"And Time Shall Be No More..."

Do you remember, as a child, looking up into the sky and asking yourself the question, "Where does space end?"  Nobody other than a physicist can come even close to answering that question, and even they have difficulty explaining what, if anything, lies beyond the theoretical end of space.  For most of us, the concept of that end is inconceivable, and I humbly count myself in this number.  Surely something, probably more space, lies beyond.  Maybe it's heaven.  Perhaps the end of space is the Pearly Gates.  As ordinary human beings, we are generally restricted in our thoughts to that which we can see, hear, and touch. "We see the stars, we hear the rolling thunder," we can touch the rain.  Our sight is limited to the three dimension of height, width, and depth, so naturally when children look into the night sky that first great philosophical question concerning the depth of space occurs to them.  Modern physicists agree that there are probably 11 dimensions, possibly more, and multiple universes.  Please excuse me if I can not quite wrap my mind around that concept, but I am going to attempt to address a fourth dimension, time.

I remember sitting in a middle school science class, and hearing Mr. Barnes explain how Albert Einstein had come up with a theory about time and space.  According to Mr. Einstein, time and space are interwoven into a kind of fabric, and that light, other matter, and time itself can be manipulated, warped, slowed, or even stopped!  He called it the "General Theory of Relativity."  Woah!

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Flash forward to a scenic two lane highway in North Mississippi, a couple of weeks ago.  I like to sing as I drive, and I especially like "old timey" hymns.  I was in the middle of "When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder" when I was halted in mid-verse by a sudden thought.  Heretofore, I had assumed that only the most gifted among us could grasp the concept of the end of time itself, and that only in the context of some sort of gigantic cataclysm of a hugely destructive physical nature, like a Black Hole or a Supernova.  I don't know how I missed it all those years, but here, in the simple words of one of our most beloved gospel tunes, was the evidence that theologians, preachers, song writers, and just plain folks have possessed a grasp of the time/space concept long before physicists put it to a mathematical equation.

Ok, so terminology such as "the trumpet of the lord", or the morning dawning "eternal, bright, and fair" don't exactly qualify as empirical scientific terminology; and I firmly believe that pure science is one way in which God reveals to us specific snippets of his mind, in increments that He feels we can handle.  I use the word "specifics", because I am also of the opinion that the basic concepts concerning time and space have already been revealed to us, albeit on a level which we can all understand. 

As Christians, we are all taught that there is a heaven, and that there is an eternity.  Space and Time.  When we reach Heaven, our eternity begins.  We can throw away our watches, because we won't have schedules or deadlines to meet.  We won't need Inspectors or Realtors, either, or even a roof over our head, although the idea of having a mansion is a nice thought.  My point is simply this:  at that point in "time" when we reach the proverbial Pearly Gates, whatever their construct may be, time, for us, will simply stop.  A further point is that no matter how much is revealed to us concerning the specifics of time and space from a scientific point of view, that simplest of concepts still holds true.  James M. Black wrote "When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder" in 1893, long predating Einstein's theory or the subsequent theory of Quantum Mechanics, and essentially addresses those same issues of time and space....only in a manner which any child can understand.

So, we can all take comfort.  Whether we are bombarded by gamma rays, or blasted into "oblivion" by a rock from space matters not.  If human existence on this third rock survives until the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way become inextricably intertwined, the basic fact won't change.  We may become colonizers of the universe, folding space and utilizing worm holes to get from one galaxy to another in the blink of an eye.  But for us as individuals, when our mortal existence comes to an end, we will have come full circle, and time shall be no more.