The Christ in Prophecy Journal

The Existence of God: The Fish Pond


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Can another reality exist alongside our own and we not realize it?

We asked this question on our television show Christ in Prophecy of Carl Gallups, senior pastor of Hickory Hammock Baptist Church in Milton, Florida, and the author of the best-selling apologetics book, The Magic Man in the Sky. He is also the founder of the world famous PPSIMMONS YouTube channel and prominent Freedom Friday radio talk show host.

Carl Gallups

The Fish Pond

Nathan Jones: Carl, in your very insightful book The Magic Man in the Sky, your wrote something that was so deep. You talked about two realities — a physical and a spiritual reality, both existing side-by-side, but one not seeing the other. Atheist always say there can’t be a spiritual realm because we would know it and we’d see it. How do you refute their claim with your argument on side-by-side realities?

Carl Gallups: That is a very important concept and principle for people to grasp, simply because you can’t see something or feel something or subjectively measure something, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it doesn’t exist. What it does mean is that we should examine it to the depth of any reasonable means possible.

True, Atheists will often make the argument like you just said, “Because we can’t see it, touch it, measure it, feel it, you just then can’t talk to God and stand on a hill and yell, ‘Strike me dead if you’re there,’ because nothing happens, so therefore God doesn’t exist.”

The illustration that I use in my book, well one of the illustrations, to counter their claim is what I call the Fish Pond Story.

Under the surface of a fish pond that is say located in the middle of a 5,000 acre ranch, say right in the middle, and the fish pond is 10 acres wide; under the surface is an entire universe of reality. Everything that lives under the surface of that pond, that is their reality. Those creatures are bound to that watery existence. Beyond the surface of that pond is what you and I know is our universe of reality, not only the world that we live in, but the solar system and the universe beyond.

The fish living in that pond have no concept, they have not a clue, of the magnificence of what lies just beyond the surface of that water. They have no concept of the intricacies of your human life, much less the other seven billion people that live on the planet. They’ve never seen a city or a skyscraper or an airplane or a train. Sure, every now and then they might see a shadowy existence of something that comes to the edge of the pond. Remember that the Scripture talks about how we see through a glass darkly. But, we do get glimpses of glory now and then, if you will. God gives us glimpses of His glory. But, until we come out of our “fish pond” and enter into the realm of what’s really real, see, we don’t have a clue as to what it’s like to truly be in the presence of God anymore then a fish has a clue. If a fish could somehow become a man and step outside the pond and look around, it’d say, “Oh, wow, I had no idea!”

The existence that lives outside of the fish pond existed all along. It has always been all around the pond, in physical flesh and blood reality. A fish is flesh and blood, though a different kind of flesh, but its flesh and blood and it’s physical. We’re physical. We’re flesh and blood. And yet, the two physical realities exist side-by-side, and one is totally unaware of the other. In fact, not only are the fish unaware, but they cannot enter into our reality and exist in it.

I believe that’s an illustration of the deep spiritual truth that Jesus was trying to reveal to us, that when you pass from this existence, you’re not just some little fluff of spirit going to float on a cloud playing a harp forever. You enter into a physical reality. I am going to use the word “physical,” but it is glorified. It’s like when Jesus came out of the tomb. He was physical, but He was glorified. When you die you leave the “fish pond” and you enter into reality, in fact it is the ultimate reality.

To the presence of God, we are just living in a fish pond. We’re surrounded by our limitations. We are surrounded by the surface. We are in a “watery” existence, but we don’t even know it. But, when we leave this existence, we are like a fish that has become a man. We look and discover there’s an endless array and vastness to the universe. It’s like God saying, “This reality is mine, but now it’s also yours because of your faith in my Son Jesus Christ.” We enter from one reality into another reality, if you will, one dimension of reality into another dimension of reality. In the same way the fish pond exists in its own dimension and it’s real, all around it is yet another dimension and it’s real, too, but it’s the ultimate reality.

In the fourth segment of our interview with Pastor Carl Gallups concerning the existence of God, he’ll use examples of other realities which coexist with our own to help prove that God exists.

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Dr. Nathan E. Jones

As the Internet Evangelist at Lamb & Lion Ministries, Nathan reaches out to the over 4.5 billion people accessible over the Internet with the Good News of Jesus Christ. He also co-hosts the ministry's television program Christ in Prophecy and podcast The Truth Will Set You Free.

2 CommentsLeave a Comment

  • Oops..be careful of using that ilustration of 'a fish becomes a man' … It sounds way too much like evolution. I know that isn't what was meant however it could be twisted very easily by those who don't want to believe in a Creator. Just my two cents worth. God bless!

  • Absolutely awesome and thought provoking… takes me back through the imperfect "mind's eye" in conceptualizing of the creation of this reality by the Lord's speaking it into existence.

    The ultimate reality lies beyond the human physical grave and in the glorified spiritual physical reality.

    Beautiful!

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