LEADER TIMES WEEKENDRELIGION ARTICLE FOR
September 26, 2015 byWilliam H. Scarle, Jr. 813-835-0129
The Big Bang Theory of the origin of the universe is today accepted by most scientists. It is supported by the second law of thermodynamics, the red shift in astronomy, and the new science of information which tell us that the universe is running down and therefore had a beginning. There are those in science who are not comfortable with the big bang theory because it posits a point at which time, space and matter came into being. This necessitates the conclusion that prior to that point there was nothing that could be weighed, measured or divided. This means that the cause of the universe,and everything requires a cause, is spiritual. In other words, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Last week we affirmed that the God of the Bible is personal. This piece will discuss the fact that God is spiritual. Science resists the concept of spiritual reality because it is not subject to the laboratory or the scientific method. This was not true of the founders of Western science. Men like Newton and Galileo rejoiced that a rational God created us in his image and gave us the ability to investigate and understand the workings of the “heavens and the earth.”
The first two of the Ten Commandments set forth the oneness of God and his spirituality. No image can represent him. The Apostle Paul describes the pagans of the empire as those who, “Exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things(1:23).” These Romans thought the Jewswere atheists because there was no image in their Temple. They could not conceive of a God who was spiritual.
Aristotle was a logician. In his “Physics” he understood that the universe was in motion and that all motion was caused by a previous motion. He grasped the idea that to start that motion we must assume what he called the “unmoved mover.” However, he could go no further. Beyond this he had no answers.
When Jesus was discussing theology with a woman in Samaria he made the statement, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” His statement recalls the words of Solomon inhis dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem. “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much lessthis house that I have built (I Ki. 8:27).” God is spirit. He cannot be housed.
There are those who would deny any reality beyond the material world. Everything, for them can be explained by molecules in motion. Realities like love, reason, morality, and their opposites are actually simply conditioned reflexes. I always wonder what a material humanist says to his wife when he brings her a dozen roses on their anniversary and says to her, “I love you.” She may ask, “What do you mean darling?” His answer that he is having a brain spasm probably would not be the wisest reply.
God’s spirituality places him before and within all creation. His power and his presence cannot beavoided. We can hide from him as Adam did following his transgression in the garden, but God will still be there.
“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,for he has founded it upon the seas and established it the rivers (Ps.24:1f).”
(Bill Scarlecan be contacted at ravscarle@verizon.net) END-whs