It is not a surprise that the article about God’s creation of the universe appears so early in the creed, just after belief in the oneness of God has been expressed. Let us explore briefly the reasons for its actual place in our confession of faith and its meaning.
Firstly, anything that exists is either God or God’s creation, so this is, in a sense, why this article of faith comes second. Why does it have to be an article of faith, one may ask? Can’t we see things around us, can’t we touch and smell and taste? Isn’t creation a matter of science rather than faith? Well, frankly... no. To say that ‘the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them’ (Exodus 20:11) is a confession of faith, not a scientific statement. It must be so, because the idea of creation ‘out of nothing’ is beyond science, and even beyond our understanding. We cannot have a properly shaped idea of what it means to create, because it is impossible for us to think it. We can only confess it.Secondly, to confess that God is ‘Maker of heaven and earth’ just after our affirmation of the oneness of God, follows systematically the pattern of the Old Testament revelation: ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’ (Genesis 1:1). It is worth noting that the Hebrew verb ‘he created’ – bara – is only used in the context of God’s action. It represents, in a sense, a divine attribute. This revelation has always been interpreted (in the Christian tradition) through the opening verses of the Gospel of John: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made’ (John 1:1-3).
Thirdly, creation is a work of the one God, that is to say, of the Father through the Son with the Spirit. It is not an exclusive work of either the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit: whenever God is acting, the whole Trinity is involved.
see the previous posts on the creed
Thank you. This is the clearest and most accessible explanation I have ever read.
ReplyDeleteI think that the reason why the affirmation that God is creator matters is that it reveals our sense of what creation is like. Various religions and religious philosophies have imagined the world as caught in a struggle between conflicting powers. The powers of evil created the evil in the world. The powers of good created the good. This makes a certain kind of sense, when you think about the violence of nature, death, destruction and disease. You can see why people thought there must be a bad god as well as a good god. Yet in the Christian and Jewish scheme we say that eveything in creation comes from God. This is a massive and astonishing leap of faith and affirmation of the goodness of creation. There is no titanic struggle. The whole world is in God's hand. This means can trust him, even in the face of the violence of nature and the other things that horrify us, even when faced with perplexity. Everything somehow is a part of his providence. Everything in creation somehow is, as Genesis says, 'very good'.
ReplyDeleteexcellent
ReplyDeletewith the sunshine
and early summer
creation
is great
and believing
in the creator
is easy
this commentary
is excellent
and very good
for thinking about
on the way to work
walking and looking
at the trees.
excellent