The Christ Centred Cosmic Civilisation

Episode 43: Echoes of Eternity in Every Drop of Rain

• Paul

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Discover the extraordinary way the biblical worldview intertwines with our understanding of science and civilization as we traverse the narrative of creation, guided by the cosmic significance of Jesus as the high priest. 

Together, we'll uncover the divine intricacies of the universe, manifested through the meticulous design of the hydrologic cycle and the careful curation of life as depicted in the timeless scriptural insights from Job. Our insightful journey is further enriched by the harmonious blend of divine word and world, a testament to the power and presence of the Trinity in sustaining all things.

As the heavens declare the glory of God, so do the mysteries of snow and rain, lightning and lions, reflect His meticulous care for creation. In this episode, Elihu's wisdom in Job becomes our compass, leading us through the hydrologic cycle's divine choreography and God's intimate involvement with nature's rhythms. I invite you to reflect on the profound connection between the natural phenomena we often take for granted and the deliberate intentions of the Creator. 

Through this lens, every droplet of rain and each flake of snow takes on new meaning as an act of divine sustenance and a call to refocus our attention on the works of the Almighty.

Join us as we stand in awe of the majesty of God's creation, exploring the vastness of the cosmos and the intimate details of the animal kingdom through the poetic imagery of Job. 

The universe, often perceived as a self-regulating entity, is revealed to be actively upheld by the word of Christ. This revelation invites us to shift our perception and appreciate the everyday divine intricacies with fresh awe and reverence. 

As we discuss the role of Christ as the sustainer of all things, we're reminded of the enduring truth that every aspect of the world around us is not merely a product of natural law but a canvas painted by the hand of God, where His sovereignty and love are displayed in every brushstroke.

The theme music is "Wager with Angels" by Nathan Moore

Speaker 1:

Well, welcome back to the Christ-centered cosmic civilization. And we're right at the heart of this investigation into the four foundation principles or truths of a biblical, christian, historic worldview that enables science and civilization to flourish. We've looked at the first one. Let me just summarize the four truths again that the eternal Son understood truth from all eternity and he shares his mind with human beings who are made in his image. And this idea that truth is not something we have to achieve, but truth is something that has already been achieved, as the Son is expressed by the Father in the power of the Spirit for all eternity. The second principle was that the creation was freely made from the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit, and is ruled by the great high priest, held together by him. The third one the whole of the heavens and the earth were created very good. Death and decay, evil and sin are corruptions rather than creatures. And then, fourthly, the infinite God became flesh and lived among us. He rose from the dead to claim this life as his own for all eternity and he will return, not to destroy the physical world but to make it his home forever. So we're in the heart of that and we're kind of at the moment, just in this principle. The second principle, understanding what it means that the divine high priest, the Lord Jesus or the divine emperor although I kind of why do I prefer divine high priest to divine emperor? I kind of do like the title divine emperor, because it has this idea of reigning over multiple kingdoms in the hierarchical way that the Bible presents that. But if we get to what is the key role or title of God, the Son, with respect to creation we probably are having, we really must centre on him as the great high priest. Because of all the ones anointed in the Bible the great kings, prophets and priests the anointing of kings and prophets is very minor compared to the extremely intense anointing that happens for the high priest. When we're thinking of the eternal Son anointed by the Father with the Spirit, so he's receiving life and power from the Father eternally and constantly, we're just our hearts and minds are immediately drawn to this figure of this high priest figure. And so when they come to the creation of the universe and the running of the universe and the holding it together and giving it meaning and representing the universe within God and God to the universe, all of that, that title of the great the cosmic high priest becomes so powerful, and we will return to that in future episodes more. But here we are.

Speaker 1:

We've just been thinking how, in the modern age, miracles have tended to be thought of as something that breaks the laws of nature and that God has to kind of break into the creation in order to perform miracles. And we've said no. In earlier ages it was more common to say that miracles were, when something happened just different to the way that it normally happened. In fact, it was generally assumed global Christianity, as far as I can see, and particularly in the Bible, it generally assumed that the living God kind of made everything happen in the way it normally did, so that a miracle was simply when the living God did things in a different way than he normally did. So it's the idea not that the universe just runs itself and that God is supposed to break into it from time to time. It's not that, but that he is constantly engaged in running the universe, not necessarily in the sense of making each individual thing happen personally and directly.

Speaker 1:

There have been Christians who've toyed with this idea that he creates the entire universe from nothing, moment by moment, so that there is no causation between events that so, and you know, we might say you know heat. I'm looking at my kettle over there and that they, the heat electricity is applied to the element, runs into the element, and I can switch on that electrical flow which causes the element in the kettle to heat up, which in turn causes the water to boil. But there are the have there have been, though there is a Christian tradition that do does not like that idea of causation and that these things cause one another. But they have, in said, instead explored the idea that, effectively, the living God creates the entire universe from nothing, each moment, moment by moment, so that we are to think of the universe almost like how a cartoon is made, and that if in a cartoon there are you could, there are these like loads of different frames excuse me, there are loads of different frames and eat, like you might be, 60 frames per second of a cartoon, and that you could like just look at each of those frames individually. But when you see them, one after the other, with rapidity, there is this sensation of movement and activity, though technically you know that there each is a freeze frame without any movement or causation in itself, and so there is a tradition that thinks of the universe in that way.

Speaker 1:

But that is the reason Christians generally have rejected that and really overwhelmingly rejected. That is one. It doesn't. There is no original, meaningful act of creation at the beginning. It means that, like the work of creation is continuously happening and there is no starting point, really like the entire universe has no real history to it at all and and and this is the point that really is upset Christians about that kind of view is the universe has no existence, no being of its own. In other words, they're the only God exists and the universe has nothing, no actual, actual substance, substance to it. It kind of makes the universe sort of ephemeral and not not granted true being alongside God.

Speaker 1:

But one of the massive things that the Bible asserts and that was it's Basil of Caesarea who really explores this kind of thing is the way that there is a genuine, that the living God has a genuine, a genuine, the? A allows other things to exist, he brings them into being, and that that's and that's how Revelation describes it in Revelation chapter 4 that all things have their being by the will of the father. That father is it wills for things to really exist alongside the Trinity. That the there is no, that the, the living God does not regard it as a threat for there to be a universe that has being and substance, and that he gives it the capacity to have, say, causation, and, and within itself he gives it a real, logical, rational existence that has within itself capacity, potential, energy, cause, principles of operation and so on. Okay, so, but never though.

Speaker 1:

So when we say that and it's the, the living God, makes everything happen in the way it normally does, it's not to say that every individual thing, he is the direct cause of them, of each individual thing that occurs without intermediary causation, but rather that he runs the universe and causes it to operate in the way it does, with consistency and it, and although we're not going to get into this now, but the idea that there can be angelic powers that manage and operate and run the universe, that may also be true, and that they are what manage. They manage weather, rivers, plants, all sorts of things like this, but so that he runs the universe, the, the, the father, through the Sun, in the power of the spirit, is the is the ultimate management of the universe, so that everything that were happens. We see that as a work, even derivatively so, a work of this living God and that when we see those things, when we see anything happen, our minds and hearts are in a way, partly to be drawn to the ultimate source of being and activity, which is the throne of God, the Father, through the Son, in the power of the Spirit. There's a lot of complexity in what we've just said and explored there, I know, but and and we may need to come back to some of these things in the future I'd like to spend an episode or two looking at Basil of Caesarea's Doctrine of Creation, but for now let's just acknowledge that it's a much more useful way to understand miracles if we simply say miracles are when he rules the universe in a particular aspect differently, causes it or manages the operation of a particular detail of the universe in a different way than he normally does. That's a better way to think about miracles because it guards us against that idea that God has to intervene or break into the world of nature or the flow of the universe and this idea that he is not he's not generally involved in the world, because as soon as you get into that, we're into this nonsense where people go.

Speaker 1:

Imagine I would believe in God if he did something like made his existence manifest in some kind of magic trick or some kind of publicity stunt and, in effect, like trying to generate some ludicrous, meaningless, like you know, sound and light display or something that would, that would be like indicative of his reality, whereas in the Bible everything is indicative of his reality. The sound and light show or the publicity stunt is the universe, is the universe. So to kind of go, well, no, the universe is not a display of God's existence and reality and power, but some sort of publicity stunt that I imagine, a kind of meaningless kind of display that would be, and it's like we mustn't succumb to that sort of nonsense. Now, in the Bible we see that all the day to day events of the world around us are understood to be ultimately the work of the Father, through the Son and the power of the Spirit. So consider Job, chapters 36 to 39. It's good to often read Job, chapters 36 to 39. There's so much in that, and it Joe possibly the oldest book of the Bible and yet has this incredibly profound doctrine of creation. And so in those chapters, elihu describes how the work of the Father, son and Holy Spirit covers every aspect of the constant running of the world we won't go into. We will actually look at that in a bit more detail. But I just wanted to say that Elihu's Trinitarian theology is worth inspection and enjoyment in its own right, but for now we're just focusing on this doctrine of creation that Elihu shares.

Speaker 1:

The hydrologic cycle is the work of the Trinity or the Living God. Look in Job 36, verses 27 to 28,. Job 36, 27 to 28 is and this one is particularly important. You get it in Jeremiah also, but Job's is good because it's so early, probably 2000 BC, and he says this. I'll just read it. Well, I'll go.

Speaker 1:

Verse 26,. How great is God, beyond our understanding. The number of his years is past. Finding out. He draws up the drops of water which distill as rain to the streams. The clouds pour down the moisture and abundant showers fall on mankind. Who can understand how he spreads out the clouds, how he thunders from his pavilions? See how he scatters his lightning about him, bathing the depths of the sea? This is the way he governs the nations and provides food in abundance. So it's very important to notice the subtleties in that. So he begins by saying he draws up the drops of water which distill as rain to the streams. So it's like initially it's saying, look, he's doing this thing.

Speaker 1:

But then Elihu explains the intermediary way in which that is done. It's the clouds that pour down moisture and abundant showers fall on mankind. So he's able to like it is God doing it. And yet there are these intermediary aspects of nature that are the way in which this is done. But notice, elihu's got a clear understanding of how this works. Water is drawn up, forms clouds pours down as rain goes down to the sea, drawn up again, so it goes round the hydrologic cycle.

Speaker 1:

And yet as he examines this hydrologic cycle, he sees in it this wonderful, mysterious power of the living God. And how the clouds move, how thunder happens, lightning, all of this. This is the way he governs the nations and provides food in abundance. So there that implication of all of this is set up, organized so that food is provided. It's like everything in a way it's kind of human-centered. The universe is set up in such a way that it is to be observed from Earth and that what happens on Earth is set up with human beings in mind. So clouds and thunder, lightning, snow and rain that's chapter 37, verse 6, same sort of thing he tells the snow to fall on Earth and he tells the rain to shower, be a mighty downpour, so that everyone he has made may know his work. And also, fascinatingly, he stops all people from the labor. So even when the weather, the snow and the rain disrupt our lives so that we are unable to continue our normal work and past times, that is also an intentional thing from the throne of God, breaking up our lives, waking us, shaking us, preventing us taking our work too seriously in all these ways. So all of these things are seen as deliberate works of the living God.

Speaker 1:

Look at Job 37, 15 to 16. Do you know how God controls the clouds and makes his lightning flash? Do you know how the clouds hang poised? Those wonders of him who is perfect in knowledge. There are so many examples here as we look at Job 36, 37, 38, all the way through. Well, in Job 38, the Lord himself arrives. The Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. So there's, this storm arrives at the end of Job 37,. The weather is like a John the Baptist figure for the arrival Out of.

Speaker 1:

Look at Job 37, 22. Out of the North, he comes in golden splendor. God comes in awesome majesty, the Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power in his justice and great righteousness, he does not oppress. Therefore, people revere him. So it's like he's beyond our reach. But here he comes, arriving. We could not reach him, we cannot understand him. He is, his attributes and wonders are beyond us, and yet he comes in golden splendor to meet us and he does that.

Speaker 1:

Job speaks to the Lord, speaks to Job out of the storm and he speaks for himself. But not only does he describe how he formed and structured all things in the beginning, but he also speaks of the way that he organizes all the aspects of creation, this role he has as the great high priest, the cosmic high priest who organizes the universe and causes it Through all the intermediaries, exactly. We want to keep that in our minds. But how he organizes everything in such a wonderful way, and we are to be constantly impressed and filled with wonder and gratitude and love by everything we see the way plants grow, the way the sea roars, the way the clouds form, the way the animals live, all of that is designed to make us meditate on, on him, this living god, the way he does this, and of course, we'll have a look at some of those now. But it prevents us also being too sentimental, because there are aspects that are mentioned here in these chapters of Jo of the creation that are terrifying, dangerous and the way animals kill each other that comes out in the Psalms as well. That also is worthy of meditation and that's very often.

Speaker 1:

I think it's probably a 19th century thing and yet has taken on enormous strength this kind of sentimental view of the living god that when people want to indicate God in nature, they tend to have pictures of very, very peaceful scenery or a little kitten sleeping or something that is kind of, you know, a very selectively banal but beautiful perhaps, or cute aspect of the world. But that's not how God's handling of creation is managed in the Bible, in the Psalms and the prophets, like war, the raising up of nations to bring war, famines, earthquakes, animals eating each other All of that is joyfully and confidently understood. I say joyfully, joyfully, joy in the living god who does these things, even though the experience of these things, as Jeremiah and the prophets you know, is enormously full of sorrow and sadness and pain and grief. But there's this joy that there is this living god who manages the universe, the world, in these ways and that, you know, if we were to produce posters that really demonstrate this management of creation by the living god, instead of only having little kittens or peaceful fields or flowers or things like that, we really should have lightning. Storms, war, pictures of war, also earthquakes, tidal waves, all kinds of things like that are also, in the scripture, overtly and frequently asserted to be part of the way that the cosmic high priest, the divine emperor, manages the universe.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, job 38, from Job 38, his own speech. Not only does he describe then how he formed things in the beginning, but he continues like the Job 38, verse 12, have you ever given orders to the morning or shown the dawn its place that it may take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it? That's a lovely view, isn't it? Where the fact of having the dawn happening and it rolls around the whole earth every day, this experience of dawn, and that the Lord organizes this, and that the purpose of the darkness being overcome by light and the dawn happening every day is one of the purposes why he does that is to shake the wicked out of the earth, that the seeing the light triumph over darkness and bringing life and light and warmth to the old creation, this great light, inaccessibly bright and hot, and light that's above us. That's this testimony to him, as Psalm 19 says, that is, the wicked should be moved by that to flee or repent, and so on. Amazing, lovely view of the whole creation.

Speaker 1:

So then we have here, in Job 38, 22 to 30, his use of snow, hail, lightning and rain Again tremendously important the use of weather, or our experience of weather, and including destruction by the weather. In Job 38, 31 to 33, we get this management of the stars and galaxies. Can you bring forth the constellations in the seasons, and so on. Wow, do you know the laws of the heavens and how you know? And we you know, the more we understand that second heaven, the staggering management required for it, and he says, yeah, no, I do that. Do you understand that?

Speaker 1:

Job 38, 39 to 41 is this point about his organization of food for animals. Like Job 38, 39, do you hunt the prey for the lioness and satisfy the hunger of the lions? And again, that is, there's nothing. There's no sense of being squeamish about that handling of animals, hunting prey, eating them, eating others, and so on. And also in Job 39, all the way, the whole chapter, really, job 39, all the way down from one to 30, his overall curve for all the animals, including the animals that the lions will eat as prey. So it begins with do you know about the mountain goats and how, when they give birth, or when the doe bores her doe bores her thorn, see that the goat and the thorn or the doe, they may well be the prey of those lions that are mentioned at the end of chapter 38. And yet the Lord curse for them also. And again, this is you know, there's nothing.

Speaker 1:

This is not just a kind of childish, sentimental view of God. This is big and full strength. So in the Bible we cannot see the world as self governed by laws of nature abstract. Nor can we think of the living God intervening only from time to time in his creation. Rather, christ not only formed all things by the will of his father in the power of the spirit, but he continues to sustain all these things by the power of his word, and that's in Hebrews 1, 1, verse 3,. Like that word, like Christ needs only speak, he needs only speak, and anything and everything. You know, everything can be run and handled in the whole creation. So Christ, the great high priest over all creation, fills the entire universe, as Ephesians 4, 10 puts it.