The Jesus Fields

Humanity's best thinkers have been tirelessly working to understand creation, what it is, and how it works. For the past 150 years or so, this has been going on at an accelerated pace. It wasn’t that long ago that the prevailing theory was that all things consisted of earth, water, air, and fire.[i]

So here we are today with our best collective guess. It’s called Quantum Field Theory. The first quantum particle to be discovered was the electron. The tiny thing was indirectly observed in 1897. Since then, we have identified 17 quantum fields and their associated quantum particles. This theoretical construct of reality is called the “Standard Model,” and is our best understanding of matter and force. Those who study such things agree that there are likely more fields yet to be discovered. Even our biological selves are constructed of the same tiny particles as everything else.

Learning the details about creation is great fun, and many are motivated to spend their lives looking into it. The theories, which consist of mathematical models that reflect observations, can be used to predict the behavior of matter and energy. They can be used to envision and invent all sorts of amazing and useful things. Computers, lasers, power plants, motors, lights, MRI machines, vaccines, pest-resistant strawberries, and jet engines come to mind. We have created things to make our lives easier, ensure we have enough to eat, and keep ourselves safe and comfortable.  We even make machines designed to explore creation in new ways, to look deeper, and learn even more. We are aggressively seeking an ever-growing understanding of ourselves and the nature of the place where we live. This seeking, for sure, is a hardwired trait of the human state.

What we think we know about the details of creation is summed up in a set of theories. The word theory is used because it’s just the best current guess.

None of our theories, however, makes a guess at the origin of creation. Even the Big Bang does not address where the Big Bang came from. Plus, there is the fact that we humans are sentient. That is, we know we are alive, we can think about what we are thinking about, we have feelings and emotions, and we can have convictions, faith, hope, and even love. We are certainly more than just a clever arrangement of particles within fields.

Proof that there is some sort of god is unnecessary. All of creation is shouting complexity, beauty, enormity, and the like. Certainly not an accident of evolution. There is plenty of evolution going on, but not to the degree that it negates the need for an intelligent design and build creator.

Most humans have no issue with believing in a god. The trouble usually lies in how to select which god, which religion to embrace, pursue, study, and become part of. There are so many choices that most people simply make no choice at all and carry on with a foggy belief in the probability of some kind of god. Usually, it’s a god that does not meddle too much in our everyday affairs.

But then there is the historical fact that Jesus was a man who walked the earth for 33 years, a couple of thousand years ago. He chose to visit during the peak of the Roman Empire. It was the middle of an era known as the “Pax Romana.”[ii] A time of relative peace, unprecedented stability, economic growth, and infrastructure development. It was a golden age of culture and science with a common currency and a strong legal system. An era when trade and communication across a vast area of the planet existed for the first time. A perfect period in history to introduce a New Covenant.

Jesus taught, He served, He washed feet, and He was killed by the political leaders of the time. Of all the religions, Christianity is the only one in which God Himself comes down to our level and sets for us an example of how to live, love, and serve.

In John’s Gospel, Jesus is referred to as the “Word.” The very Word that created the universe.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. (John 1:1-4 ESV)

Jesus is the creating Word of God, and the life and light of men. If indeed creation is made up of a collection of fields from which all particles and forces derive their existence, then Jesus is the source of fields. Not only the source, but the sustainer as well.

… but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. (Heb 1:2-3 emphases by the author)

How exactly this all works from a physics standpoint, no one knows. But the current best theory of quantum fields as an understanding of our reality is compelling. Perhaps Jesus sustains, controls,  and “upholds the universe,” through fields. One could postulate a theory about it and make all sorts of assumptions about how God created and controls all things through the generation and manipulation of fields and so on. He might even be motivated by His will or by our prayers to change the natural order of things by moving the particles of matter around as He sees fit. He could do anything that way, like giving us a new thought or healing leprosy.

Here’s an idea: let’s invent a new theology called The Jesus Fields. Perhaps consider each human as a quantum. Life, after all, comes in individual packets of one interacting with each other.

Maybe not.

But refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels. (2 Tim 2:23 NASB)

But it is fun to think about. Especially the fact that photons, the quanta of light, were created by the very first “let there be” proclamation recorded in Genesis 1:3. We know that all electromagnetic fields, including visible light, is made up of these tiny particles. It is interesting that photons are the only particles that have no mass and, therefore, are not affected by any of the 17 fields.[iii]

Again, Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12 ESV emphasis by the author)

Being comfortable about not knowing exactly how something works is more palatable when you can latch on to some plausible ideas about how it might actually work. It makes faith easier and brings peace in the not knowing. This is especially true for us scientists and engineering types who seek and find satisfaction in understanding the underlying principles of things. His ways are higher.

Jesus said He was God. He explained about a spiritual world that is part of our reality, where evil and good battle for our souls. Perhaps made up of fields yet to be discovered, pure speculation.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Eph 6:12 ESV)

Jesus taught us about Himself, a God who loves us and is very much involved in our everyday lives. He did things that required physical changes to be made in the normal course of events. We call these things miracles.

In the Gospels, Jesus gave us 41 commands for living.[iv] He said if we obey His commands, we will abide in His love.

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. (John 15:10)

After he rose from the dead, he hung around for 40 days. He had a few meetings with all his disciples and also met with many others. These first Christians were so convinced of His Godliness that they were willing to carry on with teaching and preaching the Good News in the face of certain prosecution and even death. Remarkable.

To quote C.S. Lewis, “Jesus was either a liar, a lunatic, or Lord.”[v] There is only one obvious choice. No other religion has a Jesus, like Christianity.

We are created in His image. We relentlessly seek to understand creation. Jesus commands us to seek His kingdom and His righteousness. And to do this first. Prioritize that, and what you discover will not be a theory.
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[i] The concept that earth, water, air, and fire are the fundamental building blocks of all substances was first proposed by the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Empedocles in the 5th century BCE. Aristotle refined the theory, adding the qualities of hot, cold, dry, and wet to the elements (e.g., fire = hot and dry, water = cold and wet). He also introduced a fifth element, aether, for the heavens. 

[ii] Pax Romana was a roughly 200-year period of relative peace and stability in the Roman Empire, from 27 BCE to 180 CE, that began with Emperor Augustus.

[iii] Photons are affected by gravity, which in classical physics is considered a field. A more modern view, from Einstein's theory of general relativity, describes gravity not as a force field, but as a curvature or warping of spacetime itself, caused by the presence of mass and energy. It is no longer considered a field.

[iv] Pontzer, David J. (2025). Commander Jesus, The Whispered Shout (pp. 199-207). BookLocker.

[v] Lewis, C.S. (1952). Book II, Chapter 3, Mere Christianity (pp. 54-56). Geoffrey Bles