Praise be to the precious God of all creation, who fills every dimension with his glory, and who allowed that glory to slip into the dimension of man through his precious Son, Jesus Christ.
There was a time, decades ago, when I fancied myself a scientist. I did enjoy the sciences, and had a decent knowledge of certain science related things. Physics was not one of them. I struggled through several physics classes in high school and college but never did truly grasp the concepts any better than a baby grasps the purpose of his hand. It should be noted, although not surprising, that my lack of physics comprehension is closely rivaled by my mathematics comprehension. Some people can just visualize that stuff. I can't.
I mention these inadequacies not at an attempt at self deprecation but as a backdrop to my recent preoccupation with the concepts of dimensions beyond our three dimensional reality. My preoccupation is not with the dimensions themselves, but rather as they may relate to the God I serve. As mentioned, I am not a physicist, and I am not a theologian, but my mind wanders and here is where it has been wandering as of late.
I have read that people educated in the deeper aspects of physics and mathematics have proven the existence of ten or eleven dimensions. Actually, as I understand it, some speculate that there may be twenty or more. Understand, they cannot picture what these dimensions actually are or what they may look like, but they would claim that it is actually mathematically provable that they exist. As a believer, that would make sense to me for I understand that, "The secret things belong to the LORD our God..(Dt. 29:29)." and if man can speculate on the possible existence ten or twenty dimensions, God probably exists in hundreds or thousands or, dare I say, in an infinity of dimensions.
Understand, I don't insist on any of these thoughts, nor are any of them provable, but as I consider the puniness of the three dimensional world that is the reality of our three dimensional minds, and contemplate the absolute beyond comprehension magnitude of God's hundreds or thousands or millions of dimensions.....Well, I stand completely in awe of Him.
First, if one were to pick one point....any point....in space, that point would be non dimensional. No dimensions. If one would draw a line from that point to another random point, that would be a line. Since lines can only differ in size by one measurement....length... they are one dimensional. If I were to take four lines and make a square, the square would be two dimensional since each square can differ from another square by two measurements. Width and length. The height would be non existent. Stay with me now. If we take several squares and place them perpendicular to each other we have a cube. Cubes can differ from each other by three measurements....width, length and height. Three dimensions. The world we live in. The world we comprehend.
If that doesn't make sense to you, I have to ask you. What did you expect? I'm not, as mentioned, a physicist or mathematician. The point is our reality exists in the three measurements of width, length and height. With those those measurements comes the sense of depth. It's what our minds comprehend. Our reality is a three dimensional reality.
I'm almost through. Here's one of the simplest definitions I've found for the fourth dimension of space. The fourth dimension is all space that one can get to by traveling in a direction perpendicular to three-dimensional space. Right. That's just the fourth dimension as it relates to space and not time. When time is thrown in....well....time warps and does bizarre things that tangle my mind into knots that are hard to undo.
Here's the point, if there is one. The jump from the third dimension to the fourth dimension is a quantum one for those of us living in a three dimensional world, viewing life with a three dimensional mind. It is one fantastically exponential jump. Imagine the jump from the fourth dimension to the fifth, sixth or seventh. Totally, in-comprehensively impossible. Then, attempt to consider the hundreds or thousands or more dimensions in which God exists, moves and manifests his glory. Impossible, for sure....but totally awesome in it's scope and possibility.
Back to two dimensions. If there were a two dimensional world and, yes, I am aware of the book Flatland. But, if there were people living in a two dimensional world, and I were to pass my wedding ring through their world, the ring would not appear to them as it appears to a three dimensional mind. In my world, I see a round, circlet, gold band that tells the world of my commitment to my wife. Our friends in the two dimensional world would view the ring as it passed through their world in a totally different way. They would see a dot that spreads into two dots that move apart until the ring is half way through. As the ring passes the rest of the way through the dots would move back together until there was one dot....and then that would disappear as the ring left their two dimensional world. They would have no idea of what they had seen not to mention the meaning behind it.
If I could communicate with our two dimension inhabitants, perhaps through a note or even a book, I would try to explain that what they had seen was a round, circlet, gold band that tells the world I live in of my commitment to my wife. Some of the inhabitants might believe me, and realize what they had seen was a wedding band from a three dimensional world that had deep significance to the one who sent it through their two dimensional world. Others would contend that all they saw was a dot that spread into two dots...then converged back into a dot, and disappeared.
I don't insist upon this, but perhaps all that God is fills those ten or twenty or thousand dimensions beyond our puny little three dimensional reality. Perhaps all that is spiritual lives and moves according to the design of the Creator in those dimensions beyond ours. It would mean that despite what our three dimensionally trained minds tells us is real....the real reality exists in those dimensions that are flowing around us.
Remember when Elisha and his servant were surrounded by the king of Aram in the city of Dothan. (2 Kings 6) The servant panicked as would any sane person looking at their dire situation through a three dimensional reality. Elisha prayed that the eyes of the servant would be opened, and they were. This is what we're told, "Then Elisha prayed and said, "O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see." And the LORD opened the servant's eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha." Is it possible that God opened the servant's eyes, not to see just a one time event, but to obtain a snapshot of the symphony that God has orchestrated in the dimensions beyond ours? Did he momentarily open the eyes blinded by three dimensional reality to see a portion of the Creator's design in his higher dimensions....dimensions that still flow in and through our three dimensional world? A glimpse for the servant, but a reality seen often by Elisha.
How about when Peter, James and John walked up a mountain with Jesus as described in Matthew 17. And He (Jesus) was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. Did God put together a moment for Peter and the others to demonstrate that Christ was his son.....or did he, for a moment, allow them to see the reality Christ continually walked in?
It's a beautiful and awesome thought to me. God, eternity, heaven, everything that is good, true and real.....Not a million galaxies away....but among us flowing in, around and through everything we can see with our limited vision. The only thing not allowing us to see it is a mind that is trained to see and perceive three dimensionally.
When I read or hear of near death experiences, and the marvelous things that are seen, heard and encountered as the brain ceases to function I do wonder. I wonder if the vision of the spirit and soul, unencumbered by a three dimensional mind, are beginning to experience the magnitude of the multitude of dimensions that are God.
Theological concepts may not become more clear, but they becomes more understandable as to why they are not as clear as we would like. Just as I tried to explain my wedding ring to our imaginary two dimensional friends, how does a God who fills every dimension explain the concept of the trinity to a three dimensional mind. Free will or God's choice. Multidimensional concepts filtered through a three dimensional brain.
Again, I don't insist upon it.
But if the Creator were to pass something special through our world. Say, for example, his Son. He then gives us a book attempting to describe the event, and the significance to him. Some will read the book and believe that something special has passed through our dimension. Others would look at it and say all it they saw was a dot that spread into two dots...then converged back into a dot, and disappeared.
I feel sorry for the people who will not see past the dots. People who will not see what the dots represent. Whether it's dimensions or something else, I do know that there are, "Things which the eye has not seen and the ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him. (1 Corinthians 2:9) How I long for the day when these eyes are opened to see all of reality....to know as I have been known....and to see all things reconciled under the Lordship of Christ. (Colossians 1:20)
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