Jesus, Creator of Heaven and Earth

By Stephen Terry

 

Commentary for the January 5, 2013 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 interdimensionally.

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

 

 

 

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Scripture marked (NIV) taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc.

 

 

 

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