Thoughts With Dalt

Back again? Here for the first time? Either way, glad to have you here. This is part 3 of a series that you can see on the margins of this page (side margin if on computer, bottom of page if on mobile). Last week I concluded with a question: “Why try to understand God’s nature and origin if we know the brain isn’t able?” The short answer is that God (graciously) puts it in the heart of the saved to know Him. So we will try and dig a little deeper into the subject in this post. If you enjoy, please share/comment/react… not for my sake, only for the sake of allowing this to reach more people! Thanks so much!

Reality is no respecter of perception

This weeks topics will seem to present a challenge in keeping The God of the Bible within the frames of logic. I have worked though the challenge and am personally settled that God prevails the challenge. I am only recording the results of the thought process I worked through.

As stated last week, everything we know and see has a beginning. How do we justify an uncreated Creator? Again, our brain naturally doesn’t want to accept this possibility. It feels like a compromising end to the search. We need to get creative with our thinking to understand this concept. 

We are limited to thinking within the visible realm in which we exist. We struggle to imagine anything outside of what we know and see. This is evident in several areas, but we can just look at one. In Great Britain, people eat BAKED BEANS for BREAKFAST. I can’t think of a single good reason why anyone would do such a thing. It just doesn’t make good sense to me here in Mississippi. However, that does not change the reality that people across the pond enjoy baked beans with their muffin and a cup of coffee. My perception of reality does not change reality, as reality is no respecter of my perception. My lack of understanding on the bean debacle does not negate its existence. 

Categories of Existence

Let’s try to break down and categorize “existence”. This will greatly assist my assertion that creation ultimately requires an uncreated creator. In order for anything to be created, something outside of that thing must act on said thing to create it. As it is with our bench where the bench-maker acted, so is it with all things produced. 

Everything we see can be defined within three categories:

• Time
• Space
• Matter

Let’s look at these categories in comparison with what the Bible teaches about The God of the Bible. This may be my favorite section of this series.

Time

What is time? Don’t linger there too long. That is a deeper dive than you may think, and I am not philosophical enough to expound upon it. For our conversation, we will just define it as a numerical divide that we agree upon to maintain a common schedule with fellow humans. 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, 52 weeks in a year, etc. Aside from watches/clocks, what is one thing we look at to establish the unit of time we refer to as a “day”? The Sun. Whether you are a flat earther or globe-r, whether you think we spin towards the sun to see it, or it is within a dome with us and somehow disappears for some, while appearing for others…..(hope I didn’t give away my position there), we all agree that every time the sun “appears”, a new day is marked. 

In order for time to be created, its Creator has to be outside of time. What does it look like to be “outside of time”? As simply as I can state it, to be outside of time is to not be bound by time. The only way to not be bound by time is to exist before time. The God of the Bible is called the Ancient of Days, Everlasting (ôlām – past and future), and through many scriptures is described as being before all things. Praise God. However, we are back to the question: How is God before all things? 

Whether it is matter or God that you attribute eternality to, you have to acknowledge that something has always been. It is nonsensical for matter to be eternal because its nature requires a “maker”. In order to think about God as being eternal, again we have to go beyond our common thinking. The God of the Bible does not have the same existential requirements that humans do. He has no dependencies. A name He gives Himself “I AM WHO I AM” states this well. He just is! He is self-existent. This would be a requirement for something that would be before all things. I will term it his “am-ness”. In His eternal am-ness, He existed outside of time. He would then move on to create time to be divided into day and night, as detailed in Genesis 1:5. “God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night.” Some pastors and song writers have stated that He “stepped into time”. God, not bound by time, created the very concept of time, and then made it a reality.

Space

What is space? Another topic you can get lost in with a simple internet search. In order to keep it simple, we will just call it an open area for matter to exist within. It has no substance; you can’t touch it or see it. It is almost more of a concept instead of a thing, due to its unending vastness. Even so, it is there. We exist inside of it. The question is, was it always there? God is spirit, as previously stated. He has no physical attributes in and of Himself. This is made clear through scripture. If he did have physical attributes, He could only exist within space. See where I am going? In order to create space, one would have to be outside of space. In order to be outside of space, one cannot have physical attributes. 

Matter, by its nature, requires space to exist within. If you chase that rabbit down its hole, you will discover that Space would have had to be created before matter. Big bang is struggling to remain viable as it has two molecules (matter) creating the space it requires to exist within. The science isn’t sciencing. 

As far as the order of creation goes per the Biblical account, time was established on the first day as a result of light being created as an opposition to pre-existing dark. Space was created on the second day as “an expanse between the waters”. We won’t dive into the exact meaning of that, as it opens another large discussion between globe-rs and flat earthers. Essentially, an expanse was created that would be able to host matter. I think both sides would agree with that sentence. Scientifically speaking, creation is holding up well to scrutiny.

Next Week

We will cover “matter” next week, and likely also conclude this series. Until then, again I humble ask that you share/comment/react as you are able to. Your engagement will help spread this conversation out further and hopefully get into the hands of someone that it will help. Thanks for your time, see you next week!

-Dalton

Acts 17:24-28