David G. Wiseman

The Temperature of Heaven


The temperature of Heaven can be rather accurately computed from
available data.  Our authority is Isaiah 30:26, "Moreover, the light
of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun and the light of the Sun
shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days."  Thus Heaven receives
from the Moon as much radiation as we do from the Sun, and in addition
seven times seven (49) times as much as the Earth does from the Sun,
or fifty times in all.  The light we receive from the Moon is one
ten-thousandth of the light we receive from the Sun, so we can ignore
that.  With these data we can compute the temperature of Heaven.  The
radiation falling on Heaven will heat it to the point where the heat
lost by radiation is just equal to the heat received by radiation,
i.e., Heaven loses fifty times as much heat as the Earth by radiation.
Using the Stefan-Boltzmann law for radiation, 

	(H/E)^4 = 50

where E is the absolute temperature of the earth (-300K), gives H as
798K (525C).

The exact temperature of Hell cannot be computed, but it must be less
than 444.6C, the temperature at which brimstone or sulphur changes
from a liquid to a gas.  Revelations 21:8 says "But the fearful, and
unbelieving...shall have their part in the lake which burneth with
fire and brimstone."  A lake of molten brimstone means that its
temperature must be at or below the boiling point, or 444.6C (Above
this point it would be a vapor, not a lake.)

We have, then, that Heaven, at 525C is hotter than Hell at 445C.

[From "Applied Optics" vol. 11, A14, 1972]


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