Genesis 1-2
(Follow the link to read the passage.)
Creation: Having heard all the various views of how our world originated, I'm aware that it takes more than a reading of this chapter, or anything I might have to say, to convince someone that God created the world in 6 days. However, I think there are a couple of points on the subject that should be discussed more often.
Science has led us to discover many amazing things about our universe, but it has yet to show me anything that says "God can't have made the world in 6 days". The question I would like to pose is this: "What's to say that God didn't create the world in 6 days as though it had been around much longer?" We can see from days five and six of creation that the chicken came before the egg. Man, animals, and I would say plants as well, were created in their fully formed adult states of being. Why wouldn't we apply this same principle to God's creation on a cosmic level? It's obvious that life on our planet is incredibly complex, and is dependant on many things for it's stability. God essentially had two choices. On one hand, He could create a world that took it's energy and stability directly from him. He would use his divine power to hold our feet to the ground, hold the sun up in the sky, and personally bring forth fruit from the trees. Or, he could create a self-stabilizing system that He could then hand over to us to be stewards over. This option required much more creativity and artistry (I'll come back to that later), and nature provides us with a perfect example of beauty. It's our responsibilty not to screw up the equilibrium that God established.
Man In The Image Of God: That God created us in his image totally astounds me. It has many implications but one in particular has recently gotten my attention. At the time that the Lord did this his identifying characteristic was that of creator and I think it was a role he intended for us to share as well. This capacity to create original expressions of ourselves is something that seperates us from the whole rest of creation, and it reminds us that we are God's expression of himself. When I think about it that way human beings become a whole lot more interesting. I think one of our main purposes and ways of glorifying God is to follow his example and create beautiful things. In this way we can be more like him and isn't that our goal, to be more Christlike?
This is also the cause for my frustration with the fact that contemporary christian culture is such a barren wasteland when it comes to quality music, literature, and film. It seems that christian art is just a third-rate knockoff of whatever the mainstream secular trend is at the time. Given our knowledge and awareness of the greatest Creator of all we should be at the forefront of artistic development and innovation. How does it glorify God to settle for mediocrity? What's worrying is our increasing tendency to adopt other habits as well from mainstream culture. It's probably already out of control. I'm by no means saying that anything coming from a secular source should be avoided. I think we need to become better at having a reason for everything we do, and at the core of that reason is the purpose we have been given by God to create and conserve beauty.
There's obviously much more to be gotten out of this passage and if anyone has something they'd like to discuss I beg them to ask about it on the comment board. May the Lord bless you all.
Love, Zach
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ReplyDeleteI agree that the protestant christian community fails in a lot of ways to embrace the creative side of our image. I remember hearing once that the more we grow in our christ-likeness the more we will want to create.
keep up the blog, i'm reading and enjoying
I am enjoying your blogs, Zach. I agree with your observations, however, I don't necessarily think that the Christian Community's creativity and birthing of art and music are inferior as much as of yet largely undiscovered. The Media and even the "Christian venues" seem to be slanted against encouraging the creative sources that don't meet their acceptable molds and criteria. Also, there may be a re-definition of what is creative art. When our comparisons are to past artistic efforts, sometimes we misjudge things inferior when they are just 'different' or original. I believe the body of Christ will be coming up to standards that are staggering as the end times progress.
ReplyDeleteI do agree completely that mediocrity is not acceptable and has never been God's design or purpose. The only way art and music will meet His true purpose will be when the body of Christ is at the intimacy level WITH Jesus that He has purposed. That's where outrageous genius art & Music truly begin and end!
If I may add, I feel in some ways, the secular world’s creativity does in fact point to the Creator. John Saunders, my campus ministry director, likes to point out that many good plot lines capture us because they point to the Gospel message.
ReplyDeleteThis leads me to ask why it is that Christians can not get that same message across as well. Are we in fact too focused on setting the message that we fail to see many opportunities and methods of delivering it? Also this directs me to ask myself how am I not showing the Creator through creativity, and I have realized that I may be called to share more than I have allowed, such as my photography and writing, to give more than more than I have, in my knitting and in actually expressing the joy, and life that Christ has given me. I am tempted to ask for accountability, but instead I feel this is something that needs to be done of the heart and sense of obligation; might that too be a reason we have not seen as much variety in the Christian genre.
~Monica