For those who believe in a God who created the world and populated it with life-forms through millions of years of death and destruction (natural selection, survival of the fittest, etc.,) there can be real problems with the nature and character of God. How can a holy, pure, righteous and loving God create a world where animals tear each other apart for food, and humans go to war and do all sorts of horrible things to each other in the struggle for territory and dominance? If this is the natural created order, and the world has been in its present corrupted state from the beginning, then God himself must be corrupt and there is no point praising him or asking him for salvation. Instead we should be asking how God himself can be saved.
The only way out of this bizarre theology is to believe what the Bible teaches, that God created a perfect world, but man has corrupted it through rebellion, an event known as the "fall".
For those who reject the theology of a perfect creation, and prefer to continue believing in an originally corrupt world, there is a way out of the dilemma, but it's even more bizarre. It's like this:
First there was Super-God. He was holy, pure, righteous and loving, and he created God. But God rebelled against Super-God and became corrupt, and lost his immortality, but still had the power of creation. While in his corrupted state, God created the world, also in a corrupted state, but sometime after the creation, he repented of his sin and prayed to Super-God for salvation, which was granted. God's salvation was total and complete, and his immortality was restored, unlike the salvation given to man where we are set free from the ultimate consequences of sin but continue to live with its temporal consequences until we die and are raised again at the Last Day. God's salvation was so complete, it was as if he had never sinned in the first place, and he was elevated to a state where he could be worshipped by humans, and could give them salvation. But the world that he had created remained in its corrupted state, as it is to this day.
If you can have God and Super-God, why not have a few more levels? It could end up like Greek mythology where you have an elaborate hierarchy of gods which were probably invented by the philosophers in their attempts to find a First Cause of everything.
Best to stick to the safe and sure teaching that we have in the Bible. There is only one True God, who created a perfect world and the first sinless humans, but they rebelled and came under the sentence of death, and the world that they inhabited became corrupted. Then God gave us salvation through his son Jesus Christ (the physical manifestation of himself), who suffered and died on the cross for our sins and was raised again, and we who believe will also be raised at the Last Day.
Super-God
Discussion in 'Baptist Theology & Bible Study' started by Mike Gascoigne, Aug 16, 2008.
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Even more super'er
You still try to define God by what you think is evil or wrong.
He's bigger or more 'super' than our imaginations.
If God doesn't define natural animal predation as evil should we?
You made the moon to mark the seasons,
and the sun knows when to set.
You send the darkness, and it becomes night,
when all the forest animals prowl about.
Then the young lions roar for their prey,
stalking the food provided by God.
At dawn they slink back
into their dens to rest.
Psalm 104:19-22 NLT
Rob -
Reformer -
When God created the world, he defined how it would become corrupted as a consequence of the fall, for example he told Adam that he would die. The animals were all originally vegetarian (Gen. 1:30).
Mike -
Good post Mike.
One question.
Just how old is the Earth? -
So what was once evil and corrupt is now acceptable and even supported by the Creator?
Rob -
pinoybaptist Active MemberSite Supporter
The Bible does speak of a coming time when God shall restore all things and the lion will lie with the lamb and the leopard with the kid, and a little child shall lead them. The dispensationalists (at least those I've personally known) call this time the Millenium kingdom. I don't know what it is, but it's there in Scripture. -
2000 years from Adam to Abraham
2000 years from Abraham to Jesus
2000 years from Jesus to now
Rough estimates only
http://agards-bible-timeline.com/timeline_online.html -
Mike -
Mike -
Mike -
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Anytime you cross the pond and are in the Philly area make yourself known
Rob