The Mystery of Life and the Universe We Live in

However hard a scientist or philosopher or religious person may try to explain away, no single individual in history can ever deny the existence of a material universe of which we are all a part of. And the question that confronts every individual in history is the question of how this material visible universe has come into existence.

For an answer, in Hebrews 11:3 we are told that what is visible was made by what is not visible. This same truth is also revealed to us in the very first verse of the Bible where it is stated: “In the beginning, God (the invisible) created the heavens and the earth” (the visible).Therefore, in the sequence of the mystery of life and the material universe, it is the invincible that has created the visible. The visible therefore rests on the invisible and not vice versa. Another important thing to be noted in this mystery of creation and existence is the fact that in both the invisible and visible realms person hood exists. That is to say that both God and man are personal beings and are not just some impersonal material objects. In this God and man personal realms, some scripture verses that reveals the nature of this personal but invincible God are as follows: 1. John 3:16 says:” For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.” First Jn. 4:8 further says:”God is Love.”

Now love is an attribute of person hood. (In contrast, a material object like the sun or the moon cannot have the attribute of love because it has no personality). This attribute of love existing in the Triune God was further revealed to us when Jesus, praying for the believers said in John 17:24 “Father I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the world was created.” This means that love had existed in the Godhead before the universe was created. It also means that since God is love, the visible and material universe is an object conceived and created in love (see also Jn. 1:1-4).

The Bible further reveals that even the material universe has form and also scientific laws governing its existence. This fact is stated in Jeremiah 33:24 in the following words:” If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed laws of heaven and earth”… This means that though we are personal beings created by a personal God, we also live in a universe of fixed laws so that if we jumped from a multi-storied building, we will fall to our deaths because of the law of gravity. This Biblical truth also stands in diametrical opposition to the Hindu philosophy of Maya which says that all of life and the material universe is but an illusion. In summary then; had Jesus not come into the world to reveal God’s personality and our personality and also the real material world, we would be left with just a material existence trapped in a mechanical universe.

As for the coming of Jesus into the world, the incarnation was not just an event that happened in the air or in mythology. He was born into the real world through a human mother called Mary. This birth happened during the reign of the human emperor whose name was called Augustus Caesar (Lk. 2:1). And during his life on earth, he really walked the dusty streets of Palestine. We also discover that he was hungry (Mat 21:18), was thirsty (Jn. 4:7), was angry (Jn. 2:15), and even wept (Jn. 11:35). All these recorded events show that Jesus-the Savior of the world – was not a product of human imagination or a mythological figure created by some followers. As for other gods like Rama or Krishna or Kali, they have no human parents nor were they born into human history during the times or reign of any earthly kings. As such, they are just mythological gods and goddesses created by human minds and imaginations. As for Buddha and Mohammad, the founders of Buddhism and Islam, though they were historical persons with historical parents, they never laid any claims to be gods. As for Buddha, he was an atheist and never believed in any gods.

Kaka D. Iralu
kakairalu@rediffmail.com