The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side Luke 19:22b-23
Early on the morning of Wednesday, noted astrophysicist and atheist (or skeptical agnostic, depending upon the interpretation of some of his latter words) spontaneously became a theist. Dying at his home in Cambridge at the age of 76, Stephen Hawking was converted to theism. He now knows there is a God, and is not suppressing that truth in his unrighteousness, having seen and been confronted with the indisputable proof of a Divine Creator.
Hawking was renown by many for his work in the field of science, specializing on Black Hole Theory and Relativity, writing the famous book, A Brief History of Time. He was the first to hypothesize a theory of cosmology as a union of relativity and quantum mechanics. He also leveraged his expertise in science to garner attention for his opinion on various political and cultural matters. Adding to the mystique surrounding the reportedly brilliant mind was his debilitating physical handicap, which left his paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair, and only able to speak through a voice synthesizer.
Hawking gained more notoriety by the attention paid to him in pop-culture, appearing in television shows like The Simpsons, The Big Bang Theory, and Red Dwarf. He’s also been celebrated in television and movie bios, such as the film, The Theory of Everything, portrayed by Oscar-winning Eddie Redmayne and in another drama by Benedict Cumberbatch.
Born in 1942, he attended Oxford and then Cambridge, and in 1963 was diagnosed with a motor neurone disease (ALS) and given two years to live. Living beyond expectation, he popularized the notion of Black Holes emitting “Hawking Radiation” in 1974. In 1979, he assumed the professorship once held by Isaac Newton. Hawking also vehemently opposed the notion of a personal creator and used his popularity and credentials in science to challenge God’s existence.
There is no shortage of quotations from Hawking revealing his detestation of the God he claimed didn’t exist.
“We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.”
“There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, and science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works.”
“We are each free to believe what we want, and it’s my view that the simplest explanation is; there is no god. No one created our universe, and no one directs our fate.”
When Hawking passed away this morning, he discovered that he was not an advanced breed of monkey. He (re)discovered that his body had contained a soul, and that it was in a place of torment awaiting the final judgment of one who made him. There is no more question, for Hawking. There is no more doubt.
The good news is that Hawking, who suffered from ALS, will one day be raised from the dead in a body that cannot die. The bad news is that his body, reunited with his consciousness, will be cast into the Lake of Fire, the Outer Darkness, and a place where the vast void of the Black Holes he studied will pale in comparison to the dark chasm of his new home in the eternal abyss. And that body will not be paralyzed; it will feel every square inch of the pain to which it will be subjected. It is appointed a man once to die, and then the judgment. And the One judging Hawking now will not be of a peer-reviewed panel or congratulatory science-junkies opining on the cogs and wheels that God put into place when He made creation. It will be the One who has been appointed the judge of the quick and the dead.
There is, however, for all those living, still time and opportunity to recognize the handiwork of God and credit him with His own creation. There is still yet time, if your heart now beats, to repent of your transgressions against this Creator, and to trust in the Savior He sent to redeem sinners like yourself. To understand the Gospel and why true wisdom begins with the fear of God, click here.
For you, there is still yet time. For Hawking, there is not.
And, after all, time is relative.
[Editor’s Note: Theism cannot save you. Only Jesus can. Click here to learn more]
