Creation, predestination and the eternal purpose of God

Then God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good… – Genesis 2:31

While I have being going through Genesis on this blog I have also being meeting with some friends on a Thursday night and going through 1 John. Something that really stands out in John’s letter is how often the word ‘abide’ pops up. We often say that the 66 books that make up the bible are all about Christ but I do not think that we fully comprehend the depths of that statement. I want to tie that statement up with Genesis 2:31 by asking a question which is; what is the purpose of creation? While I won't pretend to be God's spokesperson on the subject or suggest that it all boils down to this one thing, I would like to share an insight on the subject as I see it.

In general, people tend to view scripture as the story of the fall of man and Gods plan of redemption through Christ. Kind of like the record of the problem and solution to humanities fall. While that is a massive part of the story, I think that it is still only a part of something even larger which is revealed in the bible. The story does not start with the fall and end with redemption. As wonderful as that is there are glimpses in the canon before and beyond that part of the story. Some have referred to this larger picture as the eternal purpose of God, a phrase taken from Ephesians 3:11 where Paul speaks about the finished work of Christ. While it has been written about in great detail by a few authors, I think the best way I can sum it up here in with the word glorification.

The salvation message covers one element which is the glorification of the children of God (Romans 8:23) and Paul encourages us to seek this glory* (as well as honor and immortality) he also warns us not to be self-seeking. Even Jesus in John 8:50 said that he did not seek his own glory, yet in the same book John tells us that “we beheld his glory”** and therein lies the answer to where salvation fits in to this as John continues, “the glory as of the only begotten of the Father”. 

Why did God create? At least in part we can answer that it was because creation reveals the glory of God (Psalm 19:1) and mankind being a part of that creation was meant to reflect that in this world as we carried the likeness of the godhead. Of course Adam messed up as we all know and left it to the second Adam, the only begotten son, to reveal to us what a life fully submitted to the Father looks like and in his obedience, He was raised from the dead and glorified by the Father (1 Peter 1:21). Now, in Christ, it is the believers privilege to be invited into the fellowship of the Godhead, not that we become gods ourselves, but that through Him we become partakers of the divine nature. Consider the following verses:-

He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ – 2 Thessalonians 2:14

When He comes, in that day, to be glorified in His saints… - 2 Thessalonians 1:10

For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. – Hebrews 2:10

I am convinced that we have looked at predestination wrongly and that it is not so much about who God chooses to send to heaven and hell but rather that it reveals the eternal purpose of God in Christ to glorify Himself in creation through Christ and the New Jerusalem (Hebrews 11:10-16, 12:22-24,13:14).

Consider Romans 8:16-30 when approached from this perspective:-

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body…

For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

Let us abide in the vine and in so doing shine His light into a world that has walked away from it.

Peace

*Romans 2:7

**John 1:14

Genesis 1:16 and other serious understatements in the Bible

In my last post I said that next up I would be sharing about the creation of man. But something else in Genesis 1 caught my eye and so I decided to point it out and have some fun with it as well with a lighthearted post before moving on to Genesis 2. The portion of scripture that I am speaking of is in chapter 1 verse 16 where it says of God and creation that “…He also made the stars”. The author of Genesis only used 2 Hebrew words to casually add this detail into the story. It is estimated that there are at least 170 billion galaxies in the universe with trillions of stars therein so one might consider this to be a bit of an understatement. But it is not the only one to be found in scripture. Here are a few others that I managed to dig up.

Judges 4:21

In gruesome detail we read about Jael, the wife of Heber, who drove a tent peg through the head of Sisera pinning him to the ground . The verse ends with a simple three word sentence, “So he died”….

Matthew 4:2

After Jesus spent 40 days and 40 nights fasting in the wilderness scripture tells us that “…he was hungry”.

Acts 15:31

At first the early church was not really sure what to do with all of the new Gentile converts. There was a big debate about whether they needed to be circumcised or not. After some deliberation it was decided by the Jerusalem council that circumcision was not necessary among the Gentiles believers. Upon delivering the news in Antioch it says that “…when the people read it (the letter), they were delighted…”.

Matthew 5:14

“A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden”. Yip.

Genesis 34:25

After Jacob tricked Shechem and his father Hamor into having every male within their city walls circumcised. The verse mentioned above, in describing their physical state after getting the snip, states that "they were sore”.

You don’t say…

Are there any other understatements that you can recall from the bible? I would love to hear them.

Peace

Genesis 1:1-2 Mind the Gap

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… The earth was without form, and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Today’s post is a bit of a weird one because it is not so much about what the two verses above say but more about what has been proposed to be in between them which is known as the Gap Theory. If you are not familiar with it already, the theory basically attempts to harmonize a literal reading of Genesis with the problem of an earth that the vast majority of geologists now believe to be billions of years old. The most popular version of the Gap Theory is known as the Ruin reconstruction theory which suggests that God originally created a world full of creatures including the dinosaurs and later on a pre-Adamite race roamed the plains as well. Somewhere in this story Lucifer lead a rebellion in the heavens which ultimately resulted in God destroying the world with what is known as the Luciferian flood before starting over again. The Luciferian flood then accounts for the fossil record that we see today. Proponents of this view argue that the word ‘was’ in verse 2 should be translated as ‘became’; changing the sentence to read that ‘the earth became without form’. Personally, I think that the theory falls flat in a number of areas and here is why. 

Scriptural objections

In Exodus 20:11 says that God made 'the heavens and the earth and all that is in them in seven days' which would include Lucifer and all the other angels and demons. And while the angels and Lucifer are not mentioned in the Genesis account of creation; chapter 1:31 does mention that everything God had created was very good which leaves us with 3 options. Number 1 – Genesis is wrong, number 2 – The word ‘everything’ simply refers to the things that were part of the new creation or number 3 – EVERYTHING was very good. By itself it is difficult to decide how encompassing the word ‘everything’ actually is but I think some other scriptures lend support to the third option being the most viable.

Ezekiel 28:12-16 speaks of 'the anointed cherub who was in Eden and perfect in his ways until iniquity was found in him'. It seems reasonable to me therefore to say that Lucifer most likely fell sometime between the creation of Adam and Eve and their temptation by the serpent in the garden.

   John also speaks in Revelation 20:1 of a ‘new heaven and a new earth after the first earth had passed away’. If we are indeed living on the second earth and there will one day be a third earth then John was mistaken.

Logical objections

There are a few logical objections I have toward the Gap Theory as well, two of those being major hurdles to overcome. Firstly, several of the reptiles and fish that are around today were supposed to be around during the time of the dinosaurs as well. How could sharks and crocodiles survive after the world was destroyed and recreated to the point where even the sun and oceans were recreated? The second thing that does not make sense to me is why God would destroy his physical creation after Lucifer rebelled. Everything would have been destroyed except for Satan and his comrades. That surely counts as a failed mission.    

Historical objections

Lastly the Gap theory is not very old. The idea only started to develop in the 17^th century and was only fully developed about a century later. The age of an idea does not necessarily mean it is wrong but I am always skeptical of any doctrine or theory which cannot be traced back throughout church history. There should always be at least a thread of the church that held fast to a truth through the ages even if it were a minority and persecuted view. 

Next time I will get into the creation of man. There is so much to look into over there such as the picture of Jesus and his bride, Gods eternal purpose and the image of God in man that it will probably take several posts to cover.Until then, peace.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning...

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. - Genesis 1:1

This is where it all begins. God creates with a definite purpose in mind. The why to this question we will get into at a later stage as it gets revealed elsewhere in scripture. For now though, I want to concentrate on those first 3 words. In the beginning... this reminds me of some other verses as well:-

“…I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End…” – Revelation 21:6

“…I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” – Revelation 22:13

It is also noteworthy that the Gospel of John opens with the same words as Genesis does but John then goes on to say the following, “(In the beginning)…was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”

Some people read Genesis 1:1 and they start debating when the beginning was or if God was really behind things at all. But when I read it, I see “In Jesus, God created the heavens and the earth”. I think that is what John was saying as well in his gospel, it’s all about him. He is at the center of everything in the bible, Christ testified of this himself in John 5:39 when he said "these (the scriptures) are they which testify of me".

It is my mission to seek him out from cover to cover over here in the coming years. To see what the bible reveals to us about him, our Lord, King and Savior. I hope others will get involved too in the comments so that the manifold wisdom of God may be made known by and through the church of which I am just a small part of. 

What do you see in when you read Genesis 1:1? Was this helpful at all or am I off the mark?  

Peace

An introduction

Hi there! Right off the bat let me apologize for the ridiculous title of my new blog. The title 'Bearded Llama' comes from my twitter account, I cannot even remember how I came up with that name, it probably just seemed funny at the time when I was creating my profile and so I rolled with it.

So why a second blog? My other page is pretty much open to whatever I feel like writing about at any given time but for a while now I wanted to do something strictly devoted to Bible study/commentary/interpretation/wonderings which is what lead to this. I wanted something that could eventually grow into a bit of a personal commentary on all the books of the bible and be recorded somewhere for easy access and sharing as well.

Let me warn you up front that I do not really fit into any Christian cultural box and so there will be things in here that you may appreciate and others you will not. Sometimes I feel like a Conservative who prefers being in the company of Progressives because I am a bit of an old school prude but at the same time I am also a bit of a skeptic and like asking questions pertaining to theology. So I hope that people on both sides of the fence (as well as behind all the other fences) will at least be willing to hear what I have to share and most importantly I hope that plenty of people will comment on my posted thoughts as I certainly do not have all the answers or even necessarily the right ones.

The plan is to start in the Old Testament and keep going but I will probably end up jumping around a bit as well. Please keep checking back for new posts or follow by email. The first post on Genesis 1:1 should be up in a few days time...

Peace.