How Great Thou Art! Part 3
Mass and Energy
Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity gives the relationship between mass and energy and shows that they can be changed into each other. The equation, e = mc² is the basic principle behind the atomic bomb.
The first atom bomb, dropped on Hiroshima at the end of WW2, derived its energy by converting mass to heat and light energy. Have you ever wondered how much mass was converted to energy? Here's the answer: "The amount of matter converted to energy in the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was about 700 milligrams, less than one-third the mass of a U.S. dime." [1] Approximately 700 milligrams of matter in the bomb, when converted into the active energy of heat and radiation, exploded with the energy of 16 kilotons of TNT. It has been estimated that 130,000 to 150,000 people had died as a result of its use by the end of December 1945.
But e=mc² is a reversible equation. (In May of 2014 British researchers proposed a way of reversing previous nuclear physics experiments to produce matter from light.) So, if 700 mg of mass produced the energy of Hiroshima, then the energy of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima would be required to produce 700 mg of mass—one adult dose of aspirin! How much energy would it take to produce one brick? Or your house?
Next time you sit in church count the bricks in the wall and try to imagine the energy required to produce the mass in just one wall.
When God spoke the world into existence, He didn’t create one aspirin, one brick, one house, or even one world. Our complete solar system comprises just a tiny speck in the whole observable universe. Where did all the energy come from to create it all?
Psalm 33:6, says “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.” Just by His word! What awesome power He has. That’s the power Jesus was referring to in Matt. 28:18 when He said, “All power is given unto me … therefore go.”
By every indication, the size of the universe is infinite—it has no limit. Scientists have estimated the number of stars in the universe. In 2010 a study by Yale astronomer Pieter van Dokkum took the estimated number of stars in the universe—100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, or 100 sextillion—and tripled it. And they are constantly discovering more stars. Yet in Jeremiah 33:22, God says “the stars of the sky cannot be counted.” Is this a problem to God? Psalm 147:4 says, “He tells the number of the stars; he calls them all by their names.” Isaiah 40:12 says he measures the expanse of heaven with the span of his hand.
"Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?" (Isaiah 40:12 NIV)
Is the universe of infinite size? When we come to the end of the known universe, beyond that is either nothing or something. If nothing, then that nothingness must continue forever. If there is something there, then it is not the end. So, either there is something forever or nothing forever. In either case, there is no limit to the universe.
If this is so, if the size of the universe is infinite, then by e= mc² the power of God must be infinite. It would take infinite power to create an infinite amount of mass.
Who did this? Who created all this? Who had the power to make everything.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." (John 1:1-3)
"The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him." (Colossians 1:15 & 16)
This is the same Jesus who humbled himself to be born of a virgin, lived an unassuming life, and then, he who had the power to create everything by the breath of his mouth, submitted to being nailed to a cross and died to save me from my sins. Wow!
And when I think, that God, His Son not sparing
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing
He bled and died to take away my sin
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
[1] https://questions-permanently.com/qa/how-much-mass-was-converted-to-energy-in-the-hiroshima-bomb.html