19
Apr

Did God Create…?

   Posted by: Sonny   in Belief, Bible, Creation, Eternity, Jesus Christ, Sin, Time

Yes.  He did.  And we are here, only by His gracious act of creation.  If you have been following along with the posts and especially the commentary the last couple of weeks you are aware that creation has been discussed and I hope will continue to be.  No one is denying the fact of creation, just how to interpret the narrative we have that portrays it.  This post is not about creation in a wider sense.  It is about the many questions I have read out there in cyberspace asking what God created.

There is the question asking, did God create evil?  Another asks, did God create sin?  What about, did God create time?

34-hourglassearth-245x255Some believe He created evil and sin for example, so that we can experience good and His mercy.  Some believe He had to create time because He does not experience duration or sequence because He is infinite, but because we are finite we had to have time created to experience the same.  Some of these concepts are definitely brain twisters and the most vocal of the believers in these things end most of the discussions with the argument of God being so far beyond, above, mysterious, and such that we should not attempt to even ponder them.  Logic seems to have no place for determining what God is like.

I have other questions.  If we need evil to experience good, then how in the heavens are we going to experience good in eternity?  Isn’t the promise that evil will be gone?  Is evil a noun; is it something with independent existence?  Or is it just what occurs when Gods ways are not followed? The same goes for sin.  Isn’t it really just a turning from the path God set before us, missing the mark, as it is defined?

God is good because he said so.  Good has independent existence because God exists.  But God never, ever, said He was evil.  Isn’t evil really just a measurement, as is sin, of how much we are unlike God or how far we or our actions are from Him.  Did God create large, small, sweet, sour, pretty, ugly and such, or are these just descriptives and measurements of the things He did create?  Evil and sin are not things.  They are what things that are created do.

Time is in the same ballpark.  It is a measurement of sequence and duration.  Again, do we say that God created height, or depth, or diameter?  Or aren’t these just concepts that we use to relate to creation?  To me, time fits this description.  I once thought of God as timeless and above and outside time and it gave me nothing but headaches.  Upon further study, prayer, reflection and discussion I have come to the conclusion that this is a manmade concept and is not only unbiblical, it actually goes against much of the biblical witness.

As I read the love letter to mankind that we call the bible, I see a God that desires relationships with His creations.  I see a God that experiences sequence and duration.  A God that asks things like, how long?  How much?  When?  All of these things point far away from timelessness.  In eternity, if God does not experience time, meaning duration and sequence, then how will we relate to Him then?  It will be no better than it is here.

God is everlasting to everlasting.  God simply always was and always is and always will be.  He is the Alpha and the Omega, which are actually finite terms meaning the beginning and the end.  These do not point to timelessness either.  They actually point us to the fact that we find our beginning and ending only in Him.

Did God create…?

As far as evil, sin, and time go, I say no.  It just does not fit the picture of the Father that Jesus painted for us.  Instead we find that He is good, He is perfect, and He will be there with us and for us.  Hallelujah.

Love you all

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This entry was posted on Sunday, April 19th, 2009 at 4:56 pm and is filed under Belief, Bible, Creation, Eternity, Jesus Christ, Sin, Time. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

8 comments so far

 1 

Once again we agree. I will probably sit this discussion out since I promised to do that with the last one and didn’t live up to my word.

Then again… ;)

April 19th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
 2 

I have enjoyed the discussions. I am not sure what we might see on this one but I do believe someone is going to step in about the time concept. We’ll see.

And your opinions are very welcome. And for all of those readers that think we are just agreeing on everything, I remind them of a past post about Christianity and this nation where I do believe we came down on opposite sides. I may revisit that soon also.

Thanks for all your insight though and for all the rest of you, check out Heaths blog also. Just in case you don’t realize it, all you have to do is click on his name.

Love you all

April 19th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
 3 

Thanks for the plug!

April 19th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Tammy
 4 

Very Good!!!

I have been asked some of these same questions in years past and could never put it so eloquently.
I like it when we agree from the beginning, it makes for nicer car rides together. :wnk:

Heath, I really enjoy your comments and explanations. Never hold back!

How about a ‘hat’s off to you’ smiley???

Love

April 20th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Anthony
 5 

Ok, ok, ok. You don’t have to twist my arm. I didn’t realize this post was on here. I missed a few weeks here and there.

I’ve got one question:

Can you be bound to something you control?

I’m not saying you’re wrong Sonny or Heath, only that your views on God and time are one of many possibilities. I see where your views can be valid, but I also see where others can be as well. Without proof, and 100% certainty we’re kinda stuck. All of us.

May 20th, 2009 at 9:20 am
 6 

What lines up more with the biblical witness and your own experience?

And what is this obsession in thinking we are saying God is bound by time. Time is not substantive and is only a measurement of duration and sequence. God is “bound” by duration and sequence if you want to see it that way. It does not belittle Him, it points to His existence.

In a hurry, got a meeting

Love you all

May 20th, 2009 at 9:34 am
Anthony
 7 

This is my last post on time.

I realize time is a measurement of duration. I don’t view God as “bound” to duration. I view him as experiencing duration due his creation being bound to duration. Time is what we’ve made as a calculation of duration. Since we do have a timeline, for God to let us experience him, our lifespan would be the barrier.

Oh, wow. I just went back to the PM’s on the gathering and realized I’m a moron. I’ve been using different words for what you’ve been saying, or at least when you haven’t been saying something other than what you believe, for discussion. I’m sorry Sonny. Apparently I enjoy looking for opposition.

Ok, to the discussion at hand. I’ll agree that Evil was not created. It was only allowed, with evil being the absence of God and all. And sin being a definition of performing acts opposite of God’s character (i.e. doing evil acts).

As far as time. I do believe he created it. The reason there is death is because of sin, and age is a measurement from birth to death, with time being the definition of age.

With all of that being said, I really don’t see time being a factor in eternity. I can’t fathom what a second will be like in eternity. I believe all times mentioned of eternity (10,000 years in heaven before the final battle) are what man has put into the Bible because of misconceptions.

Could it be that the 10,000 years mentioned is only one day after Armeggedon? Especially considering that 10,000 years is only a blip compared to eternity. Just a thought.

Could it also be that the reason 10,000 years was defined was because to those in hell, a day would feel like eternity? Just another thought.

May 21st, 2009 at 2:42 am
Anthony
 8 

Missed a point…..

I also understand the relationship aspect with God, but not necessarily that we can understand all of God, or at least not until eternity. The relationship we establish while living as mere humans can only be limited to the characteristics of God we can understand. Faithfulness, Love, Forgiving, Jealousy, Anger, so forth and so on. The characteristics of God we understand fully are the ones we experience with other people. It is not so far fetched to believe in a timeless God so far beyond, above, mysterious, and such that we should not attempt to even ponder them, as you put it. The lack of understanding all of him does not mean that we can’t have the relationship you speak of. I also can see that trying to ponder and being able to ponder are two extremes for the relationship with God we desire. We should try to ponder because the more when know of God we realize how much more he loves us. Those that say that we shouldn’t even try to ponder tend to be the ones that have been in the same place with God for the last 30 years. We should constantly be trying to understand God, if not, we can’t grow.

Love You All

May 21st, 2009 at 3:02 am

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