"God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him in the midst of loss, not prosperity." --John Piper

Monday, December 20, 2010

Tough Questions 2

Continuing the last post, here is another of the questions that were asked.

"Why did God create the universe 13.72 billion years ago and wait to tell some desert people in some insignificant planet to tell the story?"

You say that I have blind faith? Were you here 13.72 billion years ago to know that is when the earth was created? Or have you done all of the tests yourself so that you can trust the empirical data? Or do you just take the word of those who have said that it is so? Seems like 13.72 billion years ago is a pretty specific number. Are you sure it wasn't 15.82, or 254.9, or maybe just 2 billion? I think we choose what we want to have faith in.

Let me ask this, how long was it supposed to take? I really don't see God as being in a hurry since he had all of eternity to get the job done. What if the earth were created 10,000 years ago? Would that have made a difference? Not to a God to whom time has no meaning. Personally, I love the idea that he could have taken such a long time to lovingly craft a universe so complex and amazing. But I also believe that because of his immense power, he could have just as easily done it in 7 literal days, including taking the last day to just rest and admire it.

I think we want to put God in a corner, so that he is forced to explain himself to us. But that isn't going to happen. You see, if you look for the center of the universe, we are not in it. I believe that is intentional. The sun does not revolve around the earth, although I am told that at one time man believed that it did. That is what the evidence led him to believe.

Hebrews 2:6 "But there is a place where someone has testified: “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him?"

Do we really think that God owes us anything, even an explanation? Sure it might be nice, but he owes us nothing. Whatever he gives and whoever he gives it to is up to him. Some people don't want to worship a God like that. That is their choice. A choice given by that God. Or by the universe. Take your pick.

1 comment:

kc bob said...

Thanks for these follow-up posts to my "Anonymous has Questions about God" post. I am enjoying the read. Good stuff!

When I think about some of this.. which I don't do that often.. I think that (for me anyways) the word "dimension" best explains it to a non-Christian. I think that heaven could be another dimension - maybe an eternal and timeless one that coexists with ours. Following that thinking.. this dimension would be mostly invisible to ours and ours to it.. and God would be present in both dimensions.. and, in a sense, our dimension has it's roots in the other one. When we pray for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven we are asking for a breakthrough from the other dimension.

This stuff is really speculative but might be a way to help communicate to nonreligious person.