God gave man dominion over the earth and reserved heaven for himself.
The heavens are the heavens of the LORD, But the earth He has given to the sons of men. Psalm 115:16 (NASB95)
When God created the earth, he separated the third heaven from the earth below by creating the solid dome called the firmament. (Genesis 1:7) God sits on his throne atop this structure observing all who dwell on the earth below. (Isaiah 40:22)
Under the influence of Satan, who desires to unseat God from his throne (Isaiah 14:13-14), deluded and rebellious people want to be lords of the heavens, too. The first manifestation of this was the tower of Babel, which was built in hopes of reaching into the heavens, thus making a name for mankind, apart from anything granted to him by God. (Genesis 11) Such unlawful grasping after glory is the exact opposite of the attitude of our Lord Jesus, who humbled himself to become a man to reconcile us to the Creator.
Paul wrote:
who [Jesus], although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:6–11 (NASB95)
As a result of his self-effacing humility and complete submission to God’s will, Jesus has been elevated to the grandest position of all. He sits enthroned with God in heaven as Lord over everything in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. As astounding as this is, there is something perhaps even more wondrous that God has done in Christ.
All who put their faith and allegiance in Jesus the Lord are elevated with him to God’s throne.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:4–7 (NASB95)
That which Satan sought illegitimately has been granted to all who receive forgiveness and reconciliation in Christ. The gospel offers this supreme honor to all who will receive it, but mankind’s rebellion knows no bounds.
Those who refuse to bow the knee in submission to our Lord still seek to take the heavens illegitimately. We want to be lords of the universe without any help from God.
Although doing such a thing is quite impossible, we imagine we can do it. We dream about it. We fantasize for ourselves a fictional “universe” that we can explore using space ships. We use our amazing technologies of deception to implant the dream of space exploration in the hearts of the young and old alike.
The fictional Copernican – Newtonian universe, complete with its globe earth, has no solid barrier between heaven and earth. In fact, the heaven of the Bible does not even exist, and God is nowhere to be found in this imaginary universe of ours. The only thing impeding us now is the technology to go through something called the Van Allen radiation belts which threaten to kill anyone making the attempt. Oddly, somehow our moon men managed to traverse these belts unscathed long ago, but we apparently lost or destroyed that advanced 1960’s technology and cannot seem to recreate it. (For more information on the amazing technology of that era, I suggest watching Wagging the Moon Doggie video series.) We love movies like the moon landings, ISS videos, Star Trek, and Star Wars, which fuel the fiction that we were destined to roam the heavens at will, going where no man has ever gone before (nor ever will outside of Christ).
As a result of massive deception, fueled by NASA, other space agencies, and the entertainment industry, people love the idea of space exploration and are loathe to be separated from our rebellious quest to be lords of the universe.
Even many Christians, who ought to know better because of our knowledge of the Bible, have been caught up in this delusional quest. Instead of being content with having dominion over what God has given to us, the earth, we want more and on our own terms. May the Lord open our eyes to see that the heavens belong to God and to those who pledge allegiance to Christ as Lord. There is only one way for us to breach the firmament. His name is Jesus, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. For all those who refuse the gospel, heaven is strictly off limits.
