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Blast Off with Interstellar: the Cosmic Force of God’s Love

Blast Off with Interstellar: the Cosmic Force of God’s Love

Last updated on: October 10, 2024 at 12:32 pm by Paul Louis Metzger

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Blast Off with Interstellar: the Cosmic Force of God’s Love 2024-10-10T12:32:14-07:00 Paul Louis Metzger

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“The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) — a planet-scale array of eight ground-based radio telescopes forged through international collaboration — was designed to capture images of a black hole. In coordinated press conferences across the globe, EHT researchers revealed that they succeeded, unveiling the first direct visual evidence of the supermassive black hole in the centre of Messier 87 and its shadow.” This file/image was originally posted here at the European Southern Observatory; Creative Commons.

This post reflects on the film, Interstellar, and how the God of all-powerful love promises to deliver and preserve us amid the crises of life. It is the fourth in a series of posts reflecting on the interface between biblical-theological themes and pop culture. Here are the first three posts in this series in the order of their appearance: “The Book of Eli: Taking the Bible Seriously in Dystopia“; “Prometheus Unbound: Finding Direction Home”; and “The Biblical Crisis & the Batman: Tragedy and Hope.”

Science, Fiction, and the Cosmic Force of Love

The movie Interstellar is a science fiction tale that is largely based in science and which also narrates the cosmic power of love. As one of the characters in the film shares, “love is a force as strong as gravity.”

The film is the story of a spaceship pilot and his crew who must cross space and time in the effort to save humanity from a dying planet earth. To do so, he must leave his children in the care of others. But he promises and eventually delivers on his promise, albeit much later in earthly years. To save humanity and return to his family, though, he and his crew must undergo many incredible challenges in space, including traveling through a wormhole and near a black hole (Check out the official trailer for the movie here; for a reflection on the plausibility of wormholes and traveling close to a black hole and surviving, refer here).

Regardless of whether we could ever develop sufficient technology to make such unfathomable leaps and moves in outer space, I find in Interstellar a fitting metaphor for the way in which God makes the impossible possible in saving humans from ourselves. Let’s consider a few of the biblical covenantal accounts that highlight the force of God’s love.

Biblical Covenantal Accounts Highlights

The Bible reflects at length on the great measures to which God will go to deliver humanity from its cursed, crisis condition that resulted from its rebellion against God. Here are ways in which God demonstrates his love that knows no bounds. No force field or black hole can keep God from fulfilling his covenantal promises and coming back for us so we are not destroyed.

God promises to deliver humanity from their cursed fallen condition and the serpent’s trickery and efforts to destroy us (Genesis 3:15);
God promises to bless Abram, make him into a great nation, and bless all peoples on earth through him (Genesis 12:1-3);
God’s unilateral promises to Abraham reveal an unconditional covenant (Genesis 12 and 15).
God delivers Abraham’s descendants from bondage in slavery under Pharaoh in Egypt and leads them to the Promised Land (Exodus 12);
God gives the people of Israel laws by which to live in order to be blessed and flourish rather than be cursed and destroyed (Exodus 20; Deuteronomy 28);
Unlike the Abrahamic Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant is bilateral and conditional and focuses on how to live well in the Promised Land. Even so, the promise of eternal salvation depends on the Abrahamic Covenant, which undergirds the Mosaic Covenant.
The Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenants, each in their own way, point forward to the New Covenant that Jesus inaugurates and fulfills. Like the Abrahamic Covenant, it is unilateral and unconditional. It is also eternal in that it will continue through eternity (Matthew 26:17-30; John 3:1-21; Hebrews 8:1-13).

Black Holes and God’s Deliverance

We could say far more on this topic. But what stands out to me throughout the entire biblical story is how God enters the black holes we create and fall into in order to deliver us. As John 3:16 makes clear, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will have eternal life.” (NIV) With a tip of the hat to Karl Barth’s important reflections in the Church Dogmatics’ “Doctrine of Reconciliation,” we would benefit from star gazing on the following constellation of ideas. First, the same God who gave us the Mosaic law, not to judge us, but to keep on the path of sound judgment, becomes the judge who undergoes judgment as Jesus on our behalf to bring us to God. Second, this God, who put in place a sacrificial system in that same law to provide cleansing from sin, becomes the great, spotless high priest as Jesus and who becomes the lamb of sacrifice. The God revealed in the Bible, who is king of kings and lord of lords, goes so far in his all-powerful love to become as Jesus the servant who lays down his life to raise us up to reign with him forever.

A Dying People, Dying Planet, and an Undying Love

Intersellar helps me reflect at length on that cosmic force which is God’s incomprehensible love. However, unlike Interstellar with its call to escape earth before it’s too late, God’s promise to return does not involve an escape from a dying planet earth, but the transformation of the heavens and earth. One of the great promises of Scripture is that God will be our God, we will be his people, and he will dwell with us. (See the following texts for various facets of God’s declaration to be our God, for us to be his people, and for God to dwell in our midst: Genesis 17:7, Exodus 6:7, Jeremiah 7:23, Jeremiah 30:22, Jeremiah 31:33; Ezekiel 34:24, Ezekiel 36:28; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Revelation 21:2-4).

No matter how often we fall, no matter how close to the black hole of eternal destruction we are, no matter to the degree our planet is dying, God’s undying love will reach us. God has crossed the universe and chasm of our self-destruction to bring us home.

About Paul Louis Metzger

Paul Louis Metzger, Ph.D., is Professor of Theology & Culture, Multnomah Biblical Seminary; Jessup University; Director of The Institute for Cultural Engagement: New Wine, New Wineskins; and Author and Editor of numerous works. You can read more about the author here.

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