Core Study Response Four: Seminar titled ‘Creation: Made to be Human’
Rewind back 3 years ago, when I was helping out on a cereal bar with Kingston CU (the idea was that passer-byers came with a question and we gave them an answer and free cereal in return); there came a young man enquiring about my view on evolution. In attempt to fast-forward to the good stuff of the gospel, my reply was something along the lines of ‘well if I’m honest, I don’t think there’s a point in discussing evolution because it’s claimed to have happened so long ago we cant check, and I dont think it matters to our lives whether the world came about in a million years or in five days.’ I remember the conversation distinctly because of its abruptness. After my reply this young man sternly said ‘I think this is where our conversation comes to an end’ and walked away. I later tried to find him and apologise for my miscommunication, but I really did hold to that belief for a very long time. So, when I first heard the title of this talk, my first thought was ‘how on earth am I going to give a whole seminar on the account of creation in the Bible and m,mhow it affects what it means to be and live as ‘humans’. Two weeks ago I still wasn’t even fully convinced it had much of an impact. Little did I know how much my studies on Genesis, as part of the Relay programme, would challenge my understanding. Now I am fully convinced that what is made known through the account of creation in the Bible has drastic implications on the lives of humans.
Also, to ground my understanding further, I did a little research into different worldviews and what they teach about the creation of today’s reality. The comparison to buddhism surprised me the most - in just how different the conclusions drawn about reality can be when there is no emphasis on the doctrine of creation given (i.e. like in buddhism). The comparison to polytheistic worldviews like greek mythology or hinduism helped me realise ‘wow, even details of knowing God’s truinty actually has a bigger impact than I thought’. However the faiths which share similar creation stories to ours, such as the jewish and islamic beliefs, proved harder to pick out what exactly about the creation story in Biblical Scripture allowed us to think about humanity differently to the Jews and Muslims. Overall, I will try to show where I now see links between creation and what Christians can define ‘humanity’ to be through Biblical accounts of creation. I’ll do this by drawing on ideas of this topic from my studies of two speakers; namely, Timothy Keller (TK), and John Lennox (JL).
The Bible has many accounts of creation, with the most obvious one being in Genesis chapter 1. When studying this chapter, it’s easy to try and add details that aren’t there; but if you dont do that, you can still take away many things. There are so many more logical statements you could directly deduct from this chapter, but here are just several, some of which TK points out in his talk titled The Song of Creation:
Verse 1 tells us that there was a beginning to all things; clarifying these things to include the heavens and the earth and all that is in them - so literally all things. If this does not give enough biblical affirmation for the Christian, that ‘all things’ do indeed include all visible and invisible matter, Paul later states it, in his letter to the the church in Colossae (Colossians 1:16 - NIV). If all things are truly created, and God was the one who literally created all things; then He is the uncreated creator.
Verse 3 of Genesis, shows God’s ‘word’ to be very different to our word - God said and there was… His word creates simply from speaking. Verse 4 shows all of God’s creation to be originally ‘good’ - what that means is argues by TK later in his talk. Verse 5 shows God taking on the task of naming the things he has created; only later delegating this creative task to man in Genesis 2. Skip to verse 14, showing us that God determined the limit of time in the days, and marked these ‘days’, ‘nights’, ‘months’ and ‘sacred times’ with lights in the sky. Lastly, verse 26 and 27, famously links only the human ‘image’ to that of our Creator’s - a summary, glueing all the truths about God to man in specific. Therefore as we investigate what it means to be human, we are arguably simultaneously finding out what it means to be made in the ‘image’ of God. For the sake of not length, I’ll only expand on the implications of verses 1-4 on verse 26 - our understanding of humanity; not the implications of any other verse; since there is too much to say.
To see some implications of verse 1, we can first consider the commentary of JL, that the Bible ‘reveals a created universe’. JL agrees with the Christian claim, that ‘the Universe is not eternal; therefore this universe is not the ultimate reality.’ Following the trail of thought that what is eternal can be considered ‘ultimate’ in authority over the ‘uneternal’. Therefore, as Scriptures reveals, ‘the universe was created by God’s Word (John 1:3) for His glory and to His credit (Romans 1:21). As JL states, if Christ began and fulfilled all things, then all things gain their meaning from Him. An example of this in reality is illustrated by C.S. Lewis when he highlights how science must have started with ‘belief in a Lawmaker’; offering the explanation that "men became scientific because they expected law in nature, and they expected law in nature because they believed in a lawgiver." I would take that statement one step further in stating how the scientific assumption that all laws logically work together to produce a predictable outcome comes from the belief that there is one lawgiver, and not many lawgivers - such as is claimed by polytheistic worldviews. This means that part of being human, to a Christian, means not only discovering the laws of the one lawgiver, but having the option to reject or obey those laws, as opposed to other creation which simply obey God (Matthew 8:27). JL goes on to state how ‘the universe bears evidence of being the product of an intelligent mind - the laws and structures we code in mathematical form’. Reminding us that ‘there’s information at the center of the 10 trillion cells in our bodies’ and ‘at the heart of the universe’. It is clear that ‘the originator of the universe is an encoder’. The words ‘in our image’ (Gen 1:26) then takes on the idea here of God imparting to humans the ability to ‘encode’ and to identify God’s ‘code’ or ‘laws’ in His creation. So we humans (out of all creation) are the ones chosen by God to discover His ‘coding’; and to advance our understanding of His world is not something to be feared, as some atheists understand Christians should, describing them as believing in a ‘god of the gaps’. As JL highlights, understanding this world will only advance our understanding of God, not ‘push Him out’ of the scene.
If you begin by comparing worlviews with the Bible. Atheism is a broad category, covering those who will say there is no ‘need’ for a creator God to explain how the universe came about, or in the words of Richard Dawkins, a renown atheist, that the ‘details’ in nature may show a ‘signature of some kind of designer’ but a created one at that - so not the uncreated creator of the Bible (IDquest, 2008). This clashes with the the teaching in Genesis 1:26-27 that humans gain their meaning from God, who made us in His image. Buddhism takes it a step further, by saying that there may well be an uncreated creator, but it is unknown and inconcievable, since Buddha refrained from answering such questions relating to the origin of the universe. In the words of Venerable K. Sri Dhammananda Maha Thera “The Buddha did not waste His time on this issue. The reason for His silence was that this issue has no religious value for gaining spiritual wisdom. The explanation of the origin of the universe is not the concern of religion.” This view is similar to my misunderstanding three years ago, and fails to acknowledge God’s good purpose for humans through His revelation in creation. Contrary to the Bible, in Sikhism, the teachings of the GuruGranth Sahib (GGS) reveal an almighty god who ‘created himself’ (SG, p.509). Guru Nanak, one of the six authors of the GGS, writes of how this god at one point willed for creation to be and diffused himself in it, stating, "Thou created all Thy Universe to please Thyself, to enjoy the spectacle, the reality, which is the light of Thy own Reality-self." (SikhiWiki, n.d.) In Sikhism, therefore, we find a god who is not distinct from His creation, but is One with it. This leads to a belief that animals are just as dignified as humans (GGS), p.1350); and that ultimately leads them to believe that the universe is going to be destroyed and this solo god is going to come back to existing by himself (SikhiWiki, n.d.) - lacking the special purpose and meaning specifically given to humans by God in the Bible.
If we also compare polytheistic worldviews with the Bible, such as the interpretations of the Babylonians, Canaanites, Egyptians, Ancient Greek and Romans; we see them believing that creation points to a creator but, in their views, to multiple creators who themselves do not claim to have made all matter, since their own gods can be created or destroyed. In JL’s words, ‘their gods come from the primeval matter of the universe - they are material gods.’ TK puts it well, explaining how these mythologies tell of a world that is always ‘derived’, as opposed to a world created by God from nothing. It is said to be created from the carcasses of dead gods who lost battles (Mesopotaniamism), from a lotus flower (hinduism), a bird’s egg (greek), and so on.
In his book ‘Covenental Apologetics’, Scott Oliphant argues that worldviews are not able to keep out the created order; by that I think he means that the universe speaks for itself. The order out of chaos in this universe speaks of an intelligent mind. The uniqueness of humans in their thirst for justice speaks volumes of an absolute truth that we all yearn to find. Human’s desire for peace, eternity, and the inability to obtain them in this passing world speaks of another world to come since this world is ‘not our home’. If there is to be one unchangeable truth, lawgiver, or‘ultimate reality’ as JL puts it; then God must be uncreated, and distinct to His creation in this way - since anything changeable has no inherent ultimate authority.
The fact that these mythologies also claim the world to be an ‘extension’ or an ‘after-thought’ of an accidental event leads cleanly into their view that this world is not that important. Their aim is to escape this world, and to eventually get beyond it. TK explains this is why you never get science arising out of the ancient religions. Their gospel truth preaches humans to avoid pleasure and be saved. Only by escaping earth, will you gain heaven - they say. Another more modern myth preaches the opposite: that you live for matter - and that matter is all there is; therefore we should and can only live for pleasure.
God in the Bible says that His world is inherently good. This world is enjoyed by God and to us therefore should be pleasant and able to be enjoyed. This world is not passing and to be simply outlived. As Christians, we don’t live for physical things but we’re not against them. In the words of TK, we seek to fix it when it goes wrong. We heal bodies. We put end to slavery. We work against injustice. We aim to be good stewards of what belongs to God because this world is important. God’s going to repair all His creation and mankind reflect His purpose, therefore fulfill our own purpose, when we get to it now.
In Conclusion, we Christians believe that God is the uncreated ultimate authority, therefore all purpose comes form Him. This means that humans have dignity because He has declared we bear His divine imprint. In Jason Clarke’s words, ‘our rebellion, our sin, may have marred God’s image in us, but it hasnt obliterated it. John Wyatt calls people ‘flawed masterpieces’. This is the hope we have in the gospel and promise of Jesus Christ; that the image of God marred in us will be restored. Our humanity will be renewed.
Written on: Friday 22nd November 2019
Bibliography
SikhiWiki (n.d.) Guru Granth Sahib on the Universe [online]
SriGranth (n.d.) Sri Guru Granth Sahib [online] http://www.srigranth.org/servlet/gurbani.gurbani?Action=Page&Param=509&english=t&id=22763#l22763
Thera, V.K.S.D.M (n.d.) What Buddhists Believe [online]. https://www.budsas.org/ebud/whatbudbeliev/297.htm
IDquest (2008) Richard Dawkins admits to Intelligent Design. [online] [interview footage] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoncJBrrdQ8
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