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A Modern Guide to Demons and Fallen
Angels
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Chapter Seven - Powers, Physics, and Science - Part 1 Next we are going to move onto the Physics. The goal of this portion is to explain how fallen angels could do these things, conceptualize their abilities, using modern physics terminology and theories. The main point of doing this is to show that science does not preclude the existence of fallen angels, nor rule out their Biblically described abilities. I believe modern science actually completely allows for fallen angels and their Biblically described abilities.All of the categories of angelic apparitions would be called supernatural events. There are some words in the Bible to describe the “supernatural” activities of God, Holy angels, and fallen angels. Greek - signs “semeion” (4592), wonders “teras” (5059), and miracles “dynamis” (1411). These same 3 words are all used in the context of: God - the power of God, in signs, wonders, and miracles that God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit through the gift of miracles, as seen throughout the Bible Angels From the Bible it is clear that God in His three persons, Holy angels, and also Fallen angels, are all capable of performing signs, wonders, and miracles. How, in physics terminology, might God work signs, wonders, and miracles? Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Eph 3:18 May be able to
comprehend with all saints what [is] the breadth, and length,
and depth, and height We live in an observably 4 dimensional universe. The universe is made of space(3) + and time(1) dimensions, of the Spacetime we can see. God made all the 3 dimensions of space that we see (length, width, and height), when God “created the heaven and the earth”. God made the dimension of time “in the beginning”, which marked the creation of time itself, the dimension of time as we know it. God is eternal, and having made time itself, God is outside of time, and was here before time was created. God has complete authority and control over the dimension of time. God also made the three dimensions of space, and is also outside of them. So, God made it all, and is outside of the entire universe, having created it. Are there more dimensions that God made, besides the 4 we can perceive? Maybe. The term “heaven” is used in several different ways
in the Bible, referring to the atmosphere, the sky, outerspace, the
place where the angels dwell, and God’s throne where the angels can go.
Although the angels can be in the presence of God, God created the
angels, as God created mankind. We are 4 dimensional in our physicality,
being made for 4 dimensions. Angels are spirits, and Jesus said after
His Resurrection in Luke 24:39: This could be taken, that truly angels are not
physical life of the 3 physical dimensions we live in, as we are.
Rather, angels are spirits of the heavenly realm, and their “bodies”
exist in another dimension, a spirit or a heaven dimension. It would
make sense that their bodies are composed of the substance of this
spirit or heaven dimension they live in, as human bodies are composed of
the stuff of the 3 physical dimensions we live in. The word in 1 Cor 15, “celestial” (epouranios 2032) means “existing in heaven”. The Bible acknowledges that there are living beings in heaven, and there can be bodies made of spirit. As our human terrestrial bodies are composed of 4-dimensional physical matter, it would make sense that living spirit or heavenly bodies would be composed of the “matter” of the realm of heaven. Angels have such heavenly bodies, and were created with such. It would make sense that there is at least a 5th dimension, if not more, and that the angels bodies are composed of the analogy to our “4d matter” in that heavenly realm. The heavenly realm might be composed of several heavenly dimensions, in the scientific sense of the term, such as a heavenly realm width, length, and height. But even if the heavenly realm is just 1 heavenly dimension, in the scientific sense of the term, heaven would still be a 5th dimension, 1 more dimension that the 4 dimensional physical world we perceive. The additional dimension(s) that the angels have bodies in, bodies which are composed of that extra dimension or dimensions, would be an extra dimension more than the 4 dimensions that we perceive. Thus it would be fair to call angels “extra-dimensional”, meaning of more dimensions than us. 1 Kings 8:27 But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded? Deut 10:14 Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens [is] the LORD'S thy God, the earth [also], with all that therein [is]. “The heaven and the heaven of heavens” is an interesting phrase, which implies no less that 4 heavens. The heaven (1) The Bible may speak of extra dimensions, even multiple extra dimensions, in relation to the heavenly realm. The phrase heaven and the heaven of the heavens may describe at least 4 heavens. If the atmosphere was the first heaven, and outerspace was a second heaven, and God’s throne was the third heaven, then there is still room for one more heaven, which could be where the angels exist when they are not at God’s throne, and the angel’s bodies could be made of the “stuff” of this heavenly dimension. It is also important to note from these scriptures, that God Himself cannot be contained within the heavens, and they are His, because God made them all. The heaven of God’s throne, where the angels can be in the presence of God, is also a dimension of heaven that God made. An additional heaven where angels exist when they are not at God’s throne is also a heaven that God made. God himself cannot be contained in any of heavens or the dimensions of heaven or earth that God made. God is therefore, not extra-dimensional. The Bible seems to say that angels are “extra-dimensional”, but God cannot be “extra-dimensional”. God is eternal, and therefore is what I call “outer-dimensional”. It’s not just that God is in another additional dimension, or dimensions, which would make God extra-dimensional, No, God is outside of dimensionality, being eternal and the Creator of everything that is, including all dimensions of heaven and earth, and everything living in them. So to coin a term, God is “outer-dimensional”. This is an important distinction between the God the Creator, and His creation. So the Bible may be interpreted to indicate that angels are extra-dimensional and have extra-dimensional bodies. What would modern physics have to say about this? Modern physics actually does include the topic of extra dimensions, and talk from scientists about extra dimensions has to do with something called “string theory” or “superstring theory”. Some branches in modern physics are well established through experiments, such as gravity, relativity, quantum mechanics, much of particle physics, electromagnetism, and the weak and strong nuclear forces. String theory is not established, but rather is an attempt to bring all these branches of the tree of physics together, to connect them, to draw and see the trunk that all the branches stem from. String theory is highly theoretical, unproven, likely improvable and unverifiable, highly mathematical, and requires 10-11 dimensions to theoretically be able to describe the trunk of the tree of modern physics. Here is quote from Lisa Randall PhD, a leading theoretical physicist and expert on particle physics, string theory, and cosmology: “How many dimensions of space are there? Do we really know? By now, I hope you would agree that it would be overreaching to claim that we know for certain that extra dimensions do not exist. We see three dimensions of space, but there could be more that we haven't yet detected. You know now that extra dimensions can be hidden either because they are curled up and small, or because spacetime is warped and gravity so concentrated in a small region that even an infinite dimension is invisible. Either way, whether dimensions are compact or localized, spacetime would appear to be four-dimensional everywhere, no matter where you are.” -Lisa Randall PhD, Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Hidden Dimensions, pg. 437 Lisa Randall is saying, according to modern physics, that there may be very large, even infinitely large, invisible dimensions that do exist, although we can only perceive the 4 dimensions of space-time. And here is a quote from Stephen Hawking Phd, one of the most famous scientists and theoretical astrophysicists of our time, commenting his thoughts on Randall’s work: If fact, in order to explain the rate in which stars orbit the center of our galaxy, it seems there must be more mass than is accounted for by matter we observe. This missing mass might arise from some exotic species of particles in our world such as WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles) or axions (very light elementary particles). But missing mass could also be evidence of the existence of a shadow world with matter in it… Instead of the extra dimensions ending on a shadow brane, another possibility is that they are infinite but highly curved, like a saddle. Lisa Randall and Raman Sundrum showed that this kind of curvature would act rather like a second brane: the gravitational influence of an object on the brane would be confined to a small neighborhood of the brane and not spread out to infinity in the extra dimensions. As in the shadow brane model, the gravitational field would have the right long-distance falloff to explain the planetary orbits and lab measurements of the gravitational force, but gravity would vary more rapidly at short distances. There is however an important difference between this Randall-Sundrum model and the shadow brane model. Bodies that move under the influence of gravity will produce gravitational waves, ripples of curvature that travel through spacetime at the speed of light. Like the electromagnetic waves of light , gravitational waves should carry energy, a prediction that has been confirmed by observations of the binary pulsar PSR1913+16. If we indeed live on a brane in a spacetime with extra dimensions, gravitational waves generated by the motion of bodies on the brane would travel off into the other dimensions. If there were a second shadow brane, gravitational waves would be reflected back and trapped between the two branes. On the other hand, if there was only a single brane and the extra dimensions went on forever, as in the Randall-Sundrum model, gravitational waves could escape altogether and carry away energy from our brane world. This would seem to breach one of the fundamental principles of physics: The Law of Conservation of Energy. The total amount of energy remains the same. However, it appears to be a violation only because our view of what is happening is restricted to the brane. An angel who could see the extra dimensions would know that the energy was the same, just more spread out.” -Stephen Hawking PhD, The Universe in a Nutshell, pgs. 184-192 While giving credence to Randall’s statement, basically Hawking says that very large extra-dimensions are possible, and would not violate the known laws of physics. In fact, their existence might help explain some rather large befuddling questions in science that are still unanswered, such as missing mass. As such, science allows for the existence of a heavenly dimension, potentially one in which angels are, and the bodies of angels could be composed of the stuff of this heavenly extra dimension. The branch of physics called quantum mechanics deals with particles which are subatomic (that is smaller than an atom). Quantum mechanics has been well-established through scientific experimentation. Unlike string theory, quantum mechanics is a field of practical experimentation. It is in quantum physics that we find the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle: In quantum physics, the
Heisenberg uncertainty principle states that certain pairs of physical
properties, like position and momentum, cannot both be known to
arbitrary precision. That is, the more precisely one property is known,
the less precisely the other can be known. It is impossible to measure
simultaneously both position and velocity of a microscopic particle with
any degree of accuracy or certainty. This is not a statement about the
limitations of a researcher's ability to measure particular quantities
of a system, but rather about the nature of the system itself and hence
it expresses a property of the universe. This basically means that on a subatomic level, that of electrons, quarks, photons, etc. there seems to be a fundamental principal of randomness. Particles go where they seem to want to go. Particles almost seem to choose what they are doing. However, these choices do form an overall pattern, of statistically calculable probabilities. One of the most well-know and respectable scientists in recent history, instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics, was Richard Feynman PhD. He worked on the Manhattan project developing the atomic bomb, was a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics, and is also known for demonstrating the O-ring defects resulting in the space shuttle Challenger tragedy. To quote Richard Feynman PhD: One might still like to ask: “How does it work?
What is the machinery behind the law?” No one has found any machinery
behind the law. No one can “explain” any more than we have just
“explained.” No one will give you any deeper representation of the
situation. We have no ideas about a more basic mechanism from which
these results can be deduced. So why is it that at the scale of the tiniest parts of the universe, that there is all this randomness? Why has science given up on predictability, and accepted that uncertainty and chance rule the microscopic domain of the most basic and fundamental building blocks of the universe? With the advent of quantum mechanics, we have
come to recognize that events cannot be predicted with complete accuracy
but that there is always a degree of uncertainty. If one likes, one
could ascribe this randomness to the intervention of God, but it
would be a very strange kind of intervention: there is no evidence that
it is directed toward any purpose. Indeed, if it were, it would by
definition not be random. In modern times, we have effectively removed
the third possibility above by redefining the goal of science: our aim
is to formulate a set of laws that enables us to predict events only up
to the limit set by the uncertainty principle. There is always an element of uncertainty or
chance, and this affects the behavior of matter on a small scale in a
fundamental way. Einstein was almost singlehandedly responsible for
general relativity, and he played an important part in the development
of quantum mechanics. His feelings about the matter are summed up in the
phrase “God does not play dice.” But all the evidence
indicates that God is an inveterate gambler and that He throws the dice
on every possible occasion. Regarding quantum physics, Einstein said that “God does not play dice”, and Stephen Hawking says, “God throws the dice on every possible occasion”. But what does the Bible say on the topic of dice and God? Prov 16:33 Assuming that whether it is us or matter that throws the dice, it makes no difference, then what the Bible indicates is that God set up the universe to “play dice” on a quantum level, but at the same time, God is the one that determines how those “quantum dice” fall. By “quantum dice” I am referring to all of the subatomic particles/energies and their activities on the microscopic scale of the quantum level. However, if the uncertainty principle of quantum physics is correct, then the Bible assures us that God still sets the rules and outcomes for the seeming “randomness” of the “quantum dice”. Some Christians who are Scientists speak on this very issue: John Byl has a PhD in Astronomy, is the author of the book “God and Cosmos: A Christian View of Time, Space, and the Universe”, and is Professor of Mathematics and Head of the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Trinity Western University. “W.G. Pollard and, more recently, Nancey
Murphy advocate that the apparently random events at the quantum level
are all specific, intentional acts of God. God's action at this
level is limited in that William Pollard PhD, is a Nuclear Physicist and Episcopal Priest, with a PhD in Physics and Honorary doctorates in science, divinity, law, and humane letters. He is the author of “Chance and Providence: God's Action in a World Governed by Scientific Law”. The entire book is on God operating, instead of “chance”, in quantum mechanics. “In the next chapter I will begin the
presentation for your consideration of a quite different approach to
this problem which seems to me to offer an entirely adequate solution
for it. Under it, as we shall attempt to show, there can emerge again in
all of its ancient power the fullness of the Biblical response to the
living God who is ever active in the whole of His creation sustaining,
providing, judging, and redeeming all things, both in heaven and in
earth, in accordance with the mysterious and hidden purposes of His
might will. At the same time, however, this is accomplished in such a
way that the essential integrity and unity of science, both as it is now
and as in principle it may become, is fully preserved.” Nancey Murphy PhD, Theologian, is Professor of Christian Philosophy at the Fuller Theological Seminary. She also serves as an editorial advisor for Theology and Science, Theology Today, and Christianity Today. She is the author of “Divine Action In The Natural Order”. “The second strategy for giving an account of
the locus of divine action explores quantum physics and seeks to give an
account of God’s action throughout the natural and human world by means
of action at the quantum level (either alone or in conjunction with
top-down action). My proposal is motivated theologically. If God is
immanent in and acting in all creatures, then necessarily God is acting
at the quantum level. Emphasis on this fact has the advantage of
sidestepping the problem of interventionism: the laws of quantum
mechanics are only statistical and therefore not subject to violation.
If, as most interpreters conclude, events at this level are genuinely
indeterminate, then there need be no competition between divine action
and physical causation. It is possible from a theistic perspective to
interpret current physics as saying that the natural world is
intrinsically incomplete and open to divine action at its most basic
level.” The Bible may also present an argument of God controlling the “quantum dice” in Col 1:16-17, referring to Jesus Christ, “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.” The word here for “consist” is “synistemi” (4921) and it means, “to consist of or be composed of, to cohere, put together, hold together or band together”. According to physics, it is the subatomic force particles of bosons, and gluons that hold together atoms, and particles like photons and electrons that hold together different atoms. As such, this verse in the Bible could be referring to, that it is by God’s control over the “quantum dice” that makes the observations of quantum mechanics as they are, which is that particles we are composed of Do hold together. As such, by His actions all things hold together or “by Him all things consist”. Assuming it is true that God does allow randomness at a quantum level of physics, but also constantly controls the outcome of that randomness, besides “upholding all things”, like the universe, “by the word of His power”, ( as we read in Heb 1:3) is there another possible reason for God creating the universe to be this way? Could it relate to miracles, signs and wonders? It could be. Not only does quantum physics allow for existing particles that we can observe in experiment to act in random way, but it also allows for particles and antiparticles (antimatter) to pop in and out of existence, seemingly randomly. These particles usually only exist for a very short time, and are called “virtual particles”. “Down at the very tiniest length scale and
trillions of times smaller than atoms, is what is known as the Planck
scale where the concept of length loses its meaning and quantum
uncertainty rules. At this level all known laws of physics break down
and even space and time become nebulous concepts. Any and all
conceivable distortions of spacetime will be popping in and out of
existence in a random and chaotic dance which is going on all the time
everywhere in the universe. Terms such as “quantum fluctuations” and
the “quantum foam” which are used to describe this chaotic activity
certainly do not do it justice.” The existence of these seemingly random particles does not violate the laws of physics, especially the Law of Conservation of Energy: “Where did all these particles come from? The
answer is that relativity and quantum mechanics allow matter to be
creates out of energy in the form of particle/antiparticle pairs. And
where did the energy come from to create this matter? The answer is that
it was borrowed from the gravitational energy of the universe. The
universe has an enormous debt of negative gravitational energy, which
exactly balances the positive energy of the matter.” Virtual particles have been shown, through experiments, to exist, as seen in the Lamb shift and the Casimir Effect. “These particles are called virtual because,
unlike “real” particles, they cannot be observed directly with a
particle detector. Their indirect effects can nonetheless be measured,
and their existence has been confirmed by a small shift (the
“Lamb shift”) they produce in the spectrum of light from excited
hydrogen atoms.” Regarding the Casimir Effect, “As we saw in Chapter 7, even what we think of
as “empty” space is filled with pairs of virtual particles and
antiparticles that appear together, move apart, and come back together
and annihilate each other. Now, suppose one has two metal plates a short
distance apart. The plates will act like mirrors for the virtual photons
or particles of light. In fact they will form a cavity between them, a
bit like an organ pipe that will resonate only at certain notes. This
means that virtual photons can occur in the space between the plates
only if their wavelengths (the distance between the crest of one wave
and the next) fit a whole number of times into the gap between the
plates. If the width of a cavity is a whole number of wavelengths plus a
fraction of a wavelength, then after some reflections backward and
forward between the plates, the crests of one wave with coincide with
the troughs of another and the waves will cancel out. Virtual particles can include all types of particles, including photons, electrons, gluons, bosons, and quarks. According to physicists, under certain conditions in the universe, virtual particles can exist for longer periods of time and therefore become “real” particles. This particular example relates to conditions of space near a black hole, but in principle this shows that science does generally allow for the possibility of virtual particles popping into existence and becoming real particles. “We can understand this in the following way: what we think of as “empty” space cannot be completely empty because that would mean that all the fields, such as the gravitational and electromagnetic fields, would have to be exactly zero. However, the value of a field and its rate of change with time are like the position and velocity of a particle: the uncertainty principle implies that the more accurately one knows one of these quantities, the less accurately one can know the other. So in empty space the field cannot be fixed at exactly zero, because then it would have both a precise value (zero) and a precise rate of change (also zero). There must be a certain minimum amount of uncertainty, or quantum fluctuations, in the value of the field. One can think of these fluctuations as pairs of particle of light or gravity that appear together at some time, move apart, and then come together again and annihilate each other. These particles are virtual particles like carry the gravitational force of the sun: unlike real particles, they cannot be observed directly with a particle detector. However, their indirect effects, such as small changes in the electron orbits in atoms, can be measured and agree with the theoretical predictions to a remarkable degree of accuracy. The uncertainty principle also predicts that there will be similar virtual pairs of matter particles, such as electrons or quarks. In this case, however, one member of the pair will be a particle, and the other an antiparticle (the antiparticles of light and gravity are the same as the particles). Because energy cannot be created out of nothing, one of the partners in a particle/antiparticle pair will have positive energy, and the other partner negative energy. The one with negative energy is condemned to be a short-lived virtual particle because real particles always have positive energy in normal situations. It must therefore seek out its partner and annihilate with it. However, a real particle close to a massive body has less energy than if it were far away, because it would take energy to lift it far away against the gravitational attraction of the body. Normally, the energy of the particle is still positive, but the gravitational field inside a black hole is so strong that even a real particle can have negative energy there. It is therefore possible, if a black hole is present, for the virtual particle with negative energy to fall into the black hole and become a real particle or antiparticle. In this case it no longer has to annihilate with its partner. Its forsaken partner may fall into the black hole as well. Or, having positive energy, it might also escape from the vicinity of the black hole as a real particle or antiparticle. To an observer at a distance, it will appear to have been emitted from the black hole.” -Stephen Hawking PhD, The Illustrated Brief History of Time, Pgs. 134-137 According to science it is possible that physical particles can randomly pop into existence seemingly out of nowhere. Modern Physics teaches that elementary particles, of all kinds, can and do randomly pop in and out of existence. This includes photons, which are particles of light. This also includes gravitons, which are theoretical and theoretically instrumental in gravity, as well as gluons, bosons and other force carrying particles.
Some force carrying particles are what hold quarks together to form neutrons and protons, and other force particles hold together atoms. All of these particles can pop into existence out of nowhere, seemingly randomly, the universe allows for this, and the universe was created by God intentionally to be the way it is. What are quarks and electrons? They are the particles that are the building blocks of atoms.
Different types of atoms make up all of the elements of matter, as seen in the periodic table of the elements.
Atoms are the building blocks of all the matter we see, and our bodies are made of atoms. So assuming God, who is omnipotent, one way or another, controlled the randomness of the quantum world… then this means that God could choose to have a large number of quarks, gluons, electrons, etc. pop into existence very quickly, and assemble into atoms. God could also do this in such a way that many atoms were formed, and would assemble into much larger objects, even objects large enough that we could see them.
This might include things like oil and grain popping into existence out of nowhere: 1 Kings 17:8-16 God provided for 3 years oil and grain, though the land was in a drought with famine. This oil and grain appeared seemingly out of thin air. But another way to put it might be that it appeared out of “seemingly random quantum foam”. And there are many miracles, signs, and wonders in the Bible, done by God, which are similar to this, such as Jesus Christ feeding the multitudes. Also, there are miraculous healings mentioned many times in the Bible. According to science, our bodies are made up of molecules of atoms, which are made from quarks and electrons and such. Consider the cases of sight being restored to the blind, the healing of the disfigured hand, the healing of lepers, and the healing of all manner of sicknesses; miracles done by Jesus Christ. Control over the “quantum dice” would be one way to explain how sick flesh was instantaneously changed into healthy flesh.
And so this is one way to describe, in modern physics concepts, how God does miracles, signs, and wonders. Though God does do them, whether control of quantum physics is truly and specifically how, or not. But the Bible also says that Holy angels, and Fallen angels, also work miracles, signs and wonders. (Acts 2:22, 5:12, 2 Peter 2:11, Heb 2:4, Matt 24:24, 2 Thes 2:9, Rev 13:2, 14, 16:14) So it could be an accurate description to say that how fallen angels also do miracles, signs, and wonders is because they too somehow have control over the “quantum dice”, though definitely on a more limited scale than God does. The Bible teaches that God is everywhere in the universe, and there is nowhere that He is not. Whereas fallen angels have a set, limited, location for their body, and are only in one place at a time, much like mankind. Under this line of reasoning, God has power, and “quantum power” everywhere in the universe, but fallen angels only have power or “quantum power” in their immediate location. Also, God has power over the fallen angels bodies themselves, as their bodies are part of the creation, whereas fallen angels have no such power over God. It does make some analogous sense that all angels would have powers like God, but limited, for the Bible several times in the Old Testament calls angels the “sons of God”. (Gen 6, Job 1:6, Job 2:1, Psalm 29:1, 89:6) It may be that the extra-dimensionality of angels is what would make possible them having limited control over the “quantum dice” in their immediate location. “Today, however, physicists are following a different trail-the one leading to superstring theory. Unlike previous proposals, it has survived every blistering mathematical challenge ever hurled at it. Not surprisingly, the theory is a radical-some might say crazy-departure from the past, being based on tiny strings vibrating in 10-dimensional space-time… In superstring theory, the subatomic particles we see in nature are nothing more than different resonances of the vibrating superstrings, in the same way that different musical notes emanate from the different modes of vibration of a violin string.” -Michio Kaku PhD, “Into the Eleventh Dimension”, author of Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey through the 10th Dimension, Oxford University Press. According to String Theory, particles in the 4d spacetime we observe, are the result of vibrations of 1 dimensional strings that exist in an additional 6-7 dimensions, in the scientific sense of the word, or 10-11 dimensions total. As such, speaking generally, according to science in principle, it is possible that the extradimensionality of angels would allow for their altering of particles in our 4 dimensional world, on the subatomic quantum level. As such, their extradimensionality, in the heavenly realm, may be tied directly to their ability to work “miracles, signs, and wonders”, possibly through being able to determine how the “quantum dice” fall (on a limited scale in their immediate locality).
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