Ed Walsh
Puritan Board Senior
Greetings, fellow Pilgrims, beloved by the Lord,
I will keep this short and simple because I have mentioned this several times before, and nobody seemed particularly interested.
Let's try it again. I want to know your thoughts about something that must be the case. But I know I may be wrong too.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth and all that exists. And then he rested the seventh day. So far, so good.
But what about all the stuff he created? I mean, like every electron in the farthest galaxy away. Does he now, and has he always continued to exert that same dunamis power [strength, δύναμης] to maintain the Creation in its existence lest it instantly returns to its original nothing?
What I used to tell my Sunday school students is that Creation could be likened to God turning on a flashlight. And then Providence is like God keeping the flashlight on. The same power God needed to create during the finite time of Creation, which lasted six days, has continued at the same level of exertion to maintain the creation in its being.
Over the years, my wife and I have logged something like 2,000 miles on the Appalachian Trail. Often, as I was on the trail, I would think of these rocks that I stepped on, climbed over, ignored, but otherwise seemed insignificant. But then I started to think of that rock that has been there for thousands of years and wondered, do the stones have the property of self-existence? I don't think so. I believe that God has his total attention on every part of the creation all the time and maintains it in its existence.
I hope you understand what I'm saying because it seems really simple to me. So, what can we find in the Scripture to answer my question? I find nothing.
Here's another way of looking at it.
Q. Does the nothing God used to make everything out of now have a property of self-existence?
Q. Or -- Is everything in the inanimate, plant, animal, man, all angels and devils, as well as the laws of logic, math, and all forces, many of which yet to be understood by man, require the second-by-second creative power of God to exist.
Caution:
This question is more than an academic or theological question. Because if everything depends on Jesus' moment-to-moment power and will to remain in existence, then you should fear and tremble Him all the more, having learned that Jesus is bigger now than you thought he was yesterday. Like it was for Lucy and Aslan.
Jesus Christ is the mighty God in charge of all the work of Creation, which continues through Providence to this day.
Thoughts?
I will keep this short and simple because I have mentioned this several times before, and nobody seemed particularly interested.
Let's try it again. I want to know your thoughts about something that must be the case. But I know I may be wrong too.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth and all that exists. And then he rested the seventh day. So far, so good.
But what about all the stuff he created? I mean, like every electron in the farthest galaxy away. Does he now, and has he always continued to exert that same dunamis power [strength, δύναμης] to maintain the Creation in its existence lest it instantly returns to its original nothing?
What I used to tell my Sunday school students is that Creation could be likened to God turning on a flashlight. And then Providence is like God keeping the flashlight on. The same power God needed to create during the finite time of Creation, which lasted six days, has continued at the same level of exertion to maintain the creation in its being.
Over the years, my wife and I have logged something like 2,000 miles on the Appalachian Trail. Often, as I was on the trail, I would think of these rocks that I stepped on, climbed over, ignored, but otherwise seemed insignificant. But then I started to think of that rock that has been there for thousands of years and wondered, do the stones have the property of self-existence? I don't think so. I believe that God has his total attention on every part of the creation all the time and maintains it in its existence.
I hope you understand what I'm saying because it seems really simple to me. So, what can we find in the Scripture to answer my question? I find nothing.
Here's another way of looking at it.
Q. Does the nothing God used to make everything out of now have a property of self-existence?
Q. Or -- Is everything in the inanimate, plant, animal, man, all angels and devils, as well as the laws of logic, math, and all forces, many of which yet to be understood by man, require the second-by-second creative power of God to exist.
Caution:
This question is more than an academic or theological question. Because if everything depends on Jesus' moment-to-moment power and will to remain in existence, then you should fear and tremble Him all the more, having learned that Jesus is bigger now than you thought he was yesterday. Like it was for Lucy and Aslan.
Jesus Christ is the mighty God in charge of all the work of Creation, which continues through Providence to this day.
Thoughts?
