We know from the first verse in the bible that God is the world's creator. We know that what God created was originally good. I must clear something up though. Most people fall into a trap of reductionism when thinking of creation. Most will say that God created the physical world (trees, ocean, animals, humans) and this is most assuredly true. This is not the whole truth though. God also created the systems in which the world works. There are laws that exist in nature that God himself created. Even more so, there are systems in which the world must work. Right and wrong ways of doing things. In the movie "Idiocracy", society has replaced water with what is best compared to gatorade. Plant life becomes extinct. God created a particular way for agriculture to work and outside of those bounds it just will not. It is this way with everything; relationships (romantic or unromantic), business, music, education, and so on. My point is God created all.
God also created man. He created man in the image of himself. It is flawed for me to say himself because that term is singular and God is not, yet he is. We were made in the likeness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Being made in the image of God, I believe means we were created with a divine purpose, namely to Glorify the trinitarian God. We were created to worship and we all worship something. Even God worships (if that sounds uncanny then maybe that will be another blog itself). It would take way too much for me to expand on the image of God like I want but I will do it eventually. I believe that when God created man He did so out of an overflow of love, not an obligation and definitely not out of need. Because of that He desires obedience. Man, created with freedom of will, chose to worship self rather than God. Adam and Eve wanted to be God rather than worship Him.
When it comes to creation and fall, there are many that seem to feel that there is a lot of speculation that goes into a historical recreation of these two events. That maybe true but I still must emphasize that at the end of the day there is a truth presented that is an absolute either way you look at it: we were made in God's image and we shattered that image with our self glorifying actions. In the case of the fall, the choice made by the father of mankind (Adam) not only affected humans, but the whole of creation. Creation itself has been subjected to futility (Romans 8:20). It is God's plan through this that creation would be set free from the bonds of the curse that God placed upon it (and us). This is where evil is introduced to creation, through our sin, causing God to implement His plan to redeem man and creation. In Romans 8:21 Paul explains that God's plan is to use evil in a redemptive way for His good purposes, to build His kingdom, to save His people and to Judge the wicked.
I think the hardest part for me is Him judging the wicked. How can God use evil to punish the evil doers? In the book Habakkuk God raises up the Chaldeans through their evil in chapter 1 and in the very next chapter curses them for their evil. If someone out their has an actual answer for this then I'm sure you just haven't thought about it enough to see that your answer is flawed. These kinds of tensions in the bible are everywhere. I can systematically put things together but even when I do that it doesn't make sense. So in short, I don't know! There is your conclusion. I sincerely believe this is the conclusion until Jesus himself returns to tell us how small minded we are.
God also created man. He created man in the image of himself. It is flawed for me to say himself because that term is singular and God is not, yet he is. We were made in the likeness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Being made in the image of God, I believe means we were created with a divine purpose, namely to Glorify the trinitarian God. We were created to worship and we all worship something. Even God worships (if that sounds uncanny then maybe that will be another blog itself). It would take way too much for me to expand on the image of God like I want but I will do it eventually. I believe that when God created man He did so out of an overflow of love, not an obligation and definitely not out of need. Because of that He desires obedience. Man, created with freedom of will, chose to worship self rather than God. Adam and Eve wanted to be God rather than worship Him.
When it comes to creation and fall, there are many that seem to feel that there is a lot of speculation that goes into a historical recreation of these two events. That maybe true but I still must emphasize that at the end of the day there is a truth presented that is an absolute either way you look at it: we were made in God's image and we shattered that image with our self glorifying actions. In the case of the fall, the choice made by the father of mankind (Adam) not only affected humans, but the whole of creation. Creation itself has been subjected to futility (Romans 8:20). It is God's plan through this that creation would be set free from the bonds of the curse that God placed upon it (and us). This is where evil is introduced to creation, through our sin, causing God to implement His plan to redeem man and creation. In Romans 8:21 Paul explains that God's plan is to use evil in a redemptive way for His good purposes, to build His kingdom, to save His people and to Judge the wicked.
I think the hardest part for me is Him judging the wicked. How can God use evil to punish the evil doers? In the book Habakkuk God raises up the Chaldeans through their evil in chapter 1 and in the very next chapter curses them for their evil. If someone out their has an actual answer for this then I'm sure you just haven't thought about it enough to see that your answer is flawed. These kinds of tensions in the bible are everywhere. I can systematically put things together but even when I do that it doesn't make sense. So in short, I don't know! There is your conclusion. I sincerely believe this is the conclusion until Jesus himself returns to tell us how small minded we are.
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