What? Two posts in the same month! Indeed.
Piper writes about why the universe and man "created in God's image" is so small.
Enjoy
Monday, April 21
Monday, April 14
Why God Created the World...
I am currently in this exercise with my little brother where I'm asking him some basic questions about the Christian faith. These questions often go by the wayside, but the lack of knowing the answers to these questions can have serious ramifications in one's worldview and more importantly one's view of God.
So I'm adding our conversations edited for unnecessary personal content, for your enjoyment and knowledge of our faith. One point of clarification... you (the reader) may ask something like "where do you come off saying that you know all this?!" "Isn't that arrogant to say you believe something as truth?" In essence to believe one thing as true, you are saying that someone who doesn't believe the same thing as true is incorrect. The conclusions I come to have come from reading the Bible and trying to piece it all together to make sense logically (yes it can be done). I've definitely had help from many wise and knowledgeable people who have asked these questions before. So here goes!
The first one we tackled was "Why God Created the World". I was so excited to hear my brother's initial response, it was basically right on. Then I wrote him back affirming his ideas and introducing some new terminology and pointing to a few specific places in the Bible where it talks about this question.
Hey Joel...So I was thinking...I am not sure what order to really go in with these questions and my day is really busy cause I have some catching up to do so I am going to just throw some things out there on one of the questions. Lets just start of with for what reason did God create the world.
Well...according to everything that I have been taught my entire life, sorry if I leave anything out, but the earth and we as humans were created to praise and worship God. We were created to glorify Him and be with Him. We were not made for this earth as it is but we were made to live eternally with Him and praise Him eternally in heaven. We were made so that we could draw close to Him and raise Him up above us and put Him and His wishes above our own desires. Well those are my first thoughts I should hit the books! I look forward to hearing back from you!
My response:
The interesting thing is that God needed nothing in creation. If he needed anything he would not be God. He by definition is self-sufficient. The Triune God(God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit) was completely happy and satisfied within himself from before time (John 17:5, 24).
But he did create us. Why? He created us for his Glory. Not that we would add to his glory but reflect his glory and magnify his glory to the world. God talks about his sons and daughters, "whom I created for my glory." Isaiah 43:7. Paul also says that our purpose in all that we do is to "do it for the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31
This fact gives us significance in life. As we study the attributes of God and understand that we are not "mini-me's" that "complete him" but that he actually was happy and satisfied from eternity past within the Trinity and does not need us; we come to the conclusion that we are of no importance. But that's not true because we find that the importance and worth of our creation comes in that we can bring glory to God by our lives.
The next logical question is: If the purpose in my life, as a part of God's creation, is to glorify Him, then what is the way (if any) for me to glorify him most? (we'll have to get into that one later)
Just so you know, I did most of my research for this in Wayne Grudems' book Systematic Theology... I highly recommend it, it is very easy to read and understand, and covers all kinds of deep theological questions.
So I'm adding our conversations edited for unnecessary personal content, for your enjoyment and knowledge of our faith. One point of clarification... you (the reader) may ask something like "where do you come off saying that you know all this?!" "Isn't that arrogant to say you believe something as truth?" In essence to believe one thing as true, you are saying that someone who doesn't believe the same thing as true is incorrect. The conclusions I come to have come from reading the Bible and trying to piece it all together to make sense logically (yes it can be done). I've definitely had help from many wise and knowledgeable people who have asked these questions before. So here goes!
The first one we tackled was "Why God Created the World". I was so excited to hear my brother's initial response, it was basically right on. Then I wrote him back affirming his ideas and introducing some new terminology and pointing to a few specific places in the Bible where it talks about this question.
Hey Joel...So I was thinking...I am not sure what order to really go in with these questions and my day is really busy cause I have some catching up to do so I am going to just throw some things out there on one of the questions. Lets just start of with for what reason did God create the world.
Well...according to everything that I have been taught my entire life, sorry if I leave anything out, but the earth and we as humans were created to praise and worship God. We were created to glorify Him and be with Him. We were not made for this earth as it is but we were made to live eternally with Him and praise Him eternally in heaven. We were made so that we could draw close to Him and raise Him up above us and put Him and His wishes above our own desires. Well those are my first thoughts I should hit the books! I look forward to hearing back from you!
My response:
The interesting thing is that God needed nothing in creation. If he needed anything he would not be God. He by definition is self-sufficient. The Triune God(God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit) was completely happy and satisfied within himself from before time (John 17:5, 24).
But he did create us. Why? He created us for his Glory. Not that we would add to his glory but reflect his glory and magnify his glory to the world. God talks about his sons and daughters, "whom I created for my glory." Isaiah 43:7. Paul also says that our purpose in all that we do is to "do it for the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31
This fact gives us significance in life. As we study the attributes of God and understand that we are not "mini-me's" that "complete him" but that he actually was happy and satisfied from eternity past within the Trinity and does not need us; we come to the conclusion that we are of no importance. But that's not true because we find that the importance and worth of our creation comes in that we can bring glory to God by our lives.
The next logical question is: If the purpose in my life, as a part of God's creation, is to glorify Him, then what is the way (if any) for me to glorify him most? (we'll have to get into that one later)
Just so you know, I did most of my research for this in Wayne Grudems' book Systematic Theology... I highly recommend it, it is very easy to read and understand, and covers all kinds of deep theological questions.
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