A Black Hole as a Type

Scientists have captured the first image of a
black hole, using Event Horizon Telescope 
observations of the center of galaxy M87. 
Image credit: Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration 

There are many types found in God’s creation. For example, the stars are types of the saints (Phil 2:15), and the sun is a type of Christ, as I have written about in Light of the World (Ps 19:4b-6; Mal 4:2). The bright morning star is another type of Christ (2 Pe 1:19; Rev 22:16), and gold is a type of God’s glory (Ps 19:4b-10; Job 23:10), which is why it is found in so many things in the temple. The heavens are also a type of God’s glory, or at least a messenger that declares His glory (Ps 19:1), and sheep are a type of God’s people (Ps 95:7).

The stars are also types of the angels (Job 38:7). In the book of Revelation the red dragon, which is the devil, swept a third of the stars from the sky with its tail and flung them to the earth (Rev 12:4). Many believe this is a symbolic representation of satan leading a third of the holy angels to rebel against God, and thus to become fallen angels. This is further substantiated by the following passage:

“Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.” (Rev 12:7-9)

The morning Star is also a type of Lucifer or satan:

“How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!” (Is 14:12).

I have written about this in my articles The Origin of Sin, Satan, and Secular Music and The Rise and Fall of Lucifer the Musician. I suggest reading those if you want more detail.

Having said all that by way of introduction, let’s now consider the black hole of stellar mass. A black hole is formed in space by the collapse or death of a giant star. Since stars have mass, and mass causes a gravitational pull, smaller objects tend to gravitate toward and orbit around larger objects. Hence we find our planets revolving around the sun and our moon orbiting the earth, accompanied by millions of other objects, including man-made satellites. This gravitational pull in the universe is also the reason for spiral galaxies ¹. Thus when a super-massive star collapses, experiencing a supernova, whereby its central core implodes, it forms a black hole. Then as other smaller stars are drawn into it, the black hole develops and grows. As stars, planets, dust, and other matter, as well as antimatter and radiation, cross the event horizon, they fall down into the central singularity, growing the black hole and adding to its mass. They are pulled into it at the speed of light, and they never come out. In fact, not even light can escape from the black hole, hence the reason for its name. Initially objects drawn close to a black hole orbit it, but if they get too close to the precipice, they reach a point of no return. Then the super-heated gases get pulled by gravity into the powerful black hole, and become 100-billion-degree-hot plasma, never to be seen again.

Incidentally, this same phenomenon can occur when any large collection of matter, such as a massive cloud of contracting gas — collapses down directly to a black hole. It is not only the collapse of super-massive stars that can produce black holes. Moreover, the intense gravitational force that black holes exert is extremely powerful due to their enormous mass.

Scientists recently captured the first ever photos of a black hole, which helped to confirm what they previously understood. For many people, a black hole may have seemed like nothing more than a scientific theory. Since no one had ever seen a black hole, one may have questioned whether such things really existed. In fact, even Einstein himself was skeptical of their existence. Without ever having seen a black hole, astrophysicists could only theorize based on observations of circumstantial evidence like the motion of stars that seemed to orbit some sort of bizarre unseen object, as well as jets of particles found in space, or radiation that they detected from matter swirling into them. But how could they prove that these were actually black holes?

Now that they’ve photographed a black hole, we have the visual evidence of their existence beyond the shadow of a doubt. We have now seen what we thought was invisible. It took two hundred committed scientists, long-term development, international cooperation, innovation, a lot of money, numerous telescopes and antennae at multiple locations on earth, computers, and wisdom to actually capture a photo of a black hole ². But just as the Lord gave man wisdom how to put a man on the moon, He also gave this team of scientists the wisdom and a planet large enough from which to photograph a black hole. And He did so at this particular time in history for a specific purpose. I believe it is a sign of the times, and the main purpose for it is to illustrate something that is very important for every person on earth to know.

A Type of Hell
Since a black hole is a type of hell, God wanted us all to have this visual image of a black hole to help us realize that it definitely exists, and to better understand that terrible place called hell, of which it is a sort of pattern, so that we would not go there. For just as there are many people who don't believe that black holes exist, there are many who don't believe that hell exists either. But that doesn't make it any less real.

Initially, there was a giant star, Lucifer, who was one of the most powerful angels in heaven. He was an anointed guardian cherub. But he fell into sin and led many other angels in a rebellion against God. Some believe that a third of the holy angels actually fell with him, based on John's revelation of the dragon sweeping a third of the stars from the sky (Rev 12:4). His fall was like the death of a giant star, and the fall of those angels were like other stars being pulled into a black hole. The devil and his angels lost their place in heaven, and God prepared the eternal fire of hell for them (Mt 25:41).

Hell is the place where satan has his throne and he pretends to be God. Like a collapsed super-massive star, he exerts a powerful, dark, invisible force. Like stars drawn into a black hole, people in this world feel drawn toward evil as they experience a sort of gravitational pull that satan has. As they go through life, they are doing his bidding, whether they realize it or not, and descending toward hell with each step (Pr 2:18; 5:5; 7:27; Ps 9:7). They cannot seem to break free of their sinful habits, no matter how hard they may try (Pr 4:14-17, 19). They are foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. They live in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another (Tit 3:3). When they die, they fall down a great shaft and end up down in the pit with satan and his fallen angels, which is sometimes referred to as the bottomless pit, the infernal pit, or simply the Abyss (Rev 9:1-2). Although there are flames there, it is a place of utter darkness, where the light of the flames does not illuminate that place. Just like a black hole, the light cannot escape from that place, and no one can escape.

Hell is much like a very active black hole. Every minute there are thousands of souls falling into it to their eternal destruction, like grains of sand pouring through an hourglass. This brings great pain to the heart of God, since He is not willing for any to perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Pe 3:9; Mt 18:14). In the same way that black holes grow by consuming stars and other matter insatiably, likewise hell has grown larger by the sheer number of souls falling into it. As the Scripture says, "So hell has enlarged itself, and opened its mouth without measure; and their glory, and their multitude, and their pride, and he who rejoices in her, shall go down into it." (Isa 5:14). And it's no wonder, since the Lord declared, "For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it." (Mat 7:13).

Avoiding a Black Hole
Of course, the best way to avoid a black hole in the first place is to stay as far away from it as possible. However, since humans have already been drawn closer to hell to one extent or another, then we need another solution. If you have already been drawn close to a black hole, and find yourself circling it, then there is one way to avoid falling into it before you reach the point of no return, and that is to move away from it at the speed of light. The speed of light is represented by the letter c, which is the initial letter of celeritas, the Latin word meaning speed. As I wrote in a previous article, Christ is the Light of the World. He is the C that you need in order to avoid falling into hell. Let me explain how to move away from that type of "black hole" at C, the speed of Light.

The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of God's glory (Ro 3:23), so sin is a universal problem common to all people. All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good, not even one (Ps 14:1, 3). We all, like sheep, have gone astray (Is 53:6). Scripture also says that the wages of sin is death (Ro 6:23a), and hell is the eternal punishment for those who die in that state (Mt 25:41, 46; Rev 20:12-14).

But God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son Jesus Christ, so that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life (Jn 3:16). Jesus Christ gave His life for you and me on the cross and took the punishment that we deserved. He died in our place. Then He rose again on the third day, and He lives forever as King of kings and Lord of lords. The gift of God to you is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord (Ro 6:23b). The only way to receive this free gift is to repent of your sin, believe on Jesus Christ, receive His forgiveness, and accept His gift of salvation (Ac 2:38). That is how you move away from hell and satan at the speed of Light.

You cannot repent after you die. Mercy is only available while you are still alive on earth. It is appointed to every man to die once and then comes the judgment (Heb 9:27). Don't wait until it's too late and you have passed the point of no return. Give your life to Jesus now while you are still able to. Now is the time of God's favor. Today is the day of salvation.

The Message of the Accretion Disk
The Event Horizon of a black hole is defined in Wikipedia as the invisible "shell" containing "points of no return", i.e., the boundary at which the gravitational pull of a massive object becomes so great as to make escape impossible. Through the recent image of the M87* black hole, scientists discovered that super-heated gases are circling the Event Horizon ("points of no return") in a clockwise pattern, known as the Accretion Disk. They believe these gases are moving close to the speed of light due to the intense gravitational pull. Nothing that crosses over the Event Horizon can escape from falling into the black hole's pit (known as its singularity). For all matter that passes over the Event Horizon, there is no turning back.

Hence, in the image of the black hole that was captured by scientists recently, what we are seeing is the light being emitted from (radio waves produced by) those super-heated, swirling gases in the Accretion Disk before they fell into the hole forever. In order to make that visual image possible, it was necessary for the tiny particles of light -- known as photons -- emitted from the Accretion Disk, to travel 53.5 million light years to earth and reach our telescopes ³.

The Accretion Disk, as part of the heavens, actually declares the glory of God, according to Psalm 19:1. So what is the message that the Accretion Disk declares to us that brings glory to God? The photons traveled all the way to earth to tell us of Christ’s salvation. Their message to all mankind is, "Repent! Hell is real! Don't go to that terrible place! Jesus saves!"

The Photo is a Type, Too
The image of the black hole, which provides definitive proof that black holes exist, is a type of all the evidence we find in Scripture that hell really exists. There is an abundance of evidence, including the testimony of the rich man in hell that Jesus spoke about in Luke 16:19-31. The photo of the black hole is also a type of the many testimonies of those whom God has allowed to temporarily experience hell and live to tell about it. They have returned with a message for mankind. I have published many of those testimonies on my Eternal Destinations blog, which I encourage you to check out.

Side by Side Comparison
Let's take a look at all of this in a side by side comparison:

Black Hole	Hell
May originate with collapse of super-massive star	Prepared by God due to the fall of a guardian cherub known as Lucifer, which means "star of the morning" (Is 14:12; Mt 25:41)
Grows and develops as it consumes stars, dust, planets, and other matter	Lucifer led a rebellion of heavenly angels, signified by stars. Once God prepared hell for the devil and his angels, it has grown and developed by being populated with fallen humans (Mt 25:41; Rev 12:4, 7-9; Isa 5:14).
Characterized by utter darkness inside	Characterized by utter darkness inside (Mt 8:12; 22:13; 25:30)
Billions of degrees hot temperature	Intense heat from eternal fire (Mt 25:41; Mk 9:43, 48)
Infinite density inside	Heavy oppression that grips all within
Exerts intense gravitational pull	Devil and his angels exert a strong pull on people that attracts them through temptations and overtakes them
Insatiable	Insatiable (Pr 30:15-16; Isa 5:14)
Nothing that enters can escape	Nobody condemned to that place can escape
Many people skeptical of its existence	Many people skeptical of its existence
Image of it now proves it is real	Scriptures, as well as testimonies, prove it is real
Avoid it by staying far from it	Avoid it at all costs
When being drawn close to it escape by moving away at the speed of light	Move away at the speed of Light by repenting and believing in Jesus Christ, accepting His free gift of salvation (Mk 1:15; Rom 10:9-13; Ac 2:38)

Closing Words
In this study, we have learned that just as many other parts of God's creation are types of Christ, the saints, and the angels, likewise black holes are a type of hell. There is no way out of hell, just as there is no way out of a black hole. Those who go to that place when they die are doomed to remain there forever, and never return. But Christ has made a way for us to avoid going to that place by moving away from it right now at the speed of Light.

Studying types of Christ like this can help us grow in our love and knowledge of the Lord. I trust this has helped to accomplish that very goal in your life as you have read this article. I hope you will come back again later to enjoy more articles on the types in the Bible.

Footnotes:
¹ It is generally accepted that there is a super-massive black hole at the centers of most galaxies, including our own Milky Way galaxy.

² The M87* black hole that scientists recently photographed at the center of a giant, elliptical galaxy called Messier 87 (M87) is 6.5 billion times the mass of our sun. The actual size of its shadow (black part in the center) is nearly the size of our entire solar system. It is located 53.5 million light years away. The image above shows a bright ring formed as light bends in the intense gravity surrounding the black hole. Due to the fact that nothing can escape from a black hole once it falls into it, not even light, this is the first ever image of its kind. In order to accomplish such a breakthrough scientific discovery, it required a telescope at least the size of planet earth, which would have been impractical. So scientists created a virtual one that size by connecting six telescopes around the world, which were synchronized using an atomic clock that only loses one second every 50 billion years. And just to show how God made it all possible, it turns out that He made planet earth big enough for scientists to view black holes using these synchronized telescopes, ensuring our planet met the minimum size requirement, because it would have been impossible to do from a smaller planet. You see, due to the relatively tiny size of M87* in our sky from earth's perspective, it is at the very technological limits of what we are capable of viewing from earth. This video further explains it.

³ The photo that scientists captured of the M87* black hole is actually an image of radio waves. But radio waves come in photons too - it’s all "light" (i.e. electromagnetic radiation), just different wavelengths.

Attribution notice: Most Scripture quotations taken from the NASB, copyright Lockman Foundation, used by permission. Image credit: Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, used per Fair Use Act for educational and commentary purposes only.

Author's note:  Also see Light of the World, Where will you go when you die?, Is Jesus God?, The Bronze Serpent as a Type of Christ, Adam as a type of Christ, The Tree of Life as a Type of Christ, Noah's Ark a Type of Christ, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, The Kingdom of Darkness, and The Mysteries of the Faith. You can find many testimonies of people who have received revelations of hell in my blog Eternal Destinations. You can access the Main Directory for Biblical Typology, or my complete blog directory at Writing for the Master. Now I'd like to ask a very important question.

Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus.  Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?

“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15).  He preached that we must repent and believe.

Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"

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Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.