Читать книгу What God’s Up To on Planet Earth? - Mark J. Keown - Страница 6

In this chapter we will discuss God’s original plan. It’s the story of a glorious cosmic project in which God created humanity to have a relationship with him in an awe-inspiring world. It will give an answer to the question, ‘Why am I here?’

God

The starting point for the Christian faith is God himself. Christianity is based on God’s existence. While most people from history and in the world today believe in a God or gods, the existence of divine beings is disputed by some (especially in the west). Atheists deny that there is a God. Others are agnostics, unsure whether there is a God or that he1 can be known. It is possible that you are one of these people. In this book, I’m not going to seek to philosophically defend or prove God’s existence.2 In fact, I would agree with those who state that God cannot be proved. However, I suggest that a number of factors combine to suggest that belief in God is reasonable and compelling.

First, existence itself indicates a starting point of some sort with a glorious intelligence and power behind the formation of this world.3 Secondly, the order we see in creation which science reveals, from the human cell to the far reaches of space, suggests that creation is not random and that there is a creative force behind it and at work in it.4 Thirdly, the common sense of morality and goodness that is found across human societies suggests the possibility of a God.5 Finally, for me, it is the flow of history and especially the historical person Jesus who brings me to the view that there is a God and that Jesus reveals him to us.

The sweep of the Bible story from creation, to Jesus, to a new creation, is set in the context of the real history of ancient empires, people, places and societies. The 66 books found in the Bible are remarkably coherent with fulfilled predictions, a real account of existence, and a future hope for a fallen world. As I have come to believe in God, despite great doubts, and have accepted Jesus, I too have tangibly experienced his ‘presence’ in my life. All these factors combine to cause me to believe in God and believe that Christ is the supreme revelation of who God is. I hope that whether you are an atheist, an agnostic or a believer in another religious viewpoint, that you will read on and give this message a chance. I pray and believe that as you do, you will be drawn to God and his love.

The Bible starts with the words ‘in the beginning God’!6 Genesis 1:1 points to a dimension that existed prior to the existence of our world, in which God existed. We call this home of God ‘heaven’. By looking at Scripture (the Bible) and the world, we can identify at least five attributes that are critical to understanding why he created in the first place: he is all powerful, creative, loving, eternal and pure.7 Let’s look at these concepts one at a time.

First, God is all powerful. The technical word for this is ‘omnipotent’. This means he can do all things except what is ‘absurd’ or is contradictory to his character. As the ancient Hebrew thinker Job put it, ‘I know you (God) can do all things.’8 God is a super being who is capable of extraordinary and unimaginable acts. This universe with its astonishing glory demonstrates that.

Secondly, God is unimaginably creative – that is, he is a creator.9 At his heart God is clearly a being who loves to design and make stuff – and he is brilliant at doing so! You can see this in the complexity and glory of the universe.10 God is the supreme artist, scientist and musician who has complete command of every artistic and scientific field. Our own art, science, music, and any other creativity, confined as it is to our experience of God’s created order and the minds he has given us, merely reflect the brilliance seen in his world. This world is a product of his awe-inspiring genius and he cares about every part of it wanting it all to reflect his being in its brilliance and goodness.

Thirdly, God is loving – or, as one of Jesus’ first followers and best friends John put it, ‘God is love’.11 The love we are talking about here is not romantic, sentimental, mushy or sexual love. Rather, it is a love that is characterised by compassion-motivated actions on behalf of others – a love that serves and gives. Indeed, ‘love’ in the Bible is really a verb – it is an attitude that leads to action. As such, God is loving by nature and all he does comes from a desire to love and to see love spread. He is relational (i.e. relationships are important to him), yearning from his being to love and to enjoy being freely loved in return.

Fourthly, God is eternal. This means he exists before time, through time and beyond time. Those who study the Bible describe him as ‘omnipresent’, meaning he exists at all points of time in all of his creation simultaneously. The notion of God being eternal is introduced in the first book of the Bible: ‘Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called upon the name of the Lord, the Eternal God.’12 Later in the Bible, Paul says of God, ‘now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen!’13 His eternal nature is important in that he also wants to grant ‘eternal life’ to every human who has and ever will live.14 His intention is to live forever with us.

Finally, God is pure.15 That is, God is ‘too pure to look upon evil’; he ‘cannot tolerate wrong.’16 Put another way, he is ‘not a God who takes pleasure in evil’, and with him ‘the wicked cannot dwell’.17 Another way of saying this is that God is ‘holy’, meaning that he is without evil and so will not ultimately accept evil in any form. In a sense we can say that God is allergic to evil – he is too pure to live in its presence. Another simple way of putting this is to say that God is entirely good.

This concept is important because it is the basis of God’s justice, whereby he will eventually permanently destroy evil. It also helps us see God’s gracious love and patience in the present as he tolerates the existence of evil in this time of human existence, despite it being utterly abhorrent to him. Furthermore, it points to the nature of heaven – a dimension in which God exists, and which is totally without evil and in which evil cannot exist.18 As a consequence, no being that is evil in any way can dwell within its bounds in relationship with God. This means that if ever humanity fell into impurity, their relationship with God would be ruptured and they would be separated from him.

Creation

So, this loving, relational, eternal creator designed and made our world. The account of creation in the first book of the Bible Genesis tells us that God established the universe and our world with its sun and moon as a perfectly fine-tuned environment in which life could be formed. He created vegetation and animals to inhabit and populate the world. He created humanity as the climax of his creation. Indeed, the whole narrative of creation in the first two chapters of Genesis climaxes in the creation of humanity – creation is for us.

As you are no doubt aware, the exact method and process of this creation is an area of great controversy from the perspectives of science and faith.19 This is not the place for an extensive discussion of the matter. However, a few comments are important. Modern science assumes an old earth (approx. 4.5 billion years) and universe (approx. 13-14 billion years), and an evolutionary perspective of biological development. Some, usually more conservative Christians, reject this entirely and argue for a literal six-day event and a very young earth (less than 20,000 years old). Other Christians accept an old universe and earth, but reject the notion of evolutionary development, seeing the development of human life as sudden rather than a process (called ‘old earth creationism’). Yet others prefer the notion of ‘intelligent design’ which is a broad notion that takes in a wide range of views, but is united in its belief that the complexity of the world as we know it requires an external force or power to exist. A growing number of Christians are now accepting the premises of science but arguing that evolutionary development and creation are not irreconcilable (‘evolutionary theism’ or ‘theistic evolution’).

The important thing to realise is that, contrary to popular thinking, Christians are not all anti-science and evolution. Indeed, many would argue that creation and science are not mutually exclusive. It is also important to note that many of history’s greatest scientific minds, including Blaise Pascal, Isaac Newton and today, John Polkinghorne, based their thinking on the existence of God.

Whichever interpretation of creation in the first two chapters of Genesis Christians hold, all agree with the premise that God created the world. If you personally hold an evolutionary perspective, I encourage you to continue to read on as what you will read here does not depend on any particular view of creation. That is, it is possible to believe in God and still accept many of the views of modern science.20

Returning to our main point… The reason God created humanity is so that they could have a loving relationship with him and with each other in the world he created. He made humanity, male and female, in his own image.21 Being made in the image of God means that each of us is made to be in some way like God (without being God or gods). We are made to be people of creativity and love. That is, we humans are created to be completely whole in our own skins and ready for relationship – a relationship with our creator, with each other, and with creation itself.22 He granted humanity sovereignty or the power to rule over all of his creation. This means he has given people a responsibility to both use the natural world and to care for it deeply as human society develops. He is greatly concerned about every part of his world and, as his image bearers charged with caring for it, so should we. God’s project involves us working with him and under his reign. We are to build God’s world.

Relationship with God

Firstly and primarily, we humans were made to have a relationship with God himself. The first basic truth of the gospel from an individual personal point of view is that ‘God made me to have a relationship with him’. This relationship is, in many ways, like human interpersonal relationships, but in other ways it is different. It is the relationship of the Creator with the created, the infinite with the finite, the immortal with the mortal. Because of this, we need to take care at this point to define this relationship appropriately.

The nature of the relationship between God and humanity was always intended to be two-sided. From God’s point of view, he wants to use his immense power to love each person, bless them, lead them, guide them, provide for them, protect them, nurture them and walk through life with them. Put another way, he wants to ‘hang out’ with us. He wants to be our friend, knowing us, caring for us and enjoying our company.

This is seen in the account of the Garden of Eden where he provided humanity with the beauty and perfection of the Garden and walked with them in the shade of the trees.23 He wants this relationship to be everlasting. In other words, he wants to spend eternity with you and me. In the movie Bruce Almighty24 there is a scene in which God (Morgan Freeman) chats to Bruce (Jim Carrey) as they mop the floor, working together, enjoying each other’s company. Or think of a parent spending time with their child maybe fishing or shopping together; God wants to spend time with us.

This desire is symbolised in the story of Genesis 2-3 by the tree of life in the centre of the garden, the fruit of which would give Adam and Eve eternal life.25 The first humans were able to eat of it at any time. It would enable them to live eternally and be sustained in their relationship with God.26

Effectively this was an invitation to join God who is triune (three, yet one) – Father, Son and Spirit. The concept of the Trinity states that God is eternally One in being, yet exists in three eternal simultaneous forms; One yet three – three yet One. We are not a hundred percent sure how this works. I mean, who can work out the notion of a cosmic eternal being who is one and also existing in three forms simultaneously? But it seems from the Bible that God is supreme, is one in character, psyche, connectedness, essence and community, yet exists in three totally unified and intimately connected individual personal beings.27

Hence, the Christian God is different from the Muslim God who is one in a literal mathematical sense, removing any notion of his becoming human. The Muslim God then is a ‘distant’ God who is difficult to relate to. The Christian God is also different to the many Hindu gods who are totally present, distinct, a blend of good and evil and who are supposedly with us in many forms and ways. The Christian God is one but exists in three perfectly united, good, connected, pure modes; all with different functions but on perfectly equal terms, utterly one but expressed in three (the Godhead). He is beyond us in glory (transcendent), yet present with us in history (immanent).

At his heart, this God is one in unity – that is, a unity of community. Hence, our invitation to accept the Christian message is not only an invitation to join God, but also an invitation to join the community of God’s being28 and the wider heavenly community.29 Consequently, a person who enters into a relationship with God joins the triune God and the many heavenly beings in a community of love. We don’t become God or gods, but we enter into a deep and intimate spiritual relationship with God and his people. The unity of the Godhead is the ideal for community, the three eternal persons of God being one in love and purpose and living in perfect harmony and peace. Heaven, as it exists now, is similarly a place of purity and unity which God will preserve at all costs. In a sense then, the communities of believers that exist on earth are meant to be extensions of the heavenly community – colonies of heaven on earth that demonstrate and extend the heavenly community.30

The best way to understand God in these terms is through the human experience of parenting. God is often called ‘Father’. This is an English translation taken from the intimate Aramaic family term of endearment used by Jesus and Paul to refer to God in the New Testament (Abba).31 As ‘Father’, God embodies the fullness of the ideal of human parenting, including in his being the notions of motherhood and fatherhood.32 Just as a young couple want to create a child to love, nurture, provide for, protect and guide through life, God is the cosmic parent of us all, who created with a desire to have a relationship with us.

Ideally each person will walk in a flawless, direct and open relationship with God. He or she would know God and be his friend, experiencing his blessing and returning trust, gratitude and love. However, we are not equals with God, so our relationship with him is also one of the created to the creator; the limited to the all-powerful, the mortal to the immortal, the finite to the infinite. The only right response of humanity to such an awesome being is awe, reverence, gratitude, obedience, humility, allegiance and service.

Another way of putting it is that every human was created to worship God.33 This isn’t just something that happens at church, but is an on-going life attitude, serving God, accepting his offer of love and taking our place in caring for and developing the world. It needs to be pointed out that, from God’s point of view, this is not a relationship of domination. He does not seek to force us into submission. He will cherish us and dote over us as a mother over her newborn child. We should live lives of gratitude, placing him above everything else and glorifying him.

When Jesus was asked which of the ten commandments was the most important, he said, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’34 Every human was created to be loved by God and to love God. Humans are the children in a cosmic parent-child relationship. We are created to be children of God, loving our divine Father, walking in relationship with him.35

Relationship with Each Other

Humanity was not created only to love God. Secondly, and equally fundamentally, we were created to express the love placed in us by God to one another. God formed Eve from Adam and they became one (marriage) and had children. The family based upon a harmonious marriage between a man and a woman is the basic unit of human society. In its ideal form, it embodies the concept that humanity can live in harmony, loving, respecting and honouring one another with the same love God has for each person.36 Consequently, Jesus said that the second greatest commandment is to ‘love your neighbour as yourself.’37 A deep examination of the teaching of the Bible indicates that love for God and for each other is thoroughly intertwined.38 That is, a failure to love others is in effect a failure to love God, in whose image we are made.39

Returning to our father-child analogy, we are created to be a family, loving each other across all humanity. God’s ideal is that we both love him and one another. This does not mean a blurring of individual distinctiveness; it is a unity in diversity. Each of us is unique and born to express our own being and brilliance in a totally unique way. But God’s vision is that we do so in love and unity, one people without war or division at any level.

Relationship with Creation and the World

A third dimension of relationship is found in the story of creation. Humanity was given the charge of caring for creation itself.40 The world that humanity has been given is to be carefully managed to retain ecological balance. We have been given the world to explore its splendour and glory and to use what we find with the creativity that is granted us, for human good. However, we must also show great care and concern for the natural world including the flora and fauna. God is concerned for every living thing, every tree, the animal world and every part of this creation. Hence, we should be deeply concerned at the current ecological problems and in particular, the disintegration of the environment, irrespective of its causes.

God’s hope for planet earth is that it will be a world of love and harmony, where people will live together in perfect love for God and one another, utilising the resources and caring for the world as people express their creativity in work and play. God cares for the whole of the world and his original intention is that human society would be full of goodness and love. So as people spread out and formed society, it was God’s desire that it be wonderfully creative and unified as it richly expressed its God-given creativity. We should value every part of human life. God cares about the arts, the sciences, sport, economics, family, governments, music, literature, ecology and life itself.

Each one of us is created by God (through the natural processes of human reproduction) with a purpose. Each of us is born with a unique set of talents to express our humanity. Each of us has a brilliance to be realised in relationship with God in and for this world and its people. Through this uniqueness, together we will build God’s world and bring into being God’s great dream and project.

Relationship with Self

Although not explicitly stated in the text, it is implied that the first humans were completely comfortable in themselves. There was no self-hate, lack of self-esteem, guilt, shame, depression, anxiety or personal angst. This is seen in their lack of shame.41 The first created humans were at total peace; their private worlds were in order and harmony. They were comfortable with who they were physically, intellectually, spiritually and emotionally. They did not experience jealousy or other desires which stem from a shattered inner being. They were whole and unbroken without the problems that blight us in this troubled world.

Freedom

There is another aspect of love that is an important part of the Christian message – the concept of freedom or volition. Initially humanity in the Garden was free. They were free to live there, work, enjoy it and be nourished by its produce. They could eat of the tree of life which would sustain them, meaning that this life of peace would be eternal; living forever with God and each other in God’s sensational world. However, they were innocently unaware of their freedom, not knowing anything other than the perfection in which they lived.

This is where the story gets a little more complex. If love is to be recognised and experienced as love, it requires not only the giving of freedom but the gaining of the knowledge or recognition of one’s freedom – the freedom to accept or reject love. This being so, God did not create humans as automatons or robots who would simply return his love without choice. Rather, he created humans in his image to have freedom and the ability to accept or reject him. His desire is for a genuine relationship with each and every human being in the world.

God enabled this awareness of freedom by first creating relational people with intelligence, creativity, emotions and discernment. He then placed them in a garden of perfection,42 full of the most wonderful food to eat and which they were to care for and enjoy.43 The first humans were utterly free and innocent within the constraints of the garden, but did not fully comprehend it as they were not aware of any alternative.

God made them aware of their freedom in two interconnected ways. First, he did so with a prohibition against eating from one tree in particular – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.44 The introduction of this command created a boundary which the humans could not cross without suffering the consequences.45

Secondly, along with that prohibition, he allowed into the garden a spiritual antagonist who had already abused the freedom given by God’s love. This enemy is known as Satan and he is symbolised as a snake in the story of Genesis.46 This implies that Satan (or the devil) and his minions had at some previous stage violated their relationship with God and had suffered the consequence of being banished from God’s presence.47 In the garden, Satan twisted God’s words and used them to seduce Eve and Adam (the first humans) to respond to their own desire and eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil – thereby disobey God (this is examined further in chapter two).48 The combination of prohibition and Satan’s distortion provided the choice which the true knowledge of freedom requires.

In addition, the existence of Satan introduced the potential for utter evil to be released into the cosmos and, as such, made humanity aware of the distinction between good and evil. Good can exist without evil, but cannot be discerned as good unless the recipients are aware of the antithesis of good. Without the existence of Satan and evil, choice would not be genuine and knowledge of freedom would not exist. As such ‘the Fall’ (see chapter two), while very much a cosmic disaster, had a kind of positive spin-off for the purposes of God’s work on earth.

People would, in essence, become like Truman in the movie The Truman Show.49 Truman lived in a perfect world unaware that anything existed beyond the world created for him by Christoph and hence, not free or aware of the absence of true freedom. When an object fell from the sky and interrupted his seemingly perfect world, this set off a chain of events that made Truman aware that the world was not all he thought it was. He then became aware of his lack of freedom, and chose to leave the world created for him – he exercised this freedom to walk away. The difference between The Truman Show and our world is that Truman gained his freedom when he took the choice given him; whereas humanity lost their freedom when they took the choice given by God. As a result, we face death and a dreadful deterioration in our circumstances.

Thus God, in his great love, gave humanity choice (or ‘free will’) and with it the freedom to make a decision to love freely. Humans are volitional beings created by God with the capacity to accept or reject love. God’s purpose now is to win them over by his mercy, grace and beneficence.

Referring back to our parenting analogy, God is the ideal cosmic parent who, after providing everything his children would ever need, is prepared to release them to experience life and make their own choices. Just as parenting involves risk – including the risk of rejection, of rebellion, of children going off the rails – so there is an inherent ‘risk’50 in God’s actions. There was a possibility that some of his free people would turn against him. Yet, just as human parents are prepared to have children despite this risk, so God was prepared to create us. He believes in the power of love to overcome. He was willing to create us because, although many would turn away from him, he believed that it was worth it for those who would say yes.51

Conclusion

To summarise then, the starting point for the gospel is ‘relationship’. We are each made to have a relationship with God. As an old saying common in Christian circles goes, ‘within each human heart is a God-shaped vacuum’ that can only be filled with God’s presence. Christianity is not a set of rules, it is not a religion of ritual and ‘do’s and do not’s’, ‘should’s and should not’s’ – it is a relationship. It is a relationship between a cosmic eternal personal being of love and creativity and his created, volitional beings. As part of that relationship we will live out our uniqueness with our special abilities to see God’s world become what he dreams it to be.

So the great question, ‘Why am I here?’ from a Christian point of view finds its answer in the concept of relationship. We are created to love as God has loved us – loving him, loving one another and loving the creation given to us. As we do this, each in our own unique way, we will build God’s world as he intended. In terms of our overall question, ‘What’s God up to on planet earth?’, he has created humanity for an eternal loving relationship with him. He has created humanity to express their individuality in unity, in partnership with God, co-creating with him to build his glorious world.

But this is just the beginning of our journey. As we will see in the next chapter, the original intention of God has been violated and this has had some far-reaching consequences…

Questions for Reflection

1. Is there a God or gods? Is there any evidence? Consider alternative explanations for reality.

2. What is your journey of believing or not believing? Perhaps write it down and reflect on it.

3. If there is a God? What is he like? How might we describe God?

4. Do you agree that love and relationship lies at the heart of existence?

5. How do you think the first three chapters of Genesis should be read? Literally? Symbolic/literal? Myth?

6. What is the place of freedom and volition? Is it essential to love? Are humans truly free? What is freedom?

7. How do you see yourself? Do you have a sense of worth? Does the existence of a God who ‘loves you as you are’ change things for you?