Have you ever waited at a railroad crossing for an approaching train and noticed that the tone of the whistle drops as it passes you? A similar effect is heard at an auto race such as the "Indy 500" when the whine of the approaching cars drops dramatically as they pass. This is not due to a change in the sound source but is the result of what we call the "Doppler effect." The phenomenon was first observed by an Austrian mathematician and physicist named Christian Doppler (1803-1853). He theorized that the apparent change in frequency of the sound was caused by the relative motion of the source and observer. He surmised that as a sound source approaches, the sound waves are squashed together, causing shorter wave lengths and higher frequency of sound, while when the source is receding, the sound waves are stretched out, causing longer wave lengths and a corresponding lower frequency of sound. Subsequent observations have confirmed his conclusions, and the Doppler effect is now used to measure speed and direction of moving objects with light (laser), radar, sonar (under water sound), and ultrasound. Police can mark the speed of automotive vehicles, submarines can detect the speed and direction of approaching ships, antiaircraft batteries can determine the speed and direction of approaching aircraft, and guided missiles use radar to tell them where they are and where they are going.
Albert Einstein's space-time equations relating to the structure of matter distribution in space predicted that the universe is dynamic and must be either expanding or contracting. This was confirmed in 1929 by Edwin Hubble (1889-1953), an astronomer at the Mt. Wilson Observatory in southern California. He showed that light from distant galaxies was shifted toward the red end of the spectrum. This is called the "red-shift." He believed that this was caused by the Doppler effect, and that the shift toward longer wave length and lower frequency indicated that the galaxies were indeed receding from us, and that their velocity of recession was proportional to their distance. This expanding universe was exactly what had been predicted by Einstein.
The Bible states that God was in the past, is in the present, and will be in the future. It also states that no matter how you observe Him, He is the same; He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow; and there is no variableness due to time. The sound of His coming and going is constant and unchanged. His love endures forever, and His message is the same today as in the beginning. With God there is no red-shift, there is "no divine Doppler effect."
