Last December 5th we celebrated the 100th birthday of one of the giants of 20th century American culture. That person was none other than Walt Disney, who created a world of fantasy for the young of heart of any age. It's not all that bad some of us never grew up, but it is rather sad that in the process of aging, many have not developed the ability to discern reality from fantasy.
What struck me as amusing this week, in this sad sort of way, as we continue to look at the creation story in the Bible, is that many millions, perhaps billions of people on this earth, base their hope for eternity and how life began, on a theory not much different than the lyrics to the famous Disney theme, "When you wish upon a star":
When you wish upon a star,
Makes no difference who you are,
Anything your heart desires,
Will come to you.If your heart is in a dream,
No request is to extreme,
When you wish upon a star,
as dreamers do.Fate is kind,
She brings to those who love,
The sweet fulfillment of their secret longing.Like a bolt out of the blue,
Fate steps in and sees you through.
When you wish upon a star,
Your dreams come true.
As we have stated elsewhere there is a difference between being child like (in faith, which is from God) and childish, which has more natural roots. Dreams, as referenced above, and fate are part and parcel of life based upon the metaphysics of the cosmological premise of the impersonal great singularity of the big bang, and life evolved out of primal soup. (Whatever that is?) From such a beginning is it any wonder we live in a culture with an ontology based on astrology, self esteem, violence, dreams, angels, and political correctness.
As we have continued through this series, we have seen that there are two completely divergent world views and each individual has a choice by which paradigm to base his assumptions of reality. Again those choices are really, between random chance and the personality of God. This week we see the creation of those divergent paths in the creation story itself. However, just as with all things of God, it is a simple, but not a simplistic argument.
While natural science has no answer for the great questions of cosmology, before time, space, and matter, the dream seems to be, if we just add enough time backward to the beginning, history becomes undefinable, or incomprehensible to the mind. Hence, we have reasonably and rationally solved the problem of eternity that God placed in the soul of man.
The Bible however, does not limit itself to the created universe, but shows us a personal God in existence before time began, and by whom not only was the universe created, but Who outside of our triune universe of time, space and matter, has provided the solution to all of man's eternal questions.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters Genesis 1:1,2
Now before we get into serious matters, the classical dispensationalism of the evangelical church has inserted into the non existent hole between verses one and two a gap theory that fills in millions or billions of years of evolutionary time. Now, as best I can understand there are were two reasons of this error.
1. Without the gap theory it is impossible to harmonize the Bible with the learning of evolutionary science.
2. In order to create seven dispensations for God's dealing with humanity, (God's number of perfection) in the Bible, if you can only find six, just throw in another dispensation right here and all will fit with our understanding of God's perfect plan for man.
Now, I have a tendency to get indignant in the discussions of these specific points, so rather than divert into the ditch of some form of childishness, I would refer those who want more sound logic relating to these principles to Henry Morris' "The Genesis Record." As a strong and vocal supporter of dispensational theory, Dr. Morris makes a well reasoned defense of his understanding of the creation account and the Bible without running into the ditch on either side of the highway.
The bigger point here is that we are really not dealing with verifiable facts, but with the philosophy of religion. In that regard if we are to reason with reasonable persons for the sake of Jesus Christ, and we use the Bible as our defense, this defense must be either a logical inference, or deduction of the text as God had it written, not how we think He should have written it. This must be true with dispensational exegesis, reformed exegesis, as well as all other diverse interpretations in between.
What is significantly important however, is that the text in these verses begins with the general, or universal and proceeds to the specific. The personality of God, which we looked at briefly last week, creates the universe and the earth out of timeless, spaceless, massless eternity. And what is written after that event is really a description of complete randomness, or what I have called the title for this weeks message, perfect chaos. The text gives us no reason to believe that this is not a universal phenomenon at the beginning of time, it is just that the narrative focuses on the context from the universal heaven to the specific earth.
This perfect randomness, or chaos must be contrasted with the big bang of the great singularity, which if it occurred, by definition must be the greatest ordering of events in all time. Going back to Walt Disney however, is this assumption based upon some account or evidence of someone who was there, or is it just a wish upon a star of some very gifted, intelligent men, sorely misled by the corrupted intellect of there own rational thinking?
The Bible, as well as other written accounts and oral traditions in other cultures, describe in some way a beginning stimulated by the Eternal One. It is easy in our day and age to attribute these creation narratives, or myths to "primitive people trying to make sense out of a world without order."
However, logically following the first and second laws of thermodynamics into the field of philosophy and metaphysics, these accounts could however contain a higher level of intelligence, human wisdom, and understanding than is common to modern mankind. But since we are limited to our specific point on the time continuum , we must only infer our own conclusions based upon our observations, faith, or wishes.
So what is perfect chaos, or complete randomness? While I cannot give you a natural description, I can give you a metaphysical construct. Perfect chaos is the building blocks by which God chose to show his glory through out all creation.
Starting from universal chaos, God through His manipulation of the physical universe, (time, space, and matter) brings order to the specific. Therefore in the creation account described in the Bible, we see God beginning with the universe of perfect randomness and finishing with the creation of a man, made from the dust of the ground, created in the image of God, yet within the confines of creation.
This first man, functioning within the created realm, understands his freedom from the other modes of the created universe, but through the advent of sin in Genesis Chapter 3, we see the breakage of the man's understanding and direct link to the eternal, illustrated in Chapter 2 as the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Because of the breakage of the direct personal revelation of God, God also created a standard by which to codify not only His existence, but also to set a standard by which that relationship must be restored. This of course is revealed through the Bible, the Word of God, Jesus Christ, One personality of the Triune Godhead, and perfect man by which the propitiation of the blood sacrifice for Holy Worship is inaugurated to the restored creation.
Enlarging only briefly upon these constructs, in the ultimate sense we see that God always works from chaos to order, from the universal to the specific. This is even true in our world, highly influenced by the constraints of entropy. This catholic standard is still the means by which to understand the glory of God as the highest revelation of creation. This is also the testimony of all of God's children, redeemed by His grace from their own and the world's total depravity.
On the reverse we see a worldly system that works from the specific to the universal, and from order to chaos. Free trade in the mega corporate sense, one world government, even diversity in the politically correct sense, are all manifestation of this desire to be one with the cosmos of our presumption.
In closing, again look at the words of "When you wish upon a star" and see how they not only represent this paradigm, but also are the only hope for this age, outside the revelation of God and Jesus Christ presented in the Bible.
What do dreamers do? Hope in a reality of their own creation, ignoring the truth set forth in the pages of the Bible. Thereby, they limit there understanding to this fallen created realm and are limited to its rational requirements. However, through Jesus Christ now seated with God again outside fallen creation, those who believe by faith in His restorative sacrifice, can again begin to taste the first fruits of the eternal garden untainted by the ravages of sin and death. This is the eternal gospel of God's love and peace set in motion with the creation of all, and it shall continue until the end of this age.
Again the words of Proverbs 3: 6,7 find their way into the narrative:
Trust in Yahweh with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.
This week I am struck by the fact that the path of faith leads continually through this land beyond our understanding. Every night there is provision for rest and every morning there is the provision for either the gathering of manna and related chores of living, or the provision of Sabbath. I know I not only have a difficult time getting the daily standard right, but I still have the desire to know what is beyond today. Actually, I think God gives His children really a great insight into what the future holds, considering. My problem is that I want to help bring the things I want into today, and push off what I don't want into eternity future.
Contrary to much of my desired end, God has richly blessed me in these last few weeks, especially financially. While everything is not caught up to date, we are making significant progress. I however, have noticed that I am having a difficult time adjusting to what most would consider a more normal life. So in a way the time of transition I mentioned a few weeks ago continues forward at a pace just beyond my comfort zone. Please intercede for the grace to adjust to these changes, and to let the Lord bring my deepest prayers into the present as they also must be part of this adjustment process.
After September 11th, our perception of the Islamic faith has changed dramatically. Actually, I suppose before September 11th most of us didn't have any perception of Islam at all. My own work only stemmed from something like: It is impossible for a man centered consumptive Christianity to minister the love of God to a God centered religion, either Muslim or Jewish. In order to be effective to these people groups, western evangelical Christianity must be transformed by God back to the God centered faith that changed the world.
To that end, Sunday evening I had the opportunity to listen to Samy Tanagho, of Good Shepherd World Evangelism. Mail to: samy@muslimminstry.com (web site at the same URL). As a former lawyer in Egypt, Samy's presentation helped me understand how little I know about the vast majority of Moslems. Perhaps, more importantly he emphasized what are some steps required to show them the love of God, that we Christians, pay such lip service to, but are so sluggard in love's demonstration. He also presented the gospel to those present in a style well beyond the, "Ask Jesus into your heart and He will change your life and fulfill your dreams." which seems to be the depth of many presentations of our culture. Consequently, this gospel is something we all need to hear very often.
Some of you can give Samy a
chance to share his ministry in your churches, others could just
let him know that you are praying for him. We can all pray that
during this time, that the love of God for all people would be
present in the lives of Christians as we have the opportunity
to meet them within this country, or in a foreign land.
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