Monday, November 8, 2010
Could God have not created man?
Ps. 104:20 O Lord how many are Thy works. In wisdom Thou hast made all of them. The earth is full of thy possessions.
Sometimes I wonder if there's life on other planets. I doubt that there is another race like mankind, unless it is perfect and doesn't need redemption. I can't imagine the Son of God going from planet to planet dying for sins!
Perhaps God has placed amazing creatures and plants on other planets just for His own enjoyment, and the enjoyment of His angels.
Yet to think of planets full of creatures that are basically pets would be like living on an island alone with no one to talk to but an aquarium full of fish or a sky full of birds.
They are hardly aware of your presence. Even if they are aware they can hardly provide meaningful or stimulating or satisfying conversation. Even Tom Neale, who wanted to be all alone of Suvarrou for five years had to keep his thoughts and adventures in a journal so he could eventually share it with others.
And so, God, after He created all except mankind said "it is good." Then right after said "let us make man in Our image ..." after which he finally said "it is very good." He did not communicate with any of Earth's creation until He made man.
What was the first thing He did after He made man? He walked with him in the garden and talked with him.
It is clear that man without God is incomplete, for He is the very breath in our lungs and the very beating of our heart. He is the sustainer of all life. He knows even if a sparrow ceases its existence. He knows if I step on a bug, because a life has ended.
Yet in some way it seems that God is not complete without man. Oh, I know He's complete without anything, because He's God. But could (or maybe "would") God have existed on and on forever without ever creating a creature that could respond to His majesty?
He created angels to respond to His majesty. He gave them an opportunity at free will - and 1/3rd fell and followed Satan.
Yet there's something in the nature of angels that He did not want to die for. He was only willing to die for mankind. Angels will not have an opportunity at redemption.
So, here He's got angelic beings who commune with Him and marvel at His majesty, but they are creatures confirmed in their holiness (or in their wickedness). Only man has the free choice of communing with Him or ignoring Him - of loving Him or hating Him.
With mankind, God has creatures who can, by their own choice, honor Him. Creatures that are like God: plural in nature (both male and female), knowing good and evil, like God does. Free in the expression of self, like God. Able to destroy or save as an act of the will, like God. (The animals destroy or spare, but based on instinct, fear & hunger. Man, like God, does it as an act of the will.)
Perhaps most of all, man, having God's infinite powers and characteristics in a finite fashion, is able to respond to God in a sentient manner, of his own choosing - unlike the rest of the aquarium, which can respond only in a limited way, with no personal awareness.
Could God have never created a race like man? Probably. Possibly. Does God do anything that doesn't come out of His nature? His character? Out of who He fully is?
God's creation of man came about because that's What/Who He is. While God is not alone within Himself, communing is such a part of His nature that He somehow found it "essential" or "necessary" to create a race of creatures like Him, who could commune with Him by choice.
All last night the song "Ronnie" by Franky Vallie kept going through my head. I believe God has been singing it to me, to humanity.
I'll replace Ronnie with Adam.
I'll go on living and keep on forgiving
Because you were my first love.
So very warm and tender the way you loved me.
Hey girl, man, can't you remember and want more of me?
Adam, Adam, Adam, why did you go?
Adam, Adam, Adam, I am regretting, but can't stop forgetting
Because you are my first love.
You say how you don't need me because I cheated.
Why didn't you believe me when I repeated
Adam, Adam, Adam, you'll never know
Adam, Adam, Adam, I'll go on living and keep on forgiving
Because you are my first love.
I walk alone, I cry at home
Night after night
day after day
Oh I never cheated
Oh I still repeat it
Adam, Adam, Adam, you'll never know
Adam, Adam, Adam, I'll go on living and keep on forgiving
Because you were my first love.
Sometimes I wonder if there's life on other planets. I doubt that there is another race like mankind, unless it is perfect and doesn't need redemption. I can't imagine the Son of God going from planet to planet dying for sins!
Perhaps God has placed amazing creatures and plants on other planets just for His own enjoyment, and the enjoyment of His angels.
Yet to think of planets full of creatures that are basically pets would be like living on an island alone with no one to talk to but an aquarium full of fish or a sky full of birds.
They are hardly aware of your presence. Even if they are aware they can hardly provide meaningful or stimulating or satisfying conversation. Even Tom Neale, who wanted to be all alone of Suvarrou for five years had to keep his thoughts and adventures in a journal so he could eventually share it with others.
And so, God, after He created all except mankind said "it is good." Then right after said "let us make man in Our image ..." after which he finally said "it is very good." He did not communicate with any of Earth's creation until He made man.
What was the first thing He did after He made man? He walked with him in the garden and talked with him.
It is clear that man without God is incomplete, for He is the very breath in our lungs and the very beating of our heart. He is the sustainer of all life. He knows even if a sparrow ceases its existence. He knows if I step on a bug, because a life has ended.
Yet in some way it seems that God is not complete without man. Oh, I know He's complete without anything, because He's God. But could (or maybe "would") God have existed on and on forever without ever creating a creature that could respond to His majesty?
He created angels to respond to His majesty. He gave them an opportunity at free will - and 1/3rd fell and followed Satan.
Yet there's something in the nature of angels that He did not want to die for. He was only willing to die for mankind. Angels will not have an opportunity at redemption.
So, here He's got angelic beings who commune with Him and marvel at His majesty, but they are creatures confirmed in their holiness (or in their wickedness). Only man has the free choice of communing with Him or ignoring Him - of loving Him or hating Him.
With mankind, God has creatures who can, by their own choice, honor Him. Creatures that are like God: plural in nature (both male and female), knowing good and evil, like God does. Free in the expression of self, like God. Able to destroy or save as an act of the will, like God. (The animals destroy or spare, but based on instinct, fear & hunger. Man, like God, does it as an act of the will.)
Perhaps most of all, man, having God's infinite powers and characteristics in a finite fashion, is able to respond to God in a sentient manner, of his own choosing - unlike the rest of the aquarium, which can respond only in a limited way, with no personal awareness.
Could God have never created a race like man? Probably. Possibly. Does God do anything that doesn't come out of His nature? His character? Out of who He fully is?
God's creation of man came about because that's What/Who He is. While God is not alone within Himself, communing is such a part of His nature that He somehow found it "essential" or "necessary" to create a race of creatures like Him, who could commune with Him by choice.
All last night the song "Ronnie" by Franky Vallie kept going through my head. I believe God has been singing it to me, to humanity.
I'll replace Ronnie with Adam.
I'll go on living and keep on forgiving
Because you were my first love.
So very warm and tender the way you loved me.
Hey girl, man, can't you remember and want more of me?
Adam, Adam, Adam, why did you go?
Adam, Adam, Adam, I am regretting, but can't stop forgetting
Because you are my first love.
You say how you don't need me because I cheated.
Why didn't you believe me when I repeated
Adam, Adam, Adam, you'll never know
Adam, Adam, Adam, I'll go on living and keep on forgiving
Because you are my first love.
I walk alone, I cry at home
Night after night
day after day
Oh I never cheated
Oh I still repeat it
Adam, Adam, Adam, you'll never know
Adam, Adam, Adam, I'll go on living and keep on forgiving
Because you were my first love.
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