The Speed of Thought - By Gary Stearman

Have you ever heard someone say, "One day, we’ll be able to travel at the speed of thought"? Usually, such an idea pops up in a discussion about life in the kingdom of heaven. We envision a kind of unlimited freedom in the glories of heaven, where the mere desire to be in a location results in instant relocation to that point. But here on earth, we’re trapped in the scaffolding of time-space, where things creep along at a predetermined rate. In this domain, one’s progress is blocked by traffic, fences, walls, doors and dimensional barriers. This is simply the normal physical experience, sometimes accompanied by frustration when we’re late, or blocked by some obstruction.

But in the theater of our minds, travel is unlimited. On a stage set with things dreamed, we can be instantly transported to another room, another city — or, for that matter, another galaxy. This can be amazingly entertaining, but only to a point. Alas, the trip is not real. Who has not lamented the fact that such marvelous journeys are only flights of the imagination? Wearing a lightweight space suit, you search the sandy wastes of Mars for seashells. What a price they would bring on the open market!

Confronted with the multiplication tables or the rules of grammar, every schoolboy has made many such trips. He has flown out through a classroom window, over fields and farms, to that special place where he can escape to some paradise. Or better yet, he is engaged in the important work of saving the universe from evil. Perhaps he is a knight (whether Arthurian or Jedi). The superhero of modern literature is born in a world such as this.

Villains, dragons and demons populate this amphitheater of thought. Some of these figures even find permanent status in the pages of science fiction and fairy tales, as well as the popular drawings of the comics. Life is given to these modern equivalents of ancient Greek demigods. The best-known personalities of this genre are Superman and Wonder Woman, but there are many, many more. In one important respect, however, they are quite different from their ancient predecessors.

The old gods of the ancient world were capricious and immoral. Often, they were the focus and source of all evil. Zeus and his wife Hera were fickle despots. The adulterous Zeus fathered Apollo by Leto, giving rise to a host of evil repercussions. As just one of the many families of Greek demigods, Apollo and his sister Artemis are remembered for curses, debauchery, adultery, murder and torture. In one episode, Apollo’s son, Asclepius, was slain by one of Zeus’s lightning bolts. Yet, in spite of their gods’ personal failures, the Greeks and Romans believed that the proper worship of these supernatural beings would bring fertility to crops and cattle, and blessing to government and household. Now, that’s imagination!

Modern superheroes, by contrast, are not evil. In fact, they are its very antithesis, as they battle for truth and justice (and something called "the American way"). We all remember the Green Hornet and Kato; Batman and Robin; Captain Marvel; the Flash; and a host of others. They were the imaginative incarnations of American idealism.

It has often been said that the model for all such heroes is none other than Jesus. He is truth; He is justice; He exposes evil. In the end, He will come and establish the perfect Kingdom, as He abolishes that ultimate fiend, rogue and oppressor, Satan, as well as his earthly representative, the Antichrist. The modern superhero is, in fact, a Jesus substitute, based upon the well-known story of His incarnation.

This saga is engraved in the heart of every human being. It is the universal dream that somewhere, a superbeing must come forth to save the world from the forces of darkness. If, for whatever reason, the authenticity of Jesus is refused, the next step is to create a false hope, in the person of a fictional character. Hence, we find the heart of messianic themes that run through virtually all the great works of literature. The hero who saves the world (or a small town, for that matter) is the world’s most popular literary device. Of course, it is also the central theme of the Bible.

In the secular world, those early schoolhouse voyages into the field of dreams mature into utopian visions, political schemes and cultural engineering. That which innocently begins in the mind can birth a myriad of bizarre cultural codes and traditions.

In this world, the trip that begins in the mind usually crashes upon the hard rocks of this reality. The imagination may succeed, but its result is always failure. When human thought is translated into earthly reality, the usual result is disaster. The awful presence of sin always creates only a caricature of God’s original intent for this planet.

The Human Mind

The collected legends, tales, myths, sagas and epics of human history are fraught with disaster, intrigue, betrayal, murder and debauchery. Occasionally, we encounter an uplifting incident, but it is the exception, not the rule. Before the great Flood of Noah, mankind was allowed to operate in the sphere of his own conscience. But the dictates of his morality lay in the realm of his warped imagination, as described in Genesis 6:5:

"And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

Here, the form of man’s imagination, dictated by his inner motivations, is immortalized as totally evil. So evil, in fact, that the Lord destroyed all but Noah and his family. However, the Flood didn’t cure man’s intrinsic wickedness. Rather, it created a longing to return to the antediluvian world where the dark forces of the fallen angels fed a twisted human imagination.

To achieve this they began a project. In the episode of the Tower of Babel, the Lord looked down upon the evil venture and concluded that the thoughts of men would take him into the very heavens. He ruled that they should be diverted before that happened. Notice that is it man’s imagination that comes into question:

"And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do" (Genesis 11:6).

Later, Moses, in prophesying that Israel would one day be scattered over the earth, gave one clear reason why this would happen. It would be the imagination of the Israelites that would lead them to destruction:

"And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst" (Deut. 29:19).

The Israelites allowed their own thoughts and ideas to lead them, rather than the mind of God. Their long and tortured history leaves no doubt about that. Certainly, they are quite gifted as a people. In each of the world’s cultures to which they have been driven, they have become the leading lights. They are the scientists, authors, musicians, artists, philosophers and inventors. The Lord has spoken through them to the world. They lived by their wits and imagination, rather than the wisdom of God.

In the New Testament, when Mary met Elizabeth, she prophesied that the long-awaited Messiah would bring a new reality to humankind. Even though He had not yet been born, she spoke as if He had already achieved His revolutionary work in the world:

"He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts" (Luke 1:51).

Israel attempted to live by their wits and their secular wisdom, rather than the wisdom of the Lord. Once again, the words of the Bible point the finger of guilt at the collective imagination of mankind. It is the real enemy of His work.

Courting the Demonic

This brings up a salient point. Man’s imagination doesn’t function in a vacuum. In this world, it is constantly being stimulated by Satan and his hoards of demons. The real battle, illustrated by Satan’s temptation of Christ, is spiritual. Demons appeal to human vanity, arrogance and intellectual pride, causing them to develop and promote wicked schemes in the name of progress.

David’s son Solomon was divinely gifted with wisdom. But in his personal life, he often disregarded God’s leading. In the end, he saw the value of that for which he had prayed. The siren song of the world is simple foolishness. He likens its attraction to that of the wayward woman who lures a man away from the path of righteousness into the dark alleys of the lost.

Solomon depicts her as a harlot. He begs the young man to follow the wisdom of the Lord, who will, "… deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;

"Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.

"For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead" (Proverbs 2:16-18).

On the other hand, the wisdom of the Lord, Solomon depicts as a righteous woman who points one toward the Lord:

"Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:

"She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,

"How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?

"Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.

"Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded" (Proverbs 1:20-24).

Clearly, Solomon’s intent is to show that the battle for true wisdom is fought on the grounds of emotion and allure, versus common sense and responsibility. The imaginative flight of fancy too often presides over common sense.

In his own life, Solomon repeatedly listened to the wrong voices. After years of worldly experience, including wine, women and song, his collected Proverbs, stand as a witness that wisdom is always there for those who will listen.

A millennium later, in the first century A.D., James encouraged the believers of the early church to follow the Lord in unity. His words, written from the viewpoint of early Messianic Judaism, show that internal strife in the newborn church was planted there by demonic intrusion. He makes the point that "devilish" (demonic) ideology is planted to thwart the wisdom of the Lord. It operates in the arena of the imagination:

"Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.

"But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.

"This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

"For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

"But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

"And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace" (James 3:13-18).

Once again, we see that the Bible shows two contrasting methods of thinking. One is from below, demonic and destructive. The other is from above in the dimension of God. The first is a counterfeit of the second. Only the wisdom (thinking) of God is productive. The false wisdom of this world system has only the power to destroy.

The Power of Thought

Men earnestly desire to give life to their thoughts. In one sense, they are able to do this, in that their inventions and commerce change the flow of history. The convoluted course of historical wealth and power has traditionally followed the perfection of marketing and weaponry. This produces a system that imbues itself with godlike power.

In the purest sense, this world is a contest between the thoughts of man and the thoughts of God. Or, is it a contest between the thoughts of Satan and the thoughts of God? Whatever the source of man’s imagination, it is only a vain and passing exercise in futility.

Only the thoughts of God are worthy and permanent. More than that, only His thoughts have reality. That is, they result in something tangible and permanent, as written by the prophet Isaiah:

"Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:

"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

"For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:

"So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it" (Isaiah 55:6-11).

This Scripture puts man’s imagination in its place. It begins with a call to the "unrighteous man." Actually, its original language exhorts man to forsake the vanity inherent in his old pattern of thinking.

In the original Hebrew, "thought" is an expression created by the word machshavah vcajn, meaning, "an invention, idea or thought." Truly, the inventions of faithless men have been the basis of a million transgressions and the source of corruption.

Here, God asserts that His thoughts operate on a different and higher plain than the thoughts of man. At first, this statement would seem so blatantly obvious that it hardly needs to be stated at all. It’s easy to say that His thoughts are higher than ours.

But notice that the Lord likens His thoughts to rain and snow. These meteorological realities actually cause the earth to function, giving life to what would otherwise be a barren waste. In other words, God’s thoughts constitute a physical reality. When His thoughts are spoken as a "word" that goes forth from His mouth, His thought and His word literally take on substance and shape. They affect the world in which we live.

This seems to be the intent of Revelation 1:16, where John described the glorified Christ. His words are described as so powerful, so effective, that they can literally be seen:

"And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength."

These Scriptures are far more than a mere statement about the quality of God’s thought. They show us that His thoughts are of an entirely different order than our thoughts. Man’s thoughts can modify that which is already in existence, but God can literally think things into existence in the first place — something impossible for humans.

It is this simple fact that is the greatest testimony to His existence. In his current sinful state, man actually suppresses God’s thoughts, covering them with his own ideas. In the process, he comes to believe in the validity of his own ideas. In the following verses (Romans 1:18-23) this is exactly the meaning of the word "hold:"

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

"Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

"For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

"Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

"Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

"And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things."

Notice, too, that the result of their activities is vain imagination, those vagrant thoughts that imagine a better world, but without God. As mentioned earlier, this is the world of human thought, of imagined superheroes and utopian ideals. In the end, it rejects God as Creator and Redeemer.

Instead, it worships the created world, which is the end product of God’s thought. Men, in their vanity, imagine this physical universe to have created itself through some evolutionary process. In the following passage, the word "creature" is from the Greek ktisis, which refers both to the act of creation and to its end product — that which is created. In the present condition of sin, the entire creation is in a broken condition, awaiting the healing that will be brought by the One who spoke it into existence in the first place.

By substituting their human imagination for the thoughts of the Lord, mankind has substituted opinion for reality. The result has been increasing chaos, decay and ultimate corruption:

"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

"For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

"For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,

"Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

"For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now" (Romans 8:18-22).

Again, the word "creature" should be read as "creation," meaning "the entire creation." This would include all that the eye can see — from atoms to galaxies. Everything is in a state of decay and dissolution. But here, Paul rejoices in the coming deliverance. The "sons of God" are the redeemed who will come as the armies of heaven, with the returning Messiah in the Second Coming. Certainly, the religion, politics and economy of the world will come under His judgment. But more than that, the very environment will be changed, making the earth a paradise once again. The mind of God will rule the world.

Imagination Versus Reality

Remember that trip of the imagination we mentioned earlier? Flights of fancy are the stuff of human thought. But they can only result in tangible blessings if they are ordained of God. Things that last can be made only by God, as Abraham, the father of the faithful, knew all too well:

"By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

"By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:

"For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. (Hebrews 11:8-10).

Abraham knew that wealth and power could never build an empire. There is a new construction coming. It will be built by the Lord, Himself, probably in the same way He constructed the heavens and the earth. His direct command will result in the most perfect city ever seen.

By contrast, earthly kingdoms — devices of the mind of man — will end up in dust. The four great world empires prophesied by Daniel — Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome — already lie in dust. One by one, the empires of gold, silver, brass and iron fell into obscurity. They were, of course, memorialized in the figure of a huge image, with a head of gold.

That fourth beast still has life left in it, and will experience a rapid resurgence to power. Many volumes have been written about this so-called "Revived Roman Empire." In the end, it will be crushed at the Lord’s Second Coming. This is only another of many examples that show the reality of God’s thought. Note in the following verses, that Daniel saw a stone (Christ) made without hands. It is not the work of human effort or human ideology:

"Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces" (Daniel 2:34).

"Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure" (Daniel 2:45).

The Form of Thought

With the foregoing in mind, let’s look at a few examples that illustrate the biblical view of thought speed. First and foremost, when "… God created the heaven and the earth," it was done by utterance. His thought, expressed as words, became reality in an instant. In the first chapter of Genesis, there is an orderly progression from disorder to order:

First, He said, "Let there be light" (v.3).

Next, He said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters" (v.6).

Then, He said, "Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear" (v.9).

After that, He said, "Let the earth bring forth …" (v.11).

After the earth brought forth, He said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night" (v.14).

Following that, He said, "Let the waters bring forth …" (v.20).

Finally, He said, "Let the earth bring forth… and "Let us make man in our image" (vv. 24,26).

In all these utterances, there is not the slightest mention of technique, engineering or craftsmanship. His thought, expressed in words, became what we call, "reality." It began with light, suggesting an energy field of some sort. It was a presence that became differentiated into substance and form. Then, it was gone, replaced by the light of the Sun and stars that had come into existence.

How long did it take for all this to happen? No time at all. Certainly, there was the time span of six days. But each of the events is narrated as the simple act of utterance … of thought. When we imagine something, it never really appears. Our thoughts may be fascinating, but by themselves, they are ineffective. But when God thinks, things happen.

God’s thought is an utterance, and this is what is meant by"the Word:"

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

"The same was in the beginning with God.

"All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made" (John 1:1-3).

Out of nothing, God declared something. In fact, He declared everything. Throughout the Bible, we find that the Lord is more than Creator. He is also instantly able to affect His creation. He parted the waters of the Red Sea, allowing Moses to lead the children of Israel to freedom. He suspended the water, so that it formed a wall to the left and right of the fleeing Israelites:

"And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.

"And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left" (Exodus 14:21,22).

Many have attempted to explain away this miracle by saying that a strong wind created a channel across the sea. Certainly, an east wind blew. However, any wind strong enough to hold back heaps of water would be a literal hurricane. (An east wind of this velocity would halt the Israelites’ eastward march across the dry floor of the sea.) A force held the waters apart. God created that force by a thought.

Men, women, children, oxen, carts, tents, food, clothing and the Egyptian treasure marched across the sea bottom, apparently unhindered. There is no force known to man that can make water behave in this way. But for the Lord, a thought will suffice, creating a force of such intensity that even water would stand up in a wall, without affecting the Israelites. So far as we know, this is simply impossible.

It is equally impossible to form complex objects in an instant, but our Lord easily accomplished this, as shown in a miraculous event known to everyone who has read the Bible. Jesus healed a man blind from birth, one of the signs he brought to Israel. It had long been taught that when the Messiah came, He would restore sight to the man born blind. Nor is this a simple task. In this anonymous recipient of Jesus’ grace, eyeballs, optic nerves and even the brain, itself, had never been conditioned to see.

Had Jesus simply healed the man’s physical systems, he would still have had to be taught to see. It is interesting that, just as in the creation of the world, the light is given prominence:

"As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

"When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,

"And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing" (John 9:5-7).

It has been said that Jesus created new eyes with balls of freshly-made clay. But only His thought could have produced the working systems of sight. Or, how did Jesus walk on the water of the Sea of Galilee? By taking thought.

Thought holds the universe together. One day, as foretold in II Peter 3:10, it will be completely restructured:

"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up."

By taking thought, the Lord will unleash the elements to achieve His desired goal. In Hebrews 1:3, He is said to be, "upholding all things by the word of his power." As we have already seen, this "word" is simply the utterance of His divine thought. In an instant, the things we regard as solid and unmovable will suddenly assume new shape, form and flow, all at the speed of thought.

The Speed of Thought

How fast is thought? Just as we have imagined in our own dreams, it is instantaneous. We think about being somewhere — say, the British Museum or the Great Pyramid — and our thoughts are there in no time at all. But on God’s plane of existence, it is also very real, as the Apostle John discovered when he was transported to the Kingdom of Heaven and simultaneously, to the future:

"After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.

"And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne" (Revelation 4:1,2).

The instantaneous nature of John’s transport is conveyed with absolute authenticity. John actually experienced what the rest of us only dream about. He was taken to the dimension of eternity, where he could view events that we think of as "future." He saw war and famine, economic chaos and pandemics, astronomical and geological upheavals, reporting on them as a credible eyewitness.

Occasionally, he even questioned his heavenly guides, asking for explanations of what he saw. At the speed of thought, he was actually taken to a number of vantage points, from which he was able to report on the events of the Lord’s Day of Judgment. His view of Mystery Babylon’s fall and the Second Coming of Christ are indelibly etched upon the minds of the faithful. Upon his return, he was released from his Patmos exile, to return to Ephesus, where he spent the rest of his life as the Apostle of love. After experiencing a thought trip of magnificent proportions, his constant exhortation was to "love one another," as the Lord loves us.

Of course, the Apostle Paul was also taken on an instantaneous trip to another dimension. His thought trip is well known. It bears the distinct marks of an actual experience:

"It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.

"I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.

"And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)

"How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter" (II Corinthians 12:1-4).

First and foremost, Paul found himself instantly borne aloft on a thought in the mind of God. The term, "caught up" is from the Greek harpazo. It speaks of something or someone quickly seized and pulled up at breathtaking speed. It is, in fact, the very term used to describe the catching-away of the church: "Then we … shall be caught up…" (I Thessalonians 4:17).

He was instantly transported to another dimension, just as we shall be at the proper moment. We shall travel at the speed of thought, to a place where one can be transported into the past, present and future with equal facility.

"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

"Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (I Thessalonians 4:16,17).

The vocal command of the Lord reminds us of so many other similar commands recorded in Scripture. The creation of the world, the parting of the Red Sea, the healing commands of Jesus, the cataclysms of Revelation — all are the result of the Lord’s thought, expressed as Word.

And the beautiful part of the equation is this: As faithful believers, we have access to His thoughts. As Paul puts it, "For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ" (I Corinthians 2:16).

This is an amazing truth, expressing the idea that our salvation grants us present access to the Kingdom of Heaven. Through prayer, we can instantly travel to that place where the speed of thought is an actuality. Paul urges believers to realize this great truth: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:5). Though presently locked in this place of time and space, our thoughts soar into eternity — the eternal present.

"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

"But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God" (I Cor. 2:9,10).

We have been given the perception of things beyond this world. It has given us the ability to know about the speed of thought in the dimension of the Lord. We patiently await its full realization.

Prophecy in the News