The Atomic Glue

Apostle Paul goes on to describe the work of Jesus.

"For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him." 
(Colossians 1:16)

Apostle Paul is proclaiming here when he says that Jesus is the "creator of all things...things were made by him." Now, as this verse goes on to say, that includes more than merely the material universe around us: more than stars, galaxies, superstars, planets, and solar systems, or even trees, grass, mountains and seas. It includes the earth, Paul says, but also heaven. Both the visible and the invisible. It would also include all forces. Electricity was invented by Jesus (not as a man, but as the Eternal Son) before the creation of the world. It would include radiation, magnetism, and the peculiar and mysterious dance of electrons from one level of energy to another within the atom that makes light. All this was the design of the Eternal Son.

But not only forces, but concepts and attitudes as well: grace, mercy, truth, love, and life itself. Jesus is the originator of all life. And, as Paul specifies here, a whole pantheon of invisible beings (and their visible counterparts in earthly government): "thrones and rulers and powers and authorities"---all were created by him. The Colossian heresy here becomes visible in our modern experience as well. The Colossians began to believe, because of the Greek teachers among them, that the universe consisted of a "hierarchy of angels." One must begin down at the bottom, with raunchy, unpleasant angels, and work one's way up through the whole hierarchy to the good angels and, finally, to God. From that idea has come the eastern concept of reincarnation for that too was part of the Colossian heresy.

We find a counterpart today, not only in the theory of reincarnation, but also in horoscopes and astrology---the idea of stars influencing and governing our lives. The claim that Transcendental Meditation is the means of getting in touch with invisible beings is another example. We are told that there are Astral Teachers and Divine Masters who appear from time to time to impart degrees of knowledge to the human race. Gradually, we are told, this is to result, after centuries and centuries of progress, in our being lost in the Divine presence. All this is nothing new. It is very old, but it is also new, appearing again and again in history. This is what the apostle labors to correct. He is telling the Colossians, "Jesus is above all angels. You are freed from bondage to these lesser beings when you see the true authority and power of your risen Lord."


Jesus controls space and history:
"He is before all things, and in him all things hold together." (Colossians 1:17)

"He is before all things," means he is outside his own creation; he was there first.

When Paul uses the phrase, "all things by him hold together," he is speaking of our Lord's power to sustain and to prevent breakdown. The scientists who work on the great linear accelerator (a relatively small instrument) at Stanford University, trying to smash the atom apart, know that it takes incredible power.

A Stanford University Professor said: "The power to operate this instrument, is equivalent to all the electricity it takes to run the city of San Francisco."

Something holds the atom together with enormous, incredible power. That power, according to the Word of God (both here in Colossians and in the letter to the Hebrews is vested in Jesus. He has the authority to rule as Sovereign. He has the power to sustain, because he is the Eternal Son.

If you have a magnet in your right hand a magnet in your left hand, and you push the positive ends towards each other, they push away. Opposite charges attract; like charges repel.  But here’s a great mystery: in the nucleus of the atom, protons are packed together which are all positive-charged particles.

What keeps these positive-charged protons from repelling like the magnets? What holds them together? Science doesn’t know.  You can study quantum physics and learn lots of hypotheses and theories, yet to this day, it’s a mystery to scientists, but not to Christians, for Scriptures tells us the real answers.  It is Jesus Christ who holds all things together.  And the day is coming when, suddenly, He will let go…

	“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in
	which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and
	the elements shall melt with intense heat, the earth and its
	works will be burned up.”  (II Peter 3:10)


This was written before man knew anything about nuclear physics or about an atomic reaction could actually melt the basic building blocks of matter itself.  God was prophesying how the world would end.


But now we know if the “atomic glue” which holds the atom together were to suddenly disappear, everything would dissolve in zillion degree “intense heat” accompanied by a “great noise” so powerful and quick it wouldn’t even be heard.

	
The most astonishing phenomenon today is to see men who work with this physical universe, who intimately observe the beauty, order, and power inherent in the natural world as well as in the world of humanity, yet who fail to see the Power behind it all; the ordered Intelligence that possesses and originates all these things. It is difficult to understand a man like Carl Sagan can work in the field of astronomy, knowing of the great secrets that are now coming to light in the universe, and yet go on breathing air which God has supplied, eating the food with which God has stocked this earth, and relying moment by moment on a heartbeat whose continuation rests in the will of Someone other than himself, yet can busy himself telling us that only man matters! 

