Salvation History. Chapter 3. God and Creation.

Chapter 3. God And Creation.
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THE ORIGINAL CREATION.

Genesis 1:1.
"In the beginning God created the Heavens and the earth."

Hebrew: "bereshith bara elohim...." i.e. "In the beginning created God..."

This is a Theological Statement.

The Bible is not a history or scientific book so is not interested in the HOW, or in the actual events as we are. Rather the interest is in the WHY, the theological meaning behind the events. We can determine that the Bible is essentially historically and scientifically accurate, but that is a by-product of the fact that it is TRUTH. The real importance to us is to find out the meaning behind the facts.

(1) "in the beginning"

(i) Hebrew = "bereshith".
This is a very strong word. It does not just mean any old beginning, but is the root beginning. It can carry the sense of "initially, firstly". Before this event there was no time, as we know it. Because this refers to the “absolute beginning” of this creation then to ask the question, “What was before this?” is a meaningless question. There was no “before this”, only God. To ask, "Where did God come from?" is nonsense, because, by definition, God is the self existent one who has always existed, and also because there is no "before God" for him to have come from. God simply "is".

(ii) It does not necessarily imply that God created time at the same time as he created the universe, but this is probably so. Rather it refers to the beginning of this creation, not to the beginning of time as such. We assume that time and matter belong together, but this need not be so.

(iii) We are not to consider eternity to be timeless. Whatever sort of duration, or time- keeping, God has must be of some totally different order to what we know of. There is, however, in eternity some form of reckoning of duration with events that are "before" and "after" others. This is clear to us because:
* There was a "time" in eternity when God existed before creation.
* The Cross is an event in eternity.
* There will be a time in eternity when the saints will dwell with God which they do not now.

Thus the idea of a sequence of events, which is fundamental to the understanding of time, is true also of the realm God lives in. Thus his realm is not “timeless”, or “an ever present now” in the Greek philosophical sense. What sort of "time" God exists in we do not know, but it is not "absolutely timeless” as it has sequence: before and after.

An Analogy: When we look at measurement we see there are two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes. 3D shapes are the result of adding depth. This could be an analogy in the comparison of time and eternity. Our time has only "length and breadth", i.e. before and after. Eternity has another dimension that we cannot comprehend corresponding to "depth". This "depth" enables God to relate to all points of time at once.

A second Analogy: Think of a movie producer (in the old days before electronic editing) editing film. In the analogy God is the movie producer, the film, a sequence of events over time, represents our time. The film has a form of real time but it is far less in meaning than the time the producer experiences in his life. The producer can “see” the whole sequence of events in the film from beginning to end as it is stretched out before him – just as God can see all the events of time in one glance. But just as the producer dwells outside of the time of the film, so too God dwells outside our time. But just as the producer can by editing alter the sequence of events in “movie-time”, so too can God alter events in our time.

(iv) The concept of eternity as “timelessness” is not Biblical; rather it comes from Greek philosophy. The Bible word translated “eternity” is literally “ages”, and is used to refer to the ages of time and the ages of eternity, thus suggesting they are of the same sort of “stuff”.

(v) The contrast between time and eternity in the Bible is not the same as the Greek idea of “time verses a coexistent eternity”, but rather is a contrast between “past ages, the present age and the age to come”. God lived in Eternity before creation but these were “ages past”. The Future Eternity is the “age to come”.


(2) "Created".

Hebrew = bara.

(i) Used over 50 times in scripture, but only ever of something that only God could do. The root idea is to fashion, or cut, by shaping. It does not in itself imply the creation of something out of nothing, but always has an element of the addition of a new unique element that only God could provide.

(ii) Bara is used three times in the story in Genesis 1, to do with original matter, animals (life) and man (personality). It indicates the creation of something totally new and distinct.

(iii) The idea of creation implies that God created matter out of nothing.

This is called in theology, "Creatio ex nihilo", or "creation out of nothing".

Hebrews 11:3.
“By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”

Romans 4:17.
“As it is written: "I have made you a father of many nations." He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed- the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.”


The idea that God created "out of nothing" is arrived at by logical deduction. If there had been something before creation, then time also would have existed and thus this would not have been the beginning, or alternatively we would have to conclude that matter was eternal, i.e. it is divine and deserves to be worshipped. The whole point of this story, however, is to get us away from worshipping matter, animals, and man. Matter is not eternal, it is not God, but is dependent on him for its existence.


(3) "God".

Hebrew = Elohim.

In Hebrew it is important to note grammatical changes as they reveal hidden truth. Here there are three words we need to note:

"God" - is plural, "Elohim", "im" corresponding to our "s".
"Created" - is singular.
"Heavens" - is plural.

The implication here is staggering: A Plural God singularly created.

(i) The existence of God is not proved, it is simply assumed.

(ii) Here we see the first hints of the Trinity. God is One, but there is a plurality in him. The importance of this fact becomes obvious later on. However we see here the reality that God never was, and is not, a lonely God. Personality needs other personalities to react against. Personality cannot exist alone.

(iii) How the Trinity works together:
* God, the Father, is the source of all ideas. He plans them all.
* Jesus is the Word of God. Ideas have to be made into words to be powerful, when God speaks Jesus is active.

John 1:1-3.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”

Hebrews 1:1-2.
“In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.”

* The Holy Spirit is the Executor of the Word of God, bringing it to pass.

Genesis 1:1-3.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.”

"Hovered" or "Brooded" = waiting at readiness to jump into action at the Divine Word.

Hence one member of the Godhead cannot work without the other, and what one achieves they all do together.


(4) "God created the heavens and the earth".

Implies that God is different from the things he created.

To us this may seem obvious, but to the ancient world and, in fact, to much of the world today, nature and creation are worshipped as God. God so transcends the created order that we should not identify him with any part of it and so worship the creation. To do so is to worship that which is not God, hence fall into idolatry.

However the things he created have a real reality. They are not mirages or illusions. The creation exists through him and is dependent on him but is not Him. It is different from God in degree and essence. However on the other hand God is active in creation and the stamp of his nature is on it.


THE RELATION OF GOD AND CREATION.

We need to remind ourselves that the Christian doctrine was worked out against the background of already existing ideas. It would be helpful at this point to have some understanding of the main views. Other views are simply variations on these themes.

1. Monism: "There is only one thing".

I.e. not a myriad of things, therefore the "many things" we see are like dimples on an orange, but at the root there is one thing, the essence. The "essence" is real; the “dimples” are only “accidents” and have no reality.

Essentially all of the Eastern religions are Monistic, though some also have a dualism grafted onto them.

Three primary varieties of Monism:
1. Monism Proper.
A philosophy is called Monism if the “one thing” is not thought of as being divine.
In most of these schemes the “one thing” is impersonal, not personal; not "God" as we understand the word.

2. Modern “scientific” Materialism.
This is a form of monism, as it claims that this physical universe is all there is, thus the “one thing” is matter. This is the secular version of Monism. "Reality", or "truth" is that which can be reduced to physics and maths.

Things that cannot be reduced to physics and maths are “not real” by definition, and hence "not true". As God cannot be reduced to physics and maths he is deemed to be “not real”, "not true". Thus there is, by definition, no God.

"Truth" is "scientific truth" - all else is just a matter of opinion and could be right or wrong, but never "true" in an absolute sense. However these other things may be "true for you", or "true for me" - even if what is true for you is completely contradictory to what is true for me. In other words the only truth - "absolute" truth - is scientific truth. Everything else is just a matter of personal opinion and can thus never be "right/true" or "wrong/false".

It seems to me that to build one's whole life understanding on scientific "truth" as the only "absolute" is pretty risky stuff. Scientific theories change abruptly with more knowledge and so what was once "absolutely true" is suddenly "absolutely false" or at best "relatively true".
To build one's life on such "truth" takes as much "faith" - if not more - than a Christian has to have to believe in God. In other words, in this world of scientific materialism, scientific "truth" is "faith". And the scientist has no greater claim to "absolute truth" than the theologian - both are, after all, building their world view on faith.

Modern "scientific monism" reduces life to "nothing but" chemical, physical and electrical equations. And if anything can't be reduced to that it is determined as being "meaningless".

And if we, as human beings, are nothing but a more complex set of equations, then human life is of no more value than any other chemical equation. So it is allowable to get rid of hose equations you find "inconvenient" to your lifestyle - things like an unwanted pregnancy or an old person with dementia or someone who is mentally ill or who, for some reason, does not fit in with the prevailing view of what is "right" in society.
And if we are only complex chemical equations then it must be OK to do (chemical) experiments on such unwanted people.

It's really hard, under this philosophy of life and truth, to find ground to criticise Nazi Germany or Communist Russia for the things that we call "atrocities". If the premises are correct then the Nazis and Communists were right in their actions.

I suspect most people feel that life is more than that - but this is the point of "scientific monism" - such feelings are not truth - though they may be true for you. But because feelings, beliefs and opinions can't be reduced to a scientific equation they are not real, not true.

3. Pantheism:
Monism is known as Pantheism if the “one thing” is thought of as being "God". This is the religious version of monism. “Pantheism” means “all is God”.
In this idea, the world (creation) is seen as an emanation of the divine being. God and the world are essentially one. The world is the manifestation of God and we can know God through it.

Two logical consequences result:
(i) Creation is not the result of a free choice of God but is part of his essential nature. Creation is necessary. It has to be as it is because that is how it is. Creation is God. You are God. I am God. The mosquito is God. Dog poo is God.
(ii) Creation has no free choice, no free will. Everything that we are and do is "necessary" controlled by the "one thing, the essence". Everything is thus determined by fate. If I go driving and speed at 200km/hour ending up dead wrapped around a tree then this is necessary. I had no choice in whether I speed or not.
Question: Is this really how life is?

Fundamentally Monism says the only the essence is real, everything else is an illusion. Thus the world as we experience it is unreal, an illusion (hence Eastern philosophy never developed science as we know it). But it does not seem that way to us. It seems to have reality. Monism does not tally with our experience.

The idea of monism (in whatever form it appears) when reduced to the personal level always ends up with the view that people are “accidents”. People are under the control of whatever forces make up the “substance”. Thus:
* Scientific materialism ends up in Behaviourism in which people are said to be “nothing but random chemical and electrical impulses and free will is a myth.”
* Pantheism ends up with controlling forces of Fate – we must all do the will of the God who is the essence” and free will is a myth.
The net result is that there is no such thing as personality, or free will, as far as man is concerned. This leads to the logical conclusion that human life has no value above that of an insect. The fruit of this value system is played out daily in the slums of the Third world, in the gulags of Russia, in the gas ovens of the Nazi killing machine, and in abortion.

In this, monism does not correspond to life as we experience it. In our experience we seem to make choices that have real outcomes and change things for the better or for worse. Thus at a philosophical level monism fails to carry weight – it just doesn’t work in real life.

2. Dualism: the other end of the scale.

"Reality consists of two eternal fundamental principles: Light / Darkness or Good/ Bad."

Usually these are identified in this way:
* Spirit or intelligence/ mind is “good”.
* Matter is evil.

Thus there are two eternal things: spirit and matter, and these are, by definition, opposed to each other. One is “good”, the other is “evil”.

Where Dualism admits to the idea of “God”, He is usually identified with “spirit”. God is thus "good".
Dualism posits an eternal existence of matter in the universe and this is essentially evil. This “evil matter” is not inert, however, but actively works evil, so it is given intelligence, i.e. it is also a "god".

Thus there are two eternal principles, or "gods":
* One is evil, identified with matter, and is primarily destructive and "death".
* The other is the Creative force, the "logos", the idea or form, and is, by definition, "good". This is "spirit" and so "spiritual", by definition, is good.

Thus we, as human beings, are stuck in a struggle between two realities, in the scene of a conflict between good and evil.

In Dualism, evil is thus essential, part of the reality of what is eternal.Because evil is fundamental to existence there can be no hope of overcoming it with good.

Note: The idea of two "Gods" is philosophically untenable, so we need to remember that when a Dualist talks about "God" he is not talking about the Christian idea of an All powerful God. Rather he is talking about the idea of a "divine being", something far less in ability to "God".

Again, like Monism, Dualism does not correspond to reality as we experience it.
* Dualism calls for matter to be always evil, but the world we observe has a beauty in matter that denies the idea that matter is inherently evil.
* Discoveries of scientists have shown that matter is amazingly intricate and beautiful. The mathematics in matter is acknowledged to be incredibly beautiful and logical. In other words “matter” is full of “mind” at the most fundamental levels and this is beautiful, i.e. “good”.
* At a philosophical level Dualism falls down because it requires the positing of two fundamental, infinite, eternal principles: spirit and matter. Both of these have to be intelligent, thus both are Gods. And philosophically this is untenable. Two Gods would mean two infinite beings and this is impossible.
* Fundamentally Dualism says the world is eternal. This is impossible. Whatever our view of the relation of science and the Bible, science agrees with the Bible that the universe is not eternal, it had a beginning in the not too distant past.
* The Assumption: "spirit = good" is not necessarily so. The Bible teaches that there are different "spirits" and some of them are the source of all evil.
* If pressed logically then dualism has to end up at a position where both the "good" and the "evil" eternal principles have to be spiritual and so at root the dualist explanation is self contradictory.

3. Pluralism.

"There are several basic metaphysical principles which in interacting have produced the world."

This gives rise to a multiplicity in nature and allows for real moral struggle.
It is really an extension of Dualism. Because of this it falls down for the same reasons Dualism falls so we wont cover that ground again.

These three views are the basic philosophic positions abroad in the world – and they have always been. As I have noted they are still the current views today, in one form or another. The only alternative to these three views is the Christian view.

4. Classical Christian Theism:

The Christian belief about Creation is that:
(i) God is eternal and always "good".
(ii) God created the universe out of nothing. Matter is thus not eternal. This conforms with scientific fact.
(iii) God, though infinite, has voluntarily limited himself so that creation can have a real, independent existence. This conforms to our experience. In fact God is so removed from creation that we can even deny he is there at all.
(iv) This existence is apart from God himself so that even though the universe is dependent on God for its existence it is not God.
(iv) Thus our existence real and can be examined (scientifically).
(v) This means that the creation can act independently of God. Free will is a reality. Thus the physical realm can be good or bad - depending on whether or not it is operating in the will of God. This conforms to our experience of life.
(vi) The physical creation is thus fundamentally “good” because it is made by God, who is good. But it can be used for evil. I.e. the physical universe is morally neutral.
(vii) Because this physical universe is not "god" it is also not personal. Thus we can examine nature scientifically as an object.

This understanding of creation conforms to what we find in experience. Christianity is the only explanation of ultimate reality that actually conforms to the world as we experience it.

The question of “where does evil come from?” we shall address in a later chapter.


HOW DID GOD CREATE?

In the Genesis story what we see is God creating simply by speaking. He commanded and it was so.

Psalm 33:8,9.
“Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the people of the world revere him.
For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.”

This, however, is not an attempt to tell us the method God used for creation. Rather it is deeper than that. The method he used we are not told. Rather we are introduced to the person of Creation – Christ, the Word of God. Thus the ultimate reality in the universe is not impersonal natural law, but a person, the Word of God.

Colossians 1:15-17.
“He (Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

Note the statements about Christ:

(1) All things were created "in him".

There is a sense in which they are part of his being. Christ is the total revelation of God yet creation reveals part of God. So somehow the glories of creation and their witness are "in him". But this is not to be understood in a Pantheistic sense, where "creation = God". We confess Creation as being "in Christ" but we acknowledge that we don't really know what that means.

(2) All things were created "through him".

I.e. he is the agency by which they came to being. Through the creative Word God made the universe. He is the mediator of creation.

(3) All things were created "for him".

This was the ultimate purpose God had in creation. He so loved the Son that he made the universe as a sort of "gift" for him. In God's plan the universe is going to glorify the Son.

(4) "He is before all things."

Implies he himself is not created, he is God.

(5) "In him all things hold together"

C/f "in him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).

Here is the reason why atoms hold together when they should fly apart.

For us at this point it is sufficient to understand that God created the universe SIMPLY BY SAYING IT WAS SO. It continues to exist because God's word has eternal power and sustains that which it has made.

Hebrews 1:3.
“The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”


WHY DID GOD CREATE?


(1) The Primary Reason For all God's Created Acts.

Revelation 4:11. "and for your pleasure they are created".

The primary reason for God creating was twofold:

(i) For his pleasure. So he could enjoy the things he had made.

(ii) For his Glory. So he could reveal himself through what he had made. God's glory was already revealed in one way in his presence without creation, but it was not revealed to anyone else. There were aspects of God's glory that could be revealed in other forms of life that he wanted to express. It was simply a matter of him WANTING to express himself in these ways. To do so he had to create the vehicles for it to happen. Hence he created the physical and the spiritual realms.

We must admit that there may be other realms about which we have no understanding. The Bible reveals to us the physical and the spiritual, but in God there could be multitudes of other forms of existence beyond our present knowledge or comprehension, or ability to understand – life forms in different dimensions. At this moment of time there is no need for us to know about them so God has not revealed them to us. The Apostle Paul talks of things God has reserved for us about which we haven't even "asked or thought".

Scientists now are proposing that there may be many dimensions of existence in the universe that we know nothing of.


(2) A Secondary Reason for Creation.

God wanted to share his rulership and the enjoyment of the love the Trinity experienced. For this purpose he wanted to create a being that could share in his Kingdom. This being was man, who was the final act of God's creation. Man will join with God in ruling the whole universe in the ages to come, and this was God's original purpose. In those ages we will discover the vastness of God's creation and will be involved in the rulership of it.