Can God Stop the Nova?

The short answer: I don’t think so. Like the proverbial question, “Could God make a rock so big that He couldn’t lift it?”, I think stellar nova cycles are inherent in the laws of physics of the universe God has made. It is a reflection of the internal symmetry of God’s being. If the universe is chaotic, then God Himself must be chaotic. If the universe is synchronous, then it is a reflection of the synchronicity of God’s essence.

Just as God’s being does not conform to the moral condition of humanity, so also is it true of natural law. Rather, mankind must conform to the laws of nature and of Nature’s God. Failure to do so will result in catastrophe.

There are calamities which can be inflicted according to God’s sovereign will in special seasons of judgment. The Flood of Noah may have been just such an event. But even though the Bible tells us that God “made” the sun, the moon and the stars, and even though He promised Noah that the “seasons” of summer and winter would continue as long as the earth “remains,” that is precisely the point: if the Sun is indeed our primary source of heat, then the seasonality of it requires a rhythmic, synchronous “life” to the Sun’s existence.

God does not make a habit of suspending natural law. He could not have a universe if He did so. What all sentient and moral beings must do, however, is to learn how to adapt and conform to every potential environment which natural law dictates. Humanity has learned how to harness and contain the 3000 degree temperatures of a blast furnace. Humanity should be able to learn how to survive the heat blast of a solar nova.

God does not offer us a miracle when He has already provided us with intelligence to use science for shielding, for example. It is our own moral failure and the failure of human made institutions which deprive us of the tools we need for survival.

— JWS, October 17, 2022