Didn't get to it yesterday, but I was unsure of whether or not I'd get to write on Sundays or not. Sundays typically involve a lot of running around and socializing, so I end up with not a lot of time. If it ends up being impractical to write on Sundays, I may switch Friday to a New Testament day just to get a couple of them in a week. But for now, back to Genesis.
[Genesis 4:1-5]
Another passage we hear frequently, since it leads to some killing to keep the kids in Sunday school interested, and it also makes a good offering message.
We're introduced to two of Adam and Eve's sons, Cain and Abel. Abel keeps sheep and Cain is a farmer. It came offering time and, from the way it's described here, it sounds like Cain went "Oh, yeah, here's some fruit" while Abel made it a point to use the firstborn and the best. So God was happier with Abel's than with Cain's. Here we learn that God doesn't like to be an afterthought, and that God doesn't like that vegetarian crap.
Where your money goes says a lot about where your priorities lie. Making it a point to remember your tithe and offering as soon as money comes in is a good way to train yourself to be more giving, and put God first in other areas. Honestly there's not a lot to say here that hasn't been said a million times already.
[Genesis 4:6-7]
God says "Look, if your offerings don't suck we won't have a problem. Chill out." Just like his parents, Cain is already exhibiting the lovely human tendency to pretend he is the only person in the universe that does not have a problem, and that all of the crap he's brought on himself is somehow everyone else's fault. He offered an inferior sacrifice that he knew full well was second-rate, and when God didn't care for it he gets mad like God is unfair and like he deserves just as much praise and appreciation as Abel, who actually put some effort into it. He then gathered up his friends and started the Occupy Eden movement.
God warns him that, if he does well, he'll be fine, but if he doesn't then it's a slippery slope. When you start giving in, sin is waiting at the door for that opportunity to drag you further. Even in the fallen world before Jesus, God implied that Cain had the power to not sin. Now even more, we have the power to resist temptations and have no one to blame but ourselves when we mess up. Like Cain, we have a tendency to get angry when we mess up and look for anyone to blame but ourselves, but we don't see any temptation we cannot beat, so it's on us when we fall in.
[4:8-12]
And it only took two generations for the first murder to happen, and probably only three before the first generic cop show that lasted a couple seasons and that guy from that one movie you loved in it so you watch the first season trying really hard to convince yourself it's not terrible.
Cain tries to cover up what he did, by apparently hoping that God didn't see what went on and just saying "Nope. Don't know what you're talking about." It seems they were not yet fully appreciative of how God can see everything. As punishment for defiling the ground with his brother's blood, that ground will no longer give him food, so he has to spend the rest of his life wandering and trying not to be killed by a bunch of angry people that just discovered what murder was thanks to him.
[4:13-15]
Cain seems to think this is unfair and that he can't handle it (He just won't stop whining...) and tries to prove by repeating the punishment back verbatim. I guess arguing skills hadn't been invented yet. But Cain does point out that he'll probably be killed on sight by most people now. God realizes there aren't a ton of people to go around at the moment, so a killing spree breaking out right now would probably be really bad for the outlook of human history. To make sure these wonderful creations don't immediately murder themselves out of existence 30 years into the project, God puts special protection on Cain and vows that anyone who kills him will have much scarier retribution done to them. Even though Cain screwed up and deserved to be killed, God had a plan that was bigger than that. God will get things done, even if someone messes up.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Begat!
Like I said, I'll be doing the New Testament on weekends, mainly to keep things fresh, and only doing the NT two days out of the week will keep me from completely finishing it while I've barely made a dent in the Old. Not sure if I'll do all four Gospels in a row or do a couple of books and then come back. We'll see. But, for now: Matthew!
[Matthew 1:1-17]
Matthew was writing for a Jewish audience, so he puts a lot of emphasis on proving Jesus as the promised Messiah. With that as his goal, he starts with a genealogy, confusing everyone who is casually handed a Gideon Bible with just the New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs. With some hardcore studying and an audience with a decent Bible education, you can do some pretty neat sermons based on the genealogy of Jesus, but that kind of prep is a bit beyond the scope of this blog. So, just a couple things.
With any sort of Bible education, you'll notice as you scan through this part trying not to feel happy that your Bible reading will go that much faster today (Come on...we've all thought it) that there are some big shot awesome people in here (David, Abraham, Solomon), some sketchy characters (Rahab, Solomon) and a bunch of people you've never even heard of (Jothan, Abiud, and apparently a salmon.) All of these people ended up with the honor of being in Jesus' lineage. Even the people who screwed up and the ones who probably died without leaving a huge dent in the world and probably thinking they never accomplished much, by just being who they were and going where God led them, played a part in bringing Jesus into the world. So if you're walking with God and keeping your priorities straight, you never know what effects God will cause to ripple out even hundreds of years down the road.
Second, it's interesting that this traces the line through Jospeh, since Joseph contributed nothing genetically to Jesus. He married Mary while she was already pregnant with Jesus, and yet this was enough to satisfy the Jews to whom Matthew was writing that Jesus came from the line of David (Since that was one of the requirements for being the Messiah.) Even though Jospeh was not Jesus' birth father, he adopted Jesus into his family and that was good enough for God and the Jewish community. It's comforting, as a Gentile who came into the faith after the Jews, to know that God considers adoption just as binding and just as important as children born naturally. (Though I should note that elsewhere the Bible also places Mary in the line of David, it's interesting that Matthew chose not to mention that when writing to a Jewish audience.)
[1:18-24]
Matthew skips over a lot of the story parts to get straight to the point of Jesus being the Messiah, but I like that here it shows Joseph as a pretty cool guy. Mary is pregnant via the Holy Spirit, and when Jospeh finds out, he decides to call of the marriage quietly instead of going all Much Ado About Nothing on her and slapping her during the wedding and all that.
But then an angel shows up and says "No, it's cool, the baby is God's and He's gonna save the world and all that, so you should still get married and name Him Jesus. You should also start capitalizing His pronouns, so tell the person making the "It's a Boy" banners."
Joseph's faith here is pretty remarkable. Granted and angel appeared to him and told him, so that definitely helps your belief a bit, but it's still impressive. There's been a really long "dead period" religiously here, since the Old Testament canon was finished several hundred years back and the Jews are now occupied by Rome. It's a safe bet that prophecy and miracles were pretty scarce the last couple of centuries, so for Joseph to go along with the miracle virgin pregnancy thing when it looks like a sin that would otherwise result in exile or stoning shows that this guy trusted in God pretty strongly. The baby would have been born anyway, but obviously, since Matthew starts with this story, Joseph being the father made it far easier for the Jews to accept Jesus as the Messiah. Fairly basic lesson here: Do what God says.
[Matthew 1:1-17]
Matthew was writing for a Jewish audience, so he puts a lot of emphasis on proving Jesus as the promised Messiah. With that as his goal, he starts with a genealogy, confusing everyone who is casually handed a Gideon Bible with just the New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs. With some hardcore studying and an audience with a decent Bible education, you can do some pretty neat sermons based on the genealogy of Jesus, but that kind of prep is a bit beyond the scope of this blog. So, just a couple things.
With any sort of Bible education, you'll notice as you scan through this part trying not to feel happy that your Bible reading will go that much faster today (Come on...we've all thought it) that there are some big shot awesome people in here (David, Abraham, Solomon), some sketchy characters (Rahab, Solomon) and a bunch of people you've never even heard of (Jothan, Abiud, and apparently a salmon.) All of these people ended up with the honor of being in Jesus' lineage. Even the people who screwed up and the ones who probably died without leaving a huge dent in the world and probably thinking they never accomplished much, by just being who they were and going where God led them, played a part in bringing Jesus into the world. So if you're walking with God and keeping your priorities straight, you never know what effects God will cause to ripple out even hundreds of years down the road.
Second, it's interesting that this traces the line through Jospeh, since Joseph contributed nothing genetically to Jesus. He married Mary while she was already pregnant with Jesus, and yet this was enough to satisfy the Jews to whom Matthew was writing that Jesus came from the line of David (Since that was one of the requirements for being the Messiah.) Even though Jospeh was not Jesus' birth father, he adopted Jesus into his family and that was good enough for God and the Jewish community. It's comforting, as a Gentile who came into the faith after the Jews, to know that God considers adoption just as binding and just as important as children born naturally. (Though I should note that elsewhere the Bible also places Mary in the line of David, it's interesting that Matthew chose not to mention that when writing to a Jewish audience.)
[1:18-24]
Matthew skips over a lot of the story parts to get straight to the point of Jesus being the Messiah, but I like that here it shows Joseph as a pretty cool guy. Mary is pregnant via the Holy Spirit, and when Jospeh finds out, he decides to call of the marriage quietly instead of going all Much Ado About Nothing on her and slapping her during the wedding and all that.
But then an angel shows up and says "No, it's cool, the baby is God's and He's gonna save the world and all that, so you should still get married and name Him Jesus. You should also start capitalizing His pronouns, so tell the person making the "It's a Boy" banners."
Joseph's faith here is pretty remarkable. Granted and angel appeared to him and told him, so that definitely helps your belief a bit, but it's still impressive. There's been a really long "dead period" religiously here, since the Old Testament canon was finished several hundred years back and the Jews are now occupied by Rome. It's a safe bet that prophecy and miracles were pretty scarce the last couple of centuries, so for Joseph to go along with the miracle virgin pregnancy thing when it looks like a sin that would otherwise result in exile or stoning shows that this guy trusted in God pretty strongly. The baby would have been born anyway, but obviously, since Matthew starts with this story, Joseph being the father made it far easier for the Jews to accept Jesus as the Messiah. Fairly basic lesson here: Do what God says.
Friday, January 13, 2012
I Know Things Now
(Alternate title: Snake snake snake snake snake...)
[Genesis 3: 1-6]
Anyone read on Youversion? Their NKJV translation prints the first verse twice.
Anyway.
It's interesting that the first attempt at temptation here is "So, I heard God doesn't let you eat down here," to which Eve replies "Oh no, we can eat. Just not that one in the middle. That one kills us."
It sounds like he's trying to paint God as a bad guy right off the bat. Running into someone (Or...somesnake...) who is suspicious or antagonistic towards someone you respect is jarring. I imagine's Eve response has her thinking "Why would you accuse God of something like that?"
Satan's next attack of "Nah man, He's just trying to keep you down! He knows that once you eat that, you'll be like Him and He won't be able to be up in your business anymore! Fight the power!" is a classic play on everyone's weak point: ego. Forget that their life has been absolutely perfect: living naked with the sexiest person alive, eating perfect food, getting to study animals without fear of being mauled by them, with your only responsibilities being to learn about all this stuff and have a lot of sex, obviously the God who put you in this situation is out to get you.
Oddly enough, the only lie that Satan told was that the tree did not ensure death (It did, just not immediately.) He laid out exactly the reason God did not want them to eat the fruit: doing so would open their eyes to the world of good and evil, and they get to be like God in the awareness that not everyone is good and that there are parts of our nature that just plain suck. But the temptation of having some extra power, of being in charge, was enough for both of them to cave and disobey.
[Genesis 3:7-10]
As soon as they ate the fruit, they realized they were naked and shame came upon them. Since they declared that they want there to be a line between good and evil in their world, then their shame receptors had to turn on. They broke the one rule God set down for them, so God opened their hearts to all the other rules He had. So when God comes walking in, their shame receptors reveal to them the one main thing God was trying to hide from them: that they don't deserve God.
When the only rule was that they shouldn't eat this one fruit, they were oblivious to how unworthy any creature is of being in the presence of Almighty God. They had no trouble just walking up to Him and going "Hey God, why did you make those naked cats? They're creepy." But now that they had chosen to disobey, they got a sense of just how screwed up they actually were. They weren't really even created perfect, they were just created in a system where they were oblivious to their imperfection. But making this choice broke down the blinders, and they got exactly what they wanted.
[Genesis 3:11-13]
God: So who's responsible for this?
Adam: Eve gave it to me.
Eve: Satan made me do it.
Satan: trollolololol pwnd
So God calls them out on it, and mankind begins its first excursion into one of its greatest pastimes: blaming anyone but themselves for their problems. Their shame made them realize "Wow, I'm a putz," but their new found pride stopped them from admitting it. How lovely.
[Genesis 3:14-20]
God says "Fine, you want a world where you're aware of right and wrong? Then you get a world closer to the one you deserve." Flowers used to just be pretty, now they have thorns and random bushes that are just sitting there have sharp things too. Taking care of the plants used to be just talking to them and untangling vines, now you have to rotate crops and fight off bugs and have the government pay you to kill it all with milk. Your relationship was great, now you're going to bicker and argue. Having a baby was going to be like pulling out a splinter, now you have to break yourself in half. And now you have to die. So have fun with that.
[Genesis 3:21-24]
But then God shows a bit of mercy and makes them some clothes. He knows they now have to cover up their shame, but He provides the way for them to do it properly. He does this because this is not the end of what He created, it is just the beginning of the ultimate plan. He knows that there is no satisfactory plan for man that does not include them being pig-headed enough to screw up this bad. So He lets them screw it up, lets them see their shame, and then covers it for them. He let us screw up and then sacrificed an animal to make them a covering, because He wants to establish the pattern of us being aware of how foolish we are, and needing a gift from God to cover it up. This entire episode, which Satan thought was a victory for him, was exactly the first step God needed to establish the system that would eventually lead to our salvation through Jesus. He let us fall from a world where we were not aware of our sin and covered up that sin so that later we could fall the from the law and, through Jesus, enter a world where we are aware of our sins but they are paid for.
[Genesis 3: 1-6]
Anyone read on Youversion? Their NKJV translation prints the first verse twice.
Anyway.
It's interesting that the first attempt at temptation here is "So, I heard God doesn't let you eat down here," to which Eve replies "Oh no, we can eat. Just not that one in the middle. That one kills us."
It sounds like he's trying to paint God as a bad guy right off the bat. Running into someone (Or...somesnake...) who is suspicious or antagonistic towards someone you respect is jarring. I imagine's Eve response has her thinking "Why would you accuse God of something like that?"
Satan's next attack of "Nah man, He's just trying to keep you down! He knows that once you eat that, you'll be like Him and He won't be able to be up in your business anymore! Fight the power!" is a classic play on everyone's weak point: ego. Forget that their life has been absolutely perfect: living naked with the sexiest person alive, eating perfect food, getting to study animals without fear of being mauled by them, with your only responsibilities being to learn about all this stuff and have a lot of sex, obviously the God who put you in this situation is out to get you.
Oddly enough, the only lie that Satan told was that the tree did not ensure death (It did, just not immediately.) He laid out exactly the reason God did not want them to eat the fruit: doing so would open their eyes to the world of good and evil, and they get to be like God in the awareness that not everyone is good and that there are parts of our nature that just plain suck. But the temptation of having some extra power, of being in charge, was enough for both of them to cave and disobey.
[Genesis 3:7-10]
As soon as they ate the fruit, they realized they were naked and shame came upon them. Since they declared that they want there to be a line between good and evil in their world, then their shame receptors had to turn on. They broke the one rule God set down for them, so God opened their hearts to all the other rules He had. So when God comes walking in, their shame receptors reveal to them the one main thing God was trying to hide from them: that they don't deserve God.
When the only rule was that they shouldn't eat this one fruit, they were oblivious to how unworthy any creature is of being in the presence of Almighty God. They had no trouble just walking up to Him and going "Hey God, why did you make those naked cats? They're creepy." But now that they had chosen to disobey, they got a sense of just how screwed up they actually were. They weren't really even created perfect, they were just created in a system where they were oblivious to their imperfection. But making this choice broke down the blinders, and they got exactly what they wanted.
[Genesis 3:11-13]
God: So who's responsible for this?
Adam: Eve gave it to me.
Eve: Satan made me do it.
Satan: trollolololol pwnd
So God calls them out on it, and mankind begins its first excursion into one of its greatest pastimes: blaming anyone but themselves for their problems. Their shame made them realize "Wow, I'm a putz," but their new found pride stopped them from admitting it. How lovely.
[Genesis 3:14-20]
God says "Fine, you want a world where you're aware of right and wrong? Then you get a world closer to the one you deserve." Flowers used to just be pretty, now they have thorns and random bushes that are just sitting there have sharp things too. Taking care of the plants used to be just talking to them and untangling vines, now you have to rotate crops and fight off bugs and have the government pay you to kill it all with milk. Your relationship was great, now you're going to bicker and argue. Having a baby was going to be like pulling out a splinter, now you have to break yourself in half. And now you have to die. So have fun with that.
[Genesis 3:21-24]
But then God shows a bit of mercy and makes them some clothes. He knows they now have to cover up their shame, but He provides the way for them to do it properly. He does this because this is not the end of what He created, it is just the beginning of the ultimate plan. He knows that there is no satisfactory plan for man that does not include them being pig-headed enough to screw up this bad. So He lets them screw it up, lets them see their shame, and then covers it for them. He let us screw up and then sacrificed an animal to make them a covering, because He wants to establish the pattern of us being aware of how foolish we are, and needing a gift from God to cover it up. This entire episode, which Satan thought was a victory for him, was exactly the first step God needed to establish the system that would eventually lead to our salvation through Jesus. He let us fall from a world where we were not aware of our sin and covered up that sin so that later we could fall the from the law and, through Jesus, enter a world where we are aware of our sins but they are paid for.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Bachelor pad
[2:18-20]
So things were going well in the garden, but God was starting to notice that Adam wasn't taking the trash out, wasn't showering, and had a pile of dishes in the sink that was starting to smell so bad he was just eating off napkins he kept on the living room table. God then realized that maybe a world of just men is not a great idea.
So God thinks "Well, maybe one of the other things I created can help him out," and has Adam take a look at each one and give them a name while he's at it. None of them worked, so God made a new plan.
There's a growing group of people who think it's not really necessary to go to church. They're not satisfied with the way most churches run the show, so they stay home and do their own Bible reading and thinking deep theological thoughts about what utterly fantastic people they are and how great church would be if they ran it even though they're not really going to start a church. The justification from this comes from their satisfaction with their own relationship with God and that their bitter, ranting blog posts get comments so they're kinda getting fellowship.
To think that you're okay without regular fellowship with other believers is to ignore this fact: when the world was nothing but one guy, God, and animals, God considered Adam alone. This is at a time when God was coming to Earth and literally walking around and talking with Adam, and He still said Adam was alone. So no matter how good your "quiet time" is, and how much you love your dog/cat/human centipede/parakeet, if you are not getting regular fellowship with other believers, you are alone, and it is not good.
[2:21-25]
Adam wakes to find Eve, and says "ooh...yeah...she wins" and is really grateful he didn't go with the giraffe.
People often see an excuse for sexism in the Bible declaring woman as "a helper." But, in the Latin Vulgate, the word "helper" used to describe woman is the same "helper" used to describe the Holy Spirit. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the only sin that God won't forgive, so I don't think "helper" is considered a demeaning term here. Woman's entire existence was because God looked at a world without her and went "Wow...okay, wow, this isn't gonna work."
God set out to make man in His image, and wasn't satisfied when there was only one kind. God Himself consists of three Persons, so man alone was not a satisfactory representation of His image. To remedy this, God took a part out of man, and made it into woman. Those two together represent the image of God He intended, because now intimate relationship is part of the nature. They become "one flesh" and one single unit in a way that resembles how God is One being.
Well that finishes off the chapter and the next section doesn't divide up into small chunks quite as easily, so I'm gonna end it here.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
*tree!*
[Genesis 2: 1-3]
And God takes a break. Since I am coming up on the next school year, I am in the process of making myself take fewer breaks, so this is not a terribly urgent passage for me. But, it's worth dwelling on, lest in my attempts to be more productive I end up burning myself out. There really does need to be a day a week where you can just recharge. It doesn't need to be Sunday, and it doesn't even need to be the same day every week, but make sure you've got time to calm down.
[2:4-6]
If taken literally, this is an interesting passage that leads to the Canopy theory in Creationist views, but, like I said, I'm not getting into that.
What is interesting is that God used this mist to take care of things until He made man to take care of it. So it seems that once God made people, He stopped doing the mist thing because it was now man's job to take care of stuff, and if man screwed it up, then it screwed up.
We often ask why God allows certain things to happen. In some cases, it may just be that we have a responsibility that we are not fulfilling. God didn't "protect you" from Diabetes because you eat 3000 calories a day. God isn't providing you work because you're a lazy good-for-nothing who can't be bothered to write a cover letter or format a resume properly. God doesn't bring the mist to take care of stuff when He's told you to take care of it.
[2:7]
Man was created uniquely to everything else. For every other aspect of Creation, God just spoke and they happened. For man, He got His hands dirty. He used the dirt in the ground to form the body, and then breathed life into him. This breath gave man his soul, and created the two-part nature of body and soul that no other creature shares. God let everything else generate algorithmically, but sculpted man by hand.
As I said before, humanity is not a shameful species; it is the highest species on Earth. God breathed a part of His own nature into us and gave us the capacity for true relationships, for love, and for freedom of will.
[2:8-15]
So God planted the Garden of Eden and it's described as a pretty swanky place. It has gold, onyx, and...bdellium (which is apparently a tree resin that smells nice.) It's at this point that God stops the mist and tells Adam that it's his job to take care of this place. The dominion mandate is in effect, and God is sitting back and waiting to see what Adam will discover first. God knows every aspect of every material in this creation and knows what can be done with it. In all of the stuff in the ground, God knows about the potential for things like paper, rope, concrete, enchilladas, and Pokemon cards. God knows there is water on Mars and is giddily awaiting for man to start coming up with rocket propulsion. Like a father who has just built his son a new jungle gym, He just wants to see Adam start figuring everything out.
There's one or two ground rules though.
[2: 16-17]
There's that one tree you need to stay away from. Other than that, go nuts.
There's always discussion over why God even bothered. Why put the one thing they're not supposed to do smack in the middle of the Garden where they can see it? Why not put it on the other side of the world in a cave somewhere if He had to make it all?
There's lots of theories about it, but I hold to two. One is that part of a satisfying relationship is that they are in it voluntarily. If your friends had no choice but to be your friends, the relationship would not be terribly fulfilling.If there's not an out, it's not impressive when people stay in. In order for God to claim that He was in true relationship with humanity, He had to provide them a way to get out of relationship with Him. Even in Heaven He had apparently established the ruleset and natures that allowed Satan to fall, because even the worship of the angels would not satisfy Him if they did not have the choice of packing their bags and heading out.
Secondly, in discussing this concept, we often forget that later the Bible tells us that redemption through Jesus was the plan from the beginning. As God was formulating the plan for this "humanity" project, He knew that the Fall and the Redemption was the best way to go. Any plan that involved giving humanity free will inevitably led to our falling away en masse. Thus the only workable plan was to let that fall happen, and redeem us through Jesus' sacrifice. If God had put the tree in a cave on the other side of the world, we would have found it eventually and then sinned. If it hadn't been a tree, we would have broken whatever rule God did set up because that is the nature of free will. So best to put it where we can see it and get the thing over with so we can do the redemption as fast as possible.
---
I may come back and do more later, but I have to go for now. Good times.
And God takes a break. Since I am coming up on the next school year, I am in the process of making myself take fewer breaks, so this is not a terribly urgent passage for me. But, it's worth dwelling on, lest in my attempts to be more productive I end up burning myself out. There really does need to be a day a week where you can just recharge. It doesn't need to be Sunday, and it doesn't even need to be the same day every week, but make sure you've got time to calm down.
[2:4-6]
If taken literally, this is an interesting passage that leads to the Canopy theory in Creationist views, but, like I said, I'm not getting into that.
What is interesting is that God used this mist to take care of things until He made man to take care of it. So it seems that once God made people, He stopped doing the mist thing because it was now man's job to take care of stuff, and if man screwed it up, then it screwed up.
We often ask why God allows certain things to happen. In some cases, it may just be that we have a responsibility that we are not fulfilling. God didn't "protect you" from Diabetes because you eat 3000 calories a day. God isn't providing you work because you're a lazy good-for-nothing who can't be bothered to write a cover letter or format a resume properly. God doesn't bring the mist to take care of stuff when He's told you to take care of it.
[2:7]
Man was created uniquely to everything else. For every other aspect of Creation, God just spoke and they happened. For man, He got His hands dirty. He used the dirt in the ground to form the body, and then breathed life into him. This breath gave man his soul, and created the two-part nature of body and soul that no other creature shares. God let everything else generate algorithmically, but sculpted man by hand.
As I said before, humanity is not a shameful species; it is the highest species on Earth. God breathed a part of His own nature into us and gave us the capacity for true relationships, for love, and for freedom of will.
[2:8-15]
So God planted the Garden of Eden and it's described as a pretty swanky place. It has gold, onyx, and...bdellium (which is apparently a tree resin that smells nice.) It's at this point that God stops the mist and tells Adam that it's his job to take care of this place. The dominion mandate is in effect, and God is sitting back and waiting to see what Adam will discover first. God knows every aspect of every material in this creation and knows what can be done with it. In all of the stuff in the ground, God knows about the potential for things like paper, rope, concrete, enchilladas, and Pokemon cards. God knows there is water on Mars and is giddily awaiting for man to start coming up with rocket propulsion. Like a father who has just built his son a new jungle gym, He just wants to see Adam start figuring everything out.
There's one or two ground rules though.
[2: 16-17]
There's that one tree you need to stay away from. Other than that, go nuts.
There's always discussion over why God even bothered. Why put the one thing they're not supposed to do smack in the middle of the Garden where they can see it? Why not put it on the other side of the world in a cave somewhere if He had to make it all?
There's lots of theories about it, but I hold to two. One is that part of a satisfying relationship is that they are in it voluntarily. If your friends had no choice but to be your friends, the relationship would not be terribly fulfilling.If there's not an out, it's not impressive when people stay in. In order for God to claim that He was in true relationship with humanity, He had to provide them a way to get out of relationship with Him. Even in Heaven He had apparently established the ruleset and natures that allowed Satan to fall, because even the worship of the angels would not satisfy Him if they did not have the choice of packing their bags and heading out.
Secondly, in discussing this concept, we often forget that later the Bible tells us that redemption through Jesus was the plan from the beginning. As God was formulating the plan for this "humanity" project, He knew that the Fall and the Redemption was the best way to go. Any plan that involved giving humanity free will inevitably led to our falling away en masse. Thus the only workable plan was to let that fall happen, and redeem us through Jesus' sacrifice. If God had put the tree in a cave on the other side of the world, we would have found it eventually and then sinned. If it hadn't been a tree, we would have broken whatever rule God did set up because that is the nature of free will. So best to put it where we can see it and get the thing over with so we can do the redemption as fast as possible.
---
I may come back and do more later, but I have to go for now. Good times.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Dominion, Prosperity, and the Cornucopia
Alright, onto the rest of the chapter.
[Gen 1:2]
I don't plan on going into detailed creation theories, but I always thought this verse was interesting. The Sunday school version of this process starts with nothing, then light, but the actual order of the verses has a formless void heaven and earth as the first steps of creation, then references the Spirit of God hovering over "the waters." This confused me for a long time, because it didn't make sense for there to be waters when the rest of the stuff hadn't happened yet.
Then I read this article about an experiment done with the LHC, and it made a little more sense. (that article wasn't the exact one I read, but I can't find the other one at the moment.) In short, the article states that, immediately after the Big Bang, matter existed as a "quark-gluon plasma" before forming into the matter we know today. Plasma is liquidity, so, in my completely non-science-trained mind, I think this makes sense. God spoke the universe into existence (bang), and it was void and without form (existing in a chaotic plasma form) and God hovered over these "waters" and formed the Universe we know today. Works for me.
[Gen 1:3-25]
And the Creation order we're all familiar with. Light, separation of Heaven from Earth (I guess? Possibly formation of planets? I don't remember what the one-word kid-friendly version was on the chart), separation of water from land, plants, stars (including the sun), fish and birds, then critters. (It's okay, Oxford Comma, you'll always be correct in my style book.)
Not a whole lot to say here I didn't already cover in the last couple of comments.
[Gen 1:26-31]
This passage basically defines my outlook on life. It's the idea that, with our creation, came the command to "subdue [the earth], have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." While the Fall and the subsequent mission to spread the Gospel changed mankind's priorities, it still stands that, when we were created, our job was to master the Earth we were put on.
Now, common sentiment thanks to the slant of movies and cartoons makes that like a horrible, Captain Planet villain mission, but that's a simplistic view. To have dominion over the Earth means to find every possible way to make it work for our benefit and our enjoyment. This means to study the way everything works and learn how to care for it and manipulate it in the way that is best for us. As man was first encountering fruit, eating the fruit was the first way we had dominion over the creation. As we learned to plant it and create more of it, that was also dominion. When we learned that not watering the plants kills them and that not planting more means we'll eventually not have any, that was a step towards dominion. When we learned we could combine them with other foods, that was dominion. When we learned to make cobblers out of them, that was delicious dominion.
But it's not just in the plant and sciencey way; anything we learn about and make work for us is part of this dominion mandate. When we learned rubber was bouncy and we could use it to play sports that were fun, we were having dominion over the creation. When we learned we could use silicon and electricity to carry a current and store information, we were having dominion. When we create music, poetry, and funny internet videos, we're having dominion over speech, sound, and words.
The call to have dominion over the earth is a call to get an education, to master a skill, and to contribute to the world around you. Some pervert this mandate as an excuse to destroy entire ecosystems so we can have fun for a little while, but dominion includes taking care of the creation. Even more disgusting, though, is this popular perception that humans are evil and anything we do to the world is horrible. Go to any kid's talking animal cartoon and the "scariest" part of the movie is when the humans show up (dun dun dunnn). We have it pounded into our heads our entire lives that humans are evil, any footprint we leave on our environment is an abomination, and that our attempts to improve our quality of life are shameful. When the Bible tells us that mankind was given the highest honor of all Creation: to be a human is the greatest honor God gave any creation. We were put here to take care of this creation; our destruction would be catastrophic, not good for the planet.
So go to school. Pick your favorite aspect of this world and choose to dominate it. Learn everything you can about it, and make it work for you and for us as a whole. And be proud of whatever you achieve in this pursuit and whatever success you may gain from it, because it is your duty as a human being, the only part of Creation God considered important enough to die for.
[Gen 1:2]
I don't plan on going into detailed creation theories, but I always thought this verse was interesting. The Sunday school version of this process starts with nothing, then light, but the actual order of the verses has a formless void heaven and earth as the first steps of creation, then references the Spirit of God hovering over "the waters." This confused me for a long time, because it didn't make sense for there to be waters when the rest of the stuff hadn't happened yet.
Then I read this article about an experiment done with the LHC, and it made a little more sense. (that article wasn't the exact one I read, but I can't find the other one at the moment.) In short, the article states that, immediately after the Big Bang, matter existed as a "quark-gluon plasma" before forming into the matter we know today. Plasma is liquidity, so, in my completely non-science-trained mind, I think this makes sense. God spoke the universe into existence (bang), and it was void and without form (existing in a chaotic plasma form) and God hovered over these "waters" and formed the Universe we know today. Works for me.
[Gen 1:3-25]
And the Creation order we're all familiar with. Light, separation of Heaven from Earth (I guess? Possibly formation of planets? I don't remember what the one-word kid-friendly version was on the chart), separation of water from land, plants, stars (including the sun), fish and birds, then critters. (It's okay, Oxford Comma, you'll always be correct in my style book.)
Not a whole lot to say here I didn't already cover in the last couple of comments.
[Gen 1:26-31]
This passage basically defines my outlook on life. It's the idea that, with our creation, came the command to "subdue [the earth], have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." While the Fall and the subsequent mission to spread the Gospel changed mankind's priorities, it still stands that, when we were created, our job was to master the Earth we were put on.
Now, common sentiment thanks to the slant of movies and cartoons makes that like a horrible, Captain Planet villain mission, but that's a simplistic view. To have dominion over the Earth means to find every possible way to make it work for our benefit and our enjoyment. This means to study the way everything works and learn how to care for it and manipulate it in the way that is best for us. As man was first encountering fruit, eating the fruit was the first way we had dominion over the creation. As we learned to plant it and create more of it, that was also dominion. When we learned that not watering the plants kills them and that not planting more means we'll eventually not have any, that was a step towards dominion. When we learned we could combine them with other foods, that was dominion. When we learned to make cobblers out of them, that was delicious dominion.
But it's not just in the plant and sciencey way; anything we learn about and make work for us is part of this dominion mandate. When we learned rubber was bouncy and we could use it to play sports that were fun, we were having dominion over the creation. When we learned we could use silicon and electricity to carry a current and store information, we were having dominion. When we create music, poetry, and funny internet videos, we're having dominion over speech, sound, and words.
The call to have dominion over the earth is a call to get an education, to master a skill, and to contribute to the world around you. Some pervert this mandate as an excuse to destroy entire ecosystems so we can have fun for a little while, but dominion includes taking care of the creation. Even more disgusting, though, is this popular perception that humans are evil and anything we do to the world is horrible. Go to any kid's talking animal cartoon and the "scariest" part of the movie is when the humans show up (dun dun dunnn). We have it pounded into our heads our entire lives that humans are evil, any footprint we leave on our environment is an abomination, and that our attempts to improve our quality of life are shameful. When the Bible tells us that mankind was given the highest honor of all Creation: to be a human is the greatest honor God gave any creation. We were put here to take care of this creation; our destruction would be catastrophic, not good for the planet.
So go to school. Pick your favorite aspect of this world and choose to dominate it. Learn everything you can about it, and make it work for you and for us as a whole. And be proud of whatever you achieve in this pursuit and whatever success you may gain from it, because it is your duty as a human being, the only part of Creation God considered important enough to die for.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
In the (Third or Fourth) Beginning
It's been a while since I've done anything blogwise. Things got busy and my priorities shifted, but going this long without writing is driving me slightly mad, and I feel like I don't understand life as well when I'm not writing about it. One of the most obvious areas for this is my Bible reading, which I feel has been unproductive this last semester when it comes to personal reading time.
So, I'm starting over. I've abandoned my "Bible in a year" plan and instead am starting from the beginning and blogging through it. I plan to do Old Testament on weekdays and New Testament on weekends, with probably some random thought articles thrown in when they come to me. I'll generally try for at least a chapter each time, but I will do more or less depending on how much commentary I get out of a given passage.
Lakeshore is starting its 21-day New Years fast today, so I thought this would be as good a time as any to begin. So, during this fast period, I'll also be looking at the devotional for the day that Lakeshore is providing.
Anyway, let's begin. I used to copy and paste the entire passage I was talking about, but I don't really see the point of it in retrospect. I'll give the references, so read along if you so desire.
[Gen 1:1]
I spent two years at Christ for the Nations bible college. One of the classes I took there was "Creation Science," where I was thrown headfirst into the whole creationism vs. evolution argument. Until then I had never given it a great deal of thought, being satisfied with knowing "God exists, He started it, and He's in charge." CFNI taught from a literal seven-day creation, 10,000-year-old Earth standpoint, of which I had never made a point of seeing the arguments. I lean that direction now, though I'm still not 100% sure where I stand.
What I did take away from those studies was the ways in which your stance on this is important on a deeper, theological level. Not as much on the literal 7 days thing, but on the literal truth of the events in Genesis, specifically Adam and Eve. If the curse that Adam and Eve brought upon the Earth was not the appearance of death (Which is the only conclusion under the Theistic Evolution standpoint, since stuff needs to be dying for evolution to be happening) then it brings doubt on the verse in Romans that says Adam was the one man who brought death into the world, and thus also brings doubt on the second clause of that sentence, which is that the gift of grace and righteousness will also reign through one. Likewise, if Adam and Eve never existed and were merely a metaphor, then we have trouble with the passages that link Jesus' genealogy all the way back to Adam, and we have to ask ourselves when the Bible switched to real people. So while I still don't have things figured out, I no longer consider this a non-issue like I used to.
Every pastor I've ever sat under has done long, flowery talks at some point about "In the beginning God..." so I feel a little silly dwelling on that, but it is a powerful beginning. I'm majoring in mathematics, so I don't claim to have much to say in the realm of the natural sciences and the areas this chapter usually causes arguments about, but I do appreciate this set-up of the logical basis for the rest of the Bible. No matter how rigorous your system of logic or your scientific method is, at some point you have to establish your axioms, which are, by definition, statements you accept without proof. You cannot prove your axioms, because without them you don't have a method of proof. In Geometry these axioms are statements like "the whole is equal to the sum of its parts," "a line can be drawn between any two given points," and "if a = b and b = c, then a = c." In formal argumentative logic, they are statements like "A is not not-A" and the like.
The problem with many arguments over Creationism and such subjects is that both parties are beginning with different axioms. If you reject the axiom that a point can be drawn between any two lines, you can't use line-drawing as a step in your proof, and are going to have a really hard time arguing with someone who sees two points and automatically sees a possible line. Likewise when people are arguing over whether or not the Grand Canyon was made by a massive worldwide flood or over billions of years of water trickle, the problem is that one side starts with God and one side does not. Both sides say they're just "going where the evidence leads," but the evidence can only lead you along a path your internal logic system allows.
The Bible starts with "In the beginning, God..." and thus immediately establishes Him as an axiom to everything that will be stated in the rest of Scripture. You can read it and test it for internal consistency, but it does not bother explaining itself because God's existence is where you start from. He cannot be explained because He is outside of our system entirely. Man can no better prove God exists than my Sims can prove I exist. So while these creation details are important, I don't stress out over it because I accept God as my axiom and leave the fine print to scientists who are also starting with that axiom.
Dang, that was a lot longer than I anticipated. I suppose that will do for Genesis commentary for the day. Told you I may not make it through a chapter. I would keep going but that was a good introduction and I need to get ready for work.
It's good to be back.
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