THE BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW: TRANSFORMING STORY #2: Three Words
There are 3 words that are crucial in this first verse in Genesis 1v1 if we are to understand the whole scope of redemptive history from Creation to New Creation. This will be covered in the next Blog>
The unpacking of these 3 words comes from a series called ‘Dust to Glory’ by the late R C Sproul, the founder of Ligonier Ministries in Orlando, Florida, USA.
1. Beginning
2. God
3. Created
In these Three words we have the central affirmations of Biblical Christianity-
These Three words sets the Biblical Worldview apart from all interpretations of reality including not only the other two Worldviews on the above Spectrum but ALL FORMS of Atheism, all forms of Naturalism, Secularism, Humanism, and all other isms that compete for the allegiance of people in our day.
It could be argued that this is the most controversial verse in all of Scripture.
The first of these crucial words is:
BEGINNING
Any physical object will obviously remain in a state of inertia until it is acted upon by an outside force. If a football is not acted upon by an outside force, it will remain indefinitely in a state of inertia. For the football to move and serve its purpose it needs to be acted upon by an outside force. It needs someone to literally kick the football or pick it up, then and only then will it move.
The Law of Inertia: Things that are static stay static unless acted upon by an outside force
The central point is: If there was a beginning then ‘HOW DID IT BEGIN’?
If the Universe was Eternal in a constant state of inertia like the football and the atoms and molecules (physical matter) came together in a ‘Big Bang’, the question/s then become:
· Where did the atoms and molecules come from?
· Where did the laws of physics come from that sustain the physical universe-like gravity?
· If there was a ‘Big Bang’ that exploded into a vast Universe, without a Creator you are left with Nothing as the Cause of the Big Bang.
· How then does ‘Nothing’ explode because Nothing has no Being?
· ‘How did Physical matter move? Why did physical matter move? This leads to another question: Why is there even a Universe at all?
· This idea that the Universe is Eternal is rooted in Greek philosophy and it means that everything goes around and around without a beginning and without an end.
· This is captured in the book of Ecclesiastes- that for example addresses the Pagan notion of Scepticism that is tied to this idea that the Universe is Eternal. This is a cyclical view of history (like reincarnation)
So the conclusion is that there is no purposeful beginning and no purposeful end point to existence hence ‘All is Vanity, a chasing after the wind’. So humanity is locked into an eternal cycle of going around in cycles and going nowhere (We’re on a Road to Nowhere’)
KEY POINT: In Western culture since the 17th-18th century, the Biblical Story changed to:
In the beginning Nothing- meaning Nothing by Chance produced the Universe through billions of years of evolution and therefore humanity comes from Nothing, is going to Nothing after death and so we must ‘be’ Nothing. This is the logical conclusion if NOTHING produced the entire Universe.
KEY POINT>
But at the very outset of Scripture there is the affirmation that there is a beginning-meaning that there was a time when the Universe did not exist.
In the Progress of the history of Redemption from Creation to the New Creation we are making an assertion that is radical for:
Our whole understanding of who we are as human beings &
What our lives mean and what our reason for being is meant to be about.
There is a radical difference then between all creaturely existence and it’s Creator
The statement in Genesis 1v1 states that History has a beginning point in time and that time itself has a beginning. We probably take this for granted but it must not be taken for granted in relation to competing worldviews in our culture today.
Each Worldview must be able to answer what was the Outside force that caused Physical matter to move and why.
The answer to this question will then answer the twofold question of:
‘Where did the Universe come from and ‘What does it mean to be human’?
The answer to the question of Origins is inevitably connected to the other 3 crucial questions that all Worldviews must be able to answer in a way that corresponds with all reality-
· What is wrong with the world?
· What is the solution to what is wrong?
· Where is History going?
The Biblical Worldview's answer to the question: ‘What caused physical matter to move and why’ is stated in this propositional statement in Genesis 1v1 ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’.
For further information on the crucial issue of Intelligent Design in creation:
The second crucial word in Genesis 1v1 is:
GOD
This is why the Biblical Worldview does not stop by simply saying ‘In the beginning’. But ‘In the beginning…GOD.
So Scripture starts with a categorical proposition that God is the Creator and Author of everything in existence. That which has a beginning IN TIME must have a beginning PRECEDING IT.
To say IN THE BEGINNING…GOD, we are now talking about the beginning of SPACE AND TIME. For there to be a beginning to the created Universe there must be something that stands above and beyond the created Universe- something or Someone that has no beginning.
Something or Someone that in and of itself is Eternal and Self-Existent, something that has the very power of being in itself. This is the proclamation and affirmation of Scripture, the reality of the existence of God.
This is the answer that Biblical Theism gives to the first of our Twofold question. The personal infinite Creator Triune God created the entire Universe out of Nothing. He did not use pre-existing materials, for He created the pre-existing atoms and molecules.
See Genesis 1:1ff, Psalms 33:6, Psalms 148:5, John 1:3, Colossians 1:16, and Hebrews 11:3 for a more complete picture of how God created the world.
For further information: https://www.theopedia.com/creation-ex-nihilo https://www.reasonablefaith.org/media/reasonable-faith-podcast/creation-out-of-nothing
http://resources.thegospelcoalition.org/library/topic_index Click on Topics, then click on Creation, then Revelation in Nature for an interesting talk on God’s revelation in creation.
Institute of Creation Research: https://www.icr.org/who-we-are
Genesis 1v1-3 and the Trinity
· Genesis 1 doesn’t yet indicate the full significance that the names "Word" and "Spirit" will have for the Trinity. The full significance of these names ‘Word and Spirit’ only comes with the appearance of the Word made flesh and the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost. (John 1v14; Acts 2)
· Nevertheless, by including God’s Word and Spirit within Genesis 1v1-3 Genesis 1 puts the first building block into place for the doctrine of the Trinity that is hidden in the Old Testament but more fully revealed in the New Testament.
· These points above are essential because when we refer to ‘God’ we cannot leave it there, because there are countless numbers of definitions of ‘God’ from countless numbers of different religions and philosophies. So we have to unpack who God is based on His revelation.
John 1v1 echoing Genesis 1v1 states ‘In the beginning was the Word (Logos) and the Word (Logos) was with God and the Word (Logos) was God’.
Logos means Word but it also means rationality-thus the rational structure of the Universe reflects the Mind of the Creator.
Genesis 1v1 states that God, who alone is uncreated and eternal, has formed and given existence to everything outside of Himself. He did this from nothing by the word of his power, and all of it was very good (Genesis 1v31)
For further information on the Role of the Trinity in Creation: https://www.icr.org/article/trinity-creation/
The Third Crucial Word in Genesis 1v1 is: Created
Scripture introduces God in Action, he is a God of Action- God is doing something and what He is doing is the greatest thing that has ever been done in terms of activity- which is the Creation of the Universe….out of Nothing
Everything that man creates is a mediated creativity meaning that man has to use materials that already exist. But the Scripture presents God as creating the Universe when there is no medium, there are no pre-existent materials to work with-He created out of Nothing- ex nihilo. God alone can bring life out of death and something out of nothing.
Creation of the Universe out of Nothing is the Supreme work that is not just Natural but Supernatural. It takes us beyond the glorious theatre of Nature to not only the beginning of Nature but to the Author and Creator of Nature who creates out of nothing.
· The Bible does not give us a Scientific description of how God does it. All we are told is that God creates the Universe out of Nothing by the Speaking of His Word.
· The Eight Fold Rhythm of Genesis 1 simply means a divine transcendent majestic holy command- where He speaks into the Void and says simply ‘Let there Be’. The sheer power of One who has the Eternal power of being in and of Himself, a Universe begins.
The Triune Creator God is both Transcendent and Immanent
‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’ means that the one true personal infinite Creator God is both Transcendent and Immanent at the same time. This is so crucial to maintain both God’s Transcendence and Immanence, because if you disregard either, you will have departed from the one true God and have another ‘god’.
I mentioned the worldview of Globalism in Blog #1, combined with an ever increasing Technocracy ruled by an elite appears to be the contemporary 'Tower of Babel' that the enemy is working through.
In other words, Artificial Intellligence is the devil's 'Consummation' or the end point of humanity. Of course, this is the natural direction that the Worldview of Evolution would be moving in. (https://www.techhuman.org/resource-bank/john-wyatt-cambridge-paper-7rg2g)
The rationale being that AI is the natural next step of our evolutionary process. God has his 'eschatology', His end point, and it will be when Jesus Christ returns to inaugurate the New heavens and the New earth (Revelation chapter 19, 21 & 22). The devil always tries to counterfeit what God does, because he cannot create out of nothing like God can.
We must not only understand the times in which we live but we are to 'expose the works of darkness' (Ephesians 5v11). In addition, Western society has legislated that Transgender is the direction that it desires to move toward. Transgender some argue will lead to Transhumanism. There is an actual Transhumanist move
This is really about an Unseen Cosmic War (Ephesians 6v12-18; Revelation 12) The Ekklesia, the Body of Christ has had several different battles to fight throughout its history.
The battle to maintain the two natures in the person of Jesus Christ in the Early Church. (Jesus as both fully God and fully human)
The battle of salvation in the Reformation period (God is sovereign in regeneration because we cannot cooperate with Grace in our fallenness)
The battle of how did the Universe begin in the 17th-19th century when Darwin's 'Origin of Species' resulted in belief in evolution and this is the story Western culture has been living in ever since.
It is crucial that we understand what the real battle is in our own time. And it is this:
What does it mean to be human? This is the #1 Quest of our time at the end of the first quarter of the 21st Century.
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