Written Word

'In the Beginning... God"

We err, in a technical sense, when  we posit that God created something (the universe) out of nothing. Where, and when, was that nothing? Scripture tells us that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (Joh 1:1) There was no place and no time that God was not. It is logical to conclude therefore that when God created the heavens and the earth, He did not actually create them out of nothing. As a witness for my case there is this:

“The axiom, that out of nothing nothing comes, is not contradicted in the case of creation. The universe comes from God; it does not come from nothing.”  (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)

We have shown there can be no nothing where God is concerned; He fills all space and time, moving “nothing” completely out of the picture.

This is not to contradict Dr. Byron V. Johnson in His excellent treatise on “Creation,” in A Consensus of Pentecostal Thought (http://bit.ly/la55N ), Dr. Johnson writes,

“There were no preexistent materials from which God made the world. The things which are seen were not made of things which appear. Cre­ation was ex nihilo, or out of nothing.”

and his statement is correct: There were no preexistent materials from which God made the universe. No piles of materials were lying around from which God constructed the worlds; there was nothing at hand. He had no matter to work with, so in effect He did create something ex nihilo, out of nothing. God did what only a God could do: He drew from His own mighty, ubiquitous Self whatever was needed to create all matter and space and time. It is an oxymoronic concept: Out of that which was eternal God assembled a whole noneternal universe, one that was not from forever and would not last forever. That was the eternal plan of God and if I am in error, show me my error (but don’t you dare try to limit God to your own weak human self!)

The universe that God made, as illogical as it may seem to our “rational” minds, was centered, not physically but in a divinely hierarchical way, on an insignificant planet in an insignificant cluster of planets now known as the Solar System. The Solar System, in turn, was centered, again not physically but in a divinely hierarchical way, on one of its lesser planets, the planet Earth. The Sun is actually the center of the Solar System, but in God’s reckoning the Earth is the most important object in the System because He created it for a special type of creature.

I cannot claim to know why God chose a little sparrow of a planet when there were planets of finer plumage and more regal bearing, preening their feathers, waiting to be chosen by the Creator. Whatever the reason for His choosing planet Earth, God made (not “created”) various creatures to inhabit it, one of which He (God) made in His own image and after His likeness. This of course was Man, the “special type of creature” referred to above, God’s premier feat in a series of once-in-an-eternity feats required for the making of a universe. There may be other intelligent creatures somewhere else within the vast reaches of the cosmos, but it stretches the bounds of credibility to think there is another for whom the Creator God would die.

Not only was there not another for whom the Creator God died, I believe that when God made man in His own image and after His likeness, that was sufficient proof there could be no more creatures like Man anywhere. My reasoning is this: God has said of Himself,

“Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.”  (Isa 44:8)

In a generic sense, it would seem that man is like God in that he stands alone in all creation. All men (and women) are one with Adam. He is their earthly father. All mankind comes from the one man and they bear a resemblance to their father. As a matter of fact there is also a theological/genetic association between Adam and his descendants: Adam sinned and all mankind became sinners before they were born. They too came under the curse of sin. In a sense they are all “Adam.” In all the searches of the cosmos our erudite scientists may conduct they will not find another like Adam, the single and singular Man-creature, though they poke their inquisitive noses into the remotest corners of the universe.

There – I think I have just painted myself into a corner of my own making!

More Intriguing Thoughts from 'The Life of Christ in Five Phases"

The text below is an excerpt from The Life of Christ in Five Phases, The Introduction to Lesson Fifteen, “Jesus Christ – Forsaken of God and Man”

The Demeaning Death of Deity

I want to mentally immerse you in the sufferings of Christ because only by hard repetition of cruel facts can we humans begin to really see what the Savior endured for us in His hour of Passion. Let’s look once again at the way God chose to save mankind. Actually it was the only way that would conform simultaneously to His strict righteous code and His love and mercy. God was restricted by His own righteousness and justice to one method by which He could save mankind. There was only one path to take: God had to give His own life for the life of His fallen creature. God had to die.*

* Instructor’s Note:  Perhaps you are wondering how God could be restricted in any way. you are protesting, “Why? He is God!” This is an interesting puzzle. I have maintained that God is all-powerful and that no one and nothing can successfully oppose Him, yet I am now saying that God had to die. First, remember that the Spirit of God did not die; the fleshly body that He inhabited died. And, secondly, God alone restricted God. His own righteous and just nature demanded death for sin, at which point His own love and mercy devised the means of salvation (a means we have already amply propounded in this work) for all who believe in Jesus Christ.

When the believer in Christ dies he loses only his natural life. There is no change in the most important aspect of existing, which is eternal life.  As we step over the Great Divide between natural life and its abrupt cutting off in death, our eternity of being continues separate and serene. There is not the slightest ripple on the surface of our sea of eternity. That is what eternal life is all about. The term connotes more than mere forever existence: sinners will have that, but such existence cannot be called “living.” The “forever existence” for sinners only means existing in a damned state. Eternal life is life glorious and free, attended by joy and peace and praising the God who made such a state possible.

Jesus’ death was not nearly so simple as that of the ordinary righteous man. It was a tragedy and a travesty of justice that the Great Judge who does all things with equity and justice should have died with not the semblance of human justice shown to Him. Jesus’ death was, in fact, the diametric and extreme opposite of justice. How could there be such an egregious wrong committed on the only inherently just Man who ever lived? How could heaven bear with such utter disregard shown by a worm for its Creator?

In the tragedy of the Christ we see not just the death of a royal personage, but one who sacrificed divine majesty and glory for the sake of love. Yet there were no grand funeral rites, no formal obsequies that always attend the death of a monarch or person of renown. This Man was by far the greatest of all men; He was the God of heaven – and men spit on him and reviled Him before He died, and even after, when He hanged a lifeless corpse on the tree of shame, a soldier had the effrontery to thrust a spear into His side. Even in death Jesus was humiliated.

An Unbreakable Bond of Divinity

At this point we want to revisit only briefly the reason that Jesus, who was God Himself, had to die for mankind. We read of Jesus often referring to the Father with whom, He said, He was one.  (John 10.30; 17.11, 22) It was true. The Father was always with Jesus just as He is always with us, even when we cannot sense His presence. No doubt, at some time during the forty days of temptation in the desert, Jesus must have experienced that black moment when He couldn't feel the Father’s nearness. But He knew, despite the lack of awareness of the Father’s imminence, that the Father was there.

In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus had the foreboding that the same bleak hour was approaching Him again as He drew nearer to His crucifixion. But this time – on the cross when the dread moment actually came – it would be vastly different and an infinity worse. Jesus not only would not sense the presence of His Father – the Father would be completely gone and Jesus would feel the knife thrust through His soul... and cruelly twisted.  When Jesus was finally impaled on the cross the Father would do the unthinkable: He would leave Jesus completely alone, something He never does (in this life) with the most inveterate sinner and the most confirmed atheist.

(The text above is merely a snippet taken from the book, The Life of Christ in Five Phases by Aaron J. Smith. To purchase this unusual book, go to this online address: http://bit.ly/U05x1 )

Let's Take Off the Blinders!

In horse racing a horse that is somewhat “skittish” may have to wear blinders while he is racing. The blinders permit him to see only what is in front of him. In that way he will not be distracted by what is happening around him; he can concentrate solely on winning the race.

That is good for horses running a race; it is not good for believers who are running this race toward eternal life. We are not race horses; as believers we all have duties to perform in addition to the major one or ones that entail the gifts of the Spirit. Performing the additional tasks will help propel us toward the prize at the end of the race. We have more to do than fulfill just one major assignment, which assignment is using the gift God has given us. We are humans who have a plethora of human needs in our midst that have to be looked after. No one can fill the needs unless we as individuals fill them. Perhaps the following will illustrate what I am trying to say:

God has given me the ability to write. It is not world class, but I have a duty to use the gift. Consequently I am engaged in writing Christian articles and publishing them in my limited way. Being involved in this primary task, I have a tendency to put on my blinders and not see anything else. After all, this is the Lord’s work, however small it may be. Yet I cannot be so occupied in writing, although it is a task  that is required of me, that I overlook the constant afflictions and needs of people all around me. Without doubt God intended for me to reach out and help others by the gift He bestowed upon me and it is good that I am doing this, but there are additional ways in which I should help the needy souls to whom I am reaching out. There are many needs that I have the ability to fill by the grace of God – and I would be remiss in my duty not to take of what I have and at least help fill a need of my brother or sister. There are gaping holes in the lives of my fellow creatures, holes that have to be covered over. If I have the means to do this or to assist in doing this, then the responsibility is mine whether I ask for it or not.

I want God to give me grace to diversify my interests as only He wills for me to do. I cannot be just a writer and  nothing else. What kind of writer is effective who has no experiences from which to draw? True enough, God gives me  my inspiration, but He draws it from the well of my experiences in great part. If the well is dry, there will be no inspiration. Just as God deals with men and women according to their individual personalities, He gives inspiration to preach or write as He finds it in the experiences of His people. But, after we have faithfully made use of our God-given gift, if we neglect the small things, the little acts of love, we are in effect putting our blinders on. Neither you nor I can expect to optimally help others if we ignore the tasks that are “too small.” It would be like running our race in a tunnel just large enough for us individually. We may properly have our eyes on the prize at the end of the tunnel, but by neglecting the “minutiae of God” we will have erected an impenetrable wall around ourselves. No one else can touch us behind the wall and we cannot touch anyone else. If I am not mistaken, the rules of this race make it mandatory that we love others. How can we love if there is no reaching out to touch?

If all I do is write, where is the praying heart and the listening ear? If I concentrate on my writing to the exclusion of everything else, where is the heart of compassion, where the getting down into my brother or sister's tragic experience? Where is the pain, the sorrow, the binding up of the cruel wounds inflicted by men whose only thoughts are on what is good for them?

I can ill afford to sit in my ivory tower and write about life if I have had no life outside of the ivory tower. Jesus prayed to the Father, “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world...” If I ignore the many needs of others, I will have taken my own self out of the world. God wants us to stay in the world and not to participate in the evils thereof.

We would be wrong to wrap our gift or gifts in a cloth and bury them out of sight. There would be a price to pay for that. But we are wrong to get so engrossed in using  our gifts that we bury the needy, the afflicted and the unsaved out of sight. There will be a price to pay for that also. So let’s all do what we can to fill the needs, great or small, that are plaguing the masses among whom we walk as lights of the world. Let us raise the effectual, fervent prayer, show love and mercy, give of our material and financial needs, and strive to be what God has envisioned for us. It can be summed up thus: Let’s use our gifts of the Spirit as we continually walk in love. If we walk in love, we cannot help but reach out and touch those who need us.