GOD'S RELATION TO THE
UNIVERSE
T.P. Simmons
There are various ideas concerning the relation of God to this
universe of ours. By way of contrast between these false ideas and the teaching
of Scripture, let us note:
I. GOD IS SEPARATE IN BEING FROM THE UNIVERSE.
Everywhere in Scripture God is distinguished from His creation. He
is a pure spirit, while all created things and beings are at least partly
material with the exception of the angels, both good and evil. God is infinite;
all created things are finite. God is eternal, having
existed from everlasting. This is not true of anything else. God is immutable.
Nothing else is immutable. God is omnipresent; nothing else is. Nor does
anything else possess God's attributes of omnipotence and omniscience.
The Scriptures, therefore, refute pantheism,
which is defined by Strong as "that method of thought which conceives of
the universe as the development of one intelligent and voluntary, yet
impersonal substance, which reaches consciousness only in man. It, therefore,
identifies God, not with each individual object in the universe, but with the
totality of things" (Systematic Theology, p. 55).
II. GOD CREATED THE UNIVERSE
1. THE FACT.
This is declared in the first verse of the
Bible. The Scripture, therefore, denies that the universe was created by an
evil spirit as the Manicheans taught. It also denies the emanation theory,
which holds with pantheism that God is of the same substance as the universe;
and that the universe is the result of successive emanations from His being.
Spontaneous generation, the view of atheistic evolutionists, is also denied.
Moreover we have here a denial of the eternity of matter. Let it be noted that the author understands Gen. 1:1 as referring to the
whole universe with its billions of stars. He can not agree with those, such as
George McCready Price* and Harold W. Clark,** who think that this passage
alludes to nothing more than the earth and its surrounding atmosphere or, at
most to our solar system. The view of these two worthy and scholarly men is
rejected on Biblical grounds. Unless "heaven" is used in Gen. 1:1 in
a sense radically different from that in which it is used in
many other passages, it includes all the stars. See Gen. 15:5; 22:17; 26:4; Ex.
32:13; Deut. 10:22; 2 Kings 23:5; Isa. 13:10; Jer. 33:22; Nah. 3:16. It is
true, according to Gen. 1:8, that God identified Heaven with the firmament,
above which there were waters (Gen. 1.7); but note that God said, "Let
there be lights in the firmament of the heaven," which lights manifestly
included the stars (Gen. 1:14-17). Evidently, then,
"firmament" must have included both a lower and upper expanse.
Today, as never before, there is full explicit, and emphatic
agreement between the Bible and sound scientific thinking concerning the
necessity of a real supernatural creation of the universe. Scientists have
found the universe to be like a gigantic clock that is
slowly running down or an immense lump of coal that is leisurely burning up.
Matter is being converted into heat and other form of energy and is being
dissipated. Thus a leveling off process is going on throughout the universe,
resulting in what scientists call "entropy", which is defined as
"the unavailability of energy for doing work."*** All of this has
been expressed very effectively by Barnett as follows: "All the phenomena of nature, visible and invisible, within the atom and in
outer space, indicate that the substance and energy of the universe are
inexorably diffusing like vapor through the insatiable void. The sun is slowly
but surely burning out, the stars are dying embers and everywhere in the cosmos
heat is turning to cold, matter is dissolving into radiation, and energy is
being dissipated into empty space. The universe is thus progressing toward an
ultimate 'heat-death' or, as technically defined, a
condition of 'maximum entropy.' When the universe reaches this state some
billions of years from now, all processes of nature
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*Genesis Vindicated, p. 54. **The New Diluvialism, p. 190. ***Handrich,
The Creation-Facts, Theories, and Faith, p. 46.
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will cease. All space will be the same temperature. No energy can
be used because all of it will be uniformly distributed through the cosmos.
There will be no light, no life, no warmth- nothing but perpetual and irrevocable stagnation" (The Universe and Dr. Einstein, p. 100).
As an application of this to the point under discussion, the words of Handrich
are again appropriate: "If the universe must come to an end, then it is
finite; and it cannot be both finite and eternal. If energy transformations had
been going on from eternity, then the static, lifeless state of maximum entropy
would have been reached eternal ages ago. So the universe must have had a
beginning" (ibid, p. 47). Now that the universe in the
beginning was not created by a natural process, but by supernatural power, is
shown by these further words from Barnett: "Nothing in all inanimate
nature can be unmistakably identified as a pure creative process. At one time,
for example, it was thought that the mysterious cosmic rays which continually
bombard the earth from outer space might be by-products of some process of
atomic creation. But there is greater support for the
opposite view that they are by-products of atomic annihilation. Everything
visible in nature or established in theory, suggests that the universe is
implacably progressing toward final darkness and decay" (ibid, p. 100).
Then Handrich points out that even if cosmic rays are by-products of a creative
process, this very fact shows that not all energy is being thus reconverted
into matter; since cosmic rays represent a portion of energy
that is being wasted.* Therefore, even if this theory of perpetual creation
were true, entropy would still prevail. Unless it can be shown that all
expended energy is being reconverted into matter, then this universe is not
self-sustaining. If it is not self-sustaining, then it was not brought into
existence by natural forces. And even if it should be found that there is a
total reconversion of all energy into matter, and this should be taken as
evidence that all matter has been created out of energy by a
natural process; there would still remain the question that can have but one
sensible answer: How did the energy come into existence in the first place?
Thus scientific evidence for a supernatural creation is complete and
unanswerable.
When was the beginning mentioned in the first verse of
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Genesis? Was it on the first day of creation week? The language of
the passage will allow this view, and some worthy men of science advocate it.
However the language of the passage does not demand this view, but will readily allow any space of time that might have transpired
between the origin of the universe and the fitting of the earth for man's
abode. Let us be careful to distinguish between Biblical facts and our own
theories about them. When the language of the Bible will readily admit of more
than one interpretation, it is an evil thing for us to become so dogmatic about
our own understanding of it that we must think of those who differ with us as
denying the Bible. *
In saying that the language of Gen. 1:1, while not demanding it,
will yet allow a lapse of time between the first two verses, the author is not
affirming any of the following: (1) The age of rocks or fossils as advocated by
uniformitarian geology. The author wholly rejects uniformitarian geology in
favor of catastrophism and new deluvialism.** (2) The
accuracy of any of the forty methods by which scientists have tried to
determine the age of the earth.*** (3) That there was any life on the earth-
plant, animal, or human-
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* "The modern scientific age challenges
us as Christians to be receptive to new truth as it is discovered. The leaders
of our faith counsel us to make certain that a new idea is truth before we
hasten to adopt it. Our reason tells us to examine with great care any new
teaching that appears to displace the old line of thought in which we have been
trained, until we have weighed it and found it satisfactory. We must avoid the
two rocks of gullibility on the one hand and the ostrich-like attitude of some who deliberately close their eyes to new truth"
(Gedney, in Modern Science and Christian Faith, p. 71).
** For criticism of the theories of uniformitarian geologists,
see: Evolutionary Geology (Price); Genesis Vindicated (Price), p. 230; Common
Sense Geology (Price); How Did the World Begin (Price), p. 56; That You Might Believe (Morris), p. 58; Everyday Science for the
Christian (Handrich), p. 69; Beyond the Atom (De Vris), p. 79; and The New
Deluvialism (Clark).
*** For review and criticism of these methods, see Everyday
Science for the Christian (Handrich) p. 69; Modern Science and
Christian Faith, p. 26; Beyond the Atom (De Vries), p. 57.
Note: We do not agree with the author concerning a possible time
gap between Gen. 1:1 and 1:2. Such a gap of time, which many suggest could be
billions of years, it seems would be taught or at least mentioned somewhere in the Bible. The silence on such an enormous
"gap" of time makes this theory unfounded, and we believe, only a way
in which to reconcile "modern science" with the Bible. If God is
capable of creating all of earth's systems and all living things in five
literal days, He certainly is able to create the material universe in one day.
or that there was a catastrophic ruin of original creation prior
to the six days of Gen. 1.*
3. THE MANNER.
(1) By Fiat.
By this we mean that God spoke the universe into existence. The
following passages teach this quite clearly:
"By the word of Jehovah were the heaves made, and all the
host of them by the breath of his mouth" (Psa. 33:6).
"Let all the earth fear Jehovah; let all the inhabitants of
the world stand in awe of him. For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast" (Psa. 83:8,9).
"Through faith we understand that the worlds have been framed
by the word of God" (Heb. 11:3).
(2) Without Previously Existing Materials.
"What is seen hath not been made out of things which
appear" (Heb. 11:3).
When God had called the materials of the universe into existence,
He fashioned them according to His will. But He began
without anything. He alone is eternal. All other things have sprung from His
creative hand.
4. THE ORIGINAL FORM OF MATTER.
In the second verse of Genesis (interpreted in
the light of v. 9) we find the earth covered with water and the atmosphere so
saturated with vapor that the light of the sun could not reach the earth. The
author can think of only three possible views concerning the reason for this
condition: (1) That it was the condition of the earth at its origin. (2) That
it had resulted from the ruin of original creation. (3) That it was a condition
that had developed through the operation of natural forces subsequent to the origin of earth. This third view is elucidated in
the
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*For criticism of this idea, see Modern Science and Christian
Faith, p. 63; Genesis Vindicated (Price, p. 290; Creation-Facts, Theories, and Faith (Handrich), p. 126.
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following quotation: "It is generally believed that in an
early stage the earth was quite hot, possibly much hotter than the boiling
point of water. If so, there could have been no oceans as the heat would have
evaporated all the free water and the earth would have been
completely covered with dense clouds right down to its surface (Stoner, in
Modern Science and Christian Faith, p. 35).
Was all the matter in the universe created in one mass and then
separated by violent expulsive power? An affirmative answer
to this question provides a natural explanation of two noteworthy facts: (1)
Distant galaxies or "island universes" seem to be speeding away from us
with velocities proportional to their distances from us, so that if they
"were traced backward, they would appear to have originated from one place
at one time."* (2) The universe is littered with a debris of matter such
as one should expect to result from a universal explosion. This debris exists today in three forms: (A) Comets, the number of which in
our solar system is estimated to be 17,500,000.** (B) Meteors, which are so
numerous that "it is estimated that the earth encounters thousands of
millions . . . each day, and that the sun encounters as many as a trillion a
second."*** (C) Individual atoms, constituting about one-third of all the
matter of the universe, "dispersed in a condition of almost inconceivable
tenuity of one atom per cubic inch.****
The language of Gen. 1:1 does not forbid the idea that God used
natural forces in a secondary manner to bring the earth into the condition
described in the next verse. The same Hebrew word (bara) is used in Psa. 89:47,
where it is affirmed that God "made all men." Here the word admits of
the use of the natural laws of generation. We know two
things: (1) The universe was created by supernatural power. (2) Natural law now
operates in the universe. The question is, at what point in the past did the
operation of supernatural creative power give way to the operation of natural
processes? "Genesis states a creation of
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* Modern Science and Christian Faith, pp. 28,30.
** New Descriptive Astronomy (Steele), p. 188.
*** Outline of Science (Sheldon), p. 33.
**** Allen (Modern Science and Christian Faith, p. 127).
Note: Natural laws are never implied with reference to creation
week. If fact, natural laws as so-called, are still the miraculous working of Christ, Who is said to hold all things together by
His power, and that by Him "all things consist". Who is able to
discern what is "natural" law as opposed to spiritual power in an
ongoing miraculous state?
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the universe. It does not state when or how
that creation took place" (Stoner, Modern Science and Christian Faith, p.
31).
III. GOD FITTED THE EARTH FOR MAN'S ABODE
This was the work of the six days listed in
Gen. 1. Ex. 20:11 is manifestly speaking of this rather than the original
creation when it says: "For in six days the Lord God made heaven and earth
. . ." The word for "made" is not "bara," but
"asah." This latter word is used more than fifteen hundred times, and
it has many meanings; but it is not once translated "create." Thus it
is not alluding to what God did in Gen. 1:1. This gives another reason for
separating the original creation from the work of the six
days.
1. THE LENGTH OF THESE "DAYS."
The author believes that these "days" were ordinary days
of approximately twenty-four hours each. This is the manifest meaning
of both Moses and the Holy Spirit. The day-age theory would never have arisen
had it not been for a desire on the part of some to accommodate the Genesis
account to the "ages" advocated by uniformitarian geology. The
absurdity of this theory can be seen by the fact that it involves the presence
of vegetation for thousands of years during the "third day" without
the benefit of the direct rays of the sun. "Moreover, this theory can
never make the periods of creation fit the scheme of geological
'ages' even if the 'days' of Genesis are stretched out to any length whatever;
for the Biblical record has to be 'doctored' or changed in various ways to make
it fit these 'ages,' even when the days are stretched out to make them
correspond. The glaring inconsistencies that have always remained between the
Genesis record and the geological 'ages,' even when such men as Hugh Miller,
Gladstone, and Louis Agassiz had used their procrustean
methods upon them, made thousands of scoffing infidels during the later
nineteenth century; and these inconsistencies will always stare us in the face,
and ought to warn us that we are taking shameful liberties with the Word of
God."*
The record of this is found in Gen. 1:3,4. The supposition that
this light was produced by earth-glow, or from ionized air, or from phosphorus,
or that it was supernaturally created at this time, is both unfounded and
unnecessary. C. I. Scofield says very correctly here: "Neither here nor in
verse 14-18 is an original creative act implied. A
different word is used. The sense is, made to appear; made visible. The sun and
moon were created 'in the beginning.' The 'light,' of course, came from the
sun, but the vapor diffused the light. Later the sun appeared in an unclouded
sky" (Scofield Bible). The appearance of light at this time was made
possible, no doubt, by the precipitation of much of the moisture that had
completely saturated the air. For one to say that this
could not have been accomplished in an ordinary day, even by natural means, is
for him to presume to be omniscient.
3. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EXPANSE.
Vs. 6-8. The Hebrew word, "raqia,"
used seventeen times and always translated "firmament" in the King
James Version, means "expanse." The excess of vapor that still
remained in the air after the work of the first day, was on the second day
caused to rise to form clouds; which allowed increased light, no doubt, but did
not yet permit the orb of the sun to become visible. As remarked before, the
Bible alludes to both a lower and an upper "firmament." See
especially v. 14 and Psa. 19:1-6.
4. DRY LAND MADE TO APPEAR
V. 9. This was done on the third day. The necessity of this work
shows that the earth, as described in verse 2, was completely
covered with water. The draining of the land was
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*Genesis Vindicated (Price), p. 13. For further discussion of
"days" of Gen. 1, see Modern Science and the Genesis Record (Rimmer),
p. 17.
accomplished evidently by the elevation of land masses, or by the
depression of sea areas, or by both. Perhaps many, if not the hills and
mountains of the antediluvian world were thrust up at this time. If the earth
formerly had been very hot, as most scientists believe, then the forming of a
solid outer crust may have caused a build-up of internal
pressure sufficient to uplift continents, hills, and mountains. However
scientific facts seem to indicate that continents were not as extensive then as
now. Perhaps before the deluge much of the present land area was occupied by
swamps, inland seas, and waterways. The waterways of that era may have been the
"geosynclines" so well-known to geology. There may have been much
volcanic activity in connection with the elevation of land
masses.
5. THE MAKING OF VEGETATION AND TREES.
Vs. 11-13. See also Gen. 2:5. This also was done on the third day.
A creative act is not affirmed here. Because of this fact some
have imagined that vegetation and trees sprang from seeds that had been
preserved in the ground through a supposed cataclysm that had reduced the
original creation to the condition described in verse 2. But such a notion
cannot be made to harmonize with the declaration of Gen. 2:5 to the effect that
God made "every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every
herb of the field before it grew." One evident reason God used this method
in the making of vegetation is that the uplifted land
masses had become dry very quickly and there had been no rain. The ground,
therefore, was not in suitable condition for the production of vegetation from
seeds.
6. SUN, MOON, AND STARS MADE TO APPEAR.
Vs. 14-18. This was the work of the fourth day. We have noted
already that we have not here the creation of these bodies, but merely the full
appearance of them. Clouds were cleared from the sky so that for the first time
the heavenly orbs shone upon the earth in all their glory.
7. FISH, SEA-MONSTERS, AND FOWLS CREATED.
Vs. 20-23. Verse 21 shows clearly that we have here on the fourth
day another creative act. The water brought forth forms of life only after God
created them. This is fatal to the notion of reconciling evolution with the Bible. So also is the statement that each form of life was to
bring forth "after his kind." However "kind" here evidently
is used in a broader sense than "species" as it is used by many
today. But we know that the term "kind" need not mean anything
broader than "family" as used in biology.
8. INSECTS AND ANIMALS CREATED.
Vs. 24-25. The use of the expression "living creature"
in verse 24 shows that we have here a creative act as in verse 21.
Vs. 26-27. The Hebrew "bara" is used three times in
verse 27, showing unmistakably that the human race was divinely created and not
evolved. We shall note man's creation more in detail in the next chapter.
IV. GOD NOW PRESERVES THE UNIVERSE
God exerts continuous power, by means of which He maintains the
existence of the things He has created according to the nature He imparted to
them. The Scripture teaching on the infinity and supremacy of God is sufficient to convince us that God alone is self-existent and
immutable, and that the universe, therefore, must be supported and sustained by
power that is not inherent. It is as we should expect, then, when we find the
Scripture making the following statements:
"Thou art Jehovah, even thou alone; thou
hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all
things that are thereon, the seas and all that is in them, and thou preservest
them all (Neh. 9:6).
"O Jehovah, thou preservest man and beast" (Psa. 36:6).
"In him we live and move, and have our being" (Acts
17:28).
"He is before all things, and in him all things
consist"- held together, "derive their perpetuity"- Dargan (Col.
1:17).
". . . upholding all things by the word of his power"
(Heb. 1:3).
It was probably to preservation that Jesus referred in part at
least, when He said: "My Father worketh even until now" (John 5:17).
The rest of God on the seventh day of creative week was not total cessation of
activity, but only of His direct creative work.
V. GOD CONTROLS THE UNIVERSE
We find from the Scripture that God is not only the creator and
preserver of the universe, but the controller of it. He did not create the universe and then abandon it. He now actively
governs every part and every activity in the universe. This teaching is
involved in the declaration that God "worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will" (Eph. 1:11).
The following Scriptures also teach this doctrine: Job 37:3,4, 6,
10-13; Psa. 135:7; 104:14; Matt. 5:45; 6:26,30.
The doctrine of God's control of the universe does not deny the
reality of second causes. It merely shows God as the first cause and the creator
of all second causes. God arranged second causes so that they would fulfill His
will. Physical laws are real. They prevail in all cases, except where God sets
them aside in His miraculous acts. Vapor rises, rain falls,
and the wind blows according to certain laws. But God ordained those laws, and
He now sustains all things according to their original nature and His intention
for them, so that it is really God that causes the vapor to rise, the rain to
fall, and the wind to blow. To deny the existence of law is foolish. To
represent law as operating independent of God is infidelity.
God's control does not stop with the impersonal forces of the
universe; it extends to and comprehends all the actions of men. This is shown
by the following Scriptures. Ex. 12:36; Psa. 33:14,15; Prov. 19:21; 20:24;
21:1; Jer. 10:23; Dan. 4:35; Isa. 44:28; Ex. 9:12; Psa. 76:10; Prov. 16:4; John
12:37,39,40; Acts 4:27,28.
It will be seen that the above control of men includes their evil
acts as well as their good ones. God's control of the evil acts of men may be
divided into four kinds:
1. PREVENTIVE.
Gen. 20:6; 31:24; Psa. 139:3; 76:10.
2. PERMISSIVE.
Psa. 81:12,13; Hos. 4:17; Acts 14:16; Rom.
1:24,28.
It is under the head of God's permissive will or control that 1
Sam. 18:10 belongs. Here we are told that "an evil spirit from God came
mightily upon Saul." It is thus that we are to understand God's hardening
and blinding of sinners, as in Ex. 9:12; Rom. 9:18; John 12:40. It is also to
this head that we are to refer Acts 4:27,28, which has to
do with the crucifixion of Christ. God ordained that Christ should die on the
Cross, but He merely withheld His restraining power and permitted the
crucifiers to follow their own natural enmity against Christ. In 2 Sam. 24:1
and 1 Chron. 21:1, we see proof of the fact that sometimes in the Bible the
things which God allows others to accomplish are ascribed to Him. In 2 Sam.
24:1 it is said that God moved David to number Israel,
while in 1 Chron. 21:1 the same thing is ascribed to Satan.
3. DIRECTIVE.
Gen. 50:20; Isa. 10:5. Thus, while God permits
sin, He also directs it to accomplish such purposes as He is pleased for it to
accomplish.
4. DETERMINATIVE.
God not only permits sin and directs it but He
sets the bounds beyond which it cannot go, and prescribes the limits of its
effects. See Job 1:12; 2:6; Psa. 124:2; 1 Cor. 10:13; 2 Thess. 2:7.
The doctrine of God's control of the universe refutes deism, which
teaches that God created the universe and then withdrew from it; leaving it to
operate independently of His direction.
The following quotations may help to explain God's relation to
sin. "That men's sins proceed from themselves; that in sinning they
perform this or that action, is from God, who divideth the darkness according
to His pleasure" (Augustine). "God is not the causative force, but
the directing force in the sins of man. Men are in rebellion against God, but
they are not out from under His control. God's decrees are
not the necessitating cause of the sins of man, but the foredetermined and
prescribed boundings and directings of men's sinful acts" (C. D. Cole,
Baptist Examiner, March 1, 1932). "The wishes of sin are the wishes of
man; man is guilty; man is to be blamed, but the All-wise God prevents those
wishes from producing actions indiscriminately. He compels those wishes to take
a certain divinely narrowed course. The floods of iniquity are from the hearts of men, but they are not allowed to cover the land; they are
shut up to the channel of God's sovereign appointment, and men unwittingly are
thus held in bounds, so that not one iota of God's purpose shall fail. He
brings the floods of the ungodly into the channel of His providence to turn the
mill of His purpose" (P. W. Heward).