IF A TREE FALLS IN THE FOREST AND NO ONE HEARS, DOES IT MAKE A SOUND?
If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears, does it make a sound? This old philosophical riddle is something I’ve been thinking about over the past few weeks.
This is not a new question. People have been using this phrase as a joke for many years. And more seriously, scientists have been studying it as an issue of metaphysics. To paraphrase, scientific minds view the question this way:
DOES A SOUND BECOME SOUND ONLY WHEN YOU HEAR IT?
Sound is pressure that passes through matter or space as a wave. In other words, sound is an addition of pressure that changes the status quo or the resting state of a thing or the space around it, and causes movement, for example vibration. It’s a force that moves whatever it touches out of a resting state and into an active state. Using one’s voice, for example, sends out waves of vibration that shift the air around us. When those waves reach us, the little bones in our ears vibrate, and what we hear is a sound. The voice goes out first, and the sound of it arrives later.
Substance theory, which is one line of reasoning in metaphysics, says that an object is distinct from its sound. Another school of thought called bundle theory says that the object is actually composed of its sense data (sound being among them). I don’t know enough about anything in the field of metaphysics that could ever add to the debate, but I found it interesting that the scientific reasoning abilities that God gave us are being applied in this way.
For example, substance theory says that only one substance exists -- God. Everything else is within God and a part of Him. That works for me. According to the gospel of John,
In the beginning the Word [Sound of God] already existed.
The Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He existed in the beginning with God.
God created everything through Him,
and nothing was created except through Him.
The Word [Sound of God] gave life to everything that was created.
John 1: 1-4 (NLT). We know that nothing exists or happens outside of God's control, because the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. Psalm 24: 1. He is omnipresent and Lord over all things. And it is the spoken Word of God that created in the beginning, and still creates miracles today.
According to bundle theory, there is no substance that creates an object. Instead, what we perceive are properties that identify a thing in a way we can comprehend it. Therefore, an apple is an apple only because we see its shape and color and taste its flavor. In this line of reasoning, the tree does not make a sound when it falls if you don’t hear the sound of its fall. It argues that the tree doesn't even exist to our consciousness. This theory is usually used to argue against the existence of one Omnipresent God, and to claim that nothing is really real. But what does our Scripture about the Word (Sound of God) say? The Bible says, at John 1,
God sent a man, John the Baptist, to tell about the Light (Jesus) so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. John himself was not the Light; he was simply a witness to tell about the Light. The One who is the true Light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
John 1: 7-9. John the Baptist was a voice sent to announce the Light of the World, Jesus, Who was to come. People saw and heard John and his words, but he made it very clear to them that he, John, whom they were seeing was not the same as the person he spoke of. John was not Jesus, but his words were Jesus’ message in advance of His coming. In effect, he was a voice before the tangible arrival of the Word, or Sound of God.
I read a prophecy on the Elijah List in 2005 which pointed out that we as created beings all vibrate (give off sound waves), and that our frequency is changed during worship to vibrate on a different, higher frequency. Presumably, what that means is that worship causes us to vibrate at God's frequency. At the time it sounded great to my scientific mind, and I had an earnest desire to vibrate at God’s frequency, but that was pretty much my level of perception at the time. God’s schooling process is continuous though, and so my thoughts have often been drawn back to that concept.
What I now understand from it is that our worship causes change in us at a level we don't even see -- we wouldn't know if our frequency changes unless it was measured. What we hear is the spoken word or song to the Lord, but what I have also come to understand from the Lord is this:
He is the Voice before the Sound.
To explain this statement, I would say the sound is not necessarily what we hear right away when we worship, or when God speaks. It is the Spirit of God that speaks when our spirits worship, and His voice that causes the breakthrough movement that we experience after He speaks to us or through us. That breakthrough movement is His Sound. All through Scripture, we see that before God acted, there was an audible voice or voices, whether of men or His own, that preceded His mighty move. Before battle, He directed the people to make a joyful noise before His triumph over their enemies. Before He leveled the walls of Jericho, He directed a shout. Before He moved among His people He raised the voices of the prophets. Before He sent His Son, the Word made flesh, He commissioned many messages that are recorded in Scripture, and as the day of Christ's first appearing approached, He sent angels with announcements. In all these instances, even though men spoke, shouted or praised, it was God's voice coming forth. The Holy Spirit orchestrates our praise.
God raised the dead back to life with a sound. But before He did so, Jesus spoke their resurrection. Take Lazarus, for example. He was quite dead when Jesus told His disciples Lazarus was asleep. Then He told Lazarus’ sister, Mary, that her brother would rise again. When he finally got to the dead man’s tomb, He cried out in a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth! That Sound entered the dead man's being, and he came back to life.
If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears, does it make a sound? I think yes. I believe the Voice of the Father ordains unseen changes around us that bring the Sound of Heaven to transition us from our present state to a state that is in tune with His frequency. John preached, and some appeared not to be listening. The Scripture says his assignment was to keep preaching, Prepare the way of the
Lord, and it seemed like he was just howling in the wilderness with noone to hear. But as he raised his voice under the direction of the Holy Spirit (God's voice), the waves of God's Sound were set in motion.
What will set the Sound of God in motion and usher in His mighty presence in a different way today? I believe it is the sound of a new worship, fueled by a longing to get close and see just the back part of God, because as Moses found out, that's as much of Him that we can experience and still live. The closer we get, the more in tune with Him we will be, and the words we speak will be His voice lifted through us to worship. This worship will crack the atmosphere and meld the realm of the Spirit with present-day reality. God's Sound will take over and multiply exponentially to cover every thing.
There are (spiritually) dead areas of humanity and of our individual experiences that are waiting for this Sound. We can sing the word of the Lord over dry places and situations and set the wave of His Sound (Word) in motion. His voice will go forth through our declarations of worship and send out the alert, and when the Sound he releases in response reaches the ears of the broken they will begin to move on His frequency. Healing and every good gift of heaven will become available to us. When that Sound passes our way, what was in a resting state will become active, and what now seems quite dead will be resurrected.
Just because we can't hear it, that doesn't mean nothing is happening!
