Replies

Thank you so much for your reply, dear Seven_0!

me: By the way, the speed limit of the universe - the speed of light - does not apply to comoving coordinates. There was a phase in the inflation of the universe, when space/time itself expanded faster than the speed of light.

you: I don’t know what this means or who could have observed it. I remember doing problems where we had to calculate times and distances from different points of view. As you increase your speed, distance shrinks. That’s part of the speed limit.

God alone could be the observer in the beginning and only He could have seen the big bang – the early phase in which the expansion of space/time would have exceeded the speed of light (inflationary model.)

The calculations you remember may have to do with Lorentz contraction and time dilation in Special Relativity. Here’s a link to my favorite graphic explanation of Special Relativity.

The essential difference between Special Relativity and General Relativity is that the former looks at space/time as an evenly distributed hypercube whereas the latter sees the structure of space/time as warped.

For instance, higher gravity regions (e.g. earth and sun) can be visualized as indentations in space/time. Thus a spaceship must achieve “escape velocity” to emerge from the well. Even light bends under the influence of these regions.

Centers of galaxies, black holes, etc. are particularly intense high gravity regions. The indentation of a black hole is so deep geometrically speaking that even light cannot achieve escape velocity. (Black holes do however experience entropy but that’s a different subject.)

The remaining critical density (75%) is the region between galaxies which is proposed by some to include negative gravity – or space/time “outdents” which would accelerate the expansion of the universe.

Following the equivalence principle, the higher the gravity, the deeper the indentation in space/time, the slower time moves for the observer. Conversely, the smaller the gravity, the smoother the space/time, the faster time moves for the observer. And of course, if gravity were negative, space/time would outdent causing the observer to be moved without acceleration.

Another way to visualize it would be to imagine yourself at rest, sitting there in the beginning when the big bang occurs. Suddenly space/time is created and rapidly expands creating space/time as it goes. You are moving even though you are doing nothing at all.

Conversely, if space/time were to fold with you sitting there at rest, doing nothing – suddenly you would find yourself at a different space/time coordinate, i.e. a different time and place.

I must also mention here that there are theories of additional dimensions of space and most notably, of time (Vafa, Wesson.) If the extra time-like dimension is expanded, then time which we experience as linear (past, present, future) would actually be a plane or volume.

In such theories, past present and future (from our perspective) are actually concurrent to an observer with extra-dimensional perception. IOW, whereas he would have remarkable perception to see the past and the future, he would still not be able to see "all that there is" all at once because he would still be "in" space/time.

Only God can see "all that there is" all at once. Timelessness applies in our mediation on His Name, I AM.

me: The "surely die" is translated from the Hebrew phrase "muwth muwth" which is literally "death death." I understand this to be not merely physical death, but the second death as well. In other words, the penalty was not just physical death for Adamic man (all of us) but also the second death.

You: I did not know this. Perhaps there is another explanation. Perhaps Christ’s death on the cross was so we would not go through the second death. When Christ dismissed the spirit, did he also dismiss the body?

Everything that physically lives, physically dies. War does not cause death, it merely hastens it. Medical marvels do not save lives, they merely delay the inevitable.

Truly, it’s not “about” our physical bodies which must physically come to an end:

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. - Romans 8:2

And if Christ [be] in you, the body [is] dead because of sin; but the Spirit [is] life because of righteousness. - Romans 8:10

So also [is] the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam [was made] a quickening spirit. – I Corinthians 15:42-45

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. - Colossians 3:3

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. - Galatians 2:20

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. - John 1:12-13

That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. – John 3:6-7

It is “about” Christ’s body and His blood which was essential for our redemption and establishment as adopted children of God.

Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption [for us].

For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions [that were] under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

For where a testament [is], there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.

For a testament [is] of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. Whereupon neither the first [testament] was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, Saying, This [is] the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.

And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

[It was] therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. – Hebrews 9:12-23

Thus, I would agree that when Christ dismissed the spirit He also surrendered His own body to that purpose. This was the necessary step in the reconciliation:

Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether [they be] thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all [things] he might have the preeminence. For it pleased [the Father] that in him should all fulness dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, [I say], whether [they be] things in earth, or things in heaven.– Colossians 1:15-20

And because Christ is God, the sacrifice is timeless - it applies over all of time. He is always the Lamb of God and He is always the Lion of Tribe of Judah:

And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. – Revelation 5:5-6

And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. – Revelation 13:8

Only God enfleshed as Jesus could accomplish this (Isaiah 53, Psalms 22):

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. – Isaiah 9:6

To God be the glory!