A glitch in the matrix: a personal everyday-mode experience that defies explanation. Time discrepancies, phantom people, objects disappearing and appearing. While some could be chalked up to mere memory dysfunction, there are unexplainable occurrences that defy the nature of reality itself.
Christians should be ahead of the game regarding oddities within the nature of reality. We have always known there is something more than what we experience and that reality as we know it is a flimsy, comprehensive construct which has a temporal purpose. Those who have had death experiences (or NDEs) always insist the afterlife is 'more real' than this life.
The Christian explanation is superior because it is a unifying theory. If we understand the true nature of creation, then we can make sense of oddities experienced. There are a few main interconnected factors of the Christian worldview: the illusion of time, the spiritual realm and demonic manipulation.
The illusion of time
We are beings created for eternity by the eternal God in his image. God is in the period of 'always' and so will be our eternal consciousness after death. However, time is a temporal construct while in this body. It is illusory, but necessary because our natural bodies (the 'body of death') cannot process things in the time period of 'always'.
It makes perfect sense then why there would be timeline-oriented glitches, including déjà vu. Our eternal mind, our real selves, understands everything in time and space. Yet in this form, we are constrained. When people get a glimpse outside of time, it is a mere moment of their true selves coming through, the self that actualises after death.
The spiritual realm
As the Bible explains, we're only seeing a small portion of reality: the temporal dying realm as processed by our 'bodies of death' and the transcendent spiritual realm. The formerly dead Moses and Elijah coupled with and the glory of Christ shown at the transfiguration is one such glimpse into what is generally unseen. Enoch also has seen 'behind the curtain' but he is not alone, and glitch in the matrix stories prove this.
Demonic manipulation
One of those 'behind the curtain' factors is the demonic. Some get a real glimpse of these entities, often through experiences written-off as 'sleep paralysis'. Sometimes such occurrences can have accompanying physical signs of trauma (and I've heard of people physically raped by unseen, demonic or goblin-like entities).
Demons have also been known to move physical objects and do have a purpose behind subtle accounts of messing with humans. Deceit is far-stretching and comes in many forms but is betrayed by demonic tell-tale signs such as smell, terror, cold, blackness, shadows and whispers.
A major tell is the feeling of unease accompanying strange events. Some have called it 'absolute dread' or 'so much fear that it was odd'. People who suddenly transport to weird places and lose time get this accompanying feeling—which also crops up with demonic encounters.
It would make sense then that at least some of these odd encounters are demonically manipulated rather than 'a rift in time'.
Pseudo-explanations explain nothing and are contradictory
There are a few pseudo-explanations for why our reality 'glitches'. Biocentrism is one such pseudoscientific grasp at understanding reality—claiming our consciousness creates reality.
The theory itself is right when it asserts that time has no real existence and that space is just a concept we use to make sense of things. But it goes too far in explaining away the collective consciousness—that material laws must be some collective illusion.
It is an effort to dismiss fine-tuning, which is a rather strong argument in favour of the existence of God. Consciousness itself is a mystery to the naturalist, but it shouldn't be to Christians, as it's connected to our soul-being.
Quantum suicide is a sci-fi idea employing the concepts of alternate dimensions—in one dimension there is a version of you which dies, in this dimension you survive but have memories of such a death. However, alternate dimensions cannot begin to explain other unexplained phenomena like demonic visitations, spiritual and afterlife experiences.
Explain it all away
Parallel dimensions seem like plausible physics on the surface; but that is pure fantasy. Furthermore, they explain only a specific type of 'glitch in the matrix'. Why employ such a stretch of pseudoscience that doesn't answer everything?
Because, although the Christian explanation better fits the facts, pseudoscience compels people to accept God as a reality—it seems mental gymnastics is often more preferable than a supernatural explanation!
There is a 'matrix' and it's the construct of God for one purpose: love or rejection. The glitches just show us that there is a more real reality waiting for us on the other side.
Bridget Brenton has been researching apologetics, philosophy and the paranormal for years. You can check her apologetic effort out at 101arguments.com
Bridget Brenton's previous articles may be viewed at www.pressserviceinternational.org/bridget-brenton.html