Scientists have long searched for a single unifying formula to explain the universe. They call it the “theory of everything.” The night Albert Einstein died, beside his bed, they found “twelve pages of tightly written equations, littered with cross-outs and corrections . . . [as] he struggled to find his elusive unified field theory.”[1]
But alas, this “holy grail” for scientists still remains “one of the major unsolved problems in physics.”[2]
Makes you wonder—in our quest for God, is there a theological “theory of everything,” a unifying formula that is the sum of all revealed truth in the universe?
Consider evidence from the fourth Gospel. “In the beginning was the Word, . . . and the Word was God. . . . All things were made through Him” (John 1:1-3). Whoever the Word is, He is clearly “the Maker of all things.”
But we know who He is. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory” (verse 14). Of course, the Maker of all things is Jesus, the very incarnation (literally “in-flesh-ment,” Latin) of God, whose love for the human race is epic: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son . . .” (John 3:16). No question, the Maker of all things loves us.
But there is more. In His moving “last prayer” on the fateful night of His betrayal, arrest, and eventual crucifixion, the Maker of all things petitions the Father: “I desire that they [His disciples] . . . may be with Me where I am” (John 17:24). That is, He not only loves us, He wants us.
Thus, it is clear: “The Maker of all things loves and wants me.”[3] Could this be the summation of all revealed truth, a divine “theory of everything”?
Isn’t ‘the Maker of all things loves and wants me’ the shining truth undergirding Creation, Calvary, the Scriptures, the Sabbath, and salvation?
But aren’t the three words “God is love” sufficient? They are indeed. But for a generation preoccupied with its existential angst, here is an internalization of “God is love” in the introspective language of social media: God is not only love—He loves and wants me.
Think about it. Isn’t “the Maker of all things loves and wants me” the shining truth undergirding Creation, Calvary, the Scriptures, the Sabbath, and salvation? Is it not the pulsating heart of the First Coming, the Second Coming, the bright hope of resurrection after death’s dark night? What more universal truth lies at the heart of all we believe?
Why, even Revelation 14’s three angels streaking across earth’s last midnight—what truth do they urgently proclaim, if not this truth? “Worship Him who made heaven and earth” (i.e., the Maker of all things [Rev. 14:6, 7]), for “the hour of His judgment has come” and the evil confederacy of “Babylon is fallen,” so beware the enemy’s “mark of the beast” assault (Rev. 14:8-11)—their “everlasting gospel” endgame appeal is fueled by the divine verity “The Maker of all things loves and wants me.”
“It is the darkness of misapprehension of God that is enshrouding the world. . . . At this time a message from God is to be proclaimed, a message illuminating in its influence and saving in its power. . . . The last rays of merciful light, the last message of mercy to be given to the world, is a revelation of His character of love.”[4]
Because the Maker of all things, who loves and wants me, loves and wants us all, every lost one of us.
What does this have to do with this new column—The Endgame? I believe Jesus is coming sooner than we think, much sooner. Over the course of the journey ahead, we will share the mounting evidence. But listen—if we aren’t clear about the core of our beliefs, why should we care about the rest of our beliefs?
To read more of The Endgame, be sure to keep an eye on the Adventist Review website.—Editors.
[1] Walter Isaacson, Einstein: His Life and Universe, p.543.
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_everything
[3] Thirty years ago I came across this sentence in Philip Yancey’s The Jesus I Never Knew, p. 269. He attributed it to the writer and literary critic Reynolds Price, who deemed it “the sentence humankind craves from stories.”
[4] Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1900, 1941), p. 415. (Emphasis supplied.)
