|
|
(This
is a theory, rough draft only.)
There
is no question the Bible teaches that God is One.
"Have
we not all one father? has not one God created us? Malachi 2:10
"And
the scribe said to him, Well, Master, you have said the truth: for there is
one God; and there is none other but he" Mark 12:32
"But
to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in
him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by
him." 1 Corinthians 8:6
"One
God and Father
of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." Ephesians 4:6
"For
there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus" 1 Timothy 2:5
"You
believe that there is one God; you doest well: the devils also believe,
and tremble." James 2:19
The
great stumbling block through the ages has been the doctrine of equality. The
Son and the Father are one. The Holy Spirit is God. What seems to us to be an
impossibility is the normal state within the Godhead.
Genesis
is the brief but accurate description of the creation of this present universe,
which, though somewhat dissipated and dilapidated, still retains most of the
inherent glories of its first appearance.
When
God created all material and non-material things (angels etc), He appears to
have started with one thing. Perhaps it was a spiritual act, which transformed
God’s own peculiar domain into what we might call "nothing, and then into
or from that "nothing" God created what we can "see" today.
As you may already have noticed, this subject is far beyond mortal minds to
fathom, so all the above is merely conjecture! However, there may be something
useful in amongst the rubble.
Let
us suppose that "string theory" is correct. This scientific theory
suggests that all matter comes from a form of energy which is variable, in a way
similar to the string of a violin. By placing your finger on the frets and
sliding it up and down, the result is literally an infinite number of different
vibrations. It may be that God has created all matter out of a single form of
variable energy. To date nobdy knows.
However,
moving on to slightly more stable ground, we know that all atoms are made from
sub-atomic particles. Out of these incredibly tiny ‘things’ we have atoms.
Now
atoms are very interesting because they are all basically the same. They have
protons, neutrons and electrons, and the only difference between atoms is the
number of each of these parts. If the number of protons is increased the result
is a different element. If it is reduced the element changes. Thankfully such
changes do not normally ocurr, otherwise scientists might turn any substance
into gold at the flick of a switch.
Atoms
are the building blocks of chemicals and molecules. Molecules and chemicals are
the building blocks of life.
So,
from untold billions of identical particles, every available material object in
the universe has resulted. Is it possible then that God, who is One, might have
simply created one energy, and multiplied it repetitively in order to create
everything?
Moving
on from the constituent parts of living things, we come up to the level of the
living cell. All of life - plants and animals - are built with cells. It did not
appear so 200 or so years ago, but today it is common knowledge. Every creature
on earth and every plant is made of millions or trillions of microscopic cells.
Every cell functions as a part of the whole, and all cells begin at
fertilisation with the meeting of two cells. One sperm meets one ovum and the
division of cells begins, until the individual is finished - be it a dinosaur, a
whale, a mouse or a dust mite.
Cells
are an excellent example of one multiplied. Repetition of the same basic cell
can produce a leaf, or an organ, a thread of hair or a toe nail. Hold a leaf up
to the sun and the chloroplasts are quite often clearly visible, spread flat
across the sheet of leaf. Each cell is connected to a network of canals or
tubes, and each tube is a repetition of the one basic tube or canal.
One
leaf repeated gives us a luxuriant tree, one flower repeated gives us a
beautiful garden. Pine needles, spines, ice plant, holly, grass, and so on, all
display the repetition of the same one leaf, or stalk, tendril or petal.
The
earth displays an enormous amount of repetition, yet always within that
repetition is variation enough to hide the reality. We tend to see a whole tree,
rather than a cluster of almost identical groups of shapes, or worse, a vast
number of almost identical cells. And no-one sees life on the molecular level,
let alone the atomic level without special instruments.
Life
therefore proceeds upwards from level of complexity to level of complexity, not
by cloning, but by repeating. In other words, if you have seen one chloroplast,
you have seen them all, if you have seen one hair, one blood cell, one finger,
or eye, one nose, one kidney, one feather, onefoot, you have seen them all.
In
the animal kingdom God has used repetition just as much as in the vegetable or
mineral kingdom : hairs, feathers, scales, fins, claws, talons, tails,
colouring, etc A million-strong herd of buffalo is, in essence, only one buffalo
multiplied. A flock of starlings is, in essence, only one starling multiplied.
20,000 acres of wheat is, in essence, only one grain of wheat on one stalk.
In
the mineral kingdom : snowflakes, beach pebbles, hailstones, raindrops, sand
grains, waves, ripples, clouds, tornadoes, lightning bolts, cracks in dried mud,
sand dunes, rivers, beaches, crystals, stars, etc.
The
implications of this view are interesting (but by no means conclusive.) It may
be that the universe is, after it has been reduced level by level downwards
(cells . . . chemicals . . .molecules . . .atoms . . .subatomic particles . .
.?) really only one thing, made from only one power, by the One God.
But
why, if this is true, would God decide to create everything out of one thing
repeated and varied? Why did He choose this method rather than any other? Why
did He not make everything out of different materials, with totally different
principles?
One
reason may have been simply the need to create one cohesive functioning system,
in which all the separate parts worked together. A terribly unrelated universe
would probably not function well, and that would reflect badly on the Wisdom of
God.
Another
reason may have been to point all thinking humans to the origin of the whole
universe, the One who created all things out of one.
So
variation is, in a sense, a cleverly designed deception, which hides the fact
that everything we see (the world and Space) is in fact only a repetition of a
few things.
If
we were to reduce the many billions of humans on earth at present, we would come
to only one man and one woman. They would represent all the humans they were
related to. The same can be said of any life on earth. Two dogs, two sand flies,
two bacterium, two flowers, two mice, two locusts. All life on earth is
‘summarised’ by only two breeding pairs.
By
why did God choose to make one man and then from that man create a woman? I
think it was to show the two complimentary aspects of the One God, what we call
the male and the female aspects. In order to present the fullest possible
expression of Himself in creation, God had to make male and female, not just in
humans, but also in millions of other life forms. It is no accident that most
life proceeds on a male-female basis. It is a mark of the Godhead.
If
the above is true, then the universe could be seen as a mere kindergarten stage
in God’s Plan. The utterly complex nature of the universe, when reduced to its
simplest form, suggests that there is an even greater complexity to come.
This
brings us to another question. When God created Adam and Eve, He intended them
to reproduce. This miracle follows so close to the first that we tend to miss
it. The first humans were perfect representatives, in the media of material
substances, of the Living God. In a limited sense, God had multiplied Himself.
And not only that but He intended this ‘copy’ of Himself to proceed with
making even more copies. It was as if a very good king had taken the throne and
produced a family so large it constituted the entire population of his domain.
But
the copies became marred by sin, and the gospel was presented. But God has never
abandoned His original intention, and so, after a resurrection, all will be back
‘on track’. The repetition of humans has developed into the repetition of
"saints", and their future is breathtakingly wonderful.
"There
is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the
stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
So
also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in
incorruption:
It
is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is
raised in power:
It
is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body,
and there is a spiritual body." 1 Corinthians 15:41-44
From this we may infer that God intends the resurrected saints to be similar in one way, but remarkably different in others. Just how and to what extent we cannot know, but we can see something of the future in the fact that some stars are extremely bright, and immense, while others are comparatively small. While all stars are simply repeats of one star, with variations, all resurrected saints will be repeats of one saint, but given different "bodies" (variations) - which may relate to their new responsibilities, gifts, administrations and so on.