Thursday, June 28, 2012

The joy of knowing who made Creation


All of creation, from the beginning, found joy in God and His Word
This verse stands as one of the finest statements of Christ’s supremacy anywhere in the written Word.  Without the Living Word Jesus Christ, the universe would not exist.  We know for a fact that at the opening of creation was as event full of joy.  The Lord addresses Job with the following question in Job 38:7 - Was he there “When the morning stars sang together And all the sons of God shouted for joy?  Why were they shouting for joy?  It was because of the Living Word through whom The Father spoke all things into being. 

Paul begins and ends with the refrain of “all things being created by Him”.  In between those refrains we see what “all things” are: "both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities”.  Nothing lies outside of Christ’s authority. Since Christ is the source and the goal of joy, it only makes sense that the act of creation was a joyful event, since he was the one making it.   John 1:3 echoes this thought: “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.”

The Oldest Question in human thought

The oldest question in human thought is: Why is there something, rather than nothing?  Modern Astronomy will use theories like the Big Bang to try to prove the universe arose out of nothingness by chance.  Other origin models of the universe suggest the universe is eternal, and that this current one is a stage in an infinitely long series of beginnings and endings. Still other theories suggest that the universe has been around for eternity. 

The problems with these three types of secular origins viewpoints are two-fold.(see note at the end of this blog)  First, no known physical law of science demonstrates the possibility of being coming from non-being, or existence coming from non-existence.  Thus the idea of the universe "popping into being" is technically non-scientific. 

Second, no known physical law supports the idea of a more highly organized system coming from a less organized one.  Ice cubes melt and broken glass shatters.  You never see icecubes form in a warm glass of water nor a broken pane of glass reverse itself back to an unbroken state.  Clearly the universe had to had formed from something or better yet, Someone who was of a highly organized intelligence.  The universe is in a state of "winding down", meaning that all of the available, useable energy is becoming less and less.  This points to a beginning, that was in a far more ordered state than it is now.  Thus the universe cannot be eternally old. Furthermore, to say that another universe formed this one begs the question: then where would that universe had originated from? One would have to go back through an infinite series of universes, which as we have already shown, cannot be sustained by current laws of science. 

Only a Christian view of origins can lead to genuine enjoyment of the creation due to knowing the One Who made it 
In contrast to those proposals, Christianity affirms the WORD, Jesus Christ, as being the One through whom the universe derived it’s existence.  1 Corinthians 8:6 notes – “yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.”  Now why is this cause for joy? Because only the Christian worldview can explain why human beings believe in such things as purpose and meaning.  That purpose and meaning are found in the One who is both Creator and Redeemer - the WORD, Jesus Christ. 

Why no other worldview on origins can lead to joy
Physicist Steven Weinberg, who is one of the architects of modern particle physics and an Atheist, noted one time that the more he studies the universe, the more absurd he finds it to be.  Why is that?  Is it the data he finds, or his worldview?  Atheism assumes there not to be an underlying meaning and purpose to life nor the universe, and yet in order to do science, one must believe there to be some measure of order.  Truly any view of origins that is not centered on the Word cannot elicit joy.  For the Christian, life is not random.  There is order, there is purpose – and thus joy.  That purpose is found in Jesus Christ, the Living WORD, through Whom creation commenced.

1. This critique of secular models for the origin of the universe is based off a well established scientific law of physics called "The Second Law of Thermodynamics".