By Neil Earle
"Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise ... to boldly go where no-one has gone before."
These now iconic lines from the original Star Trek television series that debuted in 1966 and went off the air 79 episodes later in 1969 are a staple of the popular culture. Resurrected in UHF reruns in the 1970s, Star Trek now lives on in almost perpetual re-syndication. The 1979 Star Trek: The Motion Picture spawned nine movie sequels and the televised adaptations are even more well-known. The current revival looks like a monster hit already.
For my money the most intriguing in the series was Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989). Though it had been playing lightly with our spiritual sensibilities for decades, this episode directly introduced the subject of God. A renegade Vulcan (a humanoid who prizes logic over emotion) took over the Enterprise and set out on the ultimate quest for the answers to life beyond "the Great Barrier." His quest was to finally find God. There was one fundamental wrinkle in the script, however, which became obvious. In a discussion with the captain at the end of the film, McCoy, the starship's doctor asked, "Do you think he (God) is really out there somewhere?"
This is a common assumption. Many believe that by travelling far far enough into deep space – at warp speed, perhaps – an enterprising space traveler might find God. The theological problem with this idea is that it assumes that God is part of the physical creation, this time-bound universe of space and matter. But that is not what Scripture reveals. Next question: What does the Bible tell us about God as he really is, God in his divine state?
First, Scripture clearly shows the God of the Bible is not like us – enfleshed in physical matter and trapped in time and space. It reveals an Almighty One who is the majestic and transcendent Creator of the entire physical realm and who stands serenely outside our time-bound dimensions. "By the word of Yahweh the heavens were made, their whole array by the breath of his mouth ...He spoke, and it was created; he commanded, and there it stood" (Psalm 33:6-9, The Jerusalem Bible). Indeed, the God of ancient Israel utterly transcends time and space. His majesty and might is in fact evidenced by the material universe we see around us. "The heavens declare the glory of Yahweh, the vault of heaven proclaims his handiwork; day discourses of it today, night to night hands on knowledge. ..." (Psalm 19:1-20).
The fact is that the truth about the Great God is much more striking and out of this world than even the imaginative writers of Star Trek could fathom. The one the Hebrews called Yahweh Elohim (Lord God) is not a physical entity in any way, shape or form. Bible writers tell us he is utterly unlike anything our minds can conceive. John 4:24 tells us that "God is Spirit.” This means that the Creator God is not restricted to our earth-bound parameters of time and space. Time has no meaning to Yahweh. It is, as Thoreau said, merely the stream he goes fishing in. "The being of God is character by a depth, a fullness, a variety, and a glory far beyond our comprehension," Louis Berkof wrote in Systematic Theology, "and the Bible represents it as a glorious harmonious whole, without any inherent contradictions."
We can’t be too hard on Star Trek V for presenting a limited, human-centered concept of God. The simple fact is that the Creator of all is so great that we all have trouble explaining who he is. It’s like the great Victorian preacher C.H. Spurgeon wrote years ago: “There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep that our pride is drowned in its infinity…Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of Deity.”
The real Search for God – the theological effort to set forth Yahweh in his essential being – is an exciting quest. It has been going on for centuries and has occupied some of the most brilliant minds who have ever lived. Augustine, Luther, Newton, Einstein, Hawking – they’ve all taken shots at it. It is a much more significant venture than the science fiction scenarios of the popular culture.
Even an introductory study of the science of God makes us all more aware of how worthy the Almighty One of Scripture is of our worship, our adoration and our praise.
The Old Testament (and much of the New) writes of Yahweh in human-centered terms. It is important not to let that throw us off the scent for the teaching is as beautiful as it is mystifying:
"Yahweh smelt the appeasing fragrance and said to himself, 'Never again will I curse the earth because of man, because his heart contrives evil from his infancy. Never again will I strike down every living thing as I have done" (Genesis 8:21, The Jerusalem Bible);
"... How often have I longed to gather your children, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings..." (Matthew 23:37, The Jerusalem Bible).
This style of writing has a name. It is called the "anthropomorphic style" (from the words anthropos, "man," and morphe, "form" or "shape"). This anthropomorphic style is vitally necessary. It is the only way we humans can begin to understand God’s basic character and intentions as he works with his creation. Through human-centered language God has generously accommodated himself to our inability to understand his greatness and transcendence. Thus, even the way the Scriptures are written is but one more reflection of his tender love and concern, his desire to be understood by his creation.
In searching our Yahweh it is vital to know this: most of Scripture is in popular language, not the language of philosophers. The New Testament is written in what has been called “marketplace Greek,” the language of the average person. Reading the Scriptures with this kind of awareness is an important means of getting below the text, digging deeper in the attempt to see God as he really is. As has been wisely said: “He is not just an enlarged man…Nevertheless, He may still be presented in human categories and in terms of human attributes" (International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, Volume 1).
To the Hebrews of the Old Testament Yahweh was their Rock, their Shepherd, their Fortress, their High Tower (Psalm 18:2; 23:1). But the true God is obviously not a tower or a rock. To New Testament Christians in the Greek cities of Asia Minor the apostle Paul presented a more exalted picture of "one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4:6). This is going a bit more boldly than the Old Testament had gone. A Rock or a Tower does not have the capacity to function this way. That is why the key revelation that Yahweh is Spirit enables us to fathom more of his essential attributes.
The New Testament and some of the Prophets take us more into the inner nature of God.
The revelation of a tri-personal existence inside the Great God – though difficult for the human mind to grasp – alerts us to the fullness, the plenitude, the perfection of divine life residing in him (John 1:4). The apostle Paul expounded the glorious good news well knew that Christians had this very fullness to draw upon and had it residing in them already (Ephesians 3:19). This is Gospel hope. “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).
Ultimately, the great attributes of Elohim we read about in Scripture are meant to fill us with awe and thanksgiving, an unfettered trust in his sustaining power. The promise of Yahweh's abiding presence with us throughout this life – and afterwards – is the believer’s source of strength and hope. For the God who transcends time and space, the Mighty One who spoke the mighty galaxies into existence by the power of his will – this resplendent, eternally existing being can live inside of us!
"If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him make our home with him" (John 14:23).
What a promise! What a hope! What an offer! A God of parts, of physical form and shape, an energy field of the kind finally encountered in Star Trek V bound by constraints of time and space could never do this. ”Why does God need a Starship?” Kirk asks near the end. But the God of the Bible, the Mighty One who dwells within believers through the power of the Holy Spirit, he can take up residence inside us through the power of the Holy Spirit.
All over this world people have boldly gone forward on this divinely-led quest to boldly go where few have gone before, to have God Himself live inside them, to help them in their struggles, to bring them to ultimate glory. Are you one of them?