Chapter One

The Continuing Flow of Creation

Sitting outside early on a summer evening you can sometimes hear a symphony of bird songs, insect chirping, and children’s voices. The surrounding trees act like silent observers as they draw nutrients from the soil and energy from the sun. Flowers, in the garden below, proudly exhibit their delicate beauty while permitting a host of tiny mobile creatures to share their space. Children shriek with excitement in their play. All the while, Earth continues its rotation, permitting the sun to paint its picture in the sky before disappearing from view. Soon the ancient stars, at their great distances, are seen in the night sky as they were millions of years ago. These images tell stories about creation and are gifts from a loving Creator.

      From the dawn of their awareness of themselves as individuals, humans have sensed that there is a transcendent source of their existence in the universe. It is as if the need to ask questions such as: “Why am I here? Where did I come from?” was programmed into their being. However, even in this age of sophisticated understanding, the source of human existence is still veiled in mystery. There are clues in the Bible and scattered throughout the universe, but there is still so much more to know.  We do know that each of us was not created individually from nothing. Instead we are links in the chain of life that began a very long time ago. While each of us has unique features and DNA, we are all connected through the chain of creation that came from God. 

      In order to more fully understand our role as humans, it is helpful to first get a brief overview of creation. We will see how the pieces fit together better if we simply touch on some highlights. For the purpose of discussion it is helpful to divide creation into two periods: (1) Creation before human self awareness and (2) creation that continued on in the human realm. 

The Long Beginning

The creation that took place before humans became aware of themselves as individuals is awesome and inspiring but its description will always be impossible to verify. While we can never know the details with certainty, using the evidence that is available we can at least form what can be described as highly probable models.

      The ancient Hebrews that lived in the Middle East developed language skills, kept good records, and were eventually able to prepare documents that described their understanding of the source of their existence. Those documents later became the books that are part of the Old Testament of the Bible. The first few pages of Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament, described creation as those ancient Hebrews understood it.¹  Their description was very brief, involving only a few pages, but it provided a beautiful and inspired word picture of early creation. The story was passed down from one generation to another by oral tradition before it was finally written down. God spoke to them in thoughts and language that were a part of their culture, a framework obtained from observations of the world immediately around them. For them, time was measured by the days of their lives and they felt so close to their Creator that they gave God human characteristics, including gender. They were interpreting God’s message in a way that was understandable to them and were given the information they needed to know at the time: That they were created and cared for. They were not told that their home was on a planet orbiting one of the stars. The technical details would come later.

      The description of creation that has been pieced together later with the assistance of scientific research is far more detailed and fills many volumes. The relentless work of God to create humans from fundamental atomic particles is astounding. It took place in God’s time, which in human lifetimes is extremely long. The creative process left an enormous number of fragments scattered over its history and those have been used by scientists to extrapolate back to the beginning. Astronomers studied the ancient stars to learn about the early stages of creation of the universe using instruments that can precisely measure the characteristics of light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation coming from those stars. They found that the stars are composed largely of hydrogen and helium and that the enormous energy that they radiate is produced by nuclear fusion of those atoms. When astronomers studied the light from the stars more closely, they found that the observed sets of wavelengths for hydrogen and helium were shifted slightly to longer wavelengths. They called this the “red shift” because in the visible range, red light has the longest wavelengths. Based on studies on Earth of a phenomenon called the Doppler Effect they found that such a shift in wavelengths could be expected if the stars were all moving away from us. After long and careful research, the astronomers concluded that the universe is expanding and at some time in the distant past all of those stars and that energy must have come from a single point explosion that is now often referred to as “the big bang.”           

      Our sun is one of the stars in a very large cluster that astronomers call the Milky Way Galaxy. Planet Earth, our home, is a nearly spherical body, spinning on its axis and orbiting that star. It appears to have been formed over a long period of time by the condensation of dust that came from the stars. Astronomers believe that a cloud of this stellar dust began collapsing and rotating and as it did, clusters formed. The planets gradually grew and separated from each other into their own orbits. Earth is one of those planets that turned out to be just the right size and temperature needed to retain a gaseous atmosphere of oxygen, nitrogen, water vapor and other gases above its surface. It also has a molten core that produces a magnetic field around the Earth that acts as a partial shield against harmful cosmic radiation. By a strange set of circumstances that are part of what scientists have called the Anthropic Principle, the Earth also has an abundant amount of carbon on its surface.² It is carbon’s ability to combine with hydrogen and other small atoms such as nitrogen and oxygen that resulted in the formation of the large organic molecules that make up the structural materials of living things.

      According to the scientific account, at some point in the very long history of the Earth, it appears that elementary life originated among these large organic molecules. The molecules acquired the ability to reproduce themselves. These very primitive forms of life gradually became more complicated with additional capabilities. Through the relentless power of creation, the chain of life went on and on and the sophistication of the creatures it produced accelerated. Fossilized remnants of living things found over the surface of the Earth show a connection with each other that suggests that life on Earth was created by an evolutionary process. As part of its make-up, each living thing has special molecules in the nuclei of its cells that scientists have called deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA. These molecules are made up of long chains of atoms and are very complicated, but they have been found to have the atoms arranged in special ways to form what is now called the genetic code. It is these codes or atomic arrangements that specify the characteristics of each fully grown living thing. For example, how do corn stalks know when to stop growing? The answer of course is that the physical growth plan for each living thing is written in the genetic code of its molecules. It is the DNA molecules that also make it possible for living things to reproduce themselves. Occasionally a slight change or mutation of the code occurs in the reproduction process and a new, slightly altered, species is produced. If the new species is inferior, it usually simply disappears. If the new species has superior characteristics, it may survive and continue to reproduce itself. This has been called natural selection. Thus the chain of life appears to have been continuous and over a very long period, simple one-celled creatures gradually evolved into human beings with capabilities so sophisticated that they learned how to communicate and work together to eventually be able to leave the Earth and travel to the moon.

      Living things involve the most complicated electro-mechanical processes known. For those of us living today, we take it for granted that our bodies have the ability to sense when they are touched and the ability to heal wounds when damage occurs. Nothing created by modern technology even comes close to having the healing capability that the human body has. We are proud of modern surgical procedures, but surgery would be disastrous if the human body didn’t have the ability to heal itself. Clearly the process that began with the creation of atomic particles and eventually led to the creation of humans is truly awesome.

      Observations of the creative process seem to show it being guided but, at the same time, provided with a substantial amount of freedom. At any moment in time there is considerable freedom of direction but over a longer period, creation appears to be gradually moving toward a goal. In spite of the many volumes of description of creation that have been written, there is still so much more to learn and it is the topic of many discussions. It is far more awesome than our limited minds have been able to comprehend so far. Our ability to analyze and understand the behavior of the universe is a gift from our Creator and an essential part of God’s creative purpose. Many scientists and theologians have written about their understanding of God as the source of creation. A selection of their works is included in the Notes at the back of the book.³

      The evolution of humankind apparently had a long history that became known to us through the discovery of bone fragments and tools found in the Earth. After a very long period when there seemed to be little progress, humans eventually became aware of themselves as individuals and learned to communicate with primitive languages. Cultures migrated and developed in various parts of the world.      

      As stated earlier, in the Middle East the ancient Hebrews began to write about creation and went on to tell about their understanding of how the Creator guided their lives. The Old Testament in the Bible contains many stories of heroic people and challenging circumstances as the Hebrew culture attempted to find the path that God was providing for them. The stories of Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, Solomon, and many others provided important learning experiences for those who studied them in later generations. Through the stories of these leaders God guided the Hebrew people in their struggles. Each generation learned from stories of past generations.

      Communication was primitive in that world and most of the people were uneducated. Thus it was easy for them to believe that they were surrounded by forces waiting to destroy them. Sometimes those forces were environmental effects such as drought, famine, floods, or lightning. Other times there were marauding tribes who had seen cruelty and learned how to use it to acquire their needs. Occasionally there would be large armies led by kings seeking additional power. As a result, those ancient people lived with much fear and anxiety. It is therefore understandable that they would perceive God, their Creator, to be a harsh and meticulous judge who was ready to hand out punishments for failure to obey his commands. Into that world of fear and anxiety came a unique person who produced a large leap forward in human understanding.

Christ’s Role in Creation

The life of Jesus Christ is described in four documents that appeared at least thirty years after his death. These texts form the four books of the New Testament in the Bible called Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The first three are often called the Synoptic Gospels because they seem to follow a common outline and contain many stories about Jesus that are similar but not exactly the same. The word gospel means “good news.” The book called Mark was believed to have been written first. The books of Matthew and Luke appear to contain some of the material from the book of Mark but also contain material from another unidentified source sometimes called “Q.” The book of John, which was written later, is more of an understanding of the life of Jesus rather than a description of it. 

       The life of Jesus as described in the Synoptic Gospels is well known but his ministry will be summarized here to remind us how it fits with the rest of the creation story. He grew up in a town called Nazareth. When he was approximately thirty years old, he left home and began to travel, speaking to crowds of people who gathered to hear him. In addition to his unusual ability to heal sick people, he also had exceptional knowledge and understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures. This extraordinary understanding of the teachings soon set him apart and resulted in some opposition to his activities on the part of the religious leaders. They didn’t like it when he disagreed with them. They also had concerns because Jesus often mingled with people outside the religious community.

      For two or three years he and a group of disciples traveled to various towns and villages along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, a large lake in Israel, and occasionally made trips to Jerusalem. Finally on one of those trips to Jerusalem, Jesus was accused by some of the religious leaders of having a desire to become king. They urged the Roman leader, Pontius Pilate, to punish him by crucifixion, an excruciating form of death used by the Romans to discourage people from rebelling against their rule. It was cruel because those who were crucified died slowly by suffocation. They hung with arms outstretched on a wooden cross making it very difficult for them to breathe. Since they were sparsely clothed and very visible to the people who gathered around, it was also intended to be very humiliating. Jesus was crucified on a Friday and died after a few hours. After he was taken down from the cross by a person sympathetic to his work, his body was placed in a small cave hewn out of rock and a large stone was placed over the opening. On the following Sunday, friends came to put spices on the body and found it missing. Shortly afterward he became visible to his assistants and friends and they were able to communicate with him. Based on their experiences in seeing and talking to him, they concluded that he had risen from the dead. He was visible to them for a small number of days and then disappeared and was not seen again after that. It was their understanding that he had gone to be with God.

      During his travels in Galilee and Jerusalem, Jesus had astonished his disciples and other followers with his amazing capabilities. Then it all suddenly ended with his humiliating death. If he had healed so many other people and even revived some that were dead, it was difficult to understand why he, himself, died. It was very bewildering. Perhaps they had been deceived and he didn’t have the capabilities they thought he had. Normally his friends and disciples would have been expected to have gone home, disappointed that the whole thing ended so quickly in failure. Their natural reaction would have been one of great despair. They were betting their lives and careers on this great leader and now he was gone and it was over. There was nothing left to do but go back to what they were doing before they met him. However, instead of doing that they continued to meet with each other and talk about what they had seen and heard.⁴ They were finally convinced that Jesus had indeed been raised from the dead and that what he had told them was so important that it was worth risking their lives to tell others about it. So they began to travel out away from Jerusalem to tell their strange story. They were eventually joined by a man by the name of Paul whose original name was Saul of Tarsus. He was at first a persecutor of the followers of Jesus and then took the name Paul and joined them after he experienced a traumatic event near Damascus one day. Paul was a gifted speaker and writer and soon became one of the chief spokesmen for the young community of followers of Jesus, organizing large groups of people throughout Asia Minor.

      That is a brief description of the adult life of Jesus recorded in the Synoptic Gospels and a short description of the events that took place afterward. Based on what they had seen and heard, the disciples and other early followers believed that Jesus had a unique relationship with God and called him the Son of God. There have been many authors who have written about their search for the historical Jesus. Some are listed in the Notes in the back of this book.⁵ However, since we don’t have all the information about the life of Jesus, his true nature will always remain a mystery.

      In our modern world, if we understand God to be the source of all creation, it may be easier to see the relationship between Jesus and God based on Jesus’ role in creation. Looking back over two thousand years, clearly Jesus had a unique role in continuing creation among humans. Following his life, death, and resurrection, human life on Earth took a different path. Today it is almost impossible to imagine what human life on Earth would have been like if Jesus had never lived.

      One characteristic of his life that influenced the path of creation among humans was the fact that he took the role of the suffering servant. Early Hebrew prophets had predicted that a leader in the form of a Messiah (anointed one) would come to liberate and rule over the people of Israel. However, their image of a Messiah was that of a powerful king with absolute authority who would be treated like a monarch and would expect people to bow down to him. Jesus instead took the form of a humble servant, caring for everyone his life touched. He healed the sick, counseled the depressed, and generally looked after people. He was able to slip in and out of crowds, which suggests that his clothes were similar to those of the people around him. He often ate with people who were not well accepted in the community. He taught people by example to love and care for each other no matter what their background was. Jesus tried to teach people to work together as teammates to solve their problems through love instead of solving their problems by force. He foresaw his own death and believed that through his death all people would be forgiven for their wrong doing. Thus the image of God that came through Jesus Christ is the image of a gentle, caring God who is more of a healer like a modern day doctor or nurse rather than a king who rules by force. Like a good doctor or nurse, God patiently keeps trying to get humans to do the right things. The behavior and teachings of Jesus were unusual in that sense. Jesus was, in ways that will never be fully understood, a physical manifestation of our loving Creator. Looking back over the centuries, it is virtually indisputable that Jesus was unique. His example and teachings laid the groundwork for our modern understanding of teamwork.

      There is another view of the role of Jesus that provides additional insight. Thinking about the creation of human beings from a modern scientific perspective, it is possible to see how the sequence of events took place. Atoms had to be formed from nuclei and electrons. Atoms were then combined in different ways to form molecules. Living cells were formed by combining specific kinds of molecules. Cells were then assembled to form organs in the body. Finally organs were combined in such a way as to form the whole human body.

      We could leave it at that and say that creation of the human body was the end of creation. However, when we look at this chain of creation, there is the nagging question of whether the chain really stopped there or whether human beings were intended to form yet another organic structure. A structure, for example, produced by humans combining their efforts and supporting each other just as the organs of the human body work together. Long before people knew about atoms and molecules, the Apostle Paul talked about human beings working together to form what he called “the Body of Christ.” He believed that God, in the form of Jesus, was trying to teach them how to form this enormous organic structure of human beings.

      Now, two thousand years later, we can see that the structure has been partially formed. It is called the Christian Church. A French scientist and Catholic priest by the name of Teilhard de Chardin was among the first to point this out as part of the evolutionary process of creation and observe the critical role that Jesus Christ played in it.⁶ In this way of looking at it, Jesus initiated the next step in the process of creation and thus gave evidence of having a unique relationship with the Creator.

      Judaism had been a religion primarily for Jews who were biologically related. Christianity grew out of Judaism, but based on the teachings of Jesus Christ it became a religion for all people. Thus began the process of unifying all people on Earth. If Jesus had been the monarch the Jews had expected, he might have saved them from the Roman oppressors but there wouldn’t be two billion people, two thousand years later, who consider themselves followers of him. The Body of Christ, consisting of the followers of Jesus, is a form of proof that Jesus was a physical manifestation of the source of creation that we call God. He became the human expression of a loving Creator initiating the process of unifying all humankind into a team.

Christ’s Team for Continuing Creation

When Jesus neared the end of his time on Earth, he told his disciples that, even though he would be leaving them, the spirit of God would still be with them. Clearly his death and resurrection marked the transfer of power from Jesus to his followers. The invisible spirit of God was present from the beginning of time and is still present throughout the universe, but after Jesus left, from then on the spirit of God working among humans would always be associated with Jesus and would eventually be called the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is like an invisible wind that moves people to follow in the footsteps of Jesus in whatever ways that they can. It is the spirit of God carrying on creation in the human realm.

      Part of the work of the Holy Spirit includes the story of the Bible, a library of sacred books created over a very long period of time. Like the rest of creation, it is an astonishing story of persistent effort, failure and gradual success. The Holy Spirit spoke to the authors of the books of the Bible through their thoughts. Unfortunately their original writings were produced at times when materials needed for preserving records were not very good. The papyrus, parchment, clay, and other materials used for written records gradually decomposed or were easily destroyed so no original documents of the Bible have been found. However, a large number of dedicated people laboriously made copies and, although many of those also disappeared, the sheer number allowed the message to survive. In most cases the authorship of the originals and dates of writing were also lost. The amount of information that could be provided was limited because languages involve symbols. As a result of this limitation many unanswered questions had to be resolved later by councils of scholars who met to share their insight. In addition to the many places in the Bible where it would be helpful to have information that was not included, there are other places where information is provided in different styles and for different purposes making it difficult to interpret. Some people believe that it contains God’s exact words and others believe that it was inspired but not dictated by God. As a result of all these factors it has become the most thoroughly analyzed and critiqued book every written. In order to make learning and analysis easier, all of the passages have been numbered. There are very few books in the world that are considered that important. The story of the Bible is a story of many obstacles, but is a good illustration of the power and persistence of the Holy Spirit. The Bible is a library of great wisdom, studied and respected by some of the greatest minds who have ever lived. Many passages reveal amazing insight into human problems in spite of the fact that they were written thousands of years before there were social scientists. That is why the Bible is considered to be a collection of God’s sacred messages to guide the lives of humans.

      Another example of the work of the Holy Spirit is the creation of the Body of Christ, the worldwide Christian Church. Like the Bible, its history is filled with obstacles that had to be overcome. Among these obstacles were the split between the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Church and later between Roman Catholics and Protestants. In spite of the different viewpoints of the many denominations, as an organization it is still relatively coherent and appears to be more highly developed than those associated with other religions. Among its special features are the following: (1) Weekly worship services are an integral part of its function and these inspire and unite its members. (2) Its Baptismal Services provide careful records of its new members. Among all religions its membership is probably the most carefully documented. (3) The structure of its regional and national leadership facilitates communication between local congregations or parishes and makes it possible for them to work together more efficiently. (4) It obeys Jesus instructions to care for outsiders and invite them to participate. This has been an important element in the spread of Christianity. The fact that the Body of Christ or followers of Jesus grew from a very small number to the current one-third of the population of the Earth despite many obstacles is another example of the persistence and power of the Holy Spirit.

      Christians also believe that it is the Holy Spirit acting within individuals today that makes it possible for them to do extraordinary things. A family living in pleasant surroundings decides to accept the challenge to leave their comfort zone and travel to a third world country to serve God in missionary work. A normally quiet, peaceable, person stands up at a city government meeting to speak for the rights of the underprivileged. A timid individual finds the courage to speak to a neighbor about attending worship services. These are additional examples of the work of the Holy Spirit.

      If we understand God (the Father) to be defined as the source of all creation, we can see that Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit play fundamental roles in the process of creation among humans. There is only one God. Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are the means through which the loving nature of God became known and is propagated among human beings on Earth. We will see in the pages of this book that love is a necessary part of continuing creation among humans. Teamwork increases the efficiency of human participation in creation, but the stability of the team requires bonds of love. When you consider the whole realm of creation it is apparent that humans on planet Earth have received special treatment and that suggests that they have been chosen to be participants in continuing creation.

      One of the interesting mysteries that many theologians and scientists have struggled with is why humans have achieved the ability to understand themselves and the universe that they find themselves in. An explanation is that God gave humans analytic ability and the scientific method in order to make it possible for them to more fully participate in creation on Earth. It is an extraordinary gift. Think of natural science as touching the face of our loving God. Imagine God to be a kind father who is not offended with our clumsy efforts to understand, but instead welcomes those efforts and tries to assist us. The understanding that scientists have of the universe ultimately came from God through thought processes and, in subtle ways, God continues to feed us the information we need.

      If creation is still taking place and we are assisting in the creative process, then we are in essence “created co-creators” as described by Philip Hefner in his book The Human Factor.⁷  We each find our purpose in that role. In our different capacities as creation team members, we wash the dishes, clean the house, teach the children, manufacture the autos and television sets, build houses, plan financial transactions, and do all the other things necessary to create a better world for those who follow us. In the human realm it is becoming increasing clear that people have their own special gifts or abilities. Some are better in science or mathematics, others better in languages or the arts, and still others in the crafts. A football team cannot be made up entirely of ball carriers. There have to be team members with other skills playing the other positions. That is also true for Christ’s creation team. Each person has to participate using their special skills. Continuing creation involves helping everyone learn to play their position and contribute in the manner that fits them best.

      This brief history of creation has, in a sense, painted a picture of our Creator. As humans our understanding is so limited that we are forced to create an image of God that is similar to our own. In ancient civilizations God often was conceived of as being like an invisible magician who could say some words and make things suddenly happen, an invisible spirit that could provide a quick fix. Looking back over the history of creation on Earth, however, what we see is a subtle, persistent effort slowly improving the quality of human life. Artists and scientists are noted for their created work. As creators they are never quite sure of the final results. They have an initial plan but after they get started much of the work is exploratory so they have to exercise a certain amount of freedom. When efforts fail, they keep revising the plan. There are many steps that fail but there is also progress and that drives a creator on. One image of God, our Creator, is like that of an artist or scientist who has a plan and keeps working toward that goal but also experiences obstacles and has to explore ways of working around those obstacles. In continuing creation on planet Earth, the many obstacles that had to be overcome reveal a loving Creator with vision, wisdom, courage, persistence, and hope. If we are to be co-creators and followers of Jesus we must develop similar characteristics because we will face adversity many times as we go about the difficult task of participating in creation.

      Since we are not privileged to know God’s timing, we don’t know what stage of creation we are in and that may offer an explanation for suffering. Suffering may simply be the result of incomplete creation. We have sometimes thought that if God is a loving God, can do all things and finished creation in seven days, why is human suffering permitted? It may be that God is self limited by the nature of the creative process. Scientists are gradually learning that the universe is a delicately balanced system. In the case of two children on a carefully balanced seesaw on a playground, it is not possible to suddenly remove one child without making the seesaw unstable so that it crashes. If a carefully balanced universe is required in the process of creation, that requirement may limit other things that can be done. It may be that God chose to work that way even though human beings keep asking for supernatural intervention that might disrupt the balance of the universe. God can do awesome things, but perhaps because of self limitation, not all things.

      The life of Jesus demonstrated that God suffers with us. Acting through human beings in the form of doctors and medical scientists, God is continuing to relieve suffering. The process may seem slow but to God, who measures time in millions of years, it is very fast and the time frame continues to shrink. The time between discoveries in medical science keeps getting shorter and shorter because there are an increasing number of scientists working on medical problems. As co-creators, humans are assisting in the gradual improvement of the quality of life on Earth and in the reduction of suffering. We all must do our part.

      What sets Christ’s team apart from others? In what ways do team members contribute to continuing creation? In the next chapter we will see how followers of Jesus have been assisted by science in the creative process. We will begin by first trying to understand the goal of continuing creation. What is it trying to achieve?