Stephen
Terry, Director
Creation: Genesis as Foundation--Part 2
Commentary
for the May 30, 2020 Sabbath School Lesson
"For the foundations of the earth are the Lord's; on them
he has set the world." 1 Samuel 2:8, NIV
For most Christians, the idea that God created the
world is a non-negotiable tenet of faith. This is what the Bible indisputably
proclaims. Not only is the concept of a Creator God found in Genesis, but it is
closely tied to the fourth commandment of the Decalogue in Exodus, chapter 20
and is also included in the message of the first angel in Revelation 14. The
first chapter of the Gospel of John also ties together the roles of Creator and
Redeemer. But what does this mean empirically?
Scientific method asserts that all can be observed,
measured, and understood. However, measurement assumes relativity and
relativity assumes linear time. One cannot measure something without referring
to its relative position in time and space. But this can become problematic
once we step outside of linear time. This can happen if we assume that time
began with Creation or in the case of some scientific theorists, with the
universal genesis of the "Big Bang." Indeed, the Bible proposes the
establishment of time with the creation of days and weeks in the first chapter
of Genesis. Linear time is also vital to the "Big Bang" because it relies on
the idea of an expanding universe, and one cannot determine expansion without time
as the simple formula D = R x T demonstrates. So why would we step outside of
linear time?
We are essentially doing this when we ask, "What
existed before Creation?" or "What existed before the 'Big Bang?'" While
science has never satisfactorily answered the latter question, most Christians
would answer the first by simply stating "God." But this simplistic answer is
far more complex than one might think. For example, a commonly understood
attribute of God is omnipresence. To be omnipresent means to be present at
everywhere at every time. To such a being, time would be meaningless. You or I
might say, "See you tomorrow." However, for God, He would already be seeing you
tomorrow at the same moment He is seeing you today. Therefore, the interval
that would be meaningful to those of us bound by this dimensionality would be
totally irrelevant to God. The limitations of linear time would not apply to
Him. In much the same way, a three-dimensional object appearing in part on a
two-dimensional plane would not be bound by two-dimensions and if moving in the
third, unperceived dimension might appear to magically disappear and reappear
in that two dimensional world. This might even appear "god-like" to any
two-dimensional inhabitants of that world.
Only with the advent of modern physics have some of
these concepts begun to be understood. Applying this
two-dimensional/three-dimensional model to our world leads us to hypothesize
the existence of other dimensions that are as beyond our understanding as three
dimensions were to the two-dimensional world inhabitants. If we inculcate the
concept that God is omnipresent throughout time and space, then of course, by definition He would be multi-dimensional, at least beyond
the dimensions we could measure. If we then apply another understood attribute
of God to this possibility, that He is infinite, then we perhaps should
consider the possibility of an infinite number of co-existent dimensions. While
not apparent to us, they would be as real to an omnipresent and infinite being
as ours is to us.
Why does any of this matter? It matters because just
as those two-dimensional creatures could neither conceive of nor measure the
third dimension, we may not be capable of measuring Creation in any meaningful
sense with the tools at our disposal. For instance, we do not understand how
light can separate the day from the night on the first three days of Creation
when the Sun was not created for that purpose until the fourth day. While it
seems illogical in our dimension where we are constricted to linear time,
perhaps it makes perfect sense inter-dimensionally.
Of course this begs the
question as to whether the Creation account is an inadequate representation of
what actually took place, constrained by our limited perspective. Truth, whether
it is true or not, is still truth when viewed from a particular
perspective. For instance, spontaneous generation as proposed by
Aristotle was held to be true for approximately two thousand years, until
experiments by Louis Pasteur revealed the true source of the generation.
Nonetheless, spontaneous generation remained a demonstrable truth for all the
years prior. This was not because it was inherently true but because inadequate
understanding was responsible for a false hypothesis that appeared irrefutable.
When it comes to theology and the Bible, literalism
can create similar problems. It can cause us to define "truths" about Creation
that may be nothing more than articulations of perspective rather than actual
Truth. Some of the paradoxes that arise from these inadequate articulations can
be very troubling to the literalist. For example there
is the problem of age. Did God create the world with age built in? For those
who adhere to a young earth perception, it is troubling when geologists speak of
geologic ages and carbon dating. They feel that the world should literally
provide only evidence supporting a young earth. However, even the literalists
might admit that Adam was created as a mature being. As a matter of perspective
then, the earth would appear to be several decades old based on Adam's
appearance as opposed to mere days.
If we extrapolate this to tree rings and geologic
strata, then what appeared to be several decades becomes
centuries and eons. Some are troubled by this and feel that if God created the
world and universe with age then He is being deceitful. However, if we hark
back to the two-dimensional/three-dimensional model, is it deceitful for the
third dimension to interact with the second or are the fruits of that
interaction the way they are because they can be nothing else? For instance,
could Creation have been imbued with age because it was made for creatures that
must dwell in linear time and that appearance of age allowed those creatures to
make sense of the world around them?
In a mechanistic sense, whether or not one wants to
accept the commonly accepted measurable ages of the world around us, we are
able to use them to classify, measure, and understand the inter-relationships
of the systems we were given when our world was created. To take what we were
given by God and use it in this way is not a denial of God; rather it is an
acceptance of the gift He gave us to help us understand our world, the gift of
linear time and by definition, the relativity that it brings with it. To accept
such a gift is a glorification of God and an enhancement of the potential He placed
within us to understand our world and the universe within the constraints of
our dimensional limitations.
If God is to be God, he can only communicate with
his creation base upon their created limitations. Quite possibly, He can no
more explain Creation to us than we can explain a steam locomotive to a
toddler. What we may consider deep and profound truths may be no more than God
going "Choo! Choo! And Chug! Chug!." While these
simple profundities may be all that is necessary to thrill the toddler, most
adults know that there is no point in discussing anything deeper with the
child.
The Genesis creation account was written for a
people only recently released from centuries of slavery. As examples of human
achievement, they were severely wanting. Most may have understood little beyond
their daily round of tasks and their concern for their next meal. Even Moses
understood little of the significance of who he was. His rudimentary sense of
justice caused him to kill an Egyptian, but there is no indication that he even
had a practical knowledge of God. Some speculate that his mother taught him
what he needed to know about God while caring for him until he was weaned.
Others speculate that his father-in-law as a priest may have taught him. But
the account of the incident with the burning bush does not reveal any sort of
ongoing relationship with God prior to the event.
Considering all of this, what
God revealed to Moses about Creation may have been limited not just by the
normal human perspective but also perhaps by human understanding degraded to
its lowest possible level. Perhaps the more important lesson that God wanted to
teach was not a literal account of exactly how Creation took place, but rather
that perfect faith transcends the ability of perfect knowledge to save and
uplift humanity. Maybe more important than Creation viewed through the lens of
linear time is the understanding that faith in a God who transcends time and
space is more efficacious. "For we live by faith, not by sight." 2 Corinthians
5:7, NIV
This article is excerpted from the author's book, "Creation: Myth or
Majesty."
If
you enjoyed this article, you might also enjoy this book written by the author, currently on sale on Amazon.
To
learn more click on this link.
Creation: Myth or Majesty
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