Science is not the enemy of faith. Science that accurately describes our universe always affirms God’s creation. Remember, it is the truth that sets us free. Science, by its nature, is descriptive. Religion, philosophy, and spirituality are prescriptive. Science describes the universe we live in. Religion, and similar thought systems, prescribes how we should live in our universe.

I love science. Last week I shared some faith affirming facts regarding The Perfect Sun. One of the coolest things we constantly experience, but is unexplainable in our common experience, is gravity. Without gravity, there would be no galaxies, stars, or planets. The effect of gravity causes mass to clump together forming all that we see and experience. Without gravity it would be difficult to imagine how we would stand on a rapidly spinning sphere orbiting around our Sun orbiting around a massive black hole at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way.

Physics accurately describes the effects of gravity in most situations. When I dropped a bomb from a B-52, I knew where it would strike the ground because of the physics of gravity, and the effects of drag and wind.

We know what gravity does, but how does it work? It seems that gravity is not a force that attracts us like a magnet. Gravity does not pull us towards the center of the Earth. Gravity is better described as falling. The bomb is not pulled to the ground, it falls to the ground. We are in a constant state of falling—towards the center of the Earth. Einstein described a warping of space-time that is caused by mass—the more mass, the more gravity.

When an object is caught in the gravity of another body, the object is falling down the fall line through space-time—like the fall line when one is skiing.  When astronauts are weightless in space, they are falling at the same speed as their ship and all of the other stuff that seems to be floating—they are in freefall.

Think about throwing a baseball. The force of the throw causes the ball to go up, and as the force is dissipated, the ball falls to the ground.  Throw the ball harder, it goes further until it falls to the ground.  The harder you throw, the further the ball goes before it falls to the ground. If you throw the ball hard enough, it keeps falling, but never hits the ground.  When this happens, the ball is in orbit. The International Space Station is in freefall around the Earth.  Our moon is in freefall around the Earth. The Earth is in freefall around the Sun.

The word “gravity” is not in the Bible. I am not aware of any scripture that describe the laws of physics. Yet we experience gravity constantly, and without it we would not exist. Gravity is a wonder. It is a keystone in God’s creation. Science tries to describe how gravity works—how God’s creation works.

Gravity is cool; science is cool.

Each day, our Sun appears to rise in the east as our planet rotates at just the right speed, and at just the right axis to sustain life as we know it. Life on Earth is sensitive to relatively small changes in global temperature.  A few degrees warmer, the polar ice caps would melt causing sea levels to catastrophically rise; a few degrees colder, another ice age would commence.

As some debate whether or not humans can cause climate change, have you ever wondered why, every once and a while, things do not get even just a little out of kilter on the Sun, frying us all in one day? Remarkably, this does not happen. The Sun’s energy output is almost perfectly constant, with a variation of less than one-tenth of one percent (.001).

Left unattended, we have no other experience of energy production that remains constant. Even the most expensive car needs a tune-up every once in a while. Or imagine a coal power plant, which requires constant adjustment of the amount of fuel to be burned to maintain a particular output. Yet the Sun appears to self-govern and produce the perfect amount of energy all the time.

The Sun’s energy is the result of nuclear fusion—a thermonuclear reaction that changes hydrogen into helium. If we could ever control and contain nuclear fusion on Earth, the energy crisis would be forever over.  Our only successful uses of nuclear fusion—as opposed to nuclear fission—are the detonation of thermonuclear weapons.

To maintain the perfect output of energy, the Sun converts 700 million metric tons of hydrogen to helium per second. Amazingly, when fusion occurs at the core of the Sun, a particular photon can take hundreds of thousands of years to travel to the surface, where it is finally released as light, and takes an additional eight minutes to travel to Earth.

What puzzles me is why the sun doesn’t suddenly start burning 800 million tons per second, or 600 million tons per second.  Why does it not act more like the thermonuclear bombs that we are familiar with? What keeps it perfect?

The perfect Sun is one of God’s invisible attributes that He has shown and is clearly seen. Tomorrow the Sun will once again appear in the east bringing sunshine and warmth to a cold world.

Yesterday, when I was listening to my local “Classic Hits” radio station in Sacramento, I was caught off guard by an announcement that the one known as the “Awaited Teacher” would soon begin his public ministry.  The radio spot declared the Awaited Teacher is also known as the Christ, Messiah, the fifth Buddha, Krishna, and the Imam Mahdi. 

I heard this ad repeated three times in the short periods I was in the car. I wondered if this ad blitz was being repeated on other radio stations and in other cities. I wondered how much money was being spent to promote the new age messiah.

The commercial referred the listener to Share International to learn more. It turns out, as I suspected, that the ad referred to Lord Maitreya.  On April 25, 1982, newspapers around the world announced the presence of Maitreya as the New Age Christ. In the 80s I was aware of the claims about Maitreya, and referenced him in my briefings about the New Age Movement when not much was known about such things in Christian circles.

Twenty-six years later, his advocates have now announced that Maitreya will begin his public ministry.  According to Benjamin Creme, Maitreya’s loyal frontman, Maitreya has accepted a request for an interview by a major American network. His timing relates to the financial collapse which Maitreya allegedly has foretold.  After this interview, and further interviews in Japan and England, an international press conference will be held for Maitreya’s “Day of Declaration.”

With some amount of chutzpah, Creme claims that on his day of declaration, international media will be linked so that the entire world will watch and each person will see his face on television, but each person will hear his words telepathically in his own language as Maitreya simultaneously impresses the minds of all humanity. Even those who are not watching Him on television will have this experience.

After twenty-six years of waiting, Maitreya and the Masters of the Universe are declaring that their time is now. Will Maitreya be able to fulfill the hype—and impress the minds of all humanity?  His adherents are betting—with their money—that he can.

Throughout the land, this Sunday, America’s pulpits assured their flocks that they should not worry about the financial shenanigans in New York and Washington D. C., because God is in control.  We have nothing to fear because He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.  As long as we have faith, everything will be fine.

It is true that He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.  In perfect love there is no fear.  All true. But the significance of these truths—what they actually mean—may have not been heard. 

The promise is not that we would not suffer. The promise is that even in our worst sufferings, He would be with us:

2 Corinthians 1:3-7 (New King James Version)

New King James Version (NKJV) Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Comfort in Suffering   
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. 6 Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. 7 And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation. 

I do not know what will happen tomorrow, next week, or anytime in the future.  What I do know for certain is that no matter what, He will be with me.