Race to the Stars Astronomy has actually demonstrated that there are millions of other worlds. There is no guesswork about it. On Mount Wilson there is a hundred-inch telescope. With this hundred-inch telescope, astronomers have actually photographed a hundred million suns with their systems of worlds revolving around them as our sun has its family of planets. On Mount Palomar where there is a two hundred inch telescope, astronomers have discovered that there are over two thousand million suns. Think of it! Each one has a system of worlds revolving around it, just as our sun has Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Neptune, Saturn, etc. revolving around it. The next question is “Are some of these worlds inhabited?” Science does not have any positive answer. The Mariner 9 orbiter shows that there are no canals on Mars. Also, astronomers have taken picutes that indicate that Mars has seasons just like the earth. But look, here is where the Bible is ahead of science. The Bible shows us definitely that some of these other worlds are inhabited. First, the Bible teaches that there are many worlds aside from this planet called the earth. Let’s read Hebrews 1:2. This text speaks about the infinite creative power that our heavenly Father has vested in His own dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. “Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.” Did you get that? Does it say “. . . by whom He made the world?” No! There is an “s” on the end of worlds. It is in the plural. “. . . by whom He made the worlds.” See how plain it is? The Bible teaches that there are many other worlds aside from this planet on which we live. Now notice what it says in Revelation 12:12: “Therefore, rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea.” The people who live on this earth are referred to as the inhahiters of the earth and sea. But the people here are not the only people in God’s universe. This text also says, “ye that dwell in the heavens,” proving conclusively that some of these other worlds are inhabited. You could ask yourself this: “Why would God, being all wise, fill a universe with millions of worlds and have people on only one of them?” It just doesn’t make sense. God hasn’t followed that kind of plan. The Bible students who have studied this closely are convinced that this world is the only world in the universe that has fallen into sin. All these other worlds are perfect. They are sinless. Jesus talked about the shepherd leaving the ninety and nine safe in the fold and going out to seek the lost sheep until He found it. The greater implication of this story is that Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who was by the Father’s side and equal to the Father, left the Father and all those other sinless worlds safe and came down from heaven to this sinful world to win this lost sheep back to the Father’s fold. Now I come to the question, “Will man ever be able to visit any of these distant worlds?” Upon the authority of this Book, I’m telling you that no man with his present sinful body is ever going to visit any of the sinless worlds. Why not? God Almighty still rules this universe. A time will come when God says “no further, no further.” God is never going to allow sinful man to land on a sinless world somewhere else and contaminate it. Sin is quarantined to this old world. Thank God, some day He’ll put an end to sin here. A second point: The Bible shows that man with his present sinful body cannot go to these sinless worlds until he gets a sinless body. I’m going to show you from the Bible that when Jesus Christ comes the second time those that are true to Him are going to get sinless bodies, immortal bodies. With a sinless body, they could go to a sinless world. During recent years, as you know, Russia and the United States have placed in orbit a good many man-made moons. These man-made moons travel very fast. They orbit the earth in a little over an hour; they travel at a rate of 17,000 miles per hour, or 300 miles a minute. Now, that is fast, isn’t it? Actually, that is a snail’s pace, and I mean that literally—300 miles a minute is a snails pace—compared with the speed with which God’s redeemed are going to travel through space after the second coming of Christ. You say, “But how do you know it?” Take down two or three texts and you’ll know it too. Put down Luke 20:36. Jesus Christ says that at the resurrection day His people will be made equal to the angels. Don’t get that wrong! There isn’t any text in the Bible which says that human beings ever will be angels. No, Jesus says that the redeemed will be made equal to the angels—equal in that they will have spiritual bodies like the angels have and be able to travel through the air at will like the angels do. Do you know how fast an angel can travel through the air if he wants to? The wonderful thing about angels is that they can appear on earth. They appeared to Abraham. They appeared to Lot. They looked like men. They walked like men. And they ate like men. Yet they were angels. How fast can an angel travel when he needs to? Put down Ezekiel 1:14. “And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightening.” These living creatures are an order of angels; in fact, they are called cherubim. It says that these cherubim ran like lightening. Their speed is compared to lightening because that is the fastest moving thing which men know about. Science has discovered that lightening travels at the incredible speed of 186,000 miles per second, or 11,000,000 miles a minute. Can you comprehend such a speed? No, nobody can comprehend it. At that speed you could go around the world seven times while you winked your eye once. I’m telling you that angels can, if they need to, travel faster than 11,000,000 miles a minute. They can travel faster than seven times around the earth while you wink your eye. You say that is fantastic; yes, but it is proven by the Bible. It is found in Daniel 9:3-23. In these verses you have the record of a three or four minute prayer, prayed by the prophet Daniel. When Daniel began to pray, God turned to Gabriel, the angel standing next to His throne in the highest heaven. He said, “Gabriel, go down to earth to the side of Daniel and help to answer his prayer.” What happened? The three-minute prayer of Daniel is interrupted by Gabriel’s appearance at his side. Gabriel said, “Daniel, when you began to pray, God told me to come down here and answer your prayer. And here I am.” In about three minutes Gabriel traveled from the throne of God in the highest heaven through all the billions of miles of outer space, the millions of miles of interplanetary space down to this earth in three minutes. To do that he had to travel far faster than lightening; yes, faster than 11,000,000 miles a minute. Ah, here is a mystery that the human mind cannot penetrate. Yes, this Book is the Book of God and it does bring mysteries that even with all our increase of knowledge we can’t comprehend. It simply means this: Angels with a spiritual body have a power to travel that annihilates space. They simply will to be at some place billions of miles away and they are there. If you had that power you could sit in your home today and will to be at Cape Town, South Africe, or Manilla, in the Phillipine Islands, and you’d be there the next minute. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have such power? Look, you’re going to have that power. I’m going to show you from the Bible that Jesus Christ will give you that power, if you’re true to Him. You’re going to be able to travel through space as fast as an angel does now. That means that time and space will be annihilated so far as you are concerned. The Bible tells us that forty days after our Lord was resurrected He walked out to the Mount of Olives with His disciples. As He walked along, He explained various things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. When He reached a certain place He put His hands out to bless them. They noticed as He put His hands out His feet began to leave the earth. And He went up, higher, higher, and higher until He became just a speck, and they couldn’t see Him. I want you to notice—Jesus Christ, after His resurrection, had a spiritual body that had power to go up at will through the air, through space. In other words, a spiritual body is not bound by the law of gravity. You have a mortal body; you have a natural body. This natural, mortal body is bound to the earth by the laws of gravity, but a spiritual body has another power. When Jesus Christ was resurrected, He had a real body—make no mistake about that. He had hands and feet. (Read the 24th chapter of Luke). It was a real body. And with that spiritual, glorified body He had power to go through space. When we send a man up, he has to be in a space ship which can withstand heat up to 3,500¾F., also intense cold. Look again to the mysteries of God. Christ, with that spiritual, immortal, glorified body could go up through space, unaffected by the intense heat, the intense cold, the weightlessness, or anything else. Best of all, Christ plans to give you the same power. If you are true to Christ, when He comes He is going to give you power to go right up through the air and through space, to go up just as He did. Do you think that is in the Bible? Put down Phillipians 3:20, 21. Yes, it is in your Bible. Oh, the wonders of this blessed Book. Phillipians 3:20, 21 says: “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour,” referring to the time when Christ will come again from heaven. “I will come again,” He promised. He’ll never fail to keep His promise. Now notice what He is going to do when He comes, “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body.” There it is in so many words. When He comes He will change the bodies of those who are true to Him to be like His body—change their bodies from a natural, mortal body into an immortal, spiritual body, like His. When you get a body like Christ has, you’ll be able to go up through space, just as He did. I come now to the question, “Who was the first space traveler?” The first space traveler among men was a man named Enoch. He made a journey through outer space nearly 5,000 years ago. Your Bible will tell you that when Enoch was 365 years old he was out walking one day. He walked with God. He lived close to God. One day God redesigned his body in a minute, in a second, from a natural body to a spiritual body. Then Enoch went up through space to God’s home in the highest heaven. He was the first man to make a journey through space. Talk about the Bible being out-of-date and obsolete! Men have never yet caught up with the Bible. People think this space travel is so new and wonderful. But in the book of Genesis is the account of a space trip made 5,000 years ago, space travel which we can’t even do now and never will be able to do. I’m not trying to limit what man can do in space, but I can tell you he’ll never acquire the power to go up like Enoch. He’ll have to be in a space ship or a vehicle of some kind. Jesus didn’t have to have any of those things. Enoch didn’t have to have them either, but he couldn’t travel in space until his body was redesigned from a natural body to a spiritual body, from a mortal body to an imortal body. And that is the way you and I will be able to take that trip when Jesus comes the second time.