On my way to church Sunday morning I was listening to a CD by Jonathan Settel, a Jewish Messiahic singer. One of the songs began with the recitation of Psalm 121. Through those words I was struck with the difference between the LORD God of the Bible, and the great singularity we discussed last week.
Psalm 121
A Song of Ascents.
I will lift up my eyes to the hills--
From whence comes my help?
My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.He will not allow your foot to be moved;
He who keeps you will not slumber
Behold, He who keeps Israel
Shall neither slumber nor sleep.The Lord is your keeper;
The Lord is your shade at your right hand
The sun shall not strike you by day,
Nor the moon by night.The Lord shall preserve you from all evil;
He shall preserve your soul.
The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in
From this time forth, and even forevermore.
In these words, beginning with our view of the created hills, we see God's depth of personal love and commitment to His people. But if this is true, why is it so difficult to live our lives that way?
In talking with a friend Sunday evening, he mentioned the fact that he had been checking out National Geographic videos from the library, and how amazing the pictures were, except the narration always mentioned in some way millions of years of evolutionary history.
From the time of our enlightenment with evolutionary thought, theologians began to harmonize the Biblical record with the findings, or metaphysics of 19th and 20th century science. The problem is that both the Bible and evolution are really religious teachings that are mutually incompatible. The Bible definitely promotes what is called a young earth paradigm. Evolution boosts an old universe, old earth. Attempts to bring these divergent paths into symmetry, does grave disservice to devoted followers of both paths.
We should focus this week on the fact that if the earth is really only thousands of years old, then we should live are lives as such. If the Bible is true and the age of the earth can be numbered in the thousands, then the excuse that there is no God and everything is a natural progression of timeless random events, can not be defended in any logical way. All that is left to evolutionists is a form of name calling, defaming sincere followers of God.
The Bible says, "In the beginning God, created the heavens and the earth." Most of us know that the word God here is really the Hebrew word Elohim which is in the plural form. Therefore the most appropriate translation would be Gods. Commentators are quick to point out that the fourth word in the Bible demonstrates the existence of the Trinity. This reference to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one demarcation between Christianity and Judaism and Islam.
Throughout the whole first chapter of Genesis this is the term used to describe the creation events and continues through the first three verses of Chapter 2. In Chapter 2:4 however, the context changes and so does the reference and the names of God. Beginning in verse four we now have a compound name referred to as the LORD God.
Generally, translators of the English Bible have used the word LORD to signify the Hebrew YHMH. YHMH, most correctly stated as Yahweh is generally defined as the Eternal One, or Underived Existence. So beginning in verse four we now see a more complete reference to the Trinity as the plural God, the Eternal One.
Now this is quite appropriate because during the creation account, God, the Infinite, was by design, creating something out of nothing, lacking His eternity, because creation while perfect was not God. Hence, while it did point to His existence and give glory to Him, it was not God because creation does not possess His attributes.
So how can we understand a beginning that flows not out of the eternal past, but the timeless nature of the personality of God? In that context, while logically correct to think of an eternal past, we then open our thought processes into a eternity that could stretch back billions of years, which is not correct.
This is because time is a creation of God Himself. Before He created time, it did not exist. Therefore by definition, once time began so did God's six day creative cycle. From this we must assume, that the personality of God would not delay in perfecting a creation to bring him glory. The Triune God created the tri-universe of time, space, and matter. Thus they began simultaneously from God alone. The timeless Trinity created the universe.
Therefore, what we must focus on once time began is the present and the potential for an eternal future. This is not possible with the impersonal great singularity, because there is no design by which it operates.
Now we see this present=future concept first portrayed in Moses and the burning bush: And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And He said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you. (Exodus 3:14)
Notice the present tense and the direction to a future in which the bondage in Egypt will be removed. This again is a singular reference to Elohim . Also in the famous Alpha and Omega passages, you have a beginning and an end, but they all are described within the context of a knowable time constraint, with the focus upon a future.
Now are these thoughts designed to give us a headache? No, but to bring us again to find wonder in Biblical passages similar to Psalm 121. In the recent beginning, the personal God created the universe. He left that position outside of time, space, and matter and became a man. On a cross He suffered for the sins of man, taking them for Himself. Those main sins being that mortal man does not understand either their role in the finite or the infinite. Through that sacrifice He restored the proper order to the universe. For those who accept His sacrifice, He allows them the possibility to experience that universe, the first fruit now, but much greater for eternity.
So as you go your way this day and for everyday into the future member to:
I will lift up my eyes to the hills--
From whence comes my help?
My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
That is a fresh beginning that is available to God's children every day, it is a choice that the LORD God, designed before time began. In some way, beyond our comprehension, it is why He so recently created this whole experience. May we forever marvelat this opportunity.
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