The Light (Part 4)
by Joseph Simmons, physicist
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good….” (Genesis 1:1-4)
“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1)
“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.’” (John 8:12)
“In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” (John 1:5)
“That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:9)
“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” (Colossians 1:16-17)
When creating a spiritual analogy for the physical phenomenon of light one mostly thinks of sight and purity and possibly that light is needed in the physical world because it is the source of nearly all the energy we use and consume, among other things. However there is a necessity found in light that is far more fundamental and urgent than all of these things, and therefore I think worth mentioning.
Physically, when light is spoken of perhaps two different things are meant by it. Most commonly when we talk about light we’re talking about luminosity – that is visible light that is emitted by an object that allows us to see it as well as see other things. Light is also spoken of as electromagnetic waves, or things that are sufficiently equivalent. Now there is no difference between the two of these except that when you think of seeing something you probably don’t think of phrases like electromagnetic fields or forces or photons. However I think an important analogue can be found when thinking of these phrases.
Consider atoms, which consist of electrons and nuclei. Atoms come together to form molecules, which come together to form practically everything we observe and interact with. Some interesting questions are: “What hold atoms together?” and “Why are molecules formed?” and “What gives things their shape?” The answers are, of course, that light holds the electrons in atoms and light forms molecules and therefore determines the shape of things (light also keeps us from falling when we’re grounded). If we’re in a place without a sufficiently luminous object then we can’t see anything, but if light didn’t exist inside of us, we wouldn’t be held together and therefore wouldn’t be capable of seeing at all, we wouldn’t exist at all.
In the Bible we see references to light as something that shines so that we may see and something that deals with purity. However, I think we may find more to light than the analogy of seeing. Because of Christ we may see. But Christ is light, not merely a lamp. So by Christ we are held together and are given our form. By him all things consist and have their being.
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good….” (Genesis 1:1-4)
“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1)
“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.’” (John 8:12)
“In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” (John 1:5)
“That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:9)
“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” (Colossians 1:16-17)
When creating a spiritual analogy for the physical phenomenon of light one mostly thinks of sight and purity and possibly that light is needed in the physical world because it is the source of nearly all the energy we use and consume, among other things. However there is a necessity found in light that is far more fundamental and urgent than all of these things, and therefore I think worth mentioning.
Physically, when light is spoken of perhaps two different things are meant by it. Most commonly when we talk about light we’re talking about luminosity – that is visible light that is emitted by an object that allows us to see it as well as see other things. Light is also spoken of as electromagnetic waves, or things that are sufficiently equivalent. Now there is no difference between the two of these except that when you think of seeing something you probably don’t think of phrases like electromagnetic fields or forces or photons. However I think an important analogue can be found when thinking of these phrases.
Consider atoms, which consist of electrons and nuclei. Atoms come together to form molecules, which come together to form practically everything we observe and interact with. Some interesting questions are: “What hold atoms together?” and “Why are molecules formed?” and “What gives things their shape?” The answers are, of course, that light holds the electrons in atoms and light forms molecules and therefore determines the shape of things (light also keeps us from falling when we’re grounded). If we’re in a place without a sufficiently luminous object then we can’t see anything, but if light didn’t exist inside of us, we wouldn’t be held together and therefore wouldn’t be capable of seeing at all, we wouldn’t exist at all.
In the Bible we see references to light as something that shines so that we may see and something that deals with purity. However, I think we may find more to light than the analogy of seeing. Because of Christ we may see. But Christ is light, not merely a lamp. So by Christ we are held together and are given our form. By him all things consist and have their being.
posted at 10:09 PM
3 Comments:
This is amazing. To think that the first thing God created was light, and then He used that very light to make all other things. Atoms exist only because light holds them together. So all things are held together by light. Christ is the light holding us all together. This is all a little repetitive but it's blowing my mind.
um...wow. this is definitely something i'm going to be thinking about for a good while. thanks, joseph for painting a bigger picture of Jesus.
There is a believer (who happens to be an engineer) at my work who told me of this very thing you speak of and I was seeking out more on this subject and came to your site. May I say you give a very insightful explanation on this subject, which in turn brings out greater meaning in the scriptures concerning Christ as the light. Thank you for increasing my faith through explainining this difficult subject in an "enlightening" way. This is definitely a subject to meditate upon for continuing edification. God bless you, Sam
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