Monday, January 06, 2020

Creation

Why are we here?

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)

“In the beginning…”

The beginning of time?  Of the universe?  Of the creation?  Those of us who accept the Bible as God’s Word understand that God is eternal, that is, he had no beginning. It seems reasonable then to understand that this phrase is describing the beginning of the creation process, which would also include the beginning of time and the beginning of the universe.

A look back through history indicates that we human beings, whether religious or not, have been searching for our beginning, searching for an explanation of where we came from and why we are here. To illustrate this point I would like you to consider the movie Star Trek: The Motion Picture that was released in 1979. The story takes place in the 23rd century. A giant energy cloud is moving toward earth destroying everything in its path. The “Star Trek” space ship, the Enterprise, is sent to investigate. They discover at the center of the energy cloud an old space probe but all that is left on its outer surface is a partial name: “V….ger”.  It turns out to be the Voyager 6 space probe that was launched in the 20th century but was later lost in space. It came in contact with an alien race of living machines that interpreted its programming as instructions to learn all that can be learned and return that information to its creator and they upgraded it to fulfill its mission and sent it on its way.  It gathered so much knowledge that it gained consciousness but it lacked the ability to give itself purpose other than its original mission. After learning all that it could, it found its existence meaningless, so all it could do was search for its creator to complete its mission.  Its “creator”, of course, is human beings on the earth but it has become so massive and powerful that contact with its creators on earth will destroy the earth. One human being agrees to sacrifice himself to “merge” with the machine and therefore save the earth.

This seems like a good allegory that describes human beings today who are trying to find purpose and meaning in life. They are searching for “the beginning” through secular science without allowing for God. They are searching for the origin (beginning) of the universe and scientists who believe the “Big Bang” theory of the beginning of the universe are now admitting that matter and energy (the things that make up the universe) had a beginning, that is, that there was a time when nothing existed. These scientists are now suggesting “natural” ways in which matter and energy could have come from nothing by random chance. Also, for several centuries now human beings have been attempting to explain how life could come from non-life through “natural” processes (without an intelligent creator - God)

In the beginning God…”

The Bible, God’s message to us human beings, offers an answer to these questions: God is responsible for the existence of the universe and of life. Before exploring this further I would like to describe four different concepts of God that have existed probably as long as human beings have been searching for “god”.

The human search for God

  • Polytheism: many different gods based on physical things
    • The ancient “nature” gods and “idols”
    • Greek and Roman gods
    • They tended to have human characteristics
    • They were gods based on physical things
  • Pantheism: a universal “life force” derived from all living things in the universe
    • Eastern religions
    • Buddhism
    • Confucianism
    • “The force” in the Star Wars movies
  • Humanism
    • There is nothing beyond physical life.
    • Death is the end of existence.
    • There is no “God”
    • Because there is no “God”, that is, no external intelligence or moral guide, human beings themselves are responsible for establishing moral and ethical standards

God reveals himself to us

  • Monotheism: There is one eternal, personal God who created everything else.
    • Judaism
    • Christianity
    • Islam


“In the beginning God created…”

Other religions, as a rule, view matter (physical existence, physical things) as being “eternal” and gods as being derived from those physical things. Judaism and Christianity, on the other hand, understand that there is only one sovereign God, that He is eternal, and that he created all finite physical and living things. We understand that He has revealed himself to us.

The Hebrew word translated with various forms of the English word “create” “always describes the divine activity of fashioning something new, fresh, and perfect.” (Net Bible translation notes, Genesis 1:1)

Unlike the “big bang theory” and the theory of naturalistic evolution, which suggest that the universe and life arose by chance through random natural events, the Bible clearly describes thoughtful design by an intelligent being (God).

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

In this statement, I do not believe that “the heavens” refers to the spiritual place where God resides. Rather, I believe the phrase “the heavens and the earth” refers  to the totality of physical existence, the “universe”. But I would like to pose a question: Why does God choose to mention the earth separately? Why didn’t he simply say, “In the beginning God created the universe”? Or, “In the beginning God created all physical things”? I believe the answer is that the earth is specifically mentioned because it is the center of God’s activity in the universe. It is where God chose to create life and human beings. It is where God chose to make himself known, first through patriarchs and prophets, and then through His Son Jesus. Even though the earth may not be at the physical center of the physical universe, it is the spiritual center of the universe.

In his book Core 52, Mark Moore asks the question: Why did God create the world? He answers that question by citing the fact that human beings can also “be creative”, that is, we can make or invent new and fresh things from the materials God has provided us. With that in mind he makes this statement:

“God created for the same reason we do: for others’ pleasure and for our own praise.”

I believe he is saying that God created the world for our pleasure and enjoyment, and so that we could give him praise. I would like to expand a little on the concept of praising God.


  • Praising God is voluntary, growing out of gratitude for what he has done for us.
  • NOT because he “needs” praise.
  • NOT because he selfishly “wants” praise.
  • BUT because praising God is good for US.
  • AND praising God helps us look outside of ourselves.
  • AND praising God helps us in our relationships with others.


Finally I would like to suggest one other related answer to the question: Why did God create the world and us?

He did it to share his love with us.

  • NOT because he needed to.
  • BUT because it wanted to.
  • Love by definition includes sharing that love with others.


He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, for all things in heaven and on earth were created in him — all things, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, whether principalities or powers — all things were created through him and for him. He himself is before all things and all things are held together in him. He is the head of the body, the church, as well as the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself may become first in all things. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in the Son and through him to reconcile all things to himself by making peace through the blood of his cross—through him, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
Colossians 1:15-20 (NET)

So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away—look, what is new has come!
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NET)

---

Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NET) are from the NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2016 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.


This post is the result of my studies based on the book by Mark E. Moore, Core 52: A Fifteen-Minute Daily Guide to Building your Bible IQ in a Year, published by WaterBook (Penguin Random House)
Trade Paperback ISBN 978-0-525-65325-7
ebook isbn 978-0-525-65326-4

Sunday, January 05, 2020

The Bride and the Groom Analogy

THE BRIDE AND GROOM ANALOGY

Why does God use the bride and groom analogy when refering to his relationship to his people?

The love relationship between a husband and wife is the first and most fundamental human relationship. After Eve was created from Adam's rib the Bibls says this:

And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. (Genesis 2:23-24 KJV)
This was the first human relationship described in the Bible and it is the basic relationship from which all other human relationships flow.

Throughout human history God has tried to communicate with us in ways that we can easily understand. The ultimate example of this is that God came to live among us in human form in the person of Jesus Christ. What better way for God to communicate with us than to live with us as one of us?

God also uses other analogies from our daily lives to help us understand his relationship to us. Two examples would be the parent - child relationship and the husband - wife relationship. The parent - child analogy is used to illustrate the relationship between God and an individual person. The husband - wife (bridegroom and bride) analogy is used to illustrate the relationship between God and the group of believers - the nation of Israel in the Old Testament and the Church in the New Testament.

Here are some reasons why I believe God uses the bride - bridegroom and husband - wife relationship to describe our relationship to him (and the relationship between Christ and the church:

  1. It is the most basic of all human relationships, and universally understood.
  2. In its purest form, brides an bridegrooms love each other in the same way and with the same kind of love as should exist between human beings and God.
  3. On the other hand, the failure of the human marriage relationship can also illustrate the failure of the relationship between God and human beings. For example, in the Old Testament God often used human adultery to illustrate Israel's rejection of him as they followed after other false gods.
  4. When a bride and groom are truly in love, the wedding day is a time of great rejoicing and fellowship. In the same way, there will be great rejoicing and fellowship when Christ (the groom) and the church (the bride) are united at the end of the age and for eternity.

Where Did the Devil Come From?

Where did the Devil come from?Every religion has some concept of good and evil. Probably most atheists would say that there are good things and bad (evil) things in this universe. The Judeo-Christian scriptures, the "Bible", clearly acknowledge that good and evil exist. The Bible says that God created the universe and that everything he created was good. So, where did evil come from? The answer is . . . Love. God chose to create living beings who were capable of love so that they could love him and each other. Love, however, by definition requires free will. Love is a choice - choosing to care about and do good things for another being. Forced "love" is not love at all.

So, what does this have to do with the existence of evil and the Devil. A living being who has the freedom to love and do good also has the freedom to hate and do evil. God created two groups of beings capable of exercising free will - spirit beings called angels and human beings. The angels were created before this present physical universe was created, and some of them rebelled against God and, therefore, became evil. In 2 Peter 2:4 the bible says this, "For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but threw them into hell and locked them up in chains in utter darkness, to be kept until the judgment. . . ." (NET). At some point one of these rebelling angels rose up to be their leader. This is the Devil or Satan. The Bible is not clear about when this happened, except that it seems certain that it was before the creation of our universe.

There is a section of the book of Isaiah (chapter 14) which some have interpreted as speaking about the devil. Isaiah 14:12 is usually used:

"Look how you have fallen from the sky,
O shining one, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the ground,
O conqueror of the nations!" (NET)

However, if you look carefully at the whole chapter, it is clear that the writer is speaking about a human being, the king of Babylon. Look at verse 4: "You will taunt the king of Babylon with these words . . . ." (NET); also verse 22: "I will blot out all remembrance of Babylon and destroy all her people. . . ." (NET). Verse 16 makes clear that the writer is referring to a man:

"Those who see you stare at you,
they look at you carefully, thinking:
'Is this the man who shook the earth,
the one who made kingdoms tremble?' " (NET)

I am reluctant to apply this scripture to Satan when the writer so clearly says that he is referring to a man.

Some interpret Ezekiel 28:11-19 as speaking about the "fall of Satan". Two phrases are used to bolster this interpretation. The first is in verse 13: "You were in Eden, the garden of God. . . ." (NET); but this is simply saying that, as a human being, the king of Tyre was symbolically in the Garden of Eden through his ancestor Adam. The second phrase is in verse 14 where, in some translations, he is called a "guardian cherub"; but notice the translation given by the NET Bible: "I placed you there with an anointed guardian cherub". A careful reading of the passage will demonstrates that the writer was speaking of a human being, the king of Tyre: “Son of man, sing a lament for the king of Tyre, and say to him, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says. . . ." (28:12, NET)

The Bible does clearly speak of Satan "falling from heaven". When the disciples returned to Jesus from their mission and told him that they were able to subdue demons in his name, he said, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven." (Luke 10:18, NET) Even though Jesus was speaking in the past tense, I believe he was speaking of an event that had not yet happened. Prophets often speak of future events as if they had already happened. This event is described in more detail in Revelation chapter 12.

First, a little background. It appears that Satan still had some kind of access to heaven after his rebellion: "Now the day came when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord – and Satan also arrived among them. The Lord said to Satan, 'Where have you come from?' And Satan answered the Lord, 'From roving about on the earth, and from walking back and forth across it.' ” (Job 1:6-7, NET). Revelation chapter 12 describes a woman giving birth to a child, and a dragon attempting to devour the child. The child is caught up to safety in heaven, and the woman escapes to safety in the wilderness. Then Michael, the archangel battled with the dragon and the dragon was thrown out of heaven and down to earth, where he continued to pursue other offspring of the woman. Verse 9 clearly states that the dragon was Satan. This passage is symbolically describing the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Satan was thrown out of Heaven as a result of the resurrection of Jesus. Even though he is still active today, the resurrection of Jesus was the beginning of the end for the devil.

Satan was created as a good being with free will. He chose to rebell against God and was thrown out of God's grace. This was defeat number one. He tried to defeat God's gift to fallen man, Jesus the Messiah, and he was thrown out of heaven. This was defeat number two. At the second coming of Jesus, the Devil will be handed his third and final defeat as he is thrown into the Lake of Fire for eternity (Revelation 20:10).

Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NET) are from the NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://www.bible.org/. All rights reserved.

Who Are We?

WHO ARE WE?
WHERE DID WE COME FROM?
WHY ARE WE HERE?

Throughout recorded human history these questions have been asked and debated. Those who suffer from depression often struggle to find an answer to these questions, as do many of the rest of us. In this first post I want to give my thoughts on these questions. I write from the point of view of a Christian believer, that is, one who believes that Jesus Christ is the son of God and that he represented God's presence on earth for a little more than 30 years some 2000 years ago.

I believe that this entire universe exists because it was designed and fabricated by an intelligent, living, personal being who exists outside of this universe, that is, in a different "dimension". This "dimension" and any beings within it cannot be detected by our human senses or discovered by our scientific observation. We only know they exist because from time to time they reach into our "dimension" and reveal themselves to us. Furthermore, this intelligent being designed and brought into existence a diversity of living beings within this universe, ranging from single cell organisms to intelligent beings such as humans.

This provides a possible explanation for who we are and where we came from, but what about an explanation of why we are here. Why did this intelligent being design and make life as it is today? Lets suppose that this being is what we would call "good", and that this being wants to share that "good" with other beings, that is, be in relationship with them and share its good will with them. If this is the case, then the purpose for our existence is to be in a relationship with and share the good will of this being from another dimension.

This is the belief of most people who call themselves Christians. We call the being from another dimension "God", and we believe that Jesus Christ is the "son of God", sent to earth by God some 2000 years ago to announce and live out God's good will as a human being.

I understand, of course, that this explanation raises other questions. If this being is a being of good will, why does it allow human suffering? Why do bad things happen to good people? What if some do not want this relationship? Why do many scientists reach a different conclusion about the origin of the universe and the origin of life? I will talk about these questions in future posts.