Since my conversion, I have become more aware of the resentment that so many people seem to harbor towards God and true Christianity. There are yard signs here in our neighborhood that are meant to show the homeowner’s absolute belief in science, choice, and diversity of everything—all things except a belief in God. As I walk in my neighborhood and see these signs, I find myself getting upset, but I know that I’ve got to rely only on God to deal with such matters; it is not my place to confront my neighbors. Still, it is frustrating because people don’t seem to learn. From Covid lockdown lies to riots that some still characterize as peaceful demonstrations; people become comfortable with their positions, speaking points and deception. It also seems that people are more interested in celebrating what humans can accomplish, rather than repenting and turning to God.
To this point, on September 5, 1977, from a launch pad at Cape Canaveral in Florida, a spacecraft named Voyager 1, lifted off on the start of a mission to deep space. I had just turned 20 at the time of launch, and was in the middle of college and fascinated by the space race that was initiated by the Soviet Union and President Kennedy’s challenge to take the US to the moon. Weighing just 1800 pounds, far less than most cars, and having only 470 watts of on-board power, this spacecraft has been on the job each day for nearly 50 years.
A 1960s proposal for a space tour to study the outer planets led NASA to begin work on a mission during the early 1970s. Initially, Voyager 1 was planned as Mariner 11 of the Mariner program. Due to budget cuts, the mission was reduced to a flyby of Jupiter and Saturn and renamed the Mariner Jupiter-Saturn probes. The name was changed to Voyager when the probe designs began to differ substantially from the Mariner mission. Currently, it is roughly 16 billion miles away from Earth, and while its mission was initially intended to last only about five years, it will continue to send data for at least a few more years.
In 2012, Voyager 1 entered Interstellar Space—the distant zones of cold and deep space between the stars. On March 31, 2006, amateur radio operators in Germany tracked and received radio waves from Voyager 1 using the 20-meter (66 ft) dish at Bochum with a long integration technique. Retrieved data was checked and verified against data from the Deep Space Network station at Madrid, Spain. This seems to be the first such amateur tracking of Voyager.
It is interesting how much interest there is in wanting to reach out to deep space and somehow connect with the unknown. To this end, Voyager 1 included a gold-plated record that held music and speeches from notable people of the day. The record was curated by the astronomer, Carl Sagan. Mr. Sagan was famous for his belief only in science, rather than God—The Creator of the universe.
The point of the golden record sent on Voyager was intended to be a message from Earth’s scientific and political establishment into deep space. The point being that mankind exists and is in control here on Earth. Humankind desires power and to control. This is of course rather than making a connection with the Creator of the universe. Consider the contrast with this worldview in David’s writings in Psalm 19:1-2: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge” (New International Version throughout).
Voyager 1 has been collecting interesting data that has helped science better understand our own planet. It has also recorded similar information from the planets and deep space. However, remember, when we receive this information back on Earth, it is already in the past. As true Christians, we are focused on the promise of the coming Kingdom of God and His Son, Jesus Christ. We know that ultimately science and technology, no matter how impressive, pales in the face of God and His majesty. Consider just how this will unfold, as we see in 1 Thessalonians 4:16: “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.” Those who have been called by God need not rely on Voyager 1 “to touch the face of God,” as Ronald Reagan spoke, following the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster. In Psalm 29:3-4, we read that “The Voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD thunders over the mighty waters. The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is majestic.” This is reinforced for us in Job 37:5: “God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding.”
If we, as true Christians wish to develop deeper wisdom, we simply need to ask God. We see this in James 1:5-6: “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.”
It is not my intention to demean the work of NASA and many independent scientists and academics. Clearly, they did impressive work in keeping Voyager 1 in orbit for nearly 50 years when its mission was designed to conclude decades ago. This has been inspired work indeed; however, it is not the voice of God that will be heard in any of the data.
We need only turn to God to unlock the majesty of the universe that God created—we need only to believe and trust in God and as we read in Psalm 46:10 where He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”