Great Biblical fathers

 

The "Who" of creation, in the New Testament

The Who of creation, in the New Testament

The Bible says almost nothing about the when, where, how or why of creation. It does tell us about the Who. There are several passages in the New Testament that teach us that God the Son was pre-eminent in creation. Some of them teach that He is holding it together now.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him. Without him, nothing was made that has been made. (Scripture from the World English Bible, public domain)

Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things are held together.

Hebrews 1:1 God, having in the past spoken to the fathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 has at the end of these days spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds. 3 His Son is the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, who, when he had by himself purified us of our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high…

Hebrews 11:3 By faith, we understand that the universe has been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which are visible.

Ephesians 3:9 and to make all men see what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ,

Revelation 3 may also point to the Son’s critical role in creation: Revelation 3:14 “To the angel of the assembly in Laodicea write: “The Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning* of God’s creation, says these things: …’”

There is evidence, in the creation story, and elsewhere, that God the Father and God the Holy Spirit were also involved in creation, but there’s little or no evidence for that in the New Testament.

*There is a text note in the World English Bible, indicating that “Beginning” may also be taken as Source, or Head. Some other versions have similar text notes.

(The same passage in Revelation, from the NIV: 3:14 “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation)

Thank you for reading. Honor Christ, creator and sustainer!

The first day of creation: things we are never going to understand

Genesis 1:2 The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters. 3 God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day”, and the darkness he called “night”. There was evening and there was morning, the first day. (World English Bible, public domain)

There are plenty of possible questions about this passage, such as about how literally to take it, but I’d rather not explore the questions of what “day” means, and other such matters, important as they might be. I have some other questions in mind, questions that we will never understand in this life, and maybe not in the next one. We can, and may, have opinions about them, but the opinions are not strongly backed by the Scripture, or are not covered at all in the Bible, and Genesis 1 is interpreted in different ways by different people. For more on scriptural interpretation, see this post.

Questions:
If God spoke light into existence, what language did He use?
Does God, in this passage, mean God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, or some combination of them?
Who did God speak to?
If He/They spoke to some other entity, who was it, and why was this said?
Did angels, or some other entity, actually create the light, at God’s command?
Was the creation of light preceded (whatever preceded  means to an eternal God!) by planning?
Was the entire electromagnetic spectrum, of which light is only a small part, created at once?
Did the creation of light cost God effort or resources of some sort?
Does this passage actually refer to the creation of the sun, or was that created later?
Was there light elsewhere in the universe, but not on earth, or, on the other hand, was the light created for the earth, or perhaps for the solar system, spread throughout the universe somehow, after this initial creation?
Was light created from something else?

Interesting questions. (There are more questions about origins in this post -- toward the end.) I have no answers. Thanks for reading.

Augustine: God is the Enlightener

The above is an attempt to illustrate two quotations from Augustine of Hippo, requesting God to enlighten him, and responding that God will do this.

Augustine was apparently referring, in part, to James 1:16 Don’t be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow. (World English Bible, public domain.)

Thanks for looking. The graphic above also serves as a link to a post on Flickr, which can be seen at a larger size.

Sunspots 646

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

The Arts: A splendid photo of Padar Island, Komodo National Park, Indonesia, from the air, on Flickr.

An amazingly colored bird, also from Southeast Asia, also on Flickr.

From ClassicFM, a photo of a bass drum that broke, when it was used to play the cannon part from Tchiakovsky's 1812 Overture.

Christianity: A commenter, in Christianity Today, on the matter of the NFL and the US flag. (Not the same commenter, or viewpoint, as was mentioned here last week.)

Sojourners reports that a number of high-profile Southern Baptists, and others, have called on President Donald Trump to denounce the alt-right movement.

Heart, Mind, Soul and Strength reminds us that it is important that God is personal, and explains why.

He Lives points out that God is omni-holy. He isn't omni-merciful, or omni-just, though.


Computing: (and Politics) National Public Radio reports that Republican Senator James Lankford is saying that Russian trolls have injected themselves into the current debate over racial treatment and the national anthem, on both sides, in an attempt to divide the US citizenry.

A Wired contributor suggests that we delete Facebook, etc., from our smartphones, and use them only from a computer, and gives reasons for suggesting this. (I did that myself, a couple of years ago, and have not gone back to Facebooking on our smartphone.)
  Finance: Wired analyzes the consumer protection now offered by Equifax.

Food: Scientific American on the science of brewing coffee.

History: Listverse reports on the ways that Christ's disciples died. They were all painful and humiliating.

Humor: (or something) Listverse also reports on 10 famous quotes, and how we don't attribute them correctly.
 

Politics: (and Sports) FiveThirtyEight has analyzed the political preferences of the fan base of all of the National Football League teams. All of them have substantial support from people leaning in both political directions, but some have more of one than the other. Fans of NASCAR are mostly Republican, fans of the NBA are mostly Democratic.

FiveThirtyEight also tries to explain President Donald Trump's behavior.

Science: Scientific American reports on a giant rat species, new to science, from the Solomon Islands. (It was known to the local inhabitants.)

Sports: Phil Mickelson, golfer, took a selfie of himself, with former presidents Clinton, Obama and George W. Bush, but mostly cut himself out of the photo. (In CBS Sports and many other sources.)


Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 645

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Christianity: Benjamin L. Corey is not at all happy about President Trump's threat to destroy the entire population of North Korea, and he's even less happy with Franklin Graham's reaction to the speech.

The editor of Christianity Today weighs in on athletics and the national anthem.

Ken Schenck answers the question, "Who is God?"

A writer in the Washington Post compares Tim Tebow and Colin Kaepernick, and reaches a sobering conclusion about today's Christianity.

 
Food: The New York Times reports that the plants that produce chocolate may be in danger from a fungus.

History: (and politics) Listverse describes 10 states of the US that never came into being, but were more or less seriously proposed.

Humor: (not really, but I don't have a category for this one) Listverse also reports on 10 things were are running out of. Interesting, and scary.
 

Politics: (Sort of) FiveThirtyEight points out that the news media, including some important "mainstream" entities, treat probabilities as if they were certainties, and those who are predicting (meteorologists and polling organizations) are putting out probabilities.

Science: (or extraplanetary travel) Listverse tells us why a trip to Mars would be more uncomfortable than most of us would think.

Scientific American reports, somewhat poetically (!) on the discovery of fungi, living about a half mile down in bedrock. The article mentions that possibly one-fifth of all the living things on earth live in the earth's crust, seldom, if ever, seen.



Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 562

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

The Arts: The History Blog tells us that the score of a cantata, co-written by Mozart and Salieri, has been discovered.
Christianity: Ken Schenck examines what the Bible says about divorce.
He also tells us about spiritual disciplines.
Sojourners warns Christians that history will judge them on the answers to four questions.
Benjamin L. Corey discusses the paradox that "God never changes," but that, really, God is always changing. (He is. Read the article.)
The Environment: (or something) A 6.5 minute drone's-eye video of Table Rock State Park, arguably the most scenic spot in South Carolina. In some ways, as spectacular as Yosemite, and that's saying something.
Health: FiveThirtyEight points out that the Zika virus has not yet been proved to cause birth defects, and that it will be difficult to prove this, if in fact it is true.
Humor: (or something) Gizmo's Freeware reports on Mega Tic Tac Toe, a 1 or 2 or online game, based on tic tac toe, which is available for Android, Windows, and iOS computers.
Politics: A very non-partisan statement on "Who Would Jesus Vote For?" from NewSpring Church.
Science: Listverse reports on 10 "atrocities of natural selection," among which is a cancer which is actually an organism, and more really creepy behaviors.
Listverse also reports on 10 surprising bird mating rituals, with a video of each.
Image source (public domain)

What the Bible says about the created world - an overview

Restoring and preserving creation

Genesis 1:31: Everything created was good.

Genesis 1:26, 28: Humans are stewards over the natural world, for God.

Genesis 3:17-19: The relationship between humans and nature changed because of the Fall.

2 Chronicles 36:21: Israel was punished for not taking care of the land, as commanded in Exodus 23:10-11, Leviticus 25:1-5. (Habakkuk predicted that punishment in 2:8)

Job 40-42: God is in charge of the natural world, and He knows it intimately.

Psalm 19:1-4 (Also, Romans 1:20): The natural world is one of the ways God is revealed to us. We try to make the Bible, another way God speaks, available in the language of the heart, because it speaks more clearly. We should also protect nature, so it will speak more clearly. It’s harder to see God in a polluted world.

Psalm 24:1: The earth is the Lord’s, not ours. We are merely stewards of God’s creation.

Psalm 104:10-17: God sustains the natural world.

Psalm 104:24-25: God created an abundant diversity of living things.

Romans 8:19-22: The creation is eager to be restored.

2 Corinthians 5:17-21: We are to help Christ with His ministry of reconciliation.

Colossians 1:15-20: Christ sustains the natural world. He also has a ministry of reconciling the natural world to Himself. We should help Him sustain the natural world.

Hebrews 11:3: We probably can’t prove that God created the universe, but we should believe it.

Revelation 21:1-5: God will make all things new.

A quick summary. For more on what the Bible says about environmental stewardship, see here.

Some characteristics of God

 
Some characteristics of God. God isn't in a hurry. The earth, and the universe, are very old. God put up with the unfaithfulness of the Israelites for centuries and generations. He is said to be coming back soon, but that has been said for nearly two millenia. God has His own time scale.

God can be trusted. He is faithful to keep His promises. His laws hold up -- gravity is going to work tomorrow.

God is in control. God the son holds all things together. See Colossians 1, quoted above.

God is extravagant! There are many organisms that we haven't even found, many galaxies that we haven't even seen.

Thanks for looking and reading. The graphic should serve as a link to a larger image.

Ideas on how to love God

Ideas on How to Love God

Mark 12:28-31 tells us that the most important commandment is to love God.

In Luke’s description of what was probably the same event, Jesus explicitly affirmed that answer (World English Bible, public domain):
Luke 10:25 Behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?”

27 He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; [Deuteronomy 6:5] and your neighbor as yourself. [Leviticus 19:18]” 28 He [Jesus] said to him, “You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live.” [All these “loves” are agape love.]

So how do we love God?

One way, Jesus said, is to follow His teachings, or commandments. See John 14:15-24. Most of those teachings are in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7. See also the “Great Commission,” of Matthew 28:18-20.

An on-line search led to many articles on the subject. Here are some of their suggestions on how to Love God: 1) be thankful, including for things we don’t like. 2) trust God 3) put God first 4) be committed 5) be humble 6) spend time in prayer.

Some other ideas: If I really love someone, I will pay attention to what they say, even if I don’t like it, or it’s repetitive. If I really love someone, I want to be in their company. If I really love someone, I want the best for them -- I want them to be thought well of. May I feel that way about God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

George Croly expressed love for God in a great poem, “Spirit of God, Descend Upon my Heart”: The hymn says:

Hast Thou not bid me love Thee, God and King?

All, all Thine own, soul, heart and strength and mind.

I see Thy cross; there teach my heart to cling:

O let me seek Thee, and O let me find!

Teach me to love Thee as Thine angels love,

One holy passion filling all my frame;

The kindling of the heaven descended Dove,

My heart an altar, and Thy love the flame.