All Things New

'Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new...”'

(Revelation 21:5)

     Hello again! Happy new year to you all and I hope it was a blessed time of celebration for everyone. Coming into 2015 got me to think about the new year and newness in general. We serve a God who is not only the eternal unchanging God but one who delights in the “new.” From His perspective of course nothing is 'new' but we really mean new from our perspective. He will not leave things as they are but will, in His time, remake them so they shine anew.

     The world is old, very old, not nearly as old as some people think but compared to the average human lifespan it's darn old! The earth was formed many years ago and like your dad's old Buick, time has not been kind to it. Everything we see is in a gradual state of decline and breakdown that if given enough time would lead to nothing more than a cloud of disparate particles floating through space. The curse of sin has brought death to more than man. God however, sees a work unfinished, a canvas with only a few rough sketches and brushstrokes just waiting to be completed.

“For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.”

(Romans 8:20-22)

At the end of days when the sons of God are glorified we won't be living on this same old dusty ball. The whole of reality will be renewed right along with us into a glorious new future that we can't even imagine! How lovely is nature now while burdened by sin, how beautiful will it be when freed from those bonds and renewed by the master artist of creation?

“Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”

(Revelation 21:1-2)

     We as well will find ourselves remade in God's final design; still ourselves and still human but glorified into a form that will last for eternity. The life of a Christian now is a struggle, a battle against the ongoing sin the beguiles and attacks us. We are freed from sin's price and it's power but in those moment we will be freed from it's presence as well! The church will never sin again and never fail their King, from that moment to eternity the relationship between God and man will never be hindered again.

“So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.”

(2 Corinthians 5:17)

“For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined he also called; and those he called he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified.”

(Romans 8:29-30)

     All of this newness is yet to come but now, at this very time, we have access to another new thing, the new covenant between God and man. The covenants of the Old Testament were primarily between God and the nation of Israel. The prescribed how man could be obedient to God and thus demonstrate their faith. Unfortunately they did nothing for the state of man's soul. That all changed when Christ came to earth. He first showed us how the old law was meant to show us our need for God. The rules seen as impossible to follow really were impossible and that was the point! We could never measure up to the perfection of God and are thus in desperate need of Him and of the grace and mercy only He can give. When Christ died on our behalf and rose again a new covenant was made; Christ had paid a price so much greater than the cost of our sins that His one sacrifice was enough for all time!

“When he speaks of a 'new' covenant, he declares the first one obsolete. And what has become obsolete and has grown old is close to disappearing.”

(Hebrews 8:13)

“For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of a heifer's ashes can sanctify those who are defiled so that their flesh is cleansed, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God. For this reason he is mediator of a new covenant: since a death has taken place for deliverance from transgressions under the first covenant, those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance”

(Hebrews 9:13-15)

“Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that of ourselves we are qualified to take credit for anything as coming from us; rather, our qualification comes from God, who has indeed qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter brings death, but the Spirit gives life.”

(2 Corinthians 3:4-6)

     We look forward to a day when all thins are new, when the sins of old and the crimes of the past are no longer even a distant memory. We eagerly await that coming dawn when the glory of God lights our day and we need never fear the darkness. God is from forever and will never change nor come to His end but still He brings the joy of newness into the lives of His creations. How I long for the time when the new sun rises and we find ourselves in the never ending peace and joy of a glorious new day.

The False Dilemma of Dualism

     There is an age old belief in the world. One that has existed for hundreds if not thousands of years. One that has wormed its way even into the church. The idea is expressed in many ways and different words are used each time it surfaces. The concept is generally referred to as Dualism. In a nutshell the belief states that reality is essentially separated into two halves: the spiritual and physical. The physical is inherently evil and the spiritual inherently good. You'll find this idea spread across the globe in eastern religions and even in the Roman Catholic church and you'd think that the idea has some merit but sadly it does not.

     The physical, the flesh, the world and everything in it: to the dualist these are evil and tainted and must be removed from our lives. Desires are something that taint us and only when we are free from these earthly yearnings will we find righteousness. It's easy to see why this belief is so prevalent, what with all the war and greed and want in the world. So many people fight a daily war with their own bodies and minds that it makes sense to blame it all on the flesh and the world, to yearn to escape from all this and be freed from all these desires so unfulfillable. We see the monastic movements and the cave dwelling hermits seeking absolution in a grave existence of self punishment and denial. Men and women driven to celibacy by their lusts or even just the normal desires of the human body. Churches lay bare of even the most rudimentary of decoration or of a single note of music for fear of waking these evil tides of the flesh. All of this can be seen from one corner of the globe to the other, but are we fighting shadows?

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

(Genesis 1:1)

“Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”

(Genesis 1:31)

     Do you realize the implication of those verses? God created the heavens and the earth. God, who can do no evil. God who bends all things to His perfect will. God who can make no mistakes, created the earth and sky and everything and it was “very good.” How then can you say that the physical is evil by its very nature? How can the physical be necessarily evil when its very origin is in the great God almighty?

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

(Ephesians 6:12)

     Furthermore, we can plainly see that merely being spiritual is not enough to be righteous. The fallen angels and satan himself are of a completely spiritual nature and yet they are the very core of evil in existence! What matters is not merely being spiritual but being spiritually right! God did not come as Jesus to make us spiritual but to make us right with God. Man, from the beginning, has been a being both spiritual and physical. What makes us evil is not our physicality but our separation and rebellion against a Holy God. This is why it's a false idea to think we will spend eternity as spirits or as 'angels'. We were created to be physical beings and we will spend eternity as such, albeit glorified.

     The point is not to eliminate all desire, for we desire to be with God. Our aim is not to shun all physical things, as they are gifts from our loving Father. Our goal is not to be a purely spiritual people, as that would require denying part of who we are. The point is to enjoy this world in a manner that honors God and is in line with His will. We never let our desires lead us off the road laid before us and we never let things become the primary motive force in our lives. When viewed and used rightly, this physical world can bring great joy and show us yet another aspect of our Glorious God.

The Missing Source

     Probably the biggest or at least the most public battle in the Christian world today is the debate over origin. Christians such as the well known Ken Ham of Asnwers in Genesis continue to propose the idea of Biblical creation and the naturalists such as Richard Dawkins continues to promote the belief in naturalistic evolution as the means by which we came to be. Both sides have spilled a lot of ink and used up a lot of bandwidth and a lot of screen time arguing over particulars and data points and yes's and no's. Oddly enough though, there's a few points that are rarely if ever brought up.

     First let's talk about eternity and nothing. This is the question: Was there ever a point when there was nothing? Does it matter? Actually it matters quite a bit because those who claim that the universe created itself from nothing are standing on, well, nothing. Look at the word 'nothing', it literally means “no” “thing.” If there is nothing there, than nothing can happen. You can't have chemical reactions without chemicals, you can't have friction without things to rub against each other, and you can't have even have time without something to 'pass through it.' Now some would argue that you can create something from nothing but don't listen to them. They're using logical dishonesty because energy is still a 'thing.' If there was ever a time when there was truly nothing, then there could never be anything. So ultimately even the evolutionist has to agree with the creationist on one point, there is something that has the power to exist within itself, ie. something that has always been. The naturalist will say it's matter and energy or just energy, while the creationist will say it is God. Others might try and propose an infinite regression of creators. That this was created by that, which was created by this other thing, which was in turn created by this other other thing, etc. This is of course preposterous and not worth even discussing.

     The second issue is a bit more odd to describe; where did information come from? Let me put it this way, matter is essentially stuff and energy is energy but where does data fit in? It's not made of matter nor energy and you can't hold information in a jar. You can store information in matter and in energy but neither one can make it. Here's anther way of looking about it: chemical reactions. When you put vinegar and baking soda together, what happens? It bubbles and swells out to a much larger size, right? Why? You can look into the science and understand what is happening in the reaction but why do those particular vinegar bits now how they should react to those baking soda bits? We don't find a long list or rules for the behavior of atoms written on their itty-bitty parts, and there's no explanation as to why they should react one way and not another. 

     Think of DNA, the life instructions. It's all find and dandy to say that it contains all the data needed to build a life form, but that arrangement of chemicals is only useful because the parts of cells know how to read that information. They know the language. If you took a bag full of scrabble tiles and had a group of people pull them at random, it's entirely possible that someone might eventually spell a word, like bat for example. That might sound amazing, but those three 'letters' are just ink on wood. The are completely without meaning and use without the knowledge of the specific English language! The reality is that matter has never been seen and simply cannot create information, only an intelligence can. So even if matter existed forever, there's still no way for it to interact because there would be no rules, no instructions for how the pieces should fit. Here's where it get's really interesting; even if that information did exist on it's own, there's no reason for it to stay that way. In the chaos and anarchy of a randomly generated world there is no authority, no power that makes things stay the same so the rules of matter that exist today could theoretically change tomorrow! When God runs things however, when an all powerful creator makes and keeps existence, everything dances to His drumbeat. He keeps matter in line, He adds data and information to dead matter, He makes life and order even possible!

     So there we go, a look at a couple of issues that don't get talked about much. Give 'em a turn or two around your mind and let me know what you think. Apart from all the information being used in the evolution/creation debate these are a couple of ideas that really make you pause and consider their implications, and getting people to think is something Christians should be doing all the time.

Fallen Beauty

      I love nature. My wife and I both love to explore hiking trails and wander through forests.  We took our honeymoon in New Hampshire mainly for the mountains and the woods. This world we live in abounds with beauty and nearly everywhere you look there is a lovely view. I see all of this and I see the handiwork of an artist. I see the art of God.

     No human work has ever compared to the wonder of the world around us. We see lines and shapes and colors that seem to just erupt and exist and yet they are far more pleasing than the most exacting work of human art. A painting or statue, though lovely just doesn't command the same awe as a wondrous view. How can we even compare our own creations to the mountains and fields and streams?

     This brings up an interesting point though. You see, the world we live in isn't perfect -not by far. It's a broken world, a corrupt world, a sinful world. When Adam sinned it wasn't just the human race that fell under the curse but sin entered the world through them and poisoned everything! Then on top of that the earth was cursed against us so that our lives would be full of toil and danger. This beauty, this amazing world is really a horrible place. Yet it -is- beautiful. The power and artistry of God is so great that even in a world tainted by horrid evil and cursed so as to be a place of struggle is still breathtaking! How great is our God that His handiwork still shines though it's been thrown in the mud!  How great is His grace that the world we live in doesn't look like what we deserve or the curse we are under!

     This world shines as a testament to His Glory. Every rough stone and swaying tree, every butterfly and bird, every low valley or high mountain, every atom of creation screams of it's Creator! We do everything in our power to push aside the evidence, to try and make the amazing mundane, but I will not allow this world that hates God to rob me of my wonder at His hands. I will remain in awe of His work and I will call it what it is -art- from the hands of a master.

     I look forward to eternity, for many reasons. I long to be with my God, to be with Him in perfect communion. I long to be free from the temptation of sin, to no longer fail Him or choose to rebel. And I long for the new earth, for the glory and beauty of a world not yoked by the burden of sin. How glorious will the mountains be? How breathtaking the plains? How blessed are we to not only live in such a beautiful world but to know that those of us who know Him will transition to one of infinitely greater splendor? May God be praised for His mercy and grace, and for the marvelous work of His hands.

"It is as hard to explain how this sunlit land was different from the old Narnia as it would be to tell you how the fruits of that country taste. Perhaps you will get some idea of it if you think like this. You may have been in a room in which there was a window that looked out on a lovely bay of the sea or a green valley that wound away among mountains. And in the wall of that room opposite to the window there may have been a looking-glass. And as you turned away from the window you suddenly caught sight of that sea or that valley, all over again, in the looking-glass. And the sea in the mirror, or the valley in the mirror, were in one sense just the same as the real ones: yet at the same time they were somehow different—deeper, more wonderful, more like places in a story: in a story you have never heard but very much want to know. The difference between the old Narnia and the new Narnia was like that. The new one was a deeper country: every rock and flower and blade of grass looked as if it meant more. I can’t describe it any better than that: if you ever get there you will know what I mean."

C. S. Lewis. Last Battle (Kindle Locations 1813-1819). San Val, Incorporated.