"Universal" Questions

I want to first say that all that is to follow maybe completely wrong, but it is what I have been thinking about lately, so here goes:

My wife is discipling some women, and during one of here meetings the question was raised "Why did God create the Universe?". And I hope to explore this question in the following Blog.

First it must be asked, what is meant by Universe. You may think it self explanatory, but in fact, me and Sarah talked for hours about this questions, and we were in fact talking about two completely different things. The Universe may be taken to mean everything that is made. That is to say, all Matter, Energy, Etc. This would include Humans. However, we can also talk about the Universe as everything that is not Human. I make this distinction because as a Christian, I believe that humans are not just matter and energy, but also Spirit. Now since this spirit is eternal, and the Universe is not, I believe that it is a fair distinction to make. The Universe then, becomes everything that is transitory. This doesn't include God, angles, demons, and Humans.

SO then the question, "Why did God create the Universe?" is really two questions. Why did God create everything but Humans, and why did God create humans. Let us answer the first question. Why did God create the Universe, taking Universe to mean everything but humans.

I would say that God created everything in the Universe for humans. Now I know that this sounds very human centric, so we need to back up for a little. What are all the possibilities for the creation of the Universe? Either He created it for Himself, for Angels, or for us. I feel these are the only options of answers for this question since these are the only things that are immortal and can appreciate Creation.

I think it is self evident that God did not create the Universe for Angels, since, although Scripture speaks of them entering creation occasionally on divine missions, the Universe is not their primary habitat. They exist out side of it, and enter only occasionally.

So therefore, creation was either for us, or for Him. SO why do I say He did not create the Universe for Himself? That is a little more complicated. First we need to know about God. One of the answers to the question of why He created is to Glorify Himself. And at first glance this seems pretty reasonable, but I tell you it is not. God needs nothing to Glorify Himself. Because God has community within the Trinity, each side is constantly lifting up and glorifying the others. They are in constant relation, giving each other praise, and honor, and love. Now this seems hard to grasp, and I admit I fully don;t understand, but this is the Christian world view. God needs nothing. He is complete in Himself. He lacks nothing. To say that He created the Universe to give Himself glory implies that He is not glorified, or at least not enough apart from the Creation- and this is false. God would receive the same glory with or with out creation, He does not need it.

So that brings me to us. I realize that my last two arguments seem contrite, and at some point I will go further in depth about them, however, they are the Christian beliefs, so I leave them to stand on their own for now.

That being said, there leaves one possibility left. God created the Universe for us! How exiting is that. But this raises further questions, like why would he create all this for us, and the simple answer is that through the Universe God is revealed to us. He created it all to show us who He is. He created the Universe for us so that we would have a home. He created the Universe so that we might Glorify and Worship Him. Now I know I just said that He doesn't need the Universe to glorify Himself, and just a second ago I said that we can Glorify God through His creation. Am I contradicting myself? I think not. I may be playing semantics here, but semantics are sometimes very important. The fact that we can glorify god through His creation is different than Him receiving Glory through his creation. How is it different? Simple. We are the subject, not God.

It is not that He receives more Glory through the Universe, but that we can understand His Glory through creation. For some reason, God made us to need material things to understand. And therefore, without material things, we would be lost. Now maybe we could have been created differently, but that is not the point. The point is that we are what we are, and therefore, we need creation to know God. He interacts with us through this Universe. It is not a matter of God's needs, but rather of ours.

But more than that, we read in Scripture that everything God created was good, and that God then gives Adam the world to look after and work. He gives him authority over creation in allowing Adam to name the animals.

See, because God is good, he wanted to give good gifts to us, i.e. the Universe.

But then the question is why did God create us? Or if we include humans now in Creation, why did God create the Universe? Or even why did God create? As was already stated, God lacks nothing. He needs nothing. Other religions would say that God created the Universe because it is how he is Glorified, or even able to be in relation to things. One thing, be it human or God, even if he has everything, can not have relationships with out an other. Therefore, some monotheistic traditions would say, God needed the Universe to be in relation to something. But this means that God lacked before the creation.

However, a Trinitarian world view could never say this. Because God is manifest in three persons, each unique, but each God, each having all aspects of God with out the other, and in no need, but in relation to the other two. See God the Father is God, he contains in Him God the Son and God the Spirit. That Same can be said of God the Son. They are all fully God, but they are n constant relation to each other. The closest parallel I can draw, and I think it a air one since we were created in God's image and likeness is a Human being. We all have a mind, spirit, and body. In each is contained all that is that person. When you see me, you say that is Nate. But I also have a mind and spirit that are equally me. Now the analogy isn't perfect, but you get the idea.

So God, as I said before doesn't need the Universe, as some would argue. Why then did he create?

I am going out on a limb here, ans this may possibly be heretical, though I don't think it is,
and I am going to say that God created for Creations sake. My basic argument is as follows, of God is good, it follows that all the does is good. God created, therefore creation must be good.
But I would go further than this and say that it was better to create than not to create, because God created. Why was it better to create? Well, as previously stated, it can't be better for God, so who then is it better for? It is better for creation. Let me say that again- it is better
for creation to exist than to not exist. This is the same for the individual. Often people ask would it have been better if I had not been born? The answer to that question is no. It is always better to have existed than to not exist.

This is a hard concept to grasp. How can we even think of ourselves as not existing? I can;t think of a way that we can, but press ahead we must.

Why would it have been better for creation to exist? Because it is through existence that one can come to know God. There is no other way. It is in fact gibberish to speak of something that doesn't exist as knowing anything, or even being known by anything.

SO if we didn't exist we would have no way to know or be known by God. We would not be able to Worship the King of Kings, know the One who formed us in the womb, never be able to revel in His divine light. It is for this reason that I say it must be better to exist than not exist. And God must think this way also, else He, being all light and goodness, would not have created.

I know that this is very metaphysical and theoretical, and even hurts my brain to think about, however, i feel it is worth pondering. It is hard to think of non existence, however it is also necessary.

So that is my rant this week. Hope you enjoyed. Feel free to submit questions, it will help me flush out my arguments as well.