My Theory of Everything

We are spirit beings learning to live in a spirit world that will exist forever.  That’s generally my theory of everything.
 
Stephen Hawking died recently.  He had, by all accounts, a brilliant mind and was deeply respected and loved by many.  He was also an atheist who worshipped science over God, believing that science eliminated the need for a god.
 
I saw a movie called “The Theory of Everything” which was his biopic.  I had an uncle who died of the same disease and it was excruciating to watch.  I can’t imagine what it was like to live through it.  In a comment today, his first wife said that death was a welcome relief for him.  After having watched the disease ravage my uncle’s body over a period of ten years, I can’t imagine what it was like to live with the disability for almost fifty.
 
But, I’m not here to comment on his life, but his death.  I couldn’t help but wonder what it was like when he slipped into the next life and in a moment discovered the truth that he had been searching for.  Stephen Hawking wanted to know the origins of the universe.  Now, you have to understand that I have a biblical world-view and yes, it is my interpretation that I have diligently worked on for 50-plus years.  And so, my worldview says that God created the universe.  I believe that whether or not God met Stephen Hawking after his death, he knew immediately that God created the heavens and the earth.  There was no big bang or if there was God made the explosion that caused the big bang. 
 
All I know is that this man was an avowed atheist until he died.  He isn’t anymore.  But, it’s too late to make choices now.  My best hope for him is that as death approached, he saw the truth in time and repented.  For God’s mercy is wide and his justice is fair. 
 
Does that sound harsh?  Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the father except through the son.”  (John 14:6)  “You must be born again to enter the Kingdom of God.”  (John 3:1) “But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father in heaven. Do not assume that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” (Matthew 10: 33, 34)  I could go on and on.  I’m sure that Stephen Hawking knew at least some of these verses.  But he chose to believe in science instead of God.  
 
Therein lies my one point in writing this:  We forget that we are spiritual beings in a spiritual universe that can not be ‘seen’ by science but only through faith.  Paul referred to is as ‘seeing through a glass darkly…” (1 Cor 13:12).  We feed our mind and our flesh in this life and pay little or no attention our spirit.  We seek knowledge and power and refuse to strengthen our soul.  But in the end, we are spirit beings in a spiritual world and there isn’t a science book around that explains how that works.  And by the way….that’s forever.  Everyone who has ever gone before and everyone who comes after us will go the same way.   They died.  We will die.  They will die. 
 
I suppose Stephen Hawking would consider my faith a placebo to placate my lack of enlightenment.  My faith is anything but a placebo.  It is my HOPE.  There is a powerful image of this very theme in Luke 16: 19-31.  It’s the story of a rich man and a poor man named Lazarus.  Lazarus dies and goes to ‘Abraham’s Bosom’, or a place like heaven.  The rich man dies and goes to a place like hell.  Here, he can see Lazarus sitting at Abraham’s side.  In hell, the rich man is tormented and begs Abraham for a little water to cool the tip of his tongue.  But, Abraham replies that there’s a chasm between them that can’t be crossed any longer.   The rich man begs Abraham to send someone from the dead to warn his brothers who are still alive.  Abraham replies that they have prophets and the Word of God and they won’t  change their minds even if someone rises from the dead.   What an alarming reality.  We are and will continue to always be spirit living in a matrix where what we see and know is only a partial reality.
 
Many people would consider it cruel and narrow minded to say that unless Stephen Hawking accepted Christ as his Savior, he is now separated eternally from God and without hope.  But, I think the mere fact that God allowed Stephen Hawking to live fifty more years than the two he was given by doctors is a clear sign of the love of God.  I’m sure that God reached out to Mr. Hawking many times during those fifty years.  I’m sure God spoke to him over and over again through the universe he explored.  And I’m certain God was at the center of the very questions Mr. Hawking wrestled with during his career.  For fifty extra years, God wooed him. That sounds like love to me.  But in the end, he probably refused to accept God’s invitation to explore the universe and all of its origins for eternity.
 
I saw a bumper sticker once.  It looked the humanist bumper sticker supporting evolution as the origins of man.  But after the image of the man there was another picture of a grave.  Which begs the question:  What happens when you die?  Do you KNOW?  Can you be SURE?  Science can’t answer that because they don’t understand spirit.  Then, does your theory of everything address death?  I would ask, “How is that working for you?” 
 
“ For know whom I have believed in and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto HIM until that day.”  Tim 1:12b