This time water, next time fire?

"The world is going to burn, so why should I care about it?"

These or similar worlds are often said by Christians when talking about Creation. If the world is going to be destroyed, we don't really need to worry about it.

Western Christianity has been deeply affected by the idea that there are two "things": the spiritual and the material. The material is viewed as at best a temporary good, but more often as something not good. It is the spiritual that is the real good.

There is no question that there is something wrong in Creation. The Fall "broke" Creation. We see death and decay all around.

But the God who created, and placed his stamp of approval on Creation in the Incarnation is not going to throw Creation away. His plan is to remake it!

18 I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. ¹⁹For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; ²⁰for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. ²²We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now; ²³and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. (Roman 8 18-23)

The whole gospel of John is a story of New Creation (It begins "In the beginning and ends with a "man" in a garden!). Rev 21 portraits a new Jerusalem.

God's plan of redemption encompasses the whole Cosmos!

Philip Yancey on Incarnation

Philip Yancey writes an interesting article in Christianity Today. He asks, "Would Christmas have come even if we had not sinned?"

Whereas Aquinas viewed the Incarnation as God's remedy for a fallen planet, his contemporary saw much more at stake. For Duns Scotus, the Word becoming flesh as described in the prologue to John's Gospel must surely represent the Creator's primary design, not some kind of afterthought or Plan B. Aquinas pointed to passages emphasizing the Cross as God's redemptive response to a broken relationship. Duns Scotus cited passages from Ephesians and Colossians on the cosmic Christ, in whom all things have their origin, hold together, and move toward consummation.

Read it all here.

The Incarnation of the Son

Christians are often accused of believing irrational things. Sometime I'll comment on who gets to define rational.

But one thing Christians believe that really does push us to understand is the idea of the Incarnation. Incarnation is a big word that signifies the idea that God became human. We believe that Jesus is God.

How can God be both a helpless baby and at the same time keep the Universe in order? I don't know.

Many of the arguments that Christians have with various cults (especially Jehovah Witnesses) revolve around this question. A very powerful part of Christian history is the story of the Arians, who believed that Jesus was not God. Present day Christians debate with atheists about Jesus being God.

These are all very important things.

But the flip side of the question is just as important: Jesus was human. There has been a strain of Christianity that denies the humanity of Jesus. Maybe he just looked human. Maybe the fact that he is human is not as important as the fact that he is God.

The early Church fathers realized that Jesus had to be fully human if humanity was to be fully saved. For Jesus to be tempted just as we are, he had to be completely human (sorry Dallas Willard, Jesus didn't have "God's mind." This is Apollinarism that was rejected by the church) .

But for my money, there is a much deeper reason to consider the Incarnation. What does Incarnation say about Creation? The Creator becomes a part of His Creation. This is the great "Stamp of Approval" on Creation. God who said of Creation, " Very Good," reaffirms his position with the Incarnation.

Made by the Three

I have to admit that I am a Creationist.

I believe that God created the world. After all, the Nicene Creed says "I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth." I am not a "young earth" creationist. I think Intelligent Design is not yet science (but good theology!). I believe that the Universe is around 16 billion years old.

To get caught up in the question of how God created is to miss the much more important questions of Who and Why. More on the why at another time (the whole point of this blog). The Who is God. But which God?

The Nicene Creed goes on to say about Jesus "Through him all things were made." The Father is creator, but so is the Son! (Col 1:15)

Then it is not surprising that the Spirit is involved in creation as well. The Spirit hovers over the face of the deep in Gen 1:2. The close association of the Spirit with the breath of God suggests the Spirit's involvement when God breaths into Adam.

So it is not just some philosophical "god" that creates, not a "First principle" or "Prime mover." But God, the God of Abraham, Issac, Jacob. God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

If it is the Trinity that is creator, that has vast implications to the answer to the question of "Why?" And it makes a big difference as to God's continuing relationship to the Creation.

I love my wife!

My wife nancy is a good blogger. Here is a recent post. Go read it.

I'm naked!

And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed. (Gen 2:25)

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. (Gen 3:7)

In a very short while Adam and Eve go from having no problem being naked, to needing to cover themselves. Why is this? What about "The Fall" makes nakedness bring shame?

I think generations have assumed it was about sex. Augustine in his *City of God* makes a tentative connection. And in our present sin-soaked culture, it seems obvious shame from nakedness is because of our sexuality.

But I have a suggestion for a different reason our primordial parents were ashamed of their nakedness after their disobedience. Yes, sex is affected by the Fall, but deeper than that, *ALL* of Creation is affected by the Fall. A fracture runs through the whole of the Cosmos, and it runs right through the human frame.

Eve and Adam now see in their own bodies a reminder of their disobedience. Their bodies (and ours) somehow show (well they do wear out, and we die!) the signs left from the Fall. And God says to Adam that he shall return to the ground, becoming again the dust out of which he was made. A ground that has been cursed because of Adam.

Chrysostom says "...They were clad in that glory from above which caused them no shame. But after the breaking of the law, then entered the scene both shame and awareness of their nakedness." This glory was striped from them - indeed from all Creation. And Creation itself stood naked.

But God would not leave it so! A Creation he declared very good, he takes costly steps to redeem!

First post - "Really"

Here is the first post for my blog.

I am going to write about spiritual things, so if that offends you, don't read them!

To start with one basic idea, I don't believe the world can be broken into the "natural" and the "supernatural." There is only "reality."

Science is not the only, not even the best way, to know reality. You need things like imagination, and character. We have to become people who *can* know reality (even scientists must be trained).

Knowing reality is ultimately impossible without reality's creator - God. Our ability to see reality is limited to our senses without God's help. But the Real that is beyond our senses is not unrelated to the Real our senses can experience. It is all one "Reality." The material world is infused with the "spiritual."

We refer to the bread and the wine of Holy Communion as sacraments. This is because in their own reality, they carry the reality we cannot taste with our tongue. Indeed, a "outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace." Over time I will have more to say about how this is so.

But now I want to say that I believe that this is true for all of Creation. I am not talking pantheism. God remains transcendent. But Creation ministers to us God's grace. God [I am going to try to refrain from using the masculine pronoun, mostly to remind us that God IS transcendent] made it good, he made it for his own purpose, but also made it to bless us.

I will need to say about the goodness of Creation later.