Composition in green.

The Bible is full of tantalizing references to physics which go beyond our current understanding. Most educated people have heard of the famous wheels within wheels of Ezekiel and Christ’s appearances through walls after his resurrection. Not so well-known is a bit of unusual physics in the Apocalypse.

In Revelation chapter 4, John gets a glimpse into the throne room of heaven. Anyone who has been to a highly-charged rock concert with a light show ought to be able to identify with the energy and excitement of John’s vision, with its surround-sound and thundering applause. The difference is, in this case the onlookers are the performers and the one at the center of attention is worthy the adulation heaped upon him.

What we must not overlook is the emerald. John describes the throne on which God sits and says of it, “And there was a rainbow around the throne in appearance like an emerald.”

An all-green rainbow.

Never mind why green is chosen—its symbolism, its peacefulness. Our concern is with heaven’s physics. Evidently it is enough like ours that objects can be recognized, but different enough from ours that a rainbow can have just one dominant color.

Science fiction is full of wonderful suggestions of what the future might hold. Some visions are presented so skillfully one almost weeps they are unattainable. But Revelation 4 hints at wonders more marvelous than the most fantastic fiction, wonders that are real and can be in our future.

Many SF afficianados, I fear, will weep and wail and gnash their teeth when they discover they are shut out from a reality they cared nothing for—but which trumps everything they envisioned and longed for.