Someday the game show Jeopardy will post the following answer, “Clyde Tombaugh.” And they will accept the following question, “Who is the first human being to fly beyond our solar system?” Today, after a nine and a half year journey of flying over 51,000 miles an hour, the New Horizons space craft will fly by Pluto. Clyde Tombaugh, the discoverer of Pluto, is aboard. At least his ashes are aboard.
The question Jeopardy will accept will be wrong. Mr. Tombaugh’s ashes will not have gone where no man has gone before. According to the Old Testament Enoch, Moses and Elijah have already made the trek and they did it while being alive. Then there is the New Testament. We have Revelation 5:9 speaking of twenty-four elders around God’s throne who sing, “Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; . . .” Many scholars believe they are those resurrected with Jesus. See Matthew 27, “The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.”
There is no doubt that NASA’s flying Mr. Tombaugh’s ashes past Pluto is a significant event in human history but it does not come close to God’s resurrection and according to Revelation 7:9, “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” That’s us. You and me. How grand.
Written by Roger Bothwell on July 14, 2015
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