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Part II of the Framework
course deals with the very foundation of biblical faith--origins. Along
with every other historical creed of the Christian Church, the familiar
Apostles Creed that all Christians recite so often begins with God as
Creator: "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and
earth." This theme is recited again in heaven at the end of history
when God is praised by His creatures: "Thou didst create all things,
and because of Thy will they existed, and were created" (Rev. 4:11).
When someone talks
about the origins question, he exposes his ultimate beliefs, the ultimate
presuppositions that take precedence over all else. Therefore, in spite
of the apparently bewildering variety of origin accounts in the world,
this variety is quickly reduced to two basic types of views. One type are
the truly creation stories of the Bible and of some tribal traditions
honoring the Creator-creature distinction. The other type are those that
deny the Creator-creature distinction, making all reality basically of one
kind.
Someday in the
future, believers of all ages and the angels will praise God at His
Throne: Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor
and power; for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they
existed and were created. Rev. 4:11
Note here that the
defining event of all history for revealing Who God is, the creation
event. This praise comes prior to praise for the redemption in
Christ (Rev.
5:9-14)! The reason why creation is the defining event instead of the Cross
is that redemption would be unimportant if the God Who redeemed were not
the Creator. For this reason Paul insisted that the "front end"
of the gospel to a pagan society ought always to be creation (cf. Acts
14:15; 17:24; Rom 1:20). How foolish, then, for us in an increasingly
pagan society to skip over creation because unbelief in our day has
deliberately made it controversial"!
To learn
Who God really is, we must abandon the pagan deceptions surrounding
creation. This is no trivial act. It involves changing our most basic
presuppositions about the world and who we are. It is repentance at the
very bottom of our hearts, minds, and souls. It is the
"unburying" of original God-consciousness that has become piled
high with debris from this world's wisdom. Only after we confront the God
with Whom we have to do, can we understand sin and the need for atonement
and resurrection.
In this
chapter, to help in any needed repentance, I am going to clarify further
the radical difference between biblical creation and its pagan
counterfeits. Then I will address the question of how can we know Who God
is, followed by a survey of His attributes He has chosen to reveal to us.
The chapter concludes with a brief study of how idolatry gets into our
lives.
THE DISTINCTIVES OF BIBLICAL CREATION
What are
the distinctive marks of biblical creation? First and foremost it is
ex-nihilo creation. Ex-nihilo means "out of nothing". God
created without having to use pre-existing material. There was once
nothing beside Him; then He spoke the universe into existence by His Word
(refer again to Ps.33:6,9). Something suddenly exists that didn't exist
before. And its "cause" was only the spoken Word of God. There
is a radical discontinuity.
All pagan
myths deny ex-nihilo creation. Remember in Enuma Elish how the gods came
about by procreation? Procreation is a natural process of producing
something from something. These myths all tell stories of transformation
of prior existing material. One piece of the universe "causes"
another piece. There is a basic continuity underlying whatever change
takes place. Let's look at a diagram to see how paganism differs from the
distinctive biblical creation.
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