Creation as Trust

Why Call God Creator?
Nicene Creed: God is "maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible."

Creation names a set of relationships that show the universe to be the work of our trustworthy God.
Affirming creation is a trusting response ("all things ... invisible", Heb 11:3).

These relationships are Trinitarian:

the Father creates through and for the Son, by and in the Holy Spirit (Gen 1, Ps 33:6, John 1, 1 Cor 8, Col 1, Irenaeus, Nicene Creed).

They are also complex, ordered, and coherent,

yielding what rivals and alternatives cannot: what Christians mean by faith or trust.

"formless and void" (Gen 1:2): Unmediated Creation (creatio prima/immediata)

God caused the universe from nothing (creatio ex nihilo: Gen 1:1-2, Gen 2:4, Col 1:16, Heb 1:2, Heb 11:3, Rev 4:11).

Israel's being, deliverance, and life all owe to one God (Deut 5-6).
Rivals of unmediated creation:

1. Polytheism and dualism: The universe has many causes and powers (generally violent: Enuma Elish).
2. Pantheism and atheism: All is 'God' (or there is none); the universe is absolute and self-realizing.
3. Platonism, process theology, and Mormonism: 'God' forms a pre-existing universe (and must respect its limits).

"finished, and all their array" (Gen 2:1): Mediated Creation (creatio segunda or creatio mediata)
God has ordered, formed, and detailed the universe in specific ways (Gen 1:3ff, Gen 2:7ff):

	"tohu" (formless)	"bohu" (void)
1	light / darkness: day / night	day-light / night-light, stars; to rule	4
2	water / sky	water-creatures / sky-birds; to increase	5
3	earth / seas, vegetation	earth-creatures / adam; to increase, be ruled or rule, eat	6
	finished	arrayed
	7 (shabbat): rest and blessing

God delights in creation's manyness, otherness, ordered relationship (Wisdom), and responsivity (Word).
"The community of creation" (Wendell Berry, Richard Bauckham) reciprocates with praise (Ps 148).
Creation is wild, chaotic, and uninhabitable as well as structured, controlled, and hospitable (Job 38-39, 40-41).
Israel's complex life and structure all reflect its location in God's created order.

 

Rivals of mediated creation:

4. Gnosticism: As "first cause," God only causes inferior, mediating creators; the world is essentially evil.
5. Renaissance/Ciceronian natural law(?): Specificities are arbitrary, owing entirely to governing scientific or moral rules and principles.
(Does evolution imply this? Moral, not scientific, reasons drive most arguments against it.)

This climaxes in the creation of humanity "in God's image" (Gen 1:25-26).

"I will make a helper" (Gen 2:18): Continued Creation and Providence (creatio continuata)
Providence is God's continuing (and necessarily sacrificial) renewal, maintenance, and care for the creation.

God's providence often happens through natural processes (Ps 104, Job 38-39).

Providence identifies God as creator with God as redeemer and perfecter (John 1:2-3, 6:35, Col 1:16, Irenaeus).

Providence relates Israel to God actively, as God's beloved, free, and ever newly grateful beneficiaries — "sons" (Hosea 11:1, Matt 2:15).
Rivals of providence:

6. Fatalism: Beings are manipulated and unfree (rather than God being "with" them).
7. Deism: Like a watchmaker, God maintains no continuing active relationship with his creation.
(Does evolution demand this? Can rejecting Deism defuse moral objections against it?)
8. Animism: Nature is a sacral power we serve.

"It was very good" (Gen 1:31): The Point of Creation
Against all these (mistrusting?) alternatives, Israel affirms all three of the above relationships.
The universe is thus creation:

the sign-ificant work of a loving, involved God (Gen 1:14-19, Ps 104:19; Gen 1:21, Ps 104:26-27).

All three relationships imply a purpose behind creation.

Goodness names the purposefulness of the work of God's willed and shared love (Gen 1:31, Mark 10:18).

The purposeful creation points forward to its end (telos), not merely back to its beginning.

Influential images of God's expressed will for humanity:

life: eternal life (Matt 25:46, John 3:15, Rom 6:20-23, Gal 6:7-10, Titus 3:1-7).
fruitfulness: wise authority (Luke 22:24-30, Rev 3:21, 1 Cor 6:1-3).
exaltation: glory (2 Cor 3:17-18, Rom 8:29-30, John 17:9-10).

‘The Kingdom of God’ is their created reality of

“righteousness/justice and peace/shalom and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom 14:17-18).

Jesus is their source, epitome, and shape.
The Father is their benefactor; the Spirit is their medium and manifestation.

Rival ends put nature at others' disposal, for their own needs, interests, or purposes:

9. Tribalism: one's own group (tribe, family, nation, etc.).
10. Modernism: any, since creation has no inherent purpose, only objective status.
11. Individualism: oneself (Ayn Rand).
12. Collectivism, socialism, progressivism: society (Marx).
13+. Other idolatries: any others besides God's actual expressed purpose, even God's misconstrued purpose (Col 3:5).

"The way to the tree of life": (Gen 3:24): New Creation (creatio nova)
Christians alone affirm that the new creation has arrived, in the risen Jesus (2 Cor 5:17, Col 1:18, Rev 1:5).

The Son's incarnation, atonement, and exaltation bring creation and God profoundly together (Col 1:13-20):

The Son is the means and form of the Father's creation, enacted by the Spirit.