My thoughts about Creation

The creation story from Genesis is probably the most controversial story in the bible.
It has caused a lot of arguments.  It is from this section of scripture, that you hear theologians teach that you can't trust science.  When you read commentaries about this, you see people start with their points of view, and look to find people and teachings that agree with them and label everything else as fake news or in the case of theologians trying to sound pious, heresy.   It is funny to me how many people can't see the story over the words (Yes that is a play on the "they can't see the forest because of the trees" ciche.) The words that I am talking about do not change the story, just the way that the person wants to read the story.

I believe that when you look at these first few verses in Genesis, there are a couple of things that you need to remember.  First things is that the book of Genesis is believed to have been written during the events described in Exodus or Numbers and for a developing nation that just miraculously escaped slavery.  That means that more time had passed between Genesis 1:1 and the writing of Genesis, then between the writing of Genesis and now.  The second thing is that science cannot prove or disprove God.  Science can only show how God did something.  

Instead of going verse by verse like I might do in a bible study, let me make a few observations how science and theology can work together to tell and understand this story.  The NET Bible states the first 5 verses like this:  
"1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

2 Now the earth was without shape and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the watery deep, but the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the water. 3 God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light! 4 God saw that the light was good, so God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day” and the darkness “night.” There was evening, and there was morning, marking the first day."

Verse two points out the God had assembled all the ingredients needed for creation. The verse also points out that God was there.  Verse 3 is the verse that brings in "The Big Bang".  God starts off by light exploding into the dark space.  When light enters into darkness like this, it is always like an explosion as light overtakes and expels darkness.  It is this entrance of light that causes the ingredients to come together.  Now the bible doesn't say what that light was (I think that it was the glory of God) ,but it does show that it was important.  The first way that God shows that is by the way that God sets up the Hebrew Day by starting at night and then by day.  There was darkness, then God brought in the light. In the New Testament, Jesus is referenced as being the true light and that would bring the Israelites thought - back to creation.  Jesus was raised from the dead on the first day of the week, which was to be remembered as the day that God brought in the light.  The believer's new birth or new creation of the soul is a reminder of this part of creation.

Now we get to the sticking point of the word "day" here.  Now at this point of creation there were no 24 hour days.  That would not happen until day 4.  However the words used here seem to show that they were talking about a 24 hour day.  I have a couple of thoughts about that as well.  As I said before, this book book was written thousands and thousands of years later during the time when Israel was becoming a nation.  Although the 7th day would play a big point as a day of rest, I think that everyday was suppose to be a reminder of creation. So the first day would be the day of light, 2nd day would be sky or atmosphere, day 3 would be ocean, land and plants, day 4 would be sun moon and stars, day 5 would be birds and sea creatures, day 6 would be land animals, man and woman and the famous one, day 7 is a day of rest after completing the creation.

So, now we get to a big sticking point of whether each of these events happened within that 24 hour period.  I don't think that changes the story either way you want to believe, but here is an interesting tidbit of knowledge that might help reconcile the long history that archeology suggests and the 24 hour days that a lot creationists believe. Gerald Schroeder is a Jewish physicist who has a theory that an explosion of that first day would have caused a stretching  of time (another way of describing a time warp buble as described in sci-fi shows, books, etc.).  He even developed a mathematical equation to reconcile the two dates.  Well, if you are a sci-fi geek like myself, that is fascinating.

Another scientific theory is evolution.  This belief that is taught in schools actually works best when paired with creation.  In the verses of scriptures that we looked at, God doesn't explain how He created everything.  Evolution simply shows that creation begat creation.  God used what he created to create other things. It would also show why we are not getting all types of new things now.  I mean that although we are getting stuff like mules, zorses, and zonkeys, from horses, donkeys and zebras; we are only getting species that is similar to the old species that they came from and not getting something that is - nothing like anything else alive.

A lesser discussed theory is the ideal of Pangea and Panthalassa.  This is the ideal that when the Earth was created, instead of the seven continents that we see today, there was only one super size island called Pangea.  Pangea would break up and form the seven continents. Panthalassa was one super sized ocean that surrounded Pangea. Genesis 1:9 supports this by saying that the oceans gathered in one place.

"9 Then God said, "Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so.: (NET) 

I don't know if this post will actually help anyone (I hope that it does), but getting this off my chest gives me a sense of relief, and if you are still reading this at this point, I just want to say thank you.

Some thoughts about Christmas

As I write this, Christmas is two weeks away.  It is a holiday where we celebrate the birth of Christ.  I really doubt that he was actually born on December 25, but the important thing to me is that he was born and that we are celebrating it.

Christmas is also a time where a lot of pain comes to the surface.  In this time that is supposed to be a happy time, the unhappiness that we live in comes out.  Depression overcomes many of us. The stress of all the activities and schedules will overtake many.  Remembering those who have died and our failed relationships will haunt us. 

 I believe these things show us why Christmas is so important. The dysfunctional family that hurts this time of year is a picture of the dysfunctional relationship that mankind has with God.  The reason that God came, was to heal that relationship between us and Him.

Contrarily to popular opinion, God is not some angry narcissist.  God desires to be friends with us and for us to be happy.  He is the God who put a naked man and a naked woman in a perfect paradise and basically told them to have sex and to keep having sex until there was no more room for another person to be born.  He is a God who would come by in the evenings and just hang out with them.  

Then after Jesus came into this world, we see God as one who liked to hang out with the people who the seminary trained leaders of his day, condemned.  He ate and drank and partied with those people.  He even provided wine when the host ran out at one of those parties.  He told us, as well as those seminary trained leaders that He preferred mercy over sacrifice.  He also would describe his kingdom in terms of a big banquet or party where there was music and food and even dancing.  

The bible also tells us that when that kingdom is fully restored, God will be a personable God.  He will be among the people with hugs, wiping away tears and healing hurts.  It will be a perfect paradise.

This way of living is all about love.  When love is the driving force, then there is no need for laws, because love will cause us to act rightly.  This is what God set up in the beginning and Christmas marks the time when God came into this world to right that relationship.

3 responses to Mother's Day

To me as a kid growing up, Mother's Day was one of the biggest days, if not the biggest day, of the Spring.  It had all the hype of Easter, but where as Easter seemed to disappear into being just another Sunday, Mother's Day had meaning throughout the morning.

Celebrating Mother's Day would start a few days before Sunday.  Someone would order Carnations that would be picked up on Saturday and all the males would wear boutonnieres and the women would wear corsages.  The ones who had living mothers would wear red and if your mother had died then the flower would be white.  We would wear these on our Easter outfits.

The whole morning church service would be focused on Mothers and all that they do.  It would not be uncommon for families to travel back into town and attend the church service, just to be with their mothers.

Then about 20 years ago my family encountered a teaching that came from one of the local seminaries that stated that celebrating Mother's Day was evil and sinful because it shamed women who wanted to have kids, but for some reason couldn't.  While I understand the hurt that can come from this, I also thought that it would be wrong to penalize people that wanted to show honor to the women that played an important part of their lives (no matter if they were blood related or not).

This leads me to a 3rd response.  I saw a man who had been severely abused by his mother and step-dad as he grew up show honor to his mother.  This was not done on Mother's day, but throughout the year.  His mother was very elderly and so the kids would take turns housing and taking care of her for about a month at a time.  They came from a large family, so that the stay would only happen about once a year.  Even though this man would be justified in denying any aid to his Mom, he cared for her when it was his time to do so. He did not let her actions determine his response.  To me this was a Christlike love for someone. I have thought about this often these past 20 years as I have gone through some emotionally tough times in my life.  It also seems to me that society has forgotten this type of love for people.

Looking for the good in people like The Flash

As I sit to write this blog, the TV show, The Flash has just completed its 3rd season.  If you watch the show for any length of time, you come across a scene where Barry Allen (The Flash) will reach out to the antagonist and try to find and bring out the good in that person.  Many people who watch the show find this annoying, but I find this quality to be very meaningful.

I think that when you reach out and to try to find the good within a person, who is doing things that you dislike, gives depth to that person.  This will keep you from reducing the person to a two dimensional comic character.  I find it ironic that a fictitious comic book character on this show is showing more depth of being, than many real people are doing in our country and world at this time.

This also reminds me of what the Christ (God) of Christianity did during his time here on Earth.  The people who taught the Bible (The Pharisees) had imposed the laws, & the lifestyle that they understood from scriptures upon the people, and divided their fellow countrymen into two groups, either law-keepers, or sinners (the people who did not live as the Pharisees thought that they should).

Jesus, The Christ, came on the scene and He was different.  He saw the good in people.  He saw people like Zacchaeus and Matthew, who were the classic bad guys from a Robin Hood or Zorro TV show and saw the good in them.  Both Zacchaeus and Matthew were employed by the Roman Government to squeeze money out of their fellow countrymen for the Roman rulers as well as themselves.  Jesus, however saw the good in them, and they became heroes.  This is one of the themes that is repeated over and over in the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  The Pharisees tried to enforce a moral code, that they saw in scriptures and punish people.  Jesus chose to hang out with these same people, and He saw the good in them, and because He did, they became good.

I can't help but think that if the people who claim to be followers of this same Jesus today, would act this same way, then our country would be a lot better off.  Now I not siding with one political side or the other in this blog, because my honest personal opinion is that both sides are equally guilty of this.  Both sides are trying to impose moralistic code of conduct upon people as they see fit, which makes both sides no different than the religious rulers of Jesus' day. 

What if instead of being Pharisees, we became more like the Flash if not like Jesus.  I love to see the results, if that were to happen.

The cost of "Imposing our will on others".

It seems to me that every bad thing that has happened, that is happening, and will happen can be traced to this one statement: "you will be as gods, having knowledge of good and evil.".  When the first beings believed this statement, and ate the forbidden fruit, a change took place as we (from that point on) have been trying to elevate ourselves to a God like status.  Even today, all across our planet, everything can be linked to someone or some group trying to gain power to impose their wills on everyone else.

That is what life here on Earth, is now all about and you can see it every everywhere -  from politics to churches, from schools to social gatherings.  The people who we honor in society are generally those who have successfully done this. Every time we force our will on someone else, we hurt and make the other person a victim.  Every crime can be traced to this one thing of someone elevating themselves and forcing what they want on someone else. So instead of us living a live of peace. love, and harmony in a paradise, we have made an urban jungle and this society where most people look to escape from their realities.

So when God gave His commandments, I don't believe that it was because we were now "sinners in the hands of a angry God", but a loving God showing us how bad this belief has made us.  I don't believe that God has ever been hurt by our actions, but that we have hurt ourselves and each other.  God does not "buddy" around with people like He did in the garden, not because our sin affects Him, but because His Perfection would destroy us.

The true difference between people living in "The Way" and others is not one of us being better than them, but because of what Jesus did on the cross, as caused God to be able to "buddy" with us, through His Spirit"who dwells within those of us who desire to have that intimate relationship with Him.

Thoughts about death

This past week my Facebook news feed has talked a lot about funerals, near death experiences,  & people who are close to death.  This has caused me to once again think and meditate on life and death.  The following comes from those thoughts and meditations.

Genesis 3:22 And the Lord Godsaid, “Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not be allowed to stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”

This is a verse that you do not see mentioned at funerals, but it means a lot to me.  It shows me the mercy of God and the love that God has for us.  Let me explain.

When God created this world, He created a perfect paradise.  In this paradise, we had two responsibilities. The first was that man and woman were to have lots of sex with each other.  The second was that we were to learn what God did in creation of the garden and to make the rest of the world a paradise.  There was no trouble, hardships, or anything bad in this place.

Everything bad that takes place in this world, does so because of us.  When Adam and Eve rebelled by eating that fruit, they started a chain of rebellion that has been passed down to each and every one of us.  It is this rebellion that has resulted in every bad thing that happens.

When I read this verse that I quoted, I see that God does not want us to live forever with all these bad things that have been caused by us.  You see God wants all of us (who want to be with Him) to live in that perfect paradise and death is now the door to get there.  That is what this passage is really all about.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I am not arguing for purposely ending life on a whim.  I am just commenting on the attitudes that we have.

It seems to me that if we really believed in this paradise after death, it would affect the decisions that we make towards life and death.  We would not be so afraid of death for us or our friends and family.  

What is Christmas?

What is Christmas?

Is it the getting and giving of gifts?

Is it having fun and food with friends and family?

Is it an excuse to tolerate snow?

Is it about the decorations?

Is this really a time of peace and love?

Are we really celebrating the birth of a baby who was born over 2000 years ago and probably not on Dec. 25?

If Christmas is a time of holiday bliss, then why do a lot of the songs that we cherish are songs that deal with hardships, loss, and separations?

Is it possible that the greatest, attribute of Christmas is that no matter what hardships, losses, or separations that you are now enduring, there is a hope and love that can sustain you through these things?