God Created This? (part 2)

So ... the question is still out there - Did God create this?

The answer is really simple - absolutely YES! And definitely NO!

"Huh?", you ask. "What's up with that answer? It can't be both." OK, here we go. Just remember, you asked.

The answer is, God did create everything, but what we see today is but a remnant, a shadow, of the original. "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." Genesis 1:1. But the heaven and earth that God created was perfect. In fact, during the account in Genesis, God says that what He had created was "good" five times, and "very good" once. He was quite satisfied with what He had created. There was no death, disease, sickness or suffering. James 1:17 reminds us that "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above." God desired us to have good then; He desires us to have good now. "Good" definitely would not have included suffering, mental anguish, etc... If it did, God would be a masochist and totally unreliable in His word. Scripture teaches that God IS love (1John 4). In 1 Cor. 13, God tells us what love is. It includes the following: love is patient and is kind, is not provoked, thinks (much less does) no evil, and does not rejoice in iniquity.

Unfortunately, Adam and Eve (yes - they were real people) sinned in the Garden of Eden (part of God's perfect creation), which was the beginning of the problems we see now.

"How so?" - you ask, and I'm glad you did. It all comes down to "personal responsibility." Sometimes, our actions carry consequences, in spite of our sorrow at, and apologies for, our own actions. Sometimes, they don't. The point is, whether we face consequences or not, we would deserve consequences, received, or not. As a general rule, our actions don't occur in a vacuum either; someone is usually affected by our deeds.

God, though He had created everything perfectly, had also told Adam and Eve there would be consequences for their actions, if they did not do what He asked of them. The penalty for one specific act of disobedience was death (Gen. 2:17). You guessed it, they did it. And because they did it, we too suffer the consequences of their actions. Not just humankind, either. All of creation "groans" because of their disobedience (Romans 8:22). Severe? Maybe. But when you are the Creator of everything and hold everything together by Your power, you sort of have the right to set the rules - don't you? Is it Congress' fault if you don't pay your taxes and end up in jail? Hardly. And guess what - if you pass away before your debt is settled - your estate pays up before your descendants receive a dime. In other words, someone else is affected by your actions.

Oh, and remember those earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, etc that we said weren't "natural?" That's right - caused by the "curse" of Adam and Eve's disobedience. Not that they couldn't have happened before, but I don't think they did. If God created everything "good," and we know the destructive power of these "natural" catastrophies, it seems logical that, at the very least, God restrained them from occurring. There's more bad news, I'm afraid. Not only will they continue to occur, but they will get worse as time moves forward. You don't have to take my word for it, God says so, too. That's right, Matt 24 (among others) talks about the things to come. Also, don't forget the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics: "'In a simple manner, the second law states that "energy systems have a tendency to increase their entropy (chaos)" rather than decrease it.'" (Wikipedia) In other words, this "law" of physics, which by the way, God would have created, and used Himself, says that things will continue to "run down," or degrade, as time passes by. Science proving the Bible - what a concept!

So here's the deal - God absolutely did create everything, perfectly, in the beginning, but it has been corrupted. He is definitely not responsible for what we see today. Humans are. What we see now is but a faint, barely intelligible remnant of the original. That's not to say you can't still get a glimpse of God in this creation (Romans 1:19,20), you just have to look a little harder to find Him.

I think I'll end here tonight. In the next few posts, I'll look at: God's role now; is He still in control, or not? Is this all there is to look forward to? How about mixing "religion" and "science," can it be done?

Just one thought for you until next time, from the book of Jeremiah, "And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart."