"A Five Stop Bus Tour of Reality" --

The Grandeur, Warmth, and Delight of the Christian Worldview


Second Stop--The Universe

  1. Totally derivative and created out of nothing



  2. Created by deliberate acts of speech--spoken into existence:

    By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. (Ps 33.6)

    Implication: we can talk about it meaningfully and we can paraphrase it in science!

  3. Sustained by speaking -
  4. Trivial by comparison!


    (Implication: Sagan says 'all that wasted space'; God looks at the dust in His hand and says 'Huh?')

  5. A delight to Him--a thing of beauty:

    God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. (Gen 1.31)

    May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in his works -- (Ps 104.31)


  6. It's a gift to the Son!
  7. Created for us to marvel at:
    Great are the works of the LORD; they are pondered by all who delight in them. (Ps 111.2)

    He has caused his wonders to be remembered; (Ps 111.4)

    I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds. (Ps 77.12)

  8. "Orderly, but still Open"


    The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: "This is what the LORD says: `If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night no longer come at their appointed time, then my covenant with David my servant -- and my covenant with the Levites who are priests ministering before me -- can be broken and David will no longer have a descendant to reign on his throne. (Jer 33.19)

    This is what the LORD says: `If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed laws of heaven and earth, then I will reject the descendants of Jacob and David my servant and will not choose one of his sons to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes and have compassion on them.'" (Jer 33.25f)

    He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted. (Job 9.10)

    For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect -- if that were possible. (Mt 24.24)



    The Death of the Machine: In The Matter Myth, two distinguished physicists--Paul Davies and John Gribbon-- describe a situation, first in a chapter called "The Death of Materialism", and at the end of the book in an observation about Ryle's 'ghost in the machine' :

    "Quantum physics undermines materialism because it reveals that matter has far less 'substance' than we might believe." (p.14)

    "Thus the rigid determinism of Newton's clockwork Universe evaporates, to be replaced by a world in which the future is open..." (p. 15)

    "There is no doubt that the Newtonian world view, with its doctrine of materialism and the clockwork universe, has contributed immensely to the advance of science...But there is equally no doubt that it has also contributed in large part to alienating human beings from the Universe they inhabit...People feel a sense of helplessness; they are merely 'cogs' in a machine that will lumber on regardless of their feelings and actions. Many people has rejected scientific values because they regard materialism as a sterile and bleak philosophy, which reduces human beings to automatons and leaves no room for free will and creativity. These people can take heart: materialism is dead." (p. 13)

    "Today, on the brink of the twenty-first century, we can see that Ryle was right to dismiss the notion of the ghost in the machine--not because there is no ghost, but because there is no machine." (p.308)

    His omni-presence: "where can I go from your Spirit?" (Ps 139)
  9. Finite, temporary, and troubled...
    "Finite but unbounded" - the example of uninterrupted walking around the earth "Behold, I will create a new heavens and a new earth The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. (Is 65.17)


    Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away (Rev 21.1)




  10. Only part of it is visible to us (currently)


    As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, "Strike these people with blindness." So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked. Elisha told them, "This is not the road and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you are looking for." And he led them to Samaria. After they entered the city, Elisha said, "LORD, open the eyes of these men so they can see." Then the LORD opened their eyes and they looked, and there they were, inside Samaria. (2 Kings 6.20f)


    Visions - "I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know -- God knows. And I know that this man -- whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows -- was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell." (2 Cor 12)

    A constant refrain - "He opened their eyes..."

  11. Interconnected -- all impacts all (for good or ill)

    1. Example: Gravitational attraction between ALL things - "if I created a tennis ball right here, right now..."

    2. The Dynamics of the Body:
    3. The Dynamics of the Inheritance-Line (e.g. Adam, Christ, Abraham, David):
    4. The Dynamics of family:

      "Do not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. Do not abhor an Egyptian, because you lived as an alien in his country. The third generation of children born to them may enter the assembly of the LORD. " (Deut 23.7)"



      "But suppose this son has a son who sees all the sins his father commits, and though he sees them, he does not do such things...He keeps my laws and follows my decrees. He will not die for his father's sin; he will surely live. But his father will die for his own sin, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother and did what was wrong among his people. "Yet you ask, `Why does the son not share the guilt of his father?' Since the son has done what is just and right and has been careful to keep all my decrees, he will surely live. The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him. (Ezek 18)

    5. The Dynamics of "Fixed" laws:
    6. The agent/universe connection:
      "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of yourbrow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." (Gen 3.17ff)


  12. Inhabited by other centers of awareness:


    2. People - conscious beings

    3. Animals - "On the threshold of Personhood..."

  13. Teeming with Life

    1. Life is in the blood:
      "because the life of every creature is its blood. " (Lev 17.14)
    2. The breath of life:



    3. [Plants are not considered as 'alive' in this sense in the bible:
      "Woe to him who says to wood, `Come to life!' Or to lifeless stone, `Wake up!' Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold and silver; there is no breath in " (Hab 2.19)
      They are generally pictured as the food-source for all of life:
      Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground -- everything that has the breath of life in it -- I give every green plant for food." Gen 1.29f and "He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate -- bringing forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread that sustains his heart." (Psalm 104.14f)]
      (Implication: respiration/combustion as the energy-intake system allows us to outrun 2nd law of thermo.)

    4. Self-identity and Self-directedness:
      Paramecia, for example, can apparently learn, remember, and exhibit adaptive responses such as avoidance and habituation which involve movement performed by coordinated actions ('metachronal waves') of hundreds of hair-like appendages called cilia"
    5. Life is driven to replicate itself -- "be fruitful and multiply...according to their kinds..."

    6. Dependence on God:
  14. "Given over to us"
    The highest heavens belong to the LORD, but the earth he has given to man. (Ps 115.16)

    Give them a message for their masters and say, `This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: "Tell this to your masters: With my great power and outstretched arm I made the earth and its people and the animals that are on it, and I give it to anyone I please. Now I will hand all your countries over to my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; I will make even the wild animals subject to him. All nations will serve him and his son and his grandson until the time for his land comes; then many nations and great kings will subjugate him. (Jer 27.4)


    But wow do we blame-shift!

    "A man's own folly ruins his life, yet his heart rages against the LORD." (Prov 19.3)...


    And don't forget the paradigm case of blame-shifting: Gen 3!

  15. The Universe tells us something about Him--the Variety, Sensuality, Musicality of the Creation

    Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. (Gen 2.1)


    The heavens declare the glory of God; (Ps 19.2)


