|
Dr. Greene - Articles
Creation Of The Word
We are back now to our original topic, that is an alternative consciousness gained through a Christian worldview. The first element in that worldview is creation. We live in a created world. Neither we ourselves, or our environment we live in, just happened by chance. The entire world that we are conscious of, came to exist as the result of a creative act by the living God. Our question this time is how did God create the world?
The answer of the Bible is that God spoke the world into being. He created by His word. Owen says: "We speak words; God speaks things. He opens what we suppose to be his metaphorical mouth, and out tumbles trees, viruses and moons. From His lips pour blood and water and wisps of clouds. Tsetse flies and ptarmigans trip from His tongue. Whereas we can only say "is" or "equals" He utters the essential verb: Be. Let there be. He means what He says and means what He says." God Spy, p.59. The next question is what is His word?
Most Christians would reply, His Word is the Bible. They would be right but not completely so. This happens to be one of those definitions that can't be reversed. It is like the statement, God is love. Yes, but love is not God. The Bible is the Word of God, but it is that word in written form. God’s Word is more than the Bible.
For one thing, Jesus is called the Word of God (John 1:1-5). Jesus is the living Word. The Bible is the written Word. But this still does not exhaust the full meaning of God's Word. Psalm 33:6 says, "By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host." Hebrews 4:12 describes it in these words: "For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." So the Word of God is the power by which He creates, sustains and redeems. Genesis 1 speaks repeatedly of God's telling something to come into being and of the appearance of the commanded thing. For example, Genesis 1:3 reads, "then God said. 'let there be light'; and there was light." But that is not all there is to creation. It is ongoing through the Word. Hebrews 1:3 says, in part, "He upholds all things by the word of His power. James 1:18 ascribes the new birth to the Word. In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we might be, as it were, "the first fruits among His creatures."
This is what the Word of God is. Two aspects of the significance of this definition must, at least, be mentioned. The first is that facts mean something. Modern people think that facts are neutral. They are present in the world, as discovered by science, but they don't have any meaning. They are valuable for doing things, but they are without significance. Wrong! Owens says in the passage quoted above, "things, the objective, created stuff of the cosmos, have meaning in much the same way—only more so—that words do. Or to make the verbal structure stronger, things mean as words mean."
What can created things possibly mean? Since they are the products of the Word of God, they reveal God. He is telling us about Himself. Most particularly, and most fully, God is telling us about Himself in the person of Jesus Christ, who is the capstone of creation. This is why Jesus could say in John 14:6-7, "I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but thorough me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also; from now on you know Him and have seen Him." But Jesus, in His created humanity, is not the only part of creation that speaks of the Father. The whole creation does.
The other part of the significance of this reality is that it calls for a response on our part. We humans are the only part of creation made in God's image. It is to us He speaks in the creation. Creation therefore calls on us for a response. If God is talking to us, we dare not hang up the phone. How can we respond? With a deepened awe for Him (the "fear" of the Lord, which Proverbs says is the beginning or chief part of wisdom), with thanks and praise for Him and with service to Him with and through the creation. The facts in a physics book, if they are neutral, do not call on us for a response, but the creation is not neutral. It is one of God's ways of talking to us. And it calls on us for a response. Of this there will be much more to say in future essays.
|
|
District Overview
School Board
Foundations
Publications
Essential Questions
Affiliations
Dr. Greene's Web Forum
Dr. Greene's Articles
|
