Creation, pt 1

Hey everyone,

It's been a while. Emily pointed out the other day that had not updates my blog since the snow storm, so I thought I'd give you something to chew on that I have been working through in school. Therefore, I'm going to post a paper about Creation in a series of entries (since I know no one would ever read it in its entirety otherwise). So, here it goes:

God’s role as Creator is foundational to every other theological question and belief. It determines one’s understanding of human value, sin, salvation, and resurrection. If God is not the Creator of all things, the implications are vast and problematic on a number of levels. The physical world becomes either a place of pure, unfiltered evil or an unworthy object of worship. For those who refuse to acknowledge God as Creator, man becomes little more than an over-developed creature not unlike several other mammals. Salvation, then, is only gained when man is freed from the confines of his prison of a body, or when he becomes one with the goddess nature. Resurrection, of course, is unheard of, for man’s body simply must degenerate into nothingness after death, often along with his soul or spirit. With these theological repercussions in mind, this paper will use the Bible and Christian scholarship to examine the fact of God creating, along with the nature, purpose, and implications of his work of creation. The first section will survey portions of the Biblical witness concerning creation.

For the Jewish people, the fact of Yahweh creating the heavens and the earth was the beginning point of all theology. The Torah begins with two chapters that describe the way in which Yahweh created. He spends three days creating the setting for all living things, three days filling the world with creatures, and one day in restful celebration. After Genesis 2, the Hebrew people engage in no discussions as to exactly how God created or even why. Thus, with no qualifications, the author of Psalm 90:2 writes, “Before the mountains were born / Or You gave birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” He does not qualify the analogy of God giving birth to creation even though such an analogy would not likely survive in Christian orthodoxy. In fact, A. J. Conyers argues that one should only speak of God as Father, otherwise it would seem as if God had no control over what he produced. Yet, the Psalmist’s point is simply that the uncreated God formed the world. Likewise, Isaiah 66:2a says, “"For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being," declares the LORD.” This statement makes a simple cause and effect correlation: God caused all things to be with the effect that they came into being. Isaiah’s comment does not require any theological parsing for the Hebrew mind, because it simply is true.

On the other hand, it is not enough to assert that God created man, for he is the Creator of all things; therefore, he also owns everything. Deuteronomy 10:14 says, “Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it.” David writes in Psalm 24:1, “The earth is the LORD'S, and all it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it.” Also, Psalm 89:11 says, “The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours; The world and all it contains, You have founded them.” In the New Testament, Paul continues this theme in 1 Corinthians 11:12 and Ephesians 3:9, the latter of which says, “and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things.” The common belief is that if God created the whole world and its creatures, then he also possesses ownership over all things.

In the next entry, I'll address that impact that Greek philosophy (introduced into early Christianity by those pesky Gentiles) had on the Jewish doctrine of Creation.

-Matt