he Christian doctrine of creation:

 

15. The Christian doctrine of creation: the faith of Israel and of the early Church; the major points of the doctrinal development and the theological –systematic outline.

 

Introduction: Revelation has revealed the existence of God and showed that God is present in His creation. Through the creation God not only did His duty but expressed great love. God shows also his love through making good and honorable relation with the people of Israel. In the OT this Israelites experience God in one way but the new Israel experience God new way, more loving and closer. God loves his people so much that he created everything as human need. Same way he also protect people from the hand of Satan’s evil works, so that men may come back to heaven again. God is so great, good, and high that we cannot prove his loving existence.

 

The Christian doctrine of creation: the faith of Israel and of the early Church: The belief in divine creation is fundamental to the Christian faith. This is reflected in the very opening statement of the Bible says:  “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,” and in the first article of the so-called Apostles' Creed which affirms: “I believe in one God the Father, all-sovereign, creator of heaven and earth.” Why the belief in a divine creation is: the faith of Israel and of the early Church is the fundamental for the Christian faith? There are three main points-

 

(1) Belief in Creation is the Basis of True Worship: To worship means to acknowledge and praise the worthiness of God.

(2) Belief in Creation is the Basis for Belief in Redemption: Our belief in a divine creation determines our belief in redemption and final restoration. The Biblical doctrine of redemption depends on the notion that God’s perfect creation was marred by human rebellion. To restore His creation to its original perfection God implemented His eternal plan of redemption, which includes the incarnation and the atoning sacrifice of His Son.

 (3) Belief in Creation Determines the Vision of Ultimate Restoration: The doctrine of the First Things, known in theology as etiology, determines the doctrine of the Last Things, known as eschatology.  This means that if God’s original creation was “very good,” we have reason to believe that our life in the New Earth will not differ substantially from God’s original creation.  If God created humans as physical, heterosexual beings and declared it “very good” (Gen 1:31), we have reasons to believe that what was good at the beginning will also be good at the End.

The major points of the doctrinal development and the theological –systematic outline.

Part – a: Divine manifestation in creation: Revelation is the self-manifestation of the divine. We Christians experience God's manifestation in "cosmic events" and historical events. Hence we can talk in terms of cosmic revelation and historical revelation.

Cosmic/ Natural Revelation: God reveals himself, His power and salvation to his people through the elements of Nature: (the plagues of Egypt, the Passage through the Red-Sea, and the theophany of Sinai).  He raised the cosmos by his word out of nothingness as in Ps. 33: "Through his word the heavens are made, through the breath of his mouth, all their power.” Created things also are called his Revelation. They manifest his presence, His Majesty and His wisdom. God appears veiled in a cloud (Ex 13:21). Burning fire (Ex 3/2), Gen I5/7) thundering in the tempest (Ex 19/16. Ps 29/2 ff) Gentle as a light breeze (lKg 19/12 ff) Priestly account gives the details of creation and God as creator in Genesis Chapter 1.

Man can have true knowledge of his Creator through his experience of Creation, apart from supernatural revelation"

# "The same holy Mother Church holds and teaches that God, the origin and end of all things, can be known with certainty by the natural light of human reason from the things that he created"(Vatican I, Dei Filius, 58) # "Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made."(Romans 1:20)# "From the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator."(Wisdom 13:5)# "The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork... There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world."(Psalm i9:1-4)

“Our knowledge is imperfect... For now we see in a mirror dimly”.Now I know in part” (1 Cor 3:9-12).

Part – b: Progressive character of revelation:  We find the revelation in creation and in history. The revelation in the OT and NT is progressive. Primarily, this progressive character is the character of awareness. We become aware of revelation progressively. We do not see or experience revelation all at once. Secondly in any communication of revelation we will always find bits and pieces of history, some examples of progressive character of revelation:

1. Man and woman are human always: but in God, they are seen as "The image of God". In the NT, they are seen as son and daughter of God.2. In OT it is the Mosaic Law which matters; in NT it is the Spirit that gives life, who lives in our hearts.3. God is God always. But in the Book of Genesis, they see him asYahweh. In NT they see him as Abba, Father. 4. In OT they see God coming down in clouds, on hills, residing in tent, the temple, etc. In NT, God dwells not in temples, hilltops, clouds, but in the heart of human, in our own heart. 5. Christological affirmations are also examples of progressive revelation. 6. SS are also examples of progressive revelation. 7. Dogmatoo is an example of progressive revelation.

By now it must be clear that the movement appears progressive, not because God reveals bit by bit, but because we become aware gradually of what is already there and given: we become aware of the constitutive dimensions of our very existence, which is already given in life.

The Judeo-Christian revelation was also given progressively in the course of centuries. Thomas distinguishes three great periods of sacred history: 1)before the (Mosaic) law. 2) under the law and 3) These connect with the great revelation made respectively by Abraham, Moses and the Apostles. The revelation was from its inceptions but to a whole people. The Israelite revelation in the OT period was particular, being directed to a single nation, rather than, like Christians to all mankind. It was more over preparatory, since it pointed forward to a later fulfillment. From Christian point of view, the OT revelation appears as totally ordered toward Christ and the Church by way of life and prophesy. Christ himself is depicted in the NT in terms borrowed from the OT. He is the second Adam, the New Moses, the son of David, the Messiah, the Servant, son of Man, son of God, Jesus himself declares that the great personages of the OT looked forward to his coming(Mt 1 3 , 16-17 ; Jn5, 45; B, 56).

Part – c: God’s war against the problem of evil: God is the creator and source of all goodness, Holiness. He created us from His own image (1:27) and calls us to participate in his Holiness. But we became separate because of evil work of our first parents (Gen 3) against God. God did not throw us away. He always invites us to go back to the human origin and start to war against the evil and malice work of Satan. This Satan is the source of evil work.

From the book of genesis chapter 3, we find the presence of evil work of demon or Satan in the human history. Satan took part to oppose God. God forbid, but Satan allows. So, from the beginning to now we find the existence of evil, OT and NT vividly described it. In the NT Jesus deals with the Satan and his work. Satan does not work visibly but work through the human being.  Now days- the lives of many Christians are filled with inconsistencies, sins, weaknesses, and failures. Jesus also deals against the evil work of the Jewish people and Pharisees. Jesus directly opposes them. It indicate that God always war against the evil work of the Satan to save the human being. God wants, but ask our collaboration to war against evil. God needs our collaboration because God gave us freedom. He never pushes us; never compel us to do good or bad work. He gave us wisdom, knowledge, reasoning- willing power to choose the right or wrong. We are totally free to take decision. He shows the path of heaven, gives us grace, light of truth and defend us from the evil work. He tries to protect us from the temptation of Satan. Heuses some weapons to fight against the problem of evil work. The weapons are-

i) Conscience: Conscience is a practical judgment (practical reason) on the goodness or the malice of an act to be done or avoided, in the particular circumstances in which a person is placed. It is the internal and proximate rule of morality. Through this conscience person can judge the matter and can freely decide the right and goes against the evil. Conscious is the inner voice which always gives the instruction and guides the people to the truth.

ii. Scripture and prophets: Scripture is the source of all morality and theology. In the scripture we find that God did many wars through the prophets. For example- God sent Moses to Pharaoh, Nathan went to King David and said, ‘you are that man’ who take away the little property of the poor”. In these ways God took many initiatives to protect the helpless, to establish the truth. Through the prophets God stopped the evil work. Those who go against God and do evil, suffer for this. All of this moral teaching we find in the scripture

iii. Law: The laws (OT & NT) are weapons against war. If a person follows the law of Love he can never do evil work. This law binds and led him to the goodness. Those who break the laws will be punished. So, laws are helpful to save the people from evil.

iv. Holy Spirit: Holy Spirit always shows the path of Christ and inspires to hate the work of evil. This spirit gives us strength and courage to fight against the evil.

v. God choose men: Through human beings sometimes God wars against evil and sin. Sometimes He sends some good messenger whose heart is full of goodness. This messenger inspires the people to stop doing evil work.

vi. Church tradition and Religion teaching: As a weapon God inspire the visible authority to take some steps to keep the faithful in the right path. Our war targets are not so much evil men, but the wicked forces that motivate and inspire evil men to do their dirty work. Church Fathers, martyr, noblemen lead the good life and oppose always the evil work. Religious teaching also inspires to keep faith in God, to obey the religious norm and faith. Through the leaders, teaching of the Church, God saves the faithful and war against the evil.

vii. Christ and revelation: In salvation history we have seen that God reveals himself through different events. At last He manifested himself through the Son and showed the goodness to the people. In his ministry Jesus presented the holy way of life. Jesus cast out the devil and gave us courage to war against evil.

However, God wars against the power of evil to save the faithful. Christ teaches us to face the problem of evil. The victorious Christian does not give Satan room to operate. Satan is not allowed to dig in and set up a base of operations to further infiltrate human life. The Christian takes a firm stand to retain every inch of field that Jesus won for him at Calvary. St Paul says, "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might” (Eph 6:10).

Part – d: Scientific proof of the existence of a loving God and the existence of evil: No, we cannot prove the existence of a loving God and the existence of evil. Through the revelation of God we experience the love of God. Through the creation of the universe, animals and human beings, God shows his love. Specially, God created human being from his likeness. It expresses the great love. Given a new land, protection from the slavery, guiding the kings and judges and salvation history shows God’s great love. During these events God revealed Himself, He talked with his chosen person. God’s role in history is very active. But we cannot prove it because God is beyond science. Philosophy says, ‘God exists’. But, where?  We never seen God, if we try we are not able, even science cannot prove. One the other hand we cannot give the proper definition of Love. It is the matter of mind to feel. So, it is impossible to prove the existence of loving God. But it is God’s mystery. Human knowledge cannot reveal this mystery. Whatever we say about God, it will be the teaching of theology.

Like God we cannot prove the existence of evil. In the Book ofJob we find the evil works of Satan against Job, Jesus cast out demons, the reason of human fall. All of these events prove the existence of evil. We feel it but Science cannot prove it. This is also mystery of God.

Science cannot prove supernatural things. So God’s goodness and Satan’s evilness cannot be proved scientifically. All are mystery, supernatural and higher things. It is beyond us.

Conclusion: After all the discussion we can say that God is good and holy which takes place in the creation and history. This is divine manifestation for the human being. This manifestation gradually developed. Gradually we saw Almighty God as loving and merciful. God loves us, wars against evil but we cannot prove his loving existence scientifically because he is beyond all. The evil existence also unprovable, it is mystery.