BEFORE The BEGINNING...
Genesis 1 tells us, 'in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth'. But beginnings differentiate a before from an after, so something must have occurred before this beginning—and I venture to say that the creation of the heavens and the earth occurred because of what God did prior to this beginning, or as the precursor that gave rise to, this 'beginning'!
It’s revealed in Ephesians 1, where in v. 4 Paul says that you (we) were ‘chosen’ in Jesus before (ahead of) the foundation of the world!
Now although there is no time in God's realm, He created time and can move within it or in and out of it as He chooses—and the reason there is a world is because He thought of a class or order of being that He desired to create who would be a reflection of His own being.
Having desired and decided that, He then made the place and realm in which they would exist and function. But we were thought of first and were destined first in this plan.
Having just one eternal Son whom He loved, the plan was to create many sons and bring them to glory as brothers of the Only Begotten, uncreated Son!!
Once God determined that plan, He then determined an environment in which these creatures could exist in cooperation with Him, drawing their life from him and governing as co-regents with Him, in the new realm.
The rest, as they say, is history!
Genesis 1 tells us, 'in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth'. But beginnings differentiate a before from an after, so something must have occurred before this beginning—and I venture to say that the creation of the heavens and the earth occurred because of what God did prior to this beginning, or as the precursor that gave rise to, this 'beginning'!
It’s revealed in Ephesians 1, where in v. 4 Paul says that you (we) were ‘chosen’ in Jesus before (ahead of) the foundation of the world!
Now although there is no time in God's realm, He created time and can move within it or in and out of it as He chooses—and the reason there is a world is because He thought of a class or order of being that He desired to create who would be a reflection of His own being.
Having desired and decided that, He then made the place and realm in which they would exist and function. But we were thought of first and were destined first in this plan.
Having just one eternal Son whom He loved, the plan was to create many sons and bring them to glory as brothers of the Only Begotten, uncreated Son!!
Once God determined that plan, He then determined an environment in which these creatures could exist in cooperation with Him, drawing their life from him and governing as co-regents with Him, in the new realm.
The rest, as they say, is history!
God, Science, Creation: some comments
Creation is exceedingly more complex than imaginable. Discoveries of science, far from reducing mystery, frequently serve only to deepen it as each opened door leads into more rooms with more unopened doors. Reverential approach is what is needed; a tiptoe approach, as though treading on holy ground. Instead and sadly, much of what passes as science, approaches from a faithless or worse, anti-faith, prideful or even a God-hating position. The attitude is that only what can be understood with the rational mind can possibly be legitimate. However, God says 'with the heart man believes'. There is such a thing as heart knowledge. (When we are in love it is primarily the 'heart' that knows it, not the head).
Newtonian physics stood for a couple of centuries as a kind of irreducible and undeniable standard to describe the way matter is comprised and behaves. It served mankind well. And in the world of visible particles Newton has been shown correct. We owe him much. But it turns out, this is only part of the picture and the narrative, because the 'picture' is always bigger (and always will be) than the immediate scope and grasp of the mind - in any age. And the narrative is a continuum. It turns out that just as there are particles and objects that are bigger than imaginable in the visible universe, there are also particles that are smaller and smaller in the other direction---that of the invisible worlds. And---they behave unconventionally!
So, It has been found through the discoveries of what has been called the Quantum world and Quantum Mechanics, surprise, surprise, objects in that realm do not necessarily behave in a 'Newtonian' way. In fact, they appear to break rules and to demand a new set of rules of their own. Thus, light quanta or particles are observed to behave both as particles and as waves. Particles that have been in close relationship continue to 'answer' each other's behavior instantly even if separated by vast distance, even light years---and many other 'weird' behaviors, such as a particle being in different locations at the same time! (For info google quantum physics or maybe visit Dr Quantum on you tube).
Here's an extraordinary quote from the well known Profs Brian Cox (somewhat agnostic concerning God) and Jeff Forshaw in their book The Quantum Universe (underlining mine)
P. 28 "with this 'a particle can be in more than one place at once' proposal, we are moving away from our everyday experience and into uncharted territory......... To avoid confusion we should follow Heisenberg and learn to feel comfortable with views of the world that run counter to tangible experience. Feeling 'uncomfortable' can be mistaken for 'confusion' and very often students of quantum physics continue to attempt to understand what is happening in everyday terms. It is the resistance to new ideas that actually leads to confusion, not the inherent difficulty of the ideas themselves, because the real world simply doesn't behave in an everyday way. We must therefore keep an open mind and not be distressed by all the weirdness. Shakespeare had it right when Hamlet says, 'and therefore give it welcome. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.'"
So - science too, is becoming something of a 'faith' journey where what cannot always be understood has to be accepted as actually occurring.
And - here's an interesting one from Forshaw:
“By overstating science’s power and not acknowledging its limitations, we risk fostering the growth of a religion-substitute, with the scientists as high priests. Such hubris not only irritates people, but more significantly it risks promoting the misconception that science deals with certainty – and that is the very antithesis of good science.”
It's certainly a cardinal error to sound as though we - the clever people of the 21st century - just about know it all now! If God is the first Cause and Sustainer of all things as the Bible states, it is fairly evident that mystery and 'unknowable-ness' will always remain, since, (in my view) the whole is complex and vast beyond ever coming near understanding fully. I suggest to people that they try to imagine how many pieces of confetti it would take to fill Sydney Opera House (or even your own house!) and to imagine that what is known can be represented by one piece of confetti! Investigation will continue to uncover and may grasp tinier parts of parts and draw conclusions that are sometimes helpful and sometimes useable, about the larger parts or the whole. In my view this is by the grace of God. We can and will only ever know that which the Creator chooses to allow us to discover. It is what some of our fathers called 'common grace', the grace from God that allows humankind to survive and progress in discoveries such as cures for disease and etc.
The Bible says 'His judgements are unsearchable and His ways (how He does things), past finding out' - beyond being able to fathom (see Romans 11:33). Whilst they cannot be 'known' in the sense of explicability or understanding, they can be believed and received in one's heart. This doesn't mean we should stop trying to find out how things work! It does mean however, that the search (science) is intended to have this as its start point. It should begin with wonder - not wonder at 'nature', but at a Creator who is so BiiiiiiiiG as to be able to produce such complexity, balance, function, cohesion and beauty. It should then move from wonder to worship. Just saying it occurred and suddenly exploded into universes from a suit-case sized package doesn't cut it, because one is still left looking for who or what caused the suit-case! When the start point and motive is that of Eve who was told 'in the day you eat thereof you shall be as God' and, 'your eyes will be opened' (meaning that she and Adam could then live by sight rather than by faith), then investigation and search is likely to end as did theirs; making it harder to find truth and productivity. Where science can go wrong is when the motive is to 'be as God' - that is, to understand all in order to be in charge of all. It can never be. For the believer it is obedience to and cooperation with our Creator that actually puts us in charge. Mastery does not require all knowledge: it requires faith in and partnership with, the One who does know all!
Always, the Christian's question of the gods that can come to us using the name 'Science' should be, 'of what spirit are you?'
An update: take a look HERE
Already known but now confirmed by Aussie science - so it must be so!!
Creation is exceedingly more complex than imaginable. Discoveries of science, far from reducing mystery, frequently serve only to deepen it as each opened door leads into more rooms with more unopened doors. Reverential approach is what is needed; a tiptoe approach, as though treading on holy ground. Instead and sadly, much of what passes as science, approaches from a faithless or worse, anti-faith, prideful or even a God-hating position. The attitude is that only what can be understood with the rational mind can possibly be legitimate. However, God says 'with the heart man believes'. There is such a thing as heart knowledge. (When we are in love it is primarily the 'heart' that knows it, not the head).
Newtonian physics stood for a couple of centuries as a kind of irreducible and undeniable standard to describe the way matter is comprised and behaves. It served mankind well. And in the world of visible particles Newton has been shown correct. We owe him much. But it turns out, this is only part of the picture and the narrative, because the 'picture' is always bigger (and always will be) than the immediate scope and grasp of the mind - in any age. And the narrative is a continuum. It turns out that just as there are particles and objects that are bigger than imaginable in the visible universe, there are also particles that are smaller and smaller in the other direction---that of the invisible worlds. And---they behave unconventionally!
So, It has been found through the discoveries of what has been called the Quantum world and Quantum Mechanics, surprise, surprise, objects in that realm do not necessarily behave in a 'Newtonian' way. In fact, they appear to break rules and to demand a new set of rules of their own. Thus, light quanta or particles are observed to behave both as particles and as waves. Particles that have been in close relationship continue to 'answer' each other's behavior instantly even if separated by vast distance, even light years---and many other 'weird' behaviors, such as a particle being in different locations at the same time! (For info google quantum physics or maybe visit Dr Quantum on you tube).
Here's an extraordinary quote from the well known Profs Brian Cox (somewhat agnostic concerning God) and Jeff Forshaw in their book The Quantum Universe (underlining mine)
P. 28 "with this 'a particle can be in more than one place at once' proposal, we are moving away from our everyday experience and into uncharted territory......... To avoid confusion we should follow Heisenberg and learn to feel comfortable with views of the world that run counter to tangible experience. Feeling 'uncomfortable' can be mistaken for 'confusion' and very often students of quantum physics continue to attempt to understand what is happening in everyday terms. It is the resistance to new ideas that actually leads to confusion, not the inherent difficulty of the ideas themselves, because the real world simply doesn't behave in an everyday way. We must therefore keep an open mind and not be distressed by all the weirdness. Shakespeare had it right when Hamlet says, 'and therefore give it welcome. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.'"
So - science too, is becoming something of a 'faith' journey where what cannot always be understood has to be accepted as actually occurring.
And - here's an interesting one from Forshaw:
“By overstating science’s power and not acknowledging its limitations, we risk fostering the growth of a religion-substitute, with the scientists as high priests. Such hubris not only irritates people, but more significantly it risks promoting the misconception that science deals with certainty – and that is the very antithesis of good science.”
It's certainly a cardinal error to sound as though we - the clever people of the 21st century - just about know it all now! If God is the first Cause and Sustainer of all things as the Bible states, it is fairly evident that mystery and 'unknowable-ness' will always remain, since, (in my view) the whole is complex and vast beyond ever coming near understanding fully. I suggest to people that they try to imagine how many pieces of confetti it would take to fill Sydney Opera House (or even your own house!) and to imagine that what is known can be represented by one piece of confetti! Investigation will continue to uncover and may grasp tinier parts of parts and draw conclusions that are sometimes helpful and sometimes useable, about the larger parts or the whole. In my view this is by the grace of God. We can and will only ever know that which the Creator chooses to allow us to discover. It is what some of our fathers called 'common grace', the grace from God that allows humankind to survive and progress in discoveries such as cures for disease and etc.
The Bible says 'His judgements are unsearchable and His ways (how He does things), past finding out' - beyond being able to fathom (see Romans 11:33). Whilst they cannot be 'known' in the sense of explicability or understanding, they can be believed and received in one's heart. This doesn't mean we should stop trying to find out how things work! It does mean however, that the search (science) is intended to have this as its start point. It should begin with wonder - not wonder at 'nature', but at a Creator who is so BiiiiiiiiG as to be able to produce such complexity, balance, function, cohesion and beauty. It should then move from wonder to worship. Just saying it occurred and suddenly exploded into universes from a suit-case sized package doesn't cut it, because one is still left looking for who or what caused the suit-case! When the start point and motive is that of Eve who was told 'in the day you eat thereof you shall be as God' and, 'your eyes will be opened' (meaning that she and Adam could then live by sight rather than by faith), then investigation and search is likely to end as did theirs; making it harder to find truth and productivity. Where science can go wrong is when the motive is to 'be as God' - that is, to understand all in order to be in charge of all. It can never be. For the believer it is obedience to and cooperation with our Creator that actually puts us in charge. Mastery does not require all knowledge: it requires faith in and partnership with, the One who does know all!
Always, the Christian's question of the gods that can come to us using the name 'Science' should be, 'of what spirit are you?'
An update: take a look HERE
Already known but now confirmed by Aussie science - so it must be so!!
