GOD, WORLDS & NEW CREATION
This piece is repetitive but I won't apologize for that. It might be more helpful this way.
We see
a man leisurely passing by on a bicycle. What’s he doing? Well,
obviously, he’s riding a bike. True, but that’s he doing? He’s going
somewhere. True, but what’s he doing? He’s taking exercise. True, but
what’s he doing? [He had cardiac bypass surgery 4 weeks earlier.] He’s
following his doctor’s advice. True, but that’s he doing? [He has a wife
and children who adore him and urge him to take gentle exercise.] He’s
pleasing the family he loves and easing their concerns. These numerous
related purposes are part of what he is physically doing.
By cycling he is carrying out a multi-faceted purpose and that purpose cannot be severed from his cycling.
As
it’s laid out in the biblical witness the first thing we’ll think about
is God as creator. Then we’ll think of him as redeemer (see Psalm 136
and Genesis 1 & 2 with 3:14-15 understood in light of Romans 16:20
and Revelation 12:1-5).
To
allow us to reflect on it the notion of redemption must follow the
notion of creation since without someone to redeem there can be no
redemption.
Time-bound
humans learn and know things in the process of time but God is
beyond/outside of time and its limits. For him all things are “present”.
Humans, of course, think of the past, present and future because that’s
how they experience life; but God is already “in the future” [that is,
our future].
All
of this means what? It means God doesn’t “come to know” some things; he
already knows all that is knowable and he knows it all at the same
time. This in turn would have to mean that he knew when he created us
that we would “fall” and that he would move to redeem us.
It’s
the case that God is the Creator but unless the creation is understood
on his terms and lived in within the parameters of his purpose, in a
real sense it is no longer his “creation”.
We’re
not to think that God created without knowing why he was creating. We
can’t have God saying to himself, “I think I’ll make something!” and
having created a universe then wondering why he did it. He created to
display his glory, he created to share his joy-filled fellowship in the
trinity, and so forth. What he made and why he made it are two aspects
of one creative act of God.
His purpose in making is part of the making.
God
had Israel build a temple and he purposed it to be a house of prayer
and when Israel responded in faithfulness to God the temple was just
that. But Israel turned the temple into a place where shameful things
occurred and the OT prophets tell us that God left it for it was no
longer a home to him. Jesus said they had turned it into a den of
thieves.
Understand
that the temple building was the same building that God built but now
as a result of the corruption of the prophets, priests, kings and
general public it was something else. It was a place where thieves and
idolaters gathered. Because what he had created for a glorious and
blessed purpose was now a center of evil and misrepresented Him, God
brought judgment on it. [The same is true of the land of promise and
was/is true of the entire planet.]
The
creation was to be the theater of God’s glory but corrupted humans
turned it into a theater of their shame and wickedness. It was now a
“world” constructed by the sinful minds and plans of humans.
[See
1 John 2:15-17; James 4:4 as illustrations of this use of “world”. From
this point on when I mean the corrupt reality I’ll use “world” with
inverted commas.]
Such a “world” is now God's world [creation] seen with different eyes
and different hearts; it’s a corrupt and corrupting “world” that’s no
longer sees God's world [creation] as God meant it to be seen—it’s now a
different “world”.
But
note: this "world" remains the world God created, with all its
structures, authorities and forces and elements, including humans. We
have corrupted ourselves and everything we come in contact with.
That
different “world” is divided up into kingdoms and empires, some more
powerful than others and some more oppressive than others. Wherever
these kingdoms are located the people live under the dictation of the
powerful. The general public live under the tyrants’ skies, drink from
their water and are subject to their taxes, policies and such. Note how
this is expressed in Daniel 2:37-38. These kingdoms are localized
expressions of the one corrupt “world” with the satanic forces shaping
them. They are corrupt “worlds” within the one corrupt and
all-encompassing "world”.
In
Moses' day and experience one of those localized “worlds” was shaped
and governed by a corrupt and corrupting Egyptian faith and coercive
power, it was a “world” where oppression of the aliens was thought to be
the wise and right thing to do [Exodus 1:8-11]. Or it was a Babylonian
or a Persian “world” or a Greek world or Roman “world”.
Let
me say it again. All of these “worlds” are sinful restructurings of the
world God created. When God created the world he made trees, rivers,
land, seas, mountains, crops, sunshine, rain and such. He also made
humans and social structures, authorities and the like and purposed them
to function his way and for his overarching purpose. When we sinfully
restructured the world God made, it became a different “world”. Nothing
happened to the molecules of the planet or the things on it; nothing
happened to the atoms of which space and everything else is made. But we
corrupted and corrupting humans saw [and see] these created things as
instruments of our sinfulness. We used them to oppress, blackmail,
control and threaten the powerless and the voiceless, just as we do
today.
To
the degree that we the sinful human family are able, we have made the
creation [ourselves included] a fellow servant with us of the
world-spirit. It is that “world” that God is opposed to.
“We’re
you angry with the trees, the rivers, the mountains, Lord?” Habakkuk
3:8-11 asks when the prophet speaks of God redemptive march through
history as he ruined Egypt and Midian. No, in these judgments God is
stamping his judgment on “the world” created [structured] by oppressive
nations/governments. “This ‘world’ is not my world,” God says, as he
sets his hand against it. See Numbers 33:4 and Exodus 12:12 and again
below.
God’s
judgment against Egypt certainly falls on all the Egyptian people and
even those who disagree with government views and policies experience
the pain and loss. But God’s judgment on Egypt was not simply against a
specific individual [Pharaoh] or individuals [his immediate cronies in
the palace and priesthood]—it’s against an entire “world order”. It's
against an empire which embodies the anti-God, anti-holiness and
anti-life satanic spirit, a "world" led by Pharaoh.
God
doesn’t simply want that Pharaoh dead—he wants to pass sentence of an
evil "world". That evil “world” is Pharaoh’s “world”—he is the
controller and representative of it and people must live in it in the
ways that he determines. [Do see the description of the authority God
gave to Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2:37-38.] But this “world”, of which
Pharaoh is the visible lord, is inspired by the demonic and satanic so
that Pharaoh is the servant of the world-spirit. He is “a god” under the
“god of this world” [compare John 12:31 and 2 Corinthians 4:4]. When
God brings Pharaoh down his purpose is to bring down Pharaoh’s “world”
and God shows this by “attacking” its heavens, sun, earth, river,
cattle, governing bodies and their firstborn who would carry on that
line.
This is a “world” shaped by gods created by humans
who have rejected the one true God and live in opposition to God’s
overarching purpose [see Genesis 12:1-3; 22:17-18]; it is the world that
God has created but it is a world hijacked by the world-spirit. In this
“world” multiple gods are believed to bring blessings and render
judgment when they’re angry. These gods [the earth god, the sun god, the
wilderness god, the moon god, the god of wisdom, the god of the river,
the god of darkness, the god of calamity, the god that gave life and the
god of crops and health and hope and so forth]—these gods were said to
have created and to sustain the world. This is the “world” and the only
“world” known by the Egyptians and Pharaoh and his palace supporters
controlled it.
They don’t know the world as Yahweh’s world!
This
is the “world” that God brought down! The judgment was no loveless act
against Egypt though the Egyptians felt the pain. Fundamentally, it was
God against the gods [Exodus 12:12; 15:11; 18:11; Numbers 33:4 and
elsewhere]. He wasn’t angry with the cattle or the physical creation or
the children of the Egyptians—he was against the “world” in which these
people lived.
In
these Exodus texts God teaches us the he will not live at peace with
such "worlds"—he will make war against them and bring them down. The
language of Genesis 1 & 2 is the language of creation and the
language of judgment is presented in the form of “uncreation”. See this
in passages like Isaiah 13 & 14 [against Babylon], Isaiah 34
[against Edom and other nations], Zephaniah 1, Jeremiah 4:3, 14: 22-26
[against Judah]. In the description of these judgments it is not the
creation itself that is attacked—it is the "world" of the Babylonians
or the Judeans or in Revelation 21 the "world" of the Romans.
God’s
world is his creation viewed by his eyes and for his purposes. There is
only one creation, don't you know, but how it is perceived gives it a
different nature [note again the remarks above about the temple]. When
the Lord Jesus returns, his already existing view of creation, which is
the Holy One's view of it, will be visibly and publicly restored and the
structures, the authorities and powers will all be dedicated to the
service of the Lord God and the knowledge and glory of God will cover
the earth as the waters cover the sea.
When
Jesus, speaking of his “hour” of the crucifixion, speaks of the
judgment of “the world” [John 12:31-32] it is that satanic view and use
of God’s creation he has in mind. He isn't talking about the planet
being judged!
When
Paul says that Jesus in self-giving love, in accordance with the
Father’s will, brought us forgiveness that he might deliver us “from
this present evil world [aion, here the equivalent of kosmos]” he’s speaking of the demonic view, shape and use of God’s creation—Galatians 1:3-4, KJV.
When
Paul speaks in Galatians 6:14 about “the world” being crucified by
Jesus he is speaking of the satanic restructuring of God’s creation.
When
Peter speaks of the dismantling of the world it is “the world” of the
wicked he is speaking about [2 Peter 2:5; 3:6-12]. In crucifying the
"world" Jesus is doing in a final and universal way what God had been
doing in the judgments of former ages when he brought down individual
"worlds".
Babylon, Persia and the rest were powers/authorities God raised up [see Daniel 7:2 where God works on the seas that stand for the clashing nations --and
Isaiah 17:12-13]. They were given authority to serve God for the
benefit of his creatures but they corrupted themselves and God brought
them down. He ended their "worlds".
When
such passages are followed by a new heaven and a new earth we’re not to
think of a literal destruction of the planet followed by a literal new
creation of a planet earth and a heaven. See Isaiah 65 & 66; 2 Peter
2 & 3 and Revelation 21-22 as illustrations of the point.
The
new heaven and earth speech in scripture follows the speech of
"uncreation," which is the speech used to describe the destruction of
evil empires and powers. In "new creation" speech we hear of the
restoration of the structures and elements that make this creation God’s
world again under his righteous reign.
Every
“world” that God dismantles throughout the ages is an assurance that no
tyranny or oppression or lie lives forever. The judgment on that
“world” is not just a judgment on a particular individual but on the
“world” that that individual helps construct and rules over in the
spirit of the satanic powers.
In
Jesus Christ the satanic and demonic powers have been defeated, the
planet/creation is now fully understood by one of us—a human, who is God
being a human. Jesus sees creation as it should be seen, governs it how
it should be governed [with the Holy Father's overarching purpose in
mind] and is bringing it all to a glorious fulfillment in a coming day.
With
Jesus a “new creation” has begun, the evil "world" has been crucified
and all those who are in him are NOW a part of a new creation. That new
creation that now exists by virtue of Jesus killing “the world” and
becoming Lord of All will one day be seen and understood and lived in as
the blessed, immortal Lord Jesus already sees, understands and reigns
over it. We will share his reign with him if indeed we suffer with him
[Romans 8:16-17 and what follows all the way to verse 31].
The glory of those who are his Body is to conform to his personal experience [Romans 8:29]—suffering and then glory follows!
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, theabidingword.com.