s love. He
attempts to emphasize the scope of God’s love by using spatial
dimensions. He wants them to understand all of God’s love so he
describes it like a box, telling them that he wants them to not only
understand the height but also the depth. The interesting detail
is that Paul describes it using four spatial dimensions. We must
ask then, did Paul make a mistake or is God telling us that there is a
fourth dimension of space?
Ephesians 3:18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is
the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
Dimensions
rolled up…
One the most intriguing evidences in the bible for additional
dimensions is the similarity between the way that string theory
physicists discuss dimensions and the way that the Bible speaks of
them. String theory physicists speak of dimensions as having the
possibility of being “rolled up”. The following quote is from the
website “superstringtheory.com”. Notice in this quote the
physicists discuss the possibility of dimensions being “rolled up”…
“When a space dimension is rolled up in a circle of radius R, the
resulting string theory ends up being equivalent to another string
theory with a space dimension rolled up in a circle of radius Lst2/R,
where Lst is the string length scale.”
Now look at these next two verses from God’s Holy Word and see how God
discusses His universe…
Revelation 6:14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is
rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their
places.
Isaiah 34:4 And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and
the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host
shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a
falling fig from the fig tree.
Quite intriguing huh?
So we can at least speculate from God’s Word the existence of more
dimensions. Let’s move on and discuss the current dimensions that
we are aware of.
Our Current Four Dimensions…
Before we discuss more dimensions let’s discuss the ones we have.
It is nearly impossible to imagine existing in a place with more
dimensions. We have no frame of reference. Our imaginations
simply have nothing to pull from to create in our minds an existence
with more dimensions. But we do gain some frame of reference if
we consider what our existence would be like if we had fewer spatial
dimensions. When we image and recognize how the nature of
existence would contract, then we reverse those differences to gain
perspective of how the universe could expand if we had more.
We live in a universe with three spatial dimensions. It is like a box.
It has width, height and depth. But what would the universe be
like if it had only two dimensions. It would be flat like a piece
of paper. It would have width and height but no depth. We
call that flat land.
What would life be like on flat land? The creatures that exist
there would have to be created to exist there. A three
dimensional person could not live there. God would need to create
a two dimensional body in order for anyone to live there.
I can see right off that my existence would be much more limited than
it is now. People seem to value space. Confinement is a
punishment. We don’t like confinement. We measure our homes
in square feet. Flat land would just have much less depth to the
existence there. So the third spatial dimension gives us so much
more substance to our existence.
Imagine a person living on flat land whom one day God would give him a
body capable of living in the three dimensional world. Imagine
also that we were able to communicate with this person and talk with him
about his someday coming here to the three dimensional world. We
would not know how to express it to him. We could only say that this third dimension
just adds so much to life. Life has exponentially more essence
out here, you are going to love it.
That doesn’t help me to imagine living in a four dimensional world, but
it does help me understand the exponential increase in the significance
of everyday life there.
Time…
But what about time, we have only one time dimension. One time
dimension is simply a straight line. We live a single moment at a
time and move from single moment to single moment. We could graph it simply as a straight line...
But for two time dimensions we need two straight lines. The following graph shows two time dimensions…
The
current time dimension is the line going up. We move up on that
line moment by moment. But now instead of living single moment by
single moment, we have at each point an entirely additional dimension
of time. That is a bit difficult to image. It would mean
that we could live an entire lifetime or more every moment. And
even though a bit hard to fathom it would solve some of the confusing
things about Heaven.
For example we will spend eternity together with God and enjoy Him
forever. But how personal will it be to try to have a personal
relationship with Him at the same time as a billion other people.
Imagine the seven years that we will be with Jesus while the earth goes
through the tribulation. We will be having the judgment seat of
Christ. He will be rewarding us for our service. But what
if there are 1 billion saved people in the church. In seven years
there are only 220 million 752 thousand seconds. That gives each
of us a quarter of a second to talk with Jesus. 4-5 people per
second in order for all billion of them to get through the line.
But if every moment we experience a whole other time dimension then
perhaps all of us could interact with Him simultaneously, as well as
fellowshipping with each other. The greatest thing about Heaven
will be spending eternity with God, His loving us and our loving Him
and getting to know Him. The second greatest will be
fellowshipping with each other and loving each other.
In our current life, relationships can be difficult because of sin. When
we sin it hurts the people that we are close to. Perhaps that is
why we are not able to be close to very many people. Most people
are only close to a handful of others. If we were able to be
close to a large number of people then our sin would hurt all of those
people and the accumulation of that hurt would probably destroy
us. It seems that God has purposely built in a limiting factor
into this world.
But after our complete redemption we will be holy and there will be no
need for a limiting factor. Paul writes in Corinthians – “
now I
know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
Sometimes the fellowship at Church can be a taste of Heaven. But
it is really just a small sample. Image if we were able to love
and be loved by a billion people simultaneously and all of us are
holy. While at the same time loving and being loved by God
Himself and having the capacity for all of us to have plenty of time
with Him. A second time dimension might provide for that.
But what about 10 or 11
dimensions.
Just adding a single time or a single spatial dimension to our current
existence would add exponentially to our existence. But what if
we added six or seven more dimension. The nature of our existence
could expand on an unimaginable magnitude. We can’t even
speculate on what other types of dimensions that God could create
besides time or space dimensions. There could be dimensions that
He could create that we are completely and utterly incapable of even
dreaming of because we lack any frame of reference.
And isn’t that what God tells us…
1 Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor
ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which
God hath prepared for them that love him.
Heaven is going to be awesome and I get to go there not because I
deserve it, but because He chose to love me and die for me and
you. If you are unsure of your eternal destiny get it cleared
up. Check out this page…
http://www.nhbaptist.com/heaven/
Also there is a sermon on this page called “Amazing Grace” you might
check that out…
http://www.nhbaptist.com/sermons/january-2012/
