First of all, the consistency in the Bible we are talking about means that God shows us through the Bible that it is consistent. We can see many but limited such examples. We can also see that the day mentioned in God’s command to Adam is the same as one single day like we are talking about right now. Second, we know that the creation of the present world was completed on the seventh day, so Jesus said “My Father is working until now,” which means that God is continuing the salvation plan mentioned in the prophecy of Genesis until near the end of the book of Revelation when He will rest from all work. We represent what happens in sequence in Figure 1 and illustrate a wrong interpretation in Figure 2. Finally, we use an example to illustrate that if the four-dimensional space exists, it is easy to explain the verses in the given example without any need of faith. But Christians must live in faith and believe that the Bible says so. There are many examples of this kind, which leads to the contradiction to the requirements of needing the faith, so we can see with confidence that the fourth dimension does not exist.
1. An example of the consistency in the Bible
We can see an example of this by looking at a word used in Genesis. In God’s direct command to Adam, “…saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.””(Genesis 2:16-17)
Let’s look at the original text numbered H3117 of ‘in the day (H3117).’ We know that Eve was seduced by the serpent, and finally Eve “…took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”(Genesis 3:6) Because of Adam’s disobedience to God, it is said, “Therefore, just as through one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, …”(Romans 5:12) In the article entitled ‘2063 Introduction to Christian Faith,’ we talked about the reason why sin equals disobedience to God. After they sinned in disobedience, the outcome was “therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So He drove the man out; …” (Genesis 3:23-24) Of course Eve was cast out on the same day (H3117). Since the first verse of Chapter 4 talks about the life driven out of the Garden of Eden, God’s original will is introduced in the first three chapters of Genesis.
We know that man has three parts: spirit, soul, and body, just like what said in the scripture, “…may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, …” (1 Thessalonians 5:23) If a person who truly believes that the Bible is inspired by God will not discount the words of the Bible, and will know this clearly. Likewise, we know that “So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died.”(Genesis 5:5) Therefore, when he ate the fruit, his soul and body were still alive, because the soul leaves the body and people must die, as said in the verse, “…Rachel began to give birth and she suffered severe labor. …It came about as her soul was departing (for she died), …”(Genesis 35:16-18) So God’s command refers to the death of the spirit, which means being expelled from the Garden of Eden that day, Adam can no longer actively communicate with God. So we can see that the word H3117 in the command of God refers to the present day, how consistent the Bible is!
If we believe that the word H3117 in the original text of the first three chapters of Genesis has the same meaning, we know that this refers to one day and that there is evening and morning. Note that I haven’t looked at all the scriptures that have this word, and can’t claim that all of the scriptures use this word in this way. It is as if we have seen many examples, all of which are consistent with what God told us through the Bible (the consistency in the Bible). By assuming this is true for the whole Bible, we will think along this direction, and so far I have not found a single counterexample about the consistency in the Bible. No matter what, we are unlikely to see all the examples in the Bible, and we can only assume that the consistency in the Bible is a logical axiom, and use the words of the Bible to deduce the corresponding results (theorems).
2. My Father is working until now
The scriptures make it very clear, “But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.””(John 5:17) But the book of Genesis says, “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”(Genesis 2:1-3) Indeed, all the “creation work” was completed on the seventh day, not only clearly stated, but we see in the verse, “Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.”(Genesis 2:15) God has given Adam a mission and handed over all the completed work to Adam! It’s just that Adam didn’t keep a good watch, and Eve was successfully tempted by the snake, and he himself didn’t obey God either. He was kicked out of the Garden of Eden that day and had no chance to cultivate it!
What He is still working on now is the salvation plan prophesied in the book of Genesis, “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”(Genesis 3:15) The seed of the woman refers to Jesus Christ, because the scriptures say, “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ.”(Galatians 3:16) We have seen the scriptures also say, “For we do not have a high priest (Jesus Christ) who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”(Hebrews 4:15) So the snake (Satan) can only hurt his heel, to tempt him. Whereas a head wound is fatal, the plan of salvation that Jesus accomplished was the fatal blow to the serpent. The Bible does not say when the plan of salvation began, but we know that “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways.”(Hebrews 1:1) And Enoch is the earliest prophet, because the scriptures make it clear, “It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones.””(Jude 14)
The situation before the creation of the world can be known from this scripture, “God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.” (Exodus 3:14) God existed before the creation of time, and we do not know how long. Now the Trinity God is still working because of salvation, so it will not be until the end of the book of Revelation that God really stops all His work. The Bible does not say how long it was from the creation of time to the creation of our present world, only that before the creation of the present world, “The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.”(Genesis 1:2) So we can use Figure 1 to show what happens in sequence.
Figure 1: Schematic diagram of what happened from the beginning to the end
I didn’t notice before that Genesis 2:3 refers to the completion of the creation of the world. I thought that Jesus said in John 5:17, “My Father is working until now” means that the creation of the world is still being done, so I think we are still on the sixth day. At this time, the plan of salvation in this case can only be represented by a circle. As mentioned in the second Figure 2 shown the error, the size of the circle is unknown, because in the plan of salvation, it is not known when Jesus will return, so the size of the circle represents the length of the plan of salvation.
Figure 2: Schematic diagram of the error
Therefore, according to the Bible, Figure 1 is the correct schematic diagram, and there is no circle as shown in Figure 2. The plan of salvation in Figure 1 is represented by dotted lines because the length is unknown as we do not know when Jesus will return.
3. The non-existence of four-dimensional space in faith
Because for God, there is no difference between time and space. There are two times in the Old Testament that shows God can control time. One is at the era of Joshua as the verse says, “Then Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, “O sun, stand still at Gibeon, And O moon in the valley of Aijalon.” So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, Until the nation avenged themselves of their enemies. Is it not written in the book of Jashar? And the sun stopped in the middle of the sky and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day.”(Joshua 10:12-13) The other time is at the era of Hezekiah, “So Hezekiah answered, “It is easy for the shadow to decline ten steps; no, but let the shadow turn backward ten steps.” Isaiah the prophet cried to the Lord, and He brought the shadow on the stairway back ten steps by which it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.”(2 Kings 20:10-11) Therefore, some people regard time as a dimension, so the existing three-dimensional space plus the dimension of time is four-dimensional to God, but we live in three-dimensional space, and time can only move forward. So here we don’t talk about time, just talk about pure space, and briefly explain why the four-dimensional space does not exist in faith.
First of all, we see that there is no Christian without faith. For example, Christians believe that both the Old and New Testaments are inspired by God despite the fact that when Paul said “All Scripture is inspired by God…”(2 Timothy 3:16) some of the New Testament such as the book of Revelation weren’t written yet. For true believers, they will not discount the words of the original Bible. The original version of the Bible refers to the only first version of the Bible. For example, in 2 Thessalonians 3:17 Paul wrote, “I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand, and this is a distinguishing mark in every letter; this is the way I write.”(2 Thessalonians 3:17) The original version of the Bible refers to this one, and the rest are at most manuscripts in the original language or translations of the Bible. Errors are inevitable, so we will have different versions. I believe that God has already considered it when He inspired the Bible. It is impossible for the original version of the Bible to be handed down word for word. Since a certain way of writing that will automatically correct errors can be used, we will propose such a way of writing, which everyone can understand, in a book to come. We are not saying that the Bible is written in the proposed way, but that even humans can come up with such a way of writing, God must have thought about this issue more thoroughly.
Although the original version of the Bible has been lost and no one has read it, some scriptures are not controversial. For example, the Bible says, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”(Isaiah 55:8-9) In the New Testament, “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.”(Ephesians 3:20) How can we ask for what we can’t even think? It must be God’s initiative. Christians believe in faith that these verses are true because the Bible says so and no other reason.
Let’s use Isaiah 55:8-9 to briefly explain why the four-dimensional space does not exist in faith. If the four-dimensional space exists, we can easily explain these scriptures without any need for faith! We can see this from Figure 3. In Figure 3(A), the green mountain represents where we are now, the red dot below the blue mountain represents our destination, and our current position is represented by a black dot, so we now have to decide whether to go right in the direction of the red arrow or left in the direction of the blue arrow. Most people, or almost everyone, would reasonably choose to go to the right, because they can see the destination and look closer. If someone is on a helicopter and can see the bird’s-eye view in Figure 3(B), the red color represents the road to the right with the red arrow, and the blue color represents the road to the left with the blue arrow. If it is shown in Figure 3(B), it is in this case very clear to choose the blue direction to the left. In analogy, the Holy Spirit is equivalent to the person who is in the helicopter in the three-dimensional space, and we are equivalent to the person who has to choose the direction. The Holy Spirit of the Trinity God can definitely see more clearly than us, so with the existence of four-dimensional space, we can easily explain these scriptures without necessarily believing in what the Bible says.
Figure 3: The actual situation in 3D space and the bird’s-eye view of 2D space
Therefore, as long as the four-dimensional space exists, Christians can explain many things without faith. This is contradictory to Christians who has to believe in faith. Therefore, the four-dimensional space does not exist in faith. Practically speaking, high-dimensional space only exists in mathematical derivation. We live in three-dimensional space. No one has ever been to a space with more than three dimensions, and there is no way to prove the existence of the space with more than three dimensions by experiment.
(Verses refer to those in NASB unless otherwise specified.)
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