Tonight we have created a lot of pretty wild things haven’t we? The ability to create is an attribute that God gave to humans. We have many of His attributes. To name some of them: Creativeness, Communication, Eternal nature, Justice, Mercy, Love, an understanding of morality.
According to scripture God has many characteristics that we do not have. We were created in the image of God (Gen 1:27), but we do not have all of the specific abilities of God. We have an origin and we were given the ability to create, but that only came about because of God.
Tonight we are going to look into the question of creation. What was there before God? Was there anything?
Let’s look at this in completely human terms first. In our human reality for something to be created it has to be created by something doesn’t it? Nothing comes about on its own. A party is not thrown without a host, a cake is not baked without a baker, likewise, the dishes would not be washed after the party without a dish washer. Things don’t just happen on their own.
What about the big bang theory? There was a molecule that randomly hit another molecule and a huge explosion happened creating all that we see. Ok, that is interesting, but where did the molecules come from? Did they just pop into existence?
Let me blow your mind for a second. Was God created? If God was created, who created the thing that created God? If that thing was there, then who created the thing that created the thing that created God? This argument goes on infinitely and eventually falls apart.
Stephen Hawking said it this way: “If everything must have a cause, then God must have a cause. If there can be anything without a cause, it may just as well be the world as God, so that there cannot be any validity in that argument. It is exactly of the same nature as the Hindu's view, that the world rested upon an elephant and the elephant rested upon a tortoise; and when they said, "How about the tortoise?" the Indian said, "Suppose we change the subject."
Stephen Hawking is basically saying that if anything could have just “been” why did it have to be God? Why couldn’t the world have “been” without need for a God to have created it?
As humans, our minds cannot wrap around the infinite and eternal nature of God. It is not within our grasp. So what do we do to explain it? We have to look at it in our limited human terms and make a decision based off of that. Which will, 99.9% of the time, leave a pretty huge gaping hole in our theory.
For us to understand God’s uncreated nature we need to understand time.
Genesis 1:4-5 “And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.”
Time was created when God created day and night. There was no such thing as time
before this point. Many other places in scripture attest to God’s eternal nature.
1 Chronicles 16:36 “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting!”
Before God created the universe time literally did not exist. God lives outside our understanding of time. As beings that live within the constraints of time we have to see a beginning and an end to something. Something that simply “was” and “is” blows our minds.
You can think of it this way. God was, is, and always will be. Time for God would almost look like a circle. There is no beginning, middle, and end. He just is. For us time is very linier, having a definite beginning and end.
We can already see that God was not “acted upon” or created by anything else. Since He always was, there would be no need for something to step in and create Him. But, God did create everything that we see.
God talks about His creative nature when God spoke with Moses. Before sending him off to the Egyptians, He called Himself the “I Am”. The full understanding of that name in the Hebrew means “I cause to be what is”. God was literally saying that without Him, nothing that “is” would “be”. If you think that is a little confusing let’s look at the book of John.
John 1:1-3 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.”
When God talks about creation, He doesn’t say that “the being that created me taught me how to create everything.” He says that nothing was created unless it was made by His hands.
Do you know that some religions actually think that God is one of thousands? Mormon’s, for example, believe that if they follow all of their religious rules correctly, they will not only be allowed into the highest level of heaven, but they will be given a planet to rule.
They actually believe that God is just another person that followed the rules and has been rewarded with his own planet.
If you didn’t read scripture you could fall into some kind of an idea like that couldn’t you? Is there scripture that talks about this? Let’s take a look:
Isaiah 48:12-13 “Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called! I am he; I am the first, and I am the last. 13 My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand forth together.”
Isaiah 43:10 “You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen,that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.”
These are just a few examples of God claiming to be the only God that exists. Nothing existed outside of Himself until He decided to create things. What does that do to the issue of who created God? It takes it away completely. If no one created God, then there is no infinite line of beings that created other beings. There is just God.
God set into motion the rules that govern our thought processes and the very cycle of life. Because of God, we now truly see that nothing happens unless something has acted upon it. What would it mean for us if we simply “were” like Stephen Hawking suggests? There would be no consequences for actions beyond what people could do to us here on earth. The idea of order would be destroyed because there is no reason to live up to someone else’s expectations.
The fact that we were created by God for a purpose makes life worth living! That purpose is to worship Him and follow what He wants for our lives. Doesn’t that give you hope? It gives me hope and peace to know that I am not just wasting my time here on earth before I die. I am part of a plan that God has set into motion. That plan will be accomplished because God is guiding my steps.
What about you? Are you trying to follow God’s plan for your life? Or are you just creating your own rules? God doesn’t just want us to follow Him because He is God and He said so. He wants us to follow Him because He has that plan and future already laid out for you.
God did give us a creative nature and He wants you to use it in serving Him, not putting together elaborate plans of escaping His purpose for your life.
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