Principles of Family
One of the first things the OT begins to teach us is the principles of family. Here’s what we’ve observed so far:
- Family shares the same blood (Gen 2.21). This will take on more significance shortly!
- God recognizes a chain of responsibility and authority (Gen 3.9).
- Occupational and relational responsibility is part of God’s redemptive plan for family members (Gen 3.16,17; 1Ti 2.15).
- Only a Kinsman (= redeemer/avenger) can redeem family members and property (Lev 25.25, 47,48).
Fallenness
The Question:What is fallenness, how is it passed down from generation to generation, and why didn’t Jesus get it?
The Answer:It is
not a spiritual “germ” transmitted through Adam’s blood. Otherwise Mary would have had it as a daughter of Adam, and she would have passed it down to Jesus who was fully human and likewise a descendant of Adam.
Roman Catholic theologians, assuming a version of this “germ theory” of fallenness (i.e., “original sin”), felt the need to explain why the “germ” did not pass down to Jesus. They devised the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, making it official dogma in 1854. According to this doctrine, Mary of Nazareth was immaculately conceived in
her mother’s womb, and supernaturally kept from the taint of original sin so that she could bear the sinless Jesus. There is no biblical basis for this idea, and it seems superfluous (as one of our MC students observed), for if God only needed to do a miracle to keep Mary from being born with original sin (i.e., fallenness), God could have just done that same miracle at the conception of Jesus. By the way, to support the dogma of Mary’s Immaculate Conception, which implies she was not subject to The Curse with its sentence of death, Pope Pius XII in 1950 established the dogma of The Assumption of Mary. According to this doctrine, Mary went to heaven directly at the end of her life, i.e., she was “assumed” body and soul into God’s presence.
The answer
is “
spiritual deadness.” Biblically, we discover the definition of fallenness by studying the
fix or
cure for fallenness. Jesus taught in John 3 that a person must be born again of the Spirit in order to even perceive the kingdom of God. Paul taught that our salvation involves a spiritual resurrection (Col 2.11-13), and confirms that the problem was that we were
dead in our sins. Indeed, hadn’t God warned Adam and Eve that in the very day* that they ate the forbidden fruit they would surely
die (Gen 2.17)? And yet they lived physically for almost a millennium. We realize that our first parents died spiritually, and with the loss of their spiritual vitality, they also lost whatever ability they had to transmit spiritual life to their descendants.
We can compare fallenness to the crash of a computer’s operating system. Imagine that you’ve designed a system complete with keyboard, mouse, monitor, printer, scanner, speakers and cpu with hard drive. When the system crashes, the peripherals still work (just as our physical limbs and organs still work), but the system will not do any of the things that you, its creator, designed it to do. It can’t serve you, and it certainly can’t design the next generation of computers. It must have its operating system (its spirit) brought back to life by a reinstallation (new birth) of software.
The bottom line is that fallenness is not a germ or any other substantive thing; it is
a deficiency. It is the lack of that spiritual vitality that enables us to relate properly to God. Mary could not pass that vitality on to her son Jesus, but the Father of Jesus could. Hence, Jesus was born without the deficiency, without this spiritual fallenness.
* The NIV does not use the word
day in Gen 2.17, but most versions do as it is in the Hebrew text.
The Persons
God created
ex nihilo. (Gen 1.1)
Adam named the first armadillo. (Gen 2.19)
Eve had Adam’s blood. (Gen 2.21)
Noah survived the flood. (Gen 6 - 9)
Satan fell after creation (Gen 1.31),
and before the temptation. (Gen 3.1)
Abraham took Isaac to the brink. (Gen 22)
Shannon Oles likes dressing in pink.
Implications of Creatio Ex Nihilo
So far, we’ve discussed the following implications about God, derived from the fact that the universe originated from absolutely nothing:
- He is above time, living in the eternal present.
- He is almighty.
- He is self-existent, possessing the attribute of aseity.
- He is personal.
The final point, the idea that God is personal, derives from our observation that there are two classes of causes: personal and impersonal. Since impersonal causes require the existence of matter/energy, and since neither of these existed before the origin of the universe, we conclude that the cause of the universe “popping” into existence was personal, and therefore, God is personal. A thinking atheist will have a rebuttal of this idea; can you imagine what it would be?
The Problem of Evil
Thinkers reject the theistic worldview because of the philosophical Problem of Evil. The Problem of Evil is often stated as a question: If God is all good
and almighty, why is there evil in the world? Intelligent skeptics assume there is no solution to this “contradiction” and so reject theistic worldviews, including Christianity.
An attempt to answer the Problem of Evil is called a theodicy. The Greek roots of
theodicy mean God-justification. In other words, a theodicy is an attempt to justify or exonerate God in the face of evil’s existence and to show that He is still all good and almighty after all.
The most popular theodicy today is the Freewill Theodicy. This idea states that it was such a priority in God’s mind to give humans and angels freewill, that He was willing to risk the possibility that they would choose evil. Therefore, the reason evil exists is not because God was unable to prevent it, but because he permits it for the “higher good” of giving his creatures freewill.
When I introduce the Problem of Evil in my classes, there are usually some good thinkers who propose the Freewill Theodicy. Until now, however, I’ve never had a student offer a refutation of the Freewill Theodicy. Last Thursday, Michael Rasch sorted it out. Michael’s thinking went something like this:
- The Freewill Theodicy prioritizes freewill over the absence of evil.
- Supposedly, the reason God prioritized freewill was because He wanted authentic relationship with us.
- However, God is able to design a universe that includes authentic relationship without evil. (In fact, God had authentic relationship with Adam and Eve before evil entered the world.)
- Therefore, the existence of evil is not necessary for authentic relationship.
- Furthermore, since the existence of evil is not necessary for authentic relationship, neither are the prerequisites for the existence of evil.
- Therefore, God did not permit evil for the sake of freewill, i.e., for the sake of authentic relationship, and the Freewill Theodicy is not adequate to answer the Problem of Evil!
Way to go, Michael!
There is another problem with the Freewill Theodicy: it tends to limit God’s
omniscience. In other words, the Freewill Theodicy tends to assume that God did not know beforehand what humans and angels would do with freewill. This is the unorthodox and heretical position of today’s “Open Theists” who say God does not know ahead of time what choices free agents will make. The fact is, however, that God never takes risks because He already knows exactly what will happen, including what choices humans and angels will make (consider Jesus’ selection of Judas, John 6.70). We must conclude that everything that happens, including the existence of evil, will work together for good for those who love God (Rom 8.28) because there is Divine intentionality behind it.
Worldview Questions
Everyone has a worldview, whether they hold it consciously or not. Many people have an incoherent worldview because they’ve never consciously thought through the key questions a worldview should answer. Those questions are:
1. The Question of Ontology: What is the nature of existence and being?
1a. The Question of Origin: Where did the universe come from?
1b. The Question of Life: How did life originate?
2. The Question of Transcendence: Is there a supernatural realm?
3. The Question of Theology: What is the nature and character of God?
4. The Question of Ethics: What is right and what is wrong?
4a. The Question of Evil: Why is there evil in the world?
5. The Question of Teleology: What is the meaning and purpose of life?
6. The Question of Epistemology: What forms of knowledge are reliable?
6a. The Question of Reason: Is the universe rational?
7. The Question of Religion: What is the origin of competing religious myths?
Any worldview worthy of attention should be able to propose answers to all of these questions.
Before the Beginning
We found in Scripture that before The Beginning:
1. God existed (Psa 90.2)
2. Wisdom was active (Pro 8.23)
3. The Son dwelt in glory (Joh 17.5)
4. The Father loved the Son (Joh 17.24)
5. God chose us to be holy (Eph 1.4)
6. God gave us grace in Christ Jesus (2Ti 1.9)
7. God promised us eternal life (Tit 1.2)
Makes our lives significant, doesn’t it?
Creatio Ex Nihilo
The Bible consistently teaches that the material universe was created
ex nihilo, i.e., out of
absolutely nothing.The strongest theories in astronomy and physics today confirm that the universe somehow popped out of nothing in "the Big Bang." Because the scientific community has generally restricted itself from positing any supernatural causes, it is constrained to say that the Big Bang was caused by an unexplained “singularity.” Of course, for us the Bible explains the singularity and the cause behind the universe in its very first verse: “In the beginning, God created ... ”
What has particularly interested me is that, from the time of the first discoveries of subatomic particles until now, physics has been closing in on the fact that our material universe is made up of “nothing,” at least
nothing in the traditional sense of
a thing. At the most fundamental level of the material universe, physics theory is finding nothing more than infinitesimal vibrating strings of energy! However, even on the first level of subatomic particles, the level of electrons and protons as depicted in the graphic above, the atoms that make up or material world are mostly made up of empty space. And, according to the laws of electromagnetism, these atoms should disintegrate because the like-charged protons of the nucleus should powerfully repel one another!
In the early 1970’s, a friend of mine asked his physics professor at UPS in Tacoma, "Why don't the like-charged protons of the atomic nucleus fly apart causing the disintegration of the universe?" The professor answered, “Nobody knows; that’s why I go to church.” Since then I have been told that the thing that holds the protons together is “nuclear glue” and more recently, “the strong force.” These sound suspiciously to me like names without an explanation. The Bible, on the other hand, provides a clear explanation in Col 1.17 and Heb 1.3. The same LORD who called the material universe into existence
ex nihilo in the beginning, keeps it from imploding back into nothingness today by the word of His power!
The Book That Turned The World Upside Down
The disciples of Jesus turned their world upside down and the book they used to do it was the Old Testament! The interesting thing is that, just as we do today, they used a favorite translation more often than they used the original Hebrew and Aramaic. That translation was a popular version in Greek, called the Septuagint, meaning Seventy (abbreviated LXX, and named for the 70 elders who supposedly made the translation around 250 BC). Yes, by the end of the First Century the disciples had added the New Testament to their spiritual arsenal, but the NT depended completely upon the OT for its authority. The early Christians used the Septuagint with such powerful effect that “by the 2d century [AD], Jewish scholars, reacting to the widespread co-opting and polemical use of the LXX by Christians, began to produce editions intended to ... conform to the Hebrew text that had by then become normative in Palestine.”* In other words, Christians were making so many converts among the Jews using the Septuagint, that the Rabbis began changing the translation to weaken its testimony to Jesus of Nazareth!
Thankfully, today we have editions of both the Septuagint and the original Hebrew and Aramaic scriptures of the OT, powerfully verified by the Dead Sea Scrolls and other manuscripts. The preservation of these Scriptures is crucial because the authority of the NT depends upon them just as much today as it did in the early centuries of Christianity.
Anyone who intends to teach or preach the NT with authority and depth, must master the strategic ideas of the OT and should access both the Hebrew and Greek editions of the OT, at least by way of the user-friendly Bible software now available.
* David Noel Freedman (ED), The Anchor Bible Dictionary, Doubleday, 1992: Septuagint.
God's Amazing Gift To Adam
Thanks to the archaeological researches of P. J. Wiseman*, we now understand that Moses collated the book of Genesis from nearly a dozen volumes written earlier by the Patriarchs. Each volume in Genesis ends with a colophon incorporating the word
toledoth (histories) and providing title and author/owner information. Contrary to the assertions of liberal scholars, the earliest records of God’s interaction with mankind were not passed down by “oral tradition” but were carefully written down --
probably by eyewitnesses ---, and probably on cuneiform tablets (see the word
written/book in Gen 5.1).
Amazingly, the first colophon appears in Gen 2.4, closing the account of the creation of the heavens and the earth. Who was around to witness and record
this event? I propose that God Himself wrote Gen 1.1-2.4 on a tablet and gave it to Adam for safekeeping. But wait! Isn’t it preposterous to think God would condescend to write on an earthly tablet for mankind’s sake? Nope! Check out Exo 31.18.
*See P. J. Wiseman, Ancient Records and the Structure of Genesis, Thomas Nelson, 1985.
Key Terms List
Here are the words and phrases that we’re defining and using. Don’t forget them; there will be a quiz!
accountability
antithesis
antithetical truth
aseity
apocalypse, apocalytic literature
colophon
creatio ex nihilo
cuneiform
epistemology
eternal life
fallenness
fall, the
genre
goel = kinsman redeemer/avenger
grace
Hegel, Hegelian synthesis
immaculate conception
metanarrative
omniscience
ontology
postmodern: truth as social construct
problem of evil
rule of law
sanctify, sanctification
Septuagint (LXX)
synthesis
teleology
theodicy
thesis
thought rhyme: synonymous, antithetical, synthetic
toledoth
type, typology
wisdom
wisdom literature
worldview
YHWH
