The Biblical Perspective: Significance
The issue of the origin of the World, and by extension the
origin of the Cosmos, is one of the most hotly debated questions of all time,
as well as one of the most important. The
biblical account of the origin of the World sets apart the biblical Creator
from all other conceptions of God in the Ancient Near East (hereafter ANE) as
well as in virtually all thought up to the present. It accounts for the major philosophical
questions in a way that no other religious or philosophical outlook is able to
do. However, the issue is controversial
primarily because it immediately and necessarily relates to the
Creator-creature distinction and relationship.
For example, if someone has created, i.e. authored me that suggests
that someone has authority over me.
Conversely, if no one authored me, then no one has authority over me and
I can live any way I please. Closely
connected questions include those such as, “Why am I here?” “Where did I come
from?” “What is the meaning of life?” “Why is there something rather than
nothing?” etc.
The Biblical Perspective: Uniqueness
The primary biblical text for considering the origin of the
world is Genesis 1. It is important to
note, as seen here, that the biblical depiction of creation demonstrates a concern
not to describe the mechanics of creation, but to provide the basis for the
Creator-creature distinction. This is a theme that surfaces throughout the
Bible and which sets biblical religion dramatically apart from competitors, except
where later borrowed from the biblical narrative (cf. Gen 14:19, 20; Deut.
10:14; 1 Kings 8:27; Isa 44:6, 8; Jer 33:25,26; Jonah 1:9; Neh 9:6; Rom.
1:18-32; Acts 17:22-31; Rev. 4:11).
Many Christian thinkers, such as Herman Bavinck, the
presuppositionalist school of apologists, et al. have compared biblical
cosmology to the preponderance of competing cosmologies including those of the ANE,
ancient Greek philosophy, various forms of mysticism, modern western
philosophy, modern cults and world religions, various physicalist proposals, etc.
and have convincingly demonstrated that other alternatives are inadequate on
philosophical grounds (Bavinck, In the Beginning, p. 23-39; cf. Sire, The
Universe Next Door).
The biblical explanation of the origin of the World is
crucial, for, as noted by Bavinck, “The doctrine of creation, affirming the
distinction between the Creator and his creature, is the starting point of true
religion. There is no existence apart
from God, and the Creator can only be known truly through revelation” (Bavinck,
In The Beginning, 23). This last
thought also affirms the importance of the Creator’s self revelation via special
revelation and as found in the Bible.
The Biblical Perspective: Explained
In the opening chapter of the Bible, the Creator is depicted
as One who by virtue of His nature and creative work is the metaphysical
precondition of creation, that is, creation is dependent upon Him—He represents
Ultimate reality and is the source of derivative, i.e. created reality. He is also presented as one who is not only transcendent
(beyond creation), but is imminent (involved with His creation), and personal, especially
as He is seen thinking, speaking, loving, interacting with Himself (cf. Gen.
1:26) as well as with His creation.[1] As the source of the Cosmos, He is infinitely wise necessarily possessing
comprehensive knowledge of that which He has created, and so is the
ultimate source and determiner of truth and knowledge. He is also the source and determiner of good
as one who delighted to create that which was good and did so according to His
own standard of goodness. That which is
good is so because of its design, pronouncement, and reflection of the goodness
of the Creator (the English term “good” is derived from the term “God,” i.e. to
be good is to be like God). In this way, the biblical account of the
origin of the World relates to the three main components of all worldviews: reality
(metaphysics), knowledge (epistemology) and ethics.
So, among other things, the Bible describes God as the
ontological basis of the World’s origin, the prerogative/purpose behind the
World’s origin, the determiner of the order of the World’s creation, the pronouncer
of the ethical verdict on the creation, and mankind’s place in the World.
Here are some additional observations:
Verse 1 of the Bible begins
by presenting the above distinction—it describes two realties—absolute reality,
i.e. God, and derivative reality, i.e. creation. Initially creation was innovative—God
created out of nothing, i.e. ex nihilo and integrative, that is God
formed from what He created. This is in
contrast to processes currently seen—His work of conservation and disintegration
(Henry Morris, The Genesis Record, 80-81.)
It has been
well noted that Verse 1:1 of Genesis provides what are the traditional 5
Categories of Science: In the beginning (time); God (force)
created (action/motion); heavens (space); earth (matter), all based on God as creation’s
necessary precondition (categories originally articulated by Spencer in First Principles: A System of Synthetic Philosophy,
p. 169; for an example of popular exposition of this idea, see MacArthur, The
Battle for the Beginning, p. 41).
Note
that God’s creative actions as presented in Genesis 1:1 mark the ultimate
reference point for spatio-temporal reality, i.e. the spacetime Universe. This
shows both the subordination of all things to God, as well as His ultimacy, priority,
originality and self-existence (aseity).
The objects of God’s creative work are
summarized as “heavens and earth.” Together,
the Hebrew words (שָׁמַ֫יִם and אֶ֫רֶץ) form a
classic Hebrew word pair representing the totality of all creation with
parallels in the ANE (some describe this as a merismatic word pair, i.e. one
that covers everything from A-Z, cf. Watson, pp. 132; 321-23). In the
ANE, cosmology was typically formulated as either "heavens and
earth," or "heavens, earth, sea." The point of Gen. 1:1 is
that the origin of the world, in fact the origin of all created things, have
their beginning with God.
[The “Origin of the World” is also the name of a work
dealing with creation and eschatology in the Nag Hammadi library, and which
provides a fanciful Gnostic reinterpretation of the biblical narrative.]
Bibliography
- Bavinck, Herman. In the Beginning: Foundations of Creation Theology. Ed. by John Bolt. Trans.by John Vriend. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 1999.
- Frame, John M. Cornelius Van Til: An Analysis of His Thought. Phillipsburg, N.J.: P& R Publishing, 1995.
- MacArthur, John. The Battle for the Beginning. Nashville, Tenn: WPublishing, 2001.
- Henry Morris, The Genesis Record. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1976.
- Spencer, Herbert. First Principles: A System of Synthetic Philosophy. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1882, fourth edition.
- Van Til, Cornelius. An Introduction to Systematic Theology. New Jersey, Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1974.
- Watson, Wilfred G.E. Classical Hebrew Poetry: A Guide to its Techniques. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 26. Sheffield, England: JSOT Press, 1986.
[1] This issue of the Absolute
personality of God is a distinctively Christian idea that sets Christianity
apart as unique. “Some non-Christian
systems (as the polytheistic religions and modern philosophical ‘personalisms’)
posit personal gods of one kind or another, but those gods are not absolute in
the sense of being self-contained. Other
non-Christian systems accept absolute realities of various kinds, but those
absolutes are not personal. Only in
biblical teaching are absoluteness and personality combined in the Supreme
Being” (John Frame, CVT, p. 58).
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