I am writing this as overflow from a very dense essay I have
been researching for which deals with the idea that Creation is an ongoing
process… and well, it seemed “mind-blowing” enough to make a brief blog post
about. The simple construct goes like this: God is Creator; He never ceases to
be Creator and therefore is still in the mode of creating (now I have to prove
it). I do believe this stands central to
all that God does throughout the Bible both in the Hebrew Scriptures and NT.
Continuous
Creation
Before I jump into that, however, I find there are generally
two common views about God’s act of creating.
The first view is that God completed a creative activity in Gen. 1-2 and
then transitioned to being Lord over it. Yet, after the creation quickly goes south (Gen.
3-11) God begins salvation-mode as the alternative to the creative plan (Gen.12).
The second view, to some extent,
agrees with the first, but has critiqued the idea that Gen. 1-2 shows creation
as complete and static. It is centered on the Hebrew verb bārā (found through Gen. 1-2; Ps. 104:30 and so on) which they
contest should be translated as “ongoing creation” but in the sense that after God
made it, he sustains it and is always holding it together.
Perhaps
both get it a little right, but both are missing a possible bigger picture. Terrence Fretheim is helpful in grappling
critically with these views. He points
out that the second premise is right about the contested verb as it does in
fact suggest a continuous act of creation.
Yet, it claims too much to say that God is sustaining it in such a way
that if he were to stop then creation would return back to primordial chaos. There are texts within scripture that point
to God’s establishing “the basic and dynamic infrastructure” of the cosmos which
is divinely promised to continue (Gen. 8:22; 9:8-17; Jer. 31:35-37; 32:17-26).[1]
We might then reason that since God
was not so happy about the whole human-fall thing if he was being a
micromanager with tight control then the incidents of Gen.3-11 would not have
been able to happen. In this sense the
first premise is correct in believing that the initial stages of creation (e.g.
ordering and establishing natural laws and function to the cosmos) were “complete”
and self-sustaining, though God is sustaining it in a much broader sense.
However, to
say that the creation narrative results in a “finished product” is just as
misleading. Again the second premise is
right to argue that the Hebraic verb does connote “ongoing creation” but it
cannot be limited to preservation. Fretheim, too, claims the verb “refers to
the development of the creation through time and space and to the emergence of
genuinely new realities in an increasingly complex world. God’s continuing work is both preserving and
innovative.”[2] It should come as no
surprise that God never ceases to keep the relationship as creation’s Creator given
that he makes many promises to do a “new thing” and it will surpass all
expectations (Isa. 42:9; 43:18-19; 48:6; 49:19-21; Jer. 31:22). In this God will always continue to create afresh
(over and over again) not only providing for needs, but continuing creative
activity so to enable “the becoming of the creation,” as Fretheim termed it.[3]
That is to say, God’s action of salvation within the created order (as
discussed in those scriptures) envisages
a new and fully flourished creation.
Humanity is thus in process of becoming and has been invited to play a
crucial role in the creative activity. As a side-note this reveals many implications
about creation’s future being open, not predetermined.
Salvation Is Creation?
Nevertheless, to claim creation is ongoing also claims that salvation
is not God’s act of abandoning the cosmos and extracting humans from creation
(as the first premise believed) and that has raised many questions about how to
define salvation.
The most common question is: does
salvation mean redemption or is salvation synonymous with creation? I believe we can define salvation and
redemption as a creative activity (or a type of creation), but we cannot say
salvation and creation are synonymous.
This means salvation is an act of creation, but creation is not always
an act of salvation. Creation occurs in Genesis 1-2 in a way that is obviously
not salvific or redemptive. Therefore, salvation/redemption
does not stand in contradiction with creation, but is both a creative act and
stands in service of current creation.[4]
As Fretheim says, “the redemptive
work of God is a special dimension of God’s more comprehensive activity as Creator...
God’s redemption is a means to a new creation, and salvation will be the key characteristic
of the new reality.”[5]
So, if I
can make any attempt to clarify, it is within the present creation that God is
creating the new humanity, the new heaven and the new earth. We are travelers in process of becoming new
people in a new reality without death and (as I said before) we are invited to
participate with the one who always seeks to relate to us as our Creator, but
as His fellow creators in the process. We
believe it has yet to reach the fullness it will upon Christ’s return and that
suggests that Creation is still an ongoing work until it reaches both the telos and sustained pinnacle of life (Rev. 21:1-5).
This should change how we talk about and understand creation.
[1]
Terence Fretheim. God and World in the
Old Testament: A Relational Theology of Creation (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press,
2005), 7.
[2]
Ibid, 7.
[3]
Ibid, 8.
[4]
Ibid 11.
[5]
Ibid, 12-13.
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