Astrophysicist Explains How God Is Not Constrained By Time or Space
TRANSDIMENSIONALITY
Dr. Hugh Ross is an astrophysicist that uses science and scripture to show that God is not constrained by the time and space dimensions that we are. Humans operate within four dimensions of space and time which include length, width, depth, and time. When astrophysicists began studying String theory, they realized there were six additional small space dimensions, totaling 9 space dimensions and one dimension of time. The math on String theory looks promising and would result in 11 space-time dimensions. Dr. Ross explains, “The remarkable advances of research reveal a God who lives and operates in the equivalent of at least 11 dimensions of space and time. They show that God can create space-time dimensions at will and is not limited by any of his created dimensions. Therefore, God is transdimensional.
Scriptures back this up. states, “A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.” Gods transcendent time dimension also appears in the New Testament: “This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time” ( ) and “God, who does not lie, promised (the hope of eternal life) before the beginning of time” ( ).
God’s transdimensionality helps answer important questions like “How can God hear billions of prayers at the same time?” Dr. Ross shares, “Because of our confinement to a single, unidirectional, unstoppable timeline, we humans are forced to communicate with other individuals (or groups) sequentially. But God is not limited to one time dimension, his capacity to communicate with any number of individuals simultaneously can be demonstrated. King David exclaims, “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You discern my going out and my lying down, you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely… ( ).
Another mystery that can be solved with God’s transdimensionality is Jesus’ crucifixion. Some wonder how all the world’s sin could be atoned for in the six to nine hours that Jesus spent on the cross. Dr. Ross proposes, “If some 20 billion people incur sin’s penalty, 20 billion infinite timelines would represent the cumulative total of sin’s penalty. With a second time dimension, God could move along, that is, experience these 20 billion timelines. He would possess a plane of time that could encompass all of them. Thus, when Jesus suffered on the cross for six hours on our timeline, he could have experienced the suffering of 20 billion infinite timelines in two other dimensions of time.”
CALLED TO THE STARS
When Hugh was 7 years old, he asked his parents about the stars. They suggested he read books on astronomy, so he went to his school library and read every book on physics and astronomy. That same year, Hugh did the same in the children’s section of Vancouver’s Public Library! At the age of 8, Hugh began to save his money to buy a telescope and was stunned when he first peered through the lens to the heavens above. “I had never seen anything so beautiful, so awesome,” says Hugh. By the time he was 16, Hugh was convinced that some form of the Big Bang Theory provided the only explanation for the origin of life. “If the universe arose out of a big bang, it must have had a beginning. If it had a beginning, it must have a Beginner,” reasoned Hugh.
From that point, Hugh never doubted God’s existence, but presumed the Beginner was distant and non-communicative. His high school studies showed the peoples of the world taking their religions seriously, so Hugh looked for insight by reading the holy books of the world’s major religions. “I figured if God was speaking through any of these books, then the communication would be noticeably different from what human beings write….but if humans invented religion, their message would contain errors,” he says. In the first several holy books Hugh read, his initial hunch was confirmed: the statements were at odds with established history and science, that is until he picked up the Bible. “It was simple, direct and specific. I was amazed with the quantity of historical data and scientific references and with the detail in them,” says Hugh. It took Hugh 18 months to read the entire Bible to test the accuracy of all of its statements on science, geography, and history, but afterward, he found no single provable error or contradiction. "I was now convinced that the Bible was supernaturally accurate and thus supernaturally inspired,” he says. As a final exercise, young Hugh mathematically determined that the Bible was more reliable by far than some laws of physics. One calculation showed less than one chance in 10138 that the chance fulfillment of 13 specific Bible predictions could come true without supernatural intervention! He also derived a similar conclusion based on the many instances in which the Bible accurately forecasted future scientific discoveries.
Hugh founded Reasons to Believe in 1986 to bring the scientific evidence for Christianity to light. Hugh leads a team of scholars who keep tabs on the frontiers of scientific research to demonstrate that sound reason and scientific discoveries support -- rather than erode -- confidence in the God of the Bible.
