14 The story of reality – part 1, Creation

“In the beginning God made the heavens and the earth”. These are the first words in the Bible.

God has always existed, but the universe has not. It was brought into being by God, who is greater than his creation and separate from it. It was not a cosmic accident, as atheists are forced to conclude. It is not one with its creator, as believed by followers of Eastern religions.

God made the universe out of nothing, by the power of his word. It was designed for his purpose. It was well made, it was very good. God made the world and placed it in its orbit. He caused the separation of dry land from water. He formed the atmosphere and the seasons. He made the plants and animals, each after their own kind.

God made the first humans in his own image, thus we are very different from the rest of his creatures. God is a spirit, so it was not God’s physical image. We are like God but different from animals in our spiritual and mental abilities.

God made our world, so it is his. God has not left us to our own devices. He loves us and made us with the capacity to love him. Humans are the peak of God’s creation but we don’t have the right to do what we want. We are only managers and we are accountable to God for the way we use or abuse his world.

We are not part of God but we are like God.  We have a moral conscience, and we are able to relate to God in a much greater and more personal way than any other creature. Human life and death is in God’s hands, and we should not usurp his authority.

God gave the first humans free will, because he wanted them to freely choose to follow him. He designed humans to be happiest when they trusted his moral judgements. But something went wrong. The next article describes the fall of humanity.

13 The story of reality

Common sense tells us that our world is a mixture of good and bad. It is an amazing place. Humans have amazing abilities and do many good things. But our nightly news shows us the world is also full of disasters and wickedness. Good news items are rare. Nobody can argue that we live in a perfect world.

Why is the world like this? It is the role of a worldview to answer this question – to explain reality, warts and all.

A worldview can be likened to a story of the way the world is, the way it was and the way we believe it can become. Every good story has four parts. It has a beginning (part 1), and then something goes wrong (part 2). The longest part of most stories tells how the wrong gets fixed (part 3) and that brings a final resolution (part 4).

All these characteristics determine how the rest of the story unfolds. The Christian worldview fits this four part model; its four parts are creation, fall, redemption and restoration

Islam is a 2 part story: of creation and a final accounting, It explains evil as a failure to obey God’s will and considers not being a Muslim the greatest evil. Some adherents to Islam therefore argue that killing non-Muslims is a good thing. We can know God’s will through the Koran but little of His character apart from His greatness and compassionate.

Atheism is a 1 part story. There is no eternal creator, so we really are quite alone in the universe without any sense of purpose (no redemption or restoration). Atheists cannot explain how something goes wrong when there is no designer and therefore no right way in the first place (no fall).

The Eastern way of thinking is also a 1 part story, though some forms teach reincarnation as a kind of second part. Most say we are all part of the divine, equally with the rest of nature. All of nature should be worshipped as such. This is also at the heart of the western green movement. Most forms see matter as evil and non-material reality as good.

In the Christian story, the universe was made by a person who always existed. It was designed for his purpose. The universe is not eternal but God is. Therefore the world does not revolve around humans, God is the main actor. This has implications, we fit into God’s plan or we become awkward misfits. God made it, so it is his. Humans don’t have the right to do what they want. God made us to love him. But God is distinct and separate from his creation.

The wonderful truth of this is that the universe continues to be controlled by some One, not some thing. We are not abandoned to the fates or to the blind and brutal forces of the natural world. Instead, we have a powerful King carefully watching over us.

12 God has a claim on our lives

Here is a summary of these articles so far.

There is overwhelming evidence that our universe and everything in it were created by God. It is not just a random accident as many would claim. The evidence clearly shows that the universe had a definite beginning, so needed a cause beyond itself. The conditions required for life are so fine tuned as to require an intelligent designer outside of space and time. I am convinced that that designer is the God of the Bible.

Science can explain how many things work, but it cannot explain why we are here and what we ought to do (our moral choices). Without God, attempts to decide morality just become personal preferences of the strongest and the loudest voices, and can be very dangerous. This is happening right now in our country.

Historians now agree that Jesus really did live as a human on earth and the Gospels, which tell us about his life, are valid history.

Humans have a deep seated belief in life after death. Jesus rose from the dead and spent time with his followers afterwards. This is the clearest evidence we have of life after death, so we should listen to what Jesus tells us about life and death and what happens afterwards.

What are Hay people saying about these articles?  Most agree that there is a God. This is good but the really important question is whether this belief affects our lives. Is belief in God something that guides your everyday decisions, the way you see things and the way you act?

Each of us has developed our own built-in guidance system, or set of glasses through which we see the world. Many Australians believe in horoscopes and fortune telling, Christians believe God hears our prayers, atheists say it is all nonsense because the only reality is what we can see, feel, taste, smell and hear, physical realities. These are examples to show some of the very different frameworks, or worldviews, through which people see reality.

But it is more complex than that. Most Australians do not have one consistent worldview, they see life as a smorgasbord of ideas, and they pick and choose at random. So most people may say they believe in God but don’t acknowledge God’s claim on our lives.  They base many life decisions on what suits them best at the time or some competing value.

In the next few articles, I want to explain the basic ideas of the Christian worldview, the way I see it. Now you can see what I had in mind when I chose the title for these articles.