What's So Special About Earth?

With the implosion and destruction of Busch Stadium in St. Louis scheduled for after the baseball season in the Fall of 2005, I thought I would republish an article I wrote many years ago. Here it is.
The latest news from science is that astronomers have discovered what appear to be planets around stars that are comparatively close to earth. No telescopes have actually spotted these planets, of course. They are too small to be seen with present magnifications. But scientists assume that they are there because the gravitational actions between them and the parent stars can be calculated. Are these really planets and could they really be livable by creatures like us – or very much NOT like us?
This announcement of other apparent planets renews the old question of whether there is life out there in the universe besides us. It also gets us thinking about comparative sizes in the universe. Is the earth really special in God’s plan? Why was man put on THIS insignificant planet instead of some other place? What about the SIZE of everything? Isn’t the earth pretty puny in size compared to our solar system? To our galaxy? To the KNOWN universe? What about the SIZE of man? Couldn’t God have made us a little larger? Wouldn’t it have been a lot easier to obey God’s orders to “subdue” the earth if He had just made us a little larger than the trees and mountains around us?
Aren’t you glad you don’t live in the time of the dinosaurs? “Subduing” so many creatures larger by far than man is a real problem.
AND SO I ASK: WHAT ABOUT THE PHYSICAL SIZE OF MAN AND THE EARTH IN RELATION TO THE UNIVERSE?
“It is the glory of God to CONCEAL a thing [how great the universe is in size]; but the honor of kings is to SEARCH OUT A MATTER [inquire, look, observe, find out]. The heaven for HEIGHT [how high is up?], and the earth for DEPTH [how far is down?],…(Proverbs 25:2-3). This indicates that man is to SEARCH OUTWARD away from himself and INWARD within his make-up.
Modern man has invented two tools of science for examining the world around him: the telescope and the microscope. Crude forms of magnifying glasses existed in man’s early cultures, but not until 1600AD were the compound lens type telescopes and microscopes invented. Man has steadily improved the magnification and focus on detail in both instruments.
I have visited the world’s largest sun telescope in Tucson, Arizona atop Kitt Peak National Observatory. The main body of the telescope is 500 feet long and 40 feet in diameter. It is used primarily for studies of our sun, but it also probes the planets of our solar system. If there were no curvature of the earth between Tucson and New York City, this telescope could easily make out a man on top of the Empire State Building. With the power of instruments like this, man has established that the universe is at least 20 billion light years in diameter.
You may have heard many times the mind boggling comparisons of size and distance in the heavens. You have probably less often considered sizes as man looks inward by means of the microscope, on what might be called inner space as opposed to outer space. The present practical limit for an optical microscope is 2,500 times magnification. This is like taking a half dollar and spreading it out the size of Busch Stadium in St. Louis and walking over it to check every detail. But this is just a start toward magnification. Scientists now have electron microscopes which can magnify two million times!
A good way to think about this is what could that same half dollar cover at this magnification. Well…if you laid the eastern edge of the coin at Busch Stadium in downtown St. Louis, where would the opposite edge lay? You would have to get in your car, travel west on interstate 44, head on out toward the city limits – but keep going – go past Kirkwood, past Valley Park, past Eureka, past Six-Flags Amusement Park – oh don’t stop yet! Past Pacific, past Union, past St. Clair and stop at Sullivan, Missouri. This would be the opposite rim of the coin … 63 miles in diameter!! Imagine what detail you could discover on THIS COIN! And how long it would take to really explore it.
This allows us now to start distinguishing between individual molecules and atoms. As we explore molecules and atoms, it appears that ALL matter is internally constructed of miniature galaxies and solar systems. In God’s material creation whether it is a giant solar system of sun and planets or a single atom of hydrogen or oxygen, the basic overall plan of God seems to be NUCLEAR CORE WITH ORBITING PARTICLES! God seems to have made everything in the material creation, large or small, out of a nuclear core with orbiting particles. This has even required us to invent new units of measurement for length and time. A FIRMI is a measurement of length equal to the diameter of the nucleus of the hydrogen atom! A JIFFY is the length of time for light to travel the distance of one firmi!
Revelation 5:10 says that man is to reign on the earth. But what IS so special about the earth? Revelation 21:2 says that God actually brings His seat of government TO the earth. It sounds like there is SOMETHING special about the earth, doesn’t it? Isaiah 51:16 states that we are to “plant” the heavens; to establish worlds under God’s government “out there”.
Is it possible that in choosing the dwelling place for man and the size assigned to man who is to “inherit all things”, God selected the planet at the point of division which is the MEAN or middle size between the greatest and the smallest in creation? Think about it! From the earth as his abode and vantage point, man can look in EITHER direction. Through the telescope peering into the heavens, he beholds the INFINITY OF GREATNESS. Through the microscope, he inspects the INFINITY OF SMALLNESS. But in either direction, man has never yet been able to view the farthest reaches of space!
There was a science fiction movie in the 70’s called the “Fantastic Voyage”. In the movie an important and highly intelligent scientist is discovered to have an inoperable brain tumor. With a machine able to reduce the size of anything, a submarine with a crew of scientists is reduced small enough to enter the blood stream in order to flow to the brain where they can use laser rays to destroy the tumor from the inside. The picture had fantastic special effects of what it looks like inside different areas of the body.
“God has put ALL [outer and inner space] things in subjection under man’s feet…God left nothing that is not put under him. But we do not see yet all things put under him [we don’t yet have a body capable of traveling into outer and inner space].” (Hebrews 2:8). Man’s destiny in the God family is to control or govern the whole universe. We have all probably meditated on what it would be like to travel and deal with what can be seen in a telescope, but we need also to expand our thinking in the other direction. If man is a MEAN or average size, then there is a whole universe which can be seen in a microscope and beyond which is also to be included in the government of God. In other words, when we think of the material universe, we really should think not only of the “outer space” of solar systems and galaxies; but also of “inner space’ with its molecules and atoms.
So now, if we are destined to “plant” or establish worlds under God’s government in outer space, are we also going to “plant’ the reaches of “inner space”? This is part of the universe too. Who knows? Speculation? Sure. But a speculation built on man’s steady progression of discovery of the universe. This business of inner and outer space is a tough concept. But if we correlate our knowledge of God’s plan that mankind is destined to rule the whole universe with Him, then we gain God’s understanding with our science and its instruments.
In our present mixed up world, a rich man has paid 20 million dollars to the Russians so that he could orbit the earth in a space vehicle for a few days. His desire not to be earth-bound was so great that he just had to do this. Upon his return to earth, he stated that his journey was even more spectacular than he had expected.
You and I as members of God’s family are going to travel in ways that will make his earth orbit seem insignificant. In our total spirit existence after death, you and I will almost instantly be able to go from one end of the universe to the other. The speed of light will have no meaning to us. We will travel out within the hugeness of the universe and also to “inner space” down within the molecules and atoms. What a thrilling existence!
So when you see Busch Stadium implode and the 96 arches in rotation tumble to the ground, think about how I have used the stadium in my size comparisons. Speculate about God’s universe.
Some speculations are provable now. Others must wait to the proven when we are total spirit members of the family of God. But speculation serves a purpose. It EXPANDS our minds into thinking about the afterlife will be like. This is not day-dreaming! This is not escapism! This is not wasting your time. We should think about God’s ultimate goal for us. Let’s give our worldly thoughts some real competition for a change. Then when our real test of faith comes, whatever it may be, we’ll KNOW where our loyalties and desires really lie: WITH GOD AND HIS AWESOME UNIVERSE.

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