The River Of Heaven

The skeptic may feel this is all a lucky coincidence, but let us look at more amazing parallels between water and the nature of God. God's nature is paradoxical, that is, it is both the source of life and the source of judgment. God is a consuming fire as well as the water of life. God combines in His nature the opposites of fire and water.

What is fascinating is that water itself also has this paradoxical nature.

Henry Cavendish, back in 1783, was doing some experiments with the scientific sensation of the day-electricity. He wanted to see what would happen if he sent a current of electricity through a tube of water. He was shocked when the water vanished before his eyes. He repeated it again and again, and he was astounded. He examined the contents of the tube and discovered that water, the quencher of flames could be turned into a gas that was highly combustible and stimulated fire. He published a paper by the Royal Society in 1784, and he called water, "inflammable air."

Other scientists thought he was some kind of a crackpot. Water stimulating fire-it was absurd. The famous French scientist deRazier, was determined to expose this hoax before the world. He duplicated the experiment of Cavendish and attached a valve to the tube so he could inhale the so-called inflammable air. Before a panel of prominent citizens as witnesses he switched on the current, filled his lungs with the gas left in the tube, and held a lighted paper at his lips as he exhaled. There was a terrific explosion and deRazier thought all his teeth had been blown out. He had proven the hard way that water can produce fire.

What a marvelous coincidence, that the source of life on earth has a nature so similar to the nature of the Creator. To the student of the Bible it is no coincidence, but rather, the design of God. Water is an expression of His very nature and that is why I am convinced that water will be a part of all eternity. The rich man in hell begged for just a drop of water. Hell is pictured as a place with no water. Heaven, on the other hand, is portrayed as a place with an abundance of water.

Rutherford Platt, in his book Water The Wonder Of Life, after describing how essential water is to all that physicist do in the laboratory, writes, "It possesses order and creates order. Is not water something on the level of divine creation?" Yes it is! And the Bible reveals it will be a part of the new creation of eternity as well. Our text tells us that the river of heaven flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb. There are only two thrones, and so the Holy Spirit does not have a throne in heaven. This may just be a coincidence, but it is of interest to note that water is two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. The two hydrogen atoms are always in pairs. They stick together like the Father and the Son.The oxygen atom is the one that most fits the Holy Spirit, for it stirs up and creates activity. It is the key element in the giant sun flares, for example. The Holy Spirit if the Person of the Godhead who moves and motivates and produces the fire, like oxygen. It could just be coincidence, but it could also be another way God had built something of His nature into water, the basic source of life.