The Almighty—The Eternal

2. Author of Creation "Whom no man hath seen, nor can see."

Responsible scientists no longer deny that the Universe had a beginning. There was a time, fantastically remote from the present, when all creation—this earth, our Sun, all the starry splendour of the heavens—did not exist. It just was not there. There were no living creatures, for there was no life. There was no light, for there was nothing to give light. No heat, no sound, no movement; nothing. There was no means by which to measure out space, by which to span out time. Length and breadth, past and future, are words which would have had no meaning if there were any words, and there were not; time was only an eternal "now" and space was only an infinite "here."

There was a moment, say scientists, when matter, material, the stuff of which things are made, began to come into existence. From what cause, by what power, they do not know, and no scientific instrument can reveal. But they can and do observe the results of that coming of matter into existence and they peer intently into the recesses of distant space in order to gain clues that will afford them a clearer understanding of this profound mystery. Of course, the experts differ, as experts always do, and it is still a matter of heated debate in the appropriate academic circles whether all the material now in the universe first appeared in the form of a colossal solid lump which exploded and sent its contents careering through space to condense into stars, suns and planets, or was the continuous appearance of atoms created out of nothing, a process which continues everlastingly, coalescing together to form great gaseous clouds which ultimately become the stars we see and know. But there are two facts upon which all the scientists do agree. They know that there was a start to the Universe; their instruments cannot tell them by what power or what means it was started.

Science in its exploration of the past has to stop at this point, where the first stars were born, where in God’s mighty crucible the first atoms were forged out of nothingness. Science has to stop at the boundary marked by the beginning of material things: only faith and spiritual discernment can step across the line and find, behind the coming into existence of all we can see and hear and handle, God the Creator, existing from eternity, putting into active operation his great purpose.

We do not know whether what is usually called the angelic world came into existence prior to the visible universe or simultaneously with it. We do not know the true nature of the celestial world or of celestial beings, only that it is a real world, with real citizens living nearer to the presence of God than do we upon earth, capable of intelligent loyalty, service and activity in the things of God, and ceaselessly engaged in the occupations and duties for which God has created them. Because the Bible tells us of angels who sinned, and are reserved to judgment, of evil principalities and powers in the heavens, we have to accept the fact that the citizens of that world are capable, like man, of obedience or disobedience, loyalty or disloyalty, to God, and that there are those in that world who now are in a state of rebellion against God. Neither can we pronounce with any certainty upon the relation of that world to our physical universe in terms of space and time. The five human senses, and every type of detecting instrument which the wit of man has devised, are incapable of sensing or detecting anything to do with that world. But because God is the Source of all life and the Author of all creation, in whatever sphere of being that life and that creation is manifested, we can be assured that a time there must have been when the celestial world, with whatever forms of life it holds, came into existence by the creative decree of God, just so surely as did our own material order of things. There are a few allusions in Scripture to that fact. Of the Son it is said that "by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible…" (Col.1:16). That the creation of what is to us the invisible world, the angelic, antedated the formation of the earth at least is indicated in Job 38:7 where the sons of God, i.e. the angels, are depicted as "shouting for joy" when God brought this planet into being. But our earth is a comparative newcomer on the scene; the starry heavens existed, substantially as we see them now, long before the earth was formed. Sometime in that remote past, perhaps at the very beginning of things, the celestial world came into existence, and for the first time living, intelligent beings stood before God and gave praise to him for the blessing of conscious life.

Knowing so little of that celestial creation, unable as we are to visualise the conditions of life in that world, in thinking and speaking of the work of God in creation we can do little more than consider the material universe of which we and our Earth constitute a small—an infinitesimally small—part. When we talk of God as Creator, although we are fully aware that the angelic world is part of his creation also, it is of man and the visible universe that we must speak.

Away back there in the dim recesses of past time, so many long ages ago that the mind could not possibly take in the significance of the number of the years, a stupendous event took place. God created the first atom!

Now an atom is a very tiny thing. Most people know nowadays that all earthly materials and substances are composed of atoms, clinging together tightly to make up the mass of the material. These atoms are almost inconceivably minute. It would take more than a million of them, placed side by side in a straight line, to equal the thickness of a human hair. The tiniest grain of dust, only just visible to the human eye, can contain more than ten millions of atoms. Yet this earth and all that is on it, and all the stars of the sky, consist entirely of atoms, inconceivable numbers of atoms congregated together. God made them all, made them out of nothing, by the exercise of his own Will, the power of his Holy Spirit. There are only about one hundred different kinds of atoms, but out of the tremendous number of combinations possible with those hundred kinds the whole wide variety of earthly things has been constituted,—land and sea, rocks and minerals, trees and grasses, animals and fish, man himself, all constructed from atoms. God made them all and ordered the fashion atom combines with atom to produce all the different substances we know, and so made possible the bodies we possess and the environment in which we live, and move, and have our being. Away in the vast stretches of empty space, at fantastic distances from this earth, there are mighty star clusters, galaxies as they are called, each containing millions upon millions of giant stars each one of which is bigger by far than our own Sun,—which, as stars go, is only a midget,—and every star in every one of those countless galaxies is itself made up of atoms almost without number. Scientists are well accustomed to talking about atoms, their nature and behaviour, but they cannot say where they come from or by what power they are created. Neither their researches nor their instruments can tell them that.

The Bible does do so. In some of those inspired moments when holy men of old were moved by the Holy Spirit to utter words the meaning of which they themselves could only dimly understand, or even not understand at all, there were occasional allusions intended to have significance for us in these latter days, and which, closely examined, do have meaning. Speaking of his almighty power and wisdom, God says through the prophet Isaiah "Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned (Heb. stretched out) the heavens: when I call unto them they stand up together." (Isa.48:13) Let the implication of those trenchant (powerful) words sink in! Here is the creative power of God calling into existence the material substance of which this earth and all the heavenly bodies are composed, preparing the space in which they are to continue their existence and by one word ("when I call unto them") setting the entire assembly in orderly array as we see it glistening above our heads every night. Says Wisdom, the Logos, the only begotten Son "When he prepared (established) the heavens I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth…then I was by him, as a master workman (or architect; this is the meaning of the Hebrew)." (Prov.8:27‑31 KJV/RV) This momentous passage depicts the speaker as the active agent of God in the work of creation as distinct from the creative force or power whom we call God the Creator and God the Father of all.

Where human intellect fails the Holy Spirit fills the gap. Speaking under the Spirit’s guidance, the prophet Isaiah was able to describe what the wisest of men cannot describe. "Lift up your eyes on high" he says in Isa.40:26 "and behold who hath created these things, (the stars) that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth." Here is a marvellous picture; God the Creator "bringing out their host by number" as He creates the atoms, forms them into stars, and sets them to work. "Not one faileth." Never, in all this mighty process, is there a mistake or slip; all goes precisely according to plan. "He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names. Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite. (Psa.147:4‑5) No one of less than infinite understanding could originate and execute so tremendous a work. No one of less than infinite intellect could so number and give names to the myriads of stars that exist.

It is time now to ask the question "Why did God do all this?" For what reason has the Most High brought into existence this vast creation, so evidently intended to be the abode of continuous life—for the marvellous adaptability of our own planet to the myriads of different forms of life it supports shows unmistakably the Divine intention to multiply life in all its manifestations. The Revelator gives the answer. "Thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." (Rev.4:11) The word does not signify pleasure strictly in the modern sense of the word, but rather the idea of purpose or intention. The glowing words of Revelation 21:3 in which God is depicted at the last as making his dwelling with men seem at least to hint that in some wonderful manner which our altogether inadequate comprehension of God forbids our full understanding, God comes inside his own creation of space and time in much the same way as a man builds a house for himself and then goes inside and lives in it. Some such idea may possibly be intended by the words of Isa.40:22. "He...sitteth upon the circle of the earth…stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in." Psalm 104:2 has much the same idea. God enshrouds himself in light as a garment, stretches out the heavens for a veil and lays the supporting beams of his dwelling‑place in the celestial waters, the recesses of far space. God would dwell with man, but he remains invisible to man, "dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see." (1 Tim 6:16) Inconceivably remote, and yet infinitely near. The same Divine Mind that ranges through the vast recesses of space, filling it with great stars, is able to take note of the smallest detail affecting the welfare of his humblest living creature. A sparrow, said Jesus, cannot fall to the ground without the knowledge of the Father. (Matt.10:29) The God of the atom, of the mighty stars, is also the God of the sparrows and is as fully aware of the one as the other. Even the hairs of our heads are numbered, Jesus went on to say. After all, if God can keep track of the untold millions of stars, and knows all their names, then heads and sparrows must be easy to him, for there are far less of them to account for. So that as we look out upon the vast universe which our God has made we need not be appalled or afraid of its vastness and our own littleness. Out there, in the light behind the darkness, is our Creator and our Father, intensely conscious of us, our lives’ experiences and problems, our loves and fears, our strength and weakness, our successes and failures, and He is most certainly and surely working out his great purpose for those on whom He has bestowed the inestimable gift of conscious, intelligent life.

But how can men, who even as nations are less than the fine dust of the balance before him, how can men with their limited powers of perception come to know the God who inhabits eternity; and attain that communion and fellowship with him which He himself has said is his desire and intention? If no man can look upon his face and live (Exodus 33:20), if He dwells in the light which no man can approach unto, if He is One whom no man has seen nor can see, how may we ever come to know him? The answer is in five simple words in John’s Gospel. "The Word was made flesh." (John 1:14) The Word of God, the Logos, already the active agent of the Father in the work of creation, already in Old Testament days the means of communication between the Father and all, now becomes more intimately connected with mankind that He might reveal God to them in even clearer guise. The Word came to earth, and dwelt visibly amongst men, having taken upon himself the nature of man. (Heb.2:16) And in him men saw the Father.

AOH