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Another of the ways that we learn of God is by the exploration of His creation, which is a textbook of God’s character and a revelation of spiritual wisdom.

“And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him” (Genesis 2:19-20)

“And he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes” (1 Kings 4:33).

“But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the LORD hath wrought this?” (Job 12:7-9).

“When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained” (Psa. 8:3).

“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun” (Psa. 19:1-4).

“Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise” (Prov. 6:6).

Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth” (Isa. 40:26).

“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” (Rom. 1:20).

When God wanted to show Job His glory, He used the animal kingdom (Job 39-41).

Solomon studied God’s creation and had knowledge of everything from the largest trees to the smallest herb, and of animals, birds, insects, and fish, and the people and kings of the nations came to Israel in that day to hear Solomon’s amazing teaching (1 Ki. 4:33-34). This points to Christ’s kingdom when the greater than Solomon and His appointed teachers will expound on God’s Word and bring lessons from the created things. The saints will study the creation and delight in learning about God’s wisdom and ways from the works of His hands.

Man will be restored to his God-given place as head of the creation in Christ (Heb. 2:5-9). All things will be put under his feet. Satan’s reign will be finished. Man will “subdue” the creation in the sense that he will use it for God’s glory and his pleasure in God’s will (Gen. 1:28).

In Christ’s kingdom, the saints will investigate the creation by the key of knowledge, which is the fear of God (Psa. 111:10; Prov. 9:10). And they will do for the glory of God and not the glory of man.

When Christ reigns, the spiritual darkness will be lifted.

“And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations” (Isa. 25:7).

Satan, the father of the darkness of this present world, the “prince of the power of the air,” will be incarcerated in the bottomless pit.

“For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off: (Isa 29:20)

“And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season” (Rev. 20:1-3).

The “science falsely so called” of this age will give way to true science. The fathers of modern science, for the large part, believed in the God of the Bible and understood that they were investigating His handiwork. Men of science in the Millennium will be like Johannes Kepler, one of the fathers of modern astronomy and the discoverer of the laws of planetary motion:

“I was merely thinking God’s thoughts after him. Since we astronomers are priests of the highest God in regard to the book of nature, it benefits us to be thoughtful, not of the glory of our minds, but rather, above all else, of the glory of God.”

Kepler considered himself a priest of God who did everything to the glory of God, including his science, and that is how men will live in the Millennium and beyond. Even the most common and “mundane” thing will be done for God’s glory. The very bells on the horses will be devoted to God’s holiness and glory (Zec. 14:20).

As we have said earlier in these studies, imagine a world, a universe, in which all of the citizens are priests of the most high God and do everything to the glory of God.

James Clerk Maxwell, one of the fathers of modern physics, understood man’s eternal purpose:

“I believe, with the Westminster Divines and their predecessors ad Infinitum, that ‘man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him for ever’” (Lewis Campbell and William Garnet, The Life of James Clerk Maxwell, 1882).

Michael Faraday, another of the fathers of modern physics, understood that the key to unlocking the mysteries of the universe is God’s Word:

“... the Christian who is taught of God ... finds his guide in the Word of God ... and looks for no assurance beyond what the Word can give Him. ... The Christian religion is a revelation, and that revelation is the Word of God” (Selected Exhortations Delivered to Various Churches of Christ by the Late Michael Faraday, Dundee: John Leng and Co., 1910).

In Christ’s kingdom every field will be unlocked by the key of God’s Word, whether it be cosmology, anthropology, sociology, psychology, economics, art, geology, oceanology, astronomy, meteorology, chemistry, botany, zoology, medicine, genetics, mathematics, or physics.

The darkness of this present time will be past, and light will shine into every corner of life on earth.

Even today, the believer thrills to study creation and to see the Creator’s glory reflected everywhere, from the details of the living cell to the mind-staggering depth and beauty of the galaxies and the perfectly-tuned laws of physics.

How much more thrilling will this research be in Christ’s kingdom!

Today our exploration of the Lord’s world is handicapped by the fact that the fields of science are controlled by unbelieving men and governments in rebellion to God, and believers rarely have the proper resources to study and explore. In this present age, most of the world’s scientists and educators are spiritually blind (2 Cor. 4:4). They are crippled in their thinking by the willful rejection of the Creator (2 Pet. 3:3-5). They stumble along as blind men rather than walking in the glorious light of God’s Word. They study creation but don’t have the key to unlock its meaning. They think the universe just happened, that life sprang from nothing and carried itself along from complexity to complexity.

They construct museums of “natural history” on the philosophy of Darwinian “naturalism.”

In Christ’s kingdom, all of the instruments of research will belong to the Lord’s people. In that day, science and technology will be dedicated to God’s glory, and in His light we will see light (Psa. 36:9). Unlike today, when science textbooks and natural history museums are filled with myths and lies, in that day they will be shining bastions of truth! In Christ’s kingdom the museums of “natural history” will be replaced with museums of God’s handiwork!

And in that day we won’t be subject to weariness and danger and a thousand other things that so greatly limit research and exploration in this present time. In that day will be fulfilled the following prophecy:

“But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).

I don’t know exactly how research and exploration will be done in Christ’s Millennial kingdom and beyond. I don’t know if there will be space travel, for example.

Doubtless the most fabulous machine of this present age, the space shuttle, with its 2.5 million parts, will seem like a child’s toy in Christ’s kingdom because of the wisdom that will flow from the Spirit of God.

The glorified saints apparently will be like Jesus in the sense of being able to transcend physical barriers such as walls (John 20:19).

In 1968, the astronauts aboard Apollo 8 circling the moon, sent a live Christmas message to earth by reading from Genesis 1:1-10 in the King James Bible. At the time, it was the largest audience ever to listen to a human voice. Borman said, “The only instructions that we got from NASA was to do something appropriate,” so he, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders took turns reading the Bible. They concluded the historic broadcast by saying, “And God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.” Responding to criticism by atheists and secularists, NASA has since forbad the reading of God’s Word.

In Christ’s kingdom, there will never again be such godless restriction, and the wonderful Creator will be glorified in everything.