In considering the deep and general subject of origins there are three major doctrines which have to do with the sovereign activity of God, of which we must keep in mind. As one proceeds it is important to make every effort to avoid the error of confusing these truths for in so doing we shall obscure the issue & lose sight of our goal. These three doctrines are;
1. The Eternal Decree.
2. The Doctrine of Creation.
3. Providence.
These are the three main doctrines of the Bible upon which we draw in order to arrive at the correct Christian view of origins. One of the first things we see immediately is that these doctrines speak of the sole activity of God. That is, the creature has no part in either the decree, creation, or the sovereign control of all things by God in time. Although the matter of Providence might suggest otherwise since the creature is involved in the activities of time & history... yet he moves under the [false] impression that he is doing so totally independent of any involvement on God’s part. Even though man is a volitional creature who is responsible for his actions he is not, nor does he function, outside of the sovereign control of God, for Paul tells us in Acts that it is in HIM that all men live, move, and have their very being. Acts 17:28. This will become clearer as we progress. We shall do so by taking each of these three doctrines in their respective order. In so doing we are taken completely back, back, back... into the far distant so-called ‘eternity passed’ where nothing but nothing existed except for the Triune God. After all, we are investigating the issue of origins and that necessarily calls us to go as far back as we possibly can; if you will... to the ‘absolute beginning’ of all things; God Himself. But not just God in respect to anything else. No; God with respect to NOTHING else. God ALONE. This then is...
CONDITION ALPHA
GOD the Origin of All Things
Genesis 1:1
In the beginning... GOD... Nothing else.
At all.
Ever.
Before the beginning
there was only GOD. GOD ONLY WAS.
There was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING
ELSE; There was Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
Three Persons in one GOD;
Eternally
alive and self existing.
Nothing else. No "stuff";
No "space"; No "Blank" or "Blackness"; NOTHING !!! No
Heaven;
No "place" for GOD to exist or dwell in! GOD was & is ABSOLUTE
ALPHA!
GOD was & is absolutely autonomous & self contained. He existed
in & of Himself & needed nothing outside of Him to sustain His
being!
This is seen in a passage such
as...
Ps 90:2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou [art] God.
God existed without mountains; without the earth or the world; without the universe; all of which are elements of time, have a beginning, & shall have an end... but GOD is 'from everlasting to everlasting'; without beginning or end, & dependent on nothing but Himself for His own existence. Thus God told Moses... I AM! So we may say that God Himself is 'pure existence in & of Himself who needs nothing else but Himself to sustain & uphold His existence'.
At this point we may venture a bit into the philosophical implications of such a view by noting that since God exists in such an absolute 'state' or 'environment'... that being His own Person & nothing else... we may then say that anything that proceeds, or comes after God is 'not-God'! That is, nothing else shares in this attribute of self existence. Anything at all that is part of that which exists owes its existence to God, because it is from God that it derives its existence whereas God derives His existence from nothing & no one but Himself. This much alone is enough to demolish such ungodly ideas as pantheism, dualism and the eternality of matter!
We can also give a preliminary
logical
proposition showing the origin of evil;
God alone is self existent.
Everything else that exists owes
its existence to God.
Evil exists; therefore...
Evil owes its existence to God!
As preliminary as this is it is inescapable! Even if we confine evil to the will of God we are still faced with the problem of why a Good God wills evil. An even greater problem is why He does not eliminate it! Is He not powerful enough to do so?
Objection; What about second
causation?
Answer; What about
it?
Whence cometh these 'second causes' whereby God is said to bring
about evil in a 'mediate' & not an 'immediate' sense? Second
causation
only demonstrates the fact that God must have wanted evil to exist
&
so we are still back to the problem of... why would a Good God even
conceive
of such a thing as evil? So... second causation... which we shall
deal with in due time... is still no answer to the problem of
evil!
Onward...
Another passage showing the point of God's eternal solitary existence apart from anything else;
Pr 8:25 Before the mountains
were
settled, before the hills was I brought forth:
26 While as yet he had not
made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the
world.
If we examine these verses in
context
of Prov 8:22-31 we discover that the writer moves in a majestic way
from
God's 'absolute existence' apart from the creation, to His relationship
with and involvement in His own creation. This demonstrates both the
Transcendence
& the Immanence of God. These two ideas must be understood in order
for a correct Biblical view of theodicy.
More Scripture...
Heb 1:10 And, Thou, Lord, in
the
beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are
the
works of thine hands:
11 They shall perish; but thou
remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment;
12 And as a vesture shalt thou
fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy
years shall not fail.
This is a quote from Ps 102;
25,26
& is simply another way of expressing the truth of Gen. 1:1!
Again it is telling us that before anything other than God came into
existence
God eternally existed 'in & of Himself' which means that He was the
sole occupant of the 'house of existence'; a metaphorical statement
that
I'm sure conveys the meaning.
DOCTRINE: Anything other than GOD necessarily came from GOD! For anything to achieve existence it must come from GOD. Nothing can create itself... not even GOD! GOD only has the power & ability to create. GOD was & is CONDITION ALPHA; The origin of all things. The creation could not originate any conditions of itself, much less those which could rival or oppose GOD! Everything in the entire universe derives its existence from and is fully dependent on God. Tons of Scripture attest to this truth;
Ne 9:6 Thou, [even] thou, [art] LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all [things] that [are] therein, the seas, and all that [is] therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.
Job 26:13 By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.
Pr 8:26 While as yet he had
not
made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the
dust of the world.
...Even the dust is the
product of the creative power of God!
Pr 16:4 The LORD hath made all
things
for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
...God made the wicked!
Isa 42:5 Thus saith God the
LORD,
he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread
forth
the earth, and that which cometh out of it;
...Including worms and
cockroaches!
Isa 44:24 Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I [am] the LORD that maketh all [things]; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;
Isa 45:5 I am the LORD,
and
there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though
thou
hast not known me:
6 That they may know from
the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me.
I am the LORD, and there is none else.
7 I form the light, and
create
darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
...Hoshekk (darkness) and Ra
(evil)
were created by God.
Isa 45:18 For thus saith the
LORD
that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made
it;
he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be
inhabited:
I [am] the LORD; and [there is] none else.
...The last phrase could well
have
been stated by God in eternity as; I am the LORD and there is nothing
else.
Jer 51:15 He hath made the
earth
by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath
stretched
out the heaven by his understanding.
...The world, which is inundated
with evil and wickedness, has been established as such, by nothing else
but the infinite wisdom of the living God!
Zec 12:1 The burden of the
word
of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the
heavens,
and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man
within
him.
...The spirit of man, which is
depraved and dead in sin, has been formed by God!
Jn 1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Ac 17:24 God that made the world and all things therein,...
Col 1:16 For by him were all
things
created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and
invisible,
whether [they be] thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers:
all things were created by him, and for him:
...The devil, wicked spirits,
Hitler
and corrupt governments; the powers of hell and of darkness. All were
created
by God.
Ro 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, [are] all things: to whom [be] glory for ever. Amen.
Re 4:11 Thou art worthy, O
Lord,
to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all
things,
and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
Concerning these verses it may be observed that The most basic, fundamental fact of reality... that which is foundational to all of life... is that everything proceeds from; is absolutely controlled by; and finds its root of existence and termination in GOD! Thus God is both Alpha and Omega... the beginning and the end of all things. If then God is the origin of all things and nothing can exist apart from Him then the conclusion is forced upon us that HE is the origin of evil! I can see fuses blowing all over the place... Good! Now that I have your attention start putting to death carnal reasoning and let your mind be renewed by the Word of God. In our tendency to react against something that we think does not "sound right" it is inevitable that we will resort to carnal reasoning instead of subjecting our minds and intellects to the Bible. Does it sound reasonable that every person born deserves nothing but the fires of hell... ipso facto? Including those cute little innocent bundles of joy sent "right from heaven"? Of course it doesn't sound reasonable; it sounds more cruel than sane to say babies deserve hell because they are already sinners by nature and that's how God made them! Yet the Biblical truth of man's depravity leaves no other conclusion. All men are children of the Devil from birth and therefore deserve to go to hell. You see folks, when it comes to Bible doctrine and the truth of God carnal reasoning just doesn't cut it! We need to disconnect some wires in the brain and re-wire it so that it will be in a condition to receive the truth of God without getting all bent outta shape. This is just what Paul meant when he wrote;
Ro 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Paul here is instructing us to do nothing less than re-program our minds? When unbelievers accuse us of being "brain washed" they are right! Our minds must be "washed", not only from sin and its influences by the blood and by the Spirit, but they must also be washed by the written word of God. This means we must guard against carnal methods of thinking in attempting to understand Scripture. As I said we must be careful not to ascribe evil to the Nature of the Deity or make Him out to be the author of sin. The natural reaction of carnal reasoning is to say... if God is the author of everything then He must be the author of sin. Nothing could be further from the truth. If this were the case then farewell; let's eat, drink and make merry for tomorrow we not only die but face the greatest monster in the universe! The conclusion is based on the logical fallacy of equivocation with regard to the meaning of the word 'author'. Further, the conclusion that He is the author of sin is at odds with the Biblical teaching on the Nature of God. Since the Bible plainly shows that God is Light and Holy this means that He cannot possible be the author of sin. Let us examine this term to see what it means.
By the term "author of sin" two things are meant; 1. God is the doer or actor of sin. That is, God actually commits sin! This is absurd by Biblical standards for the Bible tells us...
Ps 145:17 The LORD [is] righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.
De 32:4 [He is] the Rock, his work [is] perfect: for all his ways [are] judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right [is] he.
Zep 3:5 The just LORD [is] in the midst thereof; he will not do iniquity:
2. Evil is part of the nature of God. Thus as He creates the world it becomes a "reflection" or an 'extension' of His nature. Since there is evil in the world there must be evil in God. God then is the author of sin. This is where pantheism ultimately lands one! If, as pantheism affirms, God is identified with the creation then whatever attributes are in the creation are in God also. This is human reasoning at work and the Bible is opposed to it...
Hab 1:13 [Thou art] of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity:...
Ps 5:4 For thou [art] not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee.
1Jo 3:5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.
There is indeed sin in the
universe
but there is NO sin in God! And yet sin could not come into existence
unless
the Sovereign Creator purposed that it should.
These verses were selected at
random
and many more could be produced to prove that the Christian God is
neither
evil nor does He do evil. He is holy and righteous and therefore
whatever
He does is right; even if He creates a universe that contains evil, He
is still holy and righteous. He can be, and is the origin of evil
without
being its author because He neither commits sin nor is evil part of His
essence or nature. Further when the meaning of the term 'author' is
properly
understood we can once again present a logical proposition which
demonstrates
God to be the origin, or 'author' of all things, including the evil
that
is in the world, without doing any violence to the Deity.
Since God is the origin of
everything
that exists except Himself;
And since evil exists...
therefore;
God is necessarily the origin of
evil.
Additionally...
Since God is absolute holiness
and
light; in Him is no darkness at all;
And since whatever God is or does
is necessarily righteous and just.. therefore;
God can neither do evil nor be
evil!
How can this be? In order to properly address this question we must first consider the Decree of God.
r-jnd