During high school, we would take trips to the library to work on various projects. I found my way to the magazine rack. I would not be looking for good articles for my research paper, no, I looked for the latest editions of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics. These magazines always had cool machines and futuristic inventions that I found very interesting.
A few years ago, I found large superconductors in Europe to be fascinating. Three hundred feet below the surface of the earth, there is a seventeen-mile ring of superconducting magnets around which two beams of particles are sent at close to the speed of light, then smashed together. Scientists are looking for particles that explain how the universe works. They want answers. Are there extra dimensions? What is this mysterious dark matter? Is there a particle that will explain how particles have mass? These scientists want to find that final piece in the standard model of physics first set out in the 1970s. In most textbooks, this particle has a name – the “God particle.” And the “God particle” continues to elude the physicists at the Large Hadron Collider.
I am a man of science. No, I am not a physicist. In fact, I am quite intimidated by physicists. My area of science is the interpretation of Scripture. Each week, I sit down and go through the discipline of interpreting the Word of God. Because I am a scientist, I do not look at the Bible through my experience, but through rules of grammar, context, and history. Through my scientific research, I have found the “God particle.” Colossians 1:16, 17 “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”
This passage tells us that Jesus Christ created and sustains all things. Why is this important? It is crucial to see God as described in the Bible—rather than as the missing, mysterious particle—because a right understanding of God takes all of my temporal problems and boils them down to one question: what is my obligation to the Creator and Sustainer of the universe? Then I know that my lifelong burden is to love God with all of my mind and power. The gospel turns that burden into pure joy. “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins,” Colossians 1:13, 14.
God is not a particle, a thing, or a force. God is a person Who has created us in His image and desires a relationship with us. God made this relationship possible by offering His Son to pay the penalty of our sin in our place. “Rescued” is the term used by the apostle Paul. I found God in the Bible – not in a superconductor.
Pastor Rick Goertzen
Countryside Bible Church – Hampton
