God – Father and Creator
Series: CREED: Truths that Unite
Brad Bailey - January 17, 2021
Intro...
Another big welcome to each of you. I’m excited today to continue our new series entitled Creed: Truths that Unite. As I introduced last week, we are going to begin engaging the central truths captured in the Apostles Creed.
The Apostles Creed is the oldest known and most widely accepted Christian creed. It is called the Apostles’ Creed because it reflects what the apostles taught. It summarizes the central truths of the Scriptures which the apostles affirmed. It serves as the common heritage of the Christian church...being recognized by all branches of Christian tradition - Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox.
It’s brevity allowed it to be memorized and shared...and allows us to easily enjoy declaring it together.
So each week, we are going to have different members lead us in the creed... to which we can say aloud by following the words we will put up.
And today I welcome Cory Hogoboam, one of our Life Group leaders.[1]
[Creed read. See Note 1]
As I shared last week... each of these brief statements declare a huge spiritual truth.
For some of us, these statements are really familiar... they’ve been a part of what we have come to understand and believe over many years. In fact... they may have become beliefs that we have learned to say without much thought... beliefs that we now tend to have pass through our minds in a quick and shallow fashion... like the common phrases that we say in passing...without much meaningful connection to what we are saying or what we mean.
We can walk by someone who shares an apartment building or work building...and say...“Hey...How ya doing?” The truth is that if they actually stopped...turned around and began to actually tell you how they are doing...you’d be freaking out. Because you were just saying a rote phrase. You didn’t really mean anything by it. And that can happen to stating these beliefs.
So this is an opportunity to stop and take in the meaning afresh... so that our words can enjoy the weight and power that such truth can bring to our minds and souls
And for some... you may still be exploring such beliefs...and these weeks in which we consider each of these core foundations is an opportunity to really consider the central truths of the Christian faith.
As I noted last week... truth exists outside of us... it’s bigger than us.
Truth is something we must discern... but truth is ultimately bigger than ourselves. Truth does not ultimately revolve around us.... but we revolve around it.
When we declare that we believe such truth...we do not mean that it becomes true... but that we are personally recognizing it and orienting our lives accordingly.
(This is why I suggest it is more akin to gravity... which is a part of the material world which we can come to understand...but it existed long before we understood. It didn’t become true when we understood it... it was a truth that we recognized and oriented our lives around. Gravity does not come with an explanation because it exists in itself. )
When we say we believe... it is not about coming to some mere academic affirmation. The Latin word Credo, which is translated here as "I believe," involves more than our brain. A better translation is really "I put my trust in..." which is why this is actually about what forms our very lives.
This week we are launching into the Creed itself and it's opening phrase,
“I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.”
We couldn’t begin with a more enormous truth. And I want to invite us to not miss hearing this in the power of it’s own direct potency...before we let our minds react and expand upon it.
“I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.”
The succinct nature of these words holds its own unique power. They don’t attempt to qualify themselves... or unpack secondary questions... no matter how valuable those might be.
It’s not that secondary matters are not significant...but we need to stare right into the clear and central truth. It is belief in a God...whom we exist in relationship to...as Father Almighty...and Creator of heaven and earth.
It is the most foundational belief.... that of God... but not simply of some undefined entity that could vaguely be identified as a god...but rather that we believe in one true God that can be known in two primary ways... as Creator and Father. Both ways acknowledge the relational nature of God....as Father and Creator. God is a God who reaches out and calls us into relationship with himself.
When we say “I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.”... we are saying that the source and center of all existence is fundamentally relational...and we exist in relationship to God.
And the creed begins with recognizing that God is our Father Almighty. This is not some objective force in the universe. God is personal in nature. In fact, every quality that we associate with our personal nature... such as love, compassion, sacrifice, honesty, grace and forgiveness, all of these are but faint and fragile reflections of what lies in God. [2]
This is what Jesus revealed in his role as Father. When Jesus revealed the nature of his relationship as the son related to God the Father... he revealed how God truly was the Father Almighty. Those who first heard Jesus speak of the father in heaven...would have considered how the fathers of their time related to their children.
A child was a father’s great pride...and joy...the fulfillment of their deepest will. A child received their shelter and food and clothing as gifts from their father who worked on their behalf; they were carefully trained in the father's trade and given greater responsibility and freedom as they grew; they were expected to maintain the standards and reputation of the family as set by the father; and, eventually, they would receive the inheritance of all that the father had.
This is the relationship that we affirm when we say "I believe in God the Father."
To call him “Father” means that he is a personal God who cares about me. To call him “Almighty” means that he is able to do whatever needs to be done. There are no limits with him.
He is our Father... who is almighty. The almighty father is not bound within the limitations of their own broken world. They are without limits. God is our Father without limits. Every child should find a source of security and strength in their earthly father...but every child comes to understand that such a source is limited... by their earthly nature...by the fallen and fragile nature of this world... and this is precisely what is entirely different about the nature of God’s as our ultimate father...as the Father Almighty.
When Abraham... the first life called out by God... considers God’s promise to become a father of many nations...time is allowed to pass... in fact 13 years of waiting...and Isaiah has no children at an old age... and God tells Abraham... I am El Shaddai...which means the Almighty God....the All-Sufficient God. What did this term Shaddai... almighty... all sufficient mean? God was communicating that He is not limited by the natural order itself. Abraham would eventually become the father not only of a child...but of the nation of Israel....and the father of faith....faith in God the Father Almighty. [3]
So in recognizing God as our Father Almighty, we must transcend the flaws and failings that many have known in their earthly fathers. Rather it is the best we have known and far more. It is all that one has tasted or one has hoped for. To believe in God the Father... it is important to stop and shed any association with any difficult or disappointing or distant dynamics we have experienced with an earthly father. This is something new... a discovery that we belong to one who is never limited and lacking and always present. [3b]
This flows into the other phrase about God...that he is the creator of heaven and earth. “I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.”
Heaven and earth is a phrase that speaks of everything that exists that we know or ever will know. He is the source of everything.
To believe in God as the creator... has been a natural part of the human sense for as long as we know. It is likely rooted in the fact that we exist as persons in an immense universe... so our most basic sense is that there is a source that is inherently immense and life-giving and personal. It resonates with our very nature.
But there has long been a part of us that wants to deny the claim that this has on our lives. We want to be the independent... to be the center of our own existence. And our most current modern culture seems to find a way to make this shift by framing a belief that we have two competing sources of truth... science and faith.
We could engage in the nature of this commonly perceived conflict for hours and even weeks... but’s it’s neither fitting of our time nor focus today.
What I do want to encourage, is the value of stepping back from the current assumption about a conflict between Scripture and science. While some may suggest that Science has proven that the Bible is wrong...or that God does not exist...or any such thing... and leave one feeling that they are living between fact and faith ...I believe if we step back...step back and consider what is really at hand ...we will find that such conflicts are not inherent at all...that these so-called opposing sides are not opposites at all.
Broadly speaking... at their core... they don’t actually compete at all. The Scriptures are the revelation of the ultimate story of who we are... and science is by nature discovering how the material world relates.
The Bible captures the revelation that the world was created with intent and order...and that provided a basis to see the world as being real...and as good...and as designed. This revelation provided the basis to believe that we can discover the nature of order in this world...and various ways to work with it. What Scripture reveals is that we are no longer bound to the pagan ideas of being pawns to a world ruled by capricious gods. In other words ...the Biblical revelation of the world being created with design and order... provided the basis to look for order that could be discovered and used... which is the very basis of modern science.
If we step back, we discover that the primary sense of conflict is not between what lies at the core of either Scripture or science...but more in the secondary presumptions laid upon them.
Without doing justice to all that is involved...I don’t believe that science has established anything that is inherently in conflict with the truth of the Scriptures.
Science is rooted in what can be measured and replicated... that which is vastly outside the realm of our origins. Science can look for some remnants or potential signs... and provide theories... such a that involving a process of natural selection in life forms...and various types of evolutionary theory. But if one steps back... when it comes to the ultimate origins of creation, science has only a small fraction from which to speculate....as well as some huge unresolved questions...and nothing that comes near the ultimate source of the universe.
And as for the Scriptures...they don’t appear to presume to try and explain much about the PROCESS of creation...but rather clearly focus on the SOURCE and PURPOSE of creation... they provide the briefest of statements about the grandest of acts...because their intent is clearly not HOW... but WHO and WHY. [4]
Listen to a portion of the prose by which the Bible begins... in Genesis chapter 1...
Genesis 1:1-5
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning--the first day.
And now listen to how the Gospel account of John begins...
John 1:1-3
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
They both begin with those words “In the beginning”...and then provide only a poetic summation of creation. So if we consider what they are intending to convey... it doesn’t appear that God was intending to explain the scientific process of creation...but rather to let us know what is essential about the created realm. Most notably they declare that God created...and together we see one God in three persons from the start. As Genesis refers to the role of the Spirit.... and John refers to the role of the Son... where he is specifically speaking about Jesus as the Word of God.
And both passages... are quite clear that God is the source of EVERYTHING that exists. As the second text in John said: Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made
And they also both capture that everything came from the INTENT of God...and there was a process of bring order in what was created. In Genesis we are told how God took chaos and began to give it order... life sustaining order. And in John we are told that everything came forth from the Word of God... which reflects intelligence and intent.
So is there conflict between Scripture and science? Not at the core of what they provide. The conflict lies more with what is presumed upon them. Let me try to explain what I’m referring to.
When the opening words of Genesis are presumed to include God’s intent to convey the literal facts about the time involved... so that it must be understood as six 24 hour periods ... it can be more difficult to align with various observations that suggest a longer process. But that is not an assumption that must be made.
And when some in the field of science claim to have certainty about the source of the universe... they are not even in the realm of what true science would claim. What I believe is so important to see...is that the conflict lies not in anything that is inherently rooted in Scripture or science...but between secondary influences. Science has never been the problem. Arrogance is the problem. When we begin to claim that we know more than we do... or want to claim we are the masters of all knowledge... we will betray both the integrity of science and our human limitations. And when we become more certain of what God was intending to convey in the poetic portions of Scripture... we may bring a similar problem.
The point is that the only observations that we can associate with science do not inherently conflict with believing God is the creator of heaven and earth. The truth is that Scriptures and science can each be sources of truth... on different levels. Science is about understanding the material world at hand. Science is by nature not that which can show that the world was created by God or that the world was not created by God.
Now some may say that the only thing that is real is what can be seen... that which is material and temporal. But I’ve come to believe that there is no reason to assume that the material world is all that is real...or even more real. The Scriptures are clear that God is Spirit...ruling the realm that exists beyond time and space as we know it. The finite was created by the infinite. The [5]
And in this light... I can freely believe that God is the creator of heaven and earth.
And I also encourage us to consider our own nature...our own inner compass... that can point us toward God ...by what we see in creation...and what we long for within us that is never satisfied within creation.
The French philosopher, Pascal, said that inside the heart of every man there is a “God-shaped vacuum.” And Augustine said, “O Lord, you have made us for yourself. Our hearts are restless until they find rest in you.” They are affirming what the Scriptures tell us in the Book of Ecclesiastes. In Ecclesiastes 3:11 it says:
“God has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” -Ecclesiastes 3:11
Our longing for ultimate answers comes from God himself. God put that longing (the “God-shaped vacuum”) inside the human heart to cause men to look to him.
And despite what many current voices may try to dismiss, I believe that such a sense will endure. Humankind has sensed this across countless century and millennia...and the very recent enlightenment idea that we will find a way to explain our origins... might try to satisfy our human pride...but it won’t fulfill our search to know who we are.
The truth is that our very nature still bears a compass we have never entirely lost.
I can appreciate the courage that some may try to have by saying that life has no source of meaning... no intended order. But what I have found is that no one has ever come close to living as if life had no inherent value... or purpose. I have never seen that consistently lived out. I know some who claim a pure materialist belief....but I have never known anyone who has any ability or desire to begin to live accordingly. It defies our very nature. And the reason is that life does matter and there is meaning and there are moral laws.
I believe the inner compass of our very nature points me to believe in God... the creator of heaven and earth.
Let me wrap up with some of what this means for us.
When we say “I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth”... here a few things that this means. It sets the whole of our existence in relationship. And the first thing this means, is that...
I exist in relationship to God... the source and center of all existence.
As I noted at the start... when we try to exist apart from God...we tend to imagine that we are the actual source of truth....that we create what is true. So when we think about believing in God...we can place ourselves as the subject who speaks of God as the object... we can presume that we are in the role of what brings action upon the other.
As such, some say that God is just a projection from our thinking and wishing. Others may have a faint belief in a god... which they essentially make up according to what they think are some good ideas they have. And even those who believe may tend to think God wants our belief for his own good.
Essentially, we think it is God’s existence that is on the line.
But in truth... it’s our existence that is at stake.
“We are made in His image.” We are a projection of Him. We are the shadow that emanates from Him.
When God is asked what name he should be known by...he said “I am that I am”. God exists in himself. He is known by titles that express his attributes...but he has never been given a name because he was not created. God cannot be named in the way everything else is given a name by their source.
So when I allow myself to exist in relationship to God... my own existence is no longer left to find meaning in myself... I am no long drifting into the outer darkness of my own existence. I can cease trying to validate myself... to name myself. I can exist in relationship to my source and center.
I exist in relationship to God... the source and center of all existence.
And the second thing this means, is that...
I exist because God chose to create such a life...as a reflection of desire and love.
When Jesus saw lives that were adrift...he wept. He told stories about God’s rule... stories of a Father whose sons were lost...and the Father is waiting for their return. He is waiting because he is not the manufacturer of a machine... but the Father of those he designed and desires to be his sons and daughters.
Why are you here... why do you exist? Because he is God, Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. You exist because God wanted you to be in relationship with him forever.
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Thirdly, this means...
I exist in a world of God’s purpose.
In recognizing God... as Father Almighty...creator of heaven and earth... I recognize that there is a purpose to my existence...and a purpose that fills everything.
Secularism... which means life without any spiritual source or meaning... says we’re an accident. You’re an accident; I’m an accident. Whatever force has led to our existence is a blind force. It means that there is no real purpose...there is no design to align with...no direction to seek. It means the very notion of progress is meaningless. It means that any thought about finding purpose... or serving a greater purpose is nonsense. Life has no purpose. It also means that any sense that we have that something is right or wrong... is non-sense. Any talk about justice or injustice is non-sense. Why? Because something is good or bad in relationship to it’s purpose. The idea of right or wrong can only be made in relationship to what something is SUPPOSED to be. If it is not supposed to be anything... then any claim to right or wrong has no ultimate basis. I can only judge if my watch is good or bad...on the basis that it’s purpose is to monitor time. Without a purpose... bad or good wouldn’t make sense.
When I recognize that God, is the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, I am recognizing that he has created a world filled with His purpose... eternal purpose. God created a world of beauty and life and he created us to help it flourish and be filled with His goodness. If the sun rose this morning...then God’s purposes are not over... and I can join them. Every day we wake up... we can be a part of helping life flourish and be filled with His goodness.
In fact, God says He wants us to share in His glory... which means His goodness.
This leads to the last point I will make.
I exist to glorify God...by enjoying God forever.
You exist to enjoy God. That may sound a little strange. We tend to speak of obeying God... glorifying God... but the greatest obedience flows from enjoying God. God is the source of all that is good... and he wants us to enjoy that goodness. He is the source of all love...and he wants us to enjoy that love. He is the source of all beauty...and he wants us to enjoy that beauty. So he is glorified most...when he is enjoyed most. [6]
Another more modern creed of sorts, is called the Westminster Catechism...and it declares that “The chief purpose of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”
With further reflection... it has been said that these two cannot be separated. And it is posed that ..
“The chief purpose of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever.”
So let me conclude. The Apostles creed begins with recognizing what roots our very existence. And today is an opportunity to consider what we are rooting our lives in... and how rooted we have allowed them to be.
I’s an opportunity to root your life in God... the Father Almighty...creator of heaven and earth.
I invite you to join me in a moment of prayer. To help us center ourselves...I invite you to join me in simply closing our eyes...and I will lead us.
Prayer
You are the center... around which our lives were meant to orbit.
Some of us may recognize that we have sought to be our own orbit...perhaps even expecting that we could draw you to our wills.
Today... even now... may we recognize that you are God, Father Almighty... creator of heaven and earth. May we acknowledge you as the center.
I pray that even now...we would recognize the gravitational pull of your love...and your will.
Some of us have longed for a real home...where we are wanted...where we belong. We may have come close...like a child who looks through the window of a neighbors home...and imagines what it would be like to be at that table. In this very moment.... may we realize that the door is open.... that we are wanted at the table.
Notes:
1. The Apostles Creed
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy Christian Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
2. The Scriptures tell us that “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16)... and that Jesus is the “new Adam”...the new image bearer of... “the exact representation” (Hebrews 1) of God’s nature... whom God is seeking to form in us.
3. As Ray Pritchard notes, we can here a call to recognize the Almighty nature of God in Isaiah 40.
“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:28-31). His two questions at the beginning: “Do you not know? Have you not heard?” are those which call us out... “Don’t you know your own God?” I know who he is: He’s the Father Almighty. That’s the God I believe in.
3b. One of the criticisms of Christianity is that it is a crutch for the weak. Belief in God is considered by some to be nothing more than an illusion to satisfy unconscious needs. But Dr. Paul Vitz wondered the opposite: suppose it's the atheists who are engaging in unconscious wish- fulfillment.
To find the answer, Vitz scanned the last four centuries for patterns that distinguish the lives of atheists from the lives of theists. After studying the lives of more than a dozen of the world's most influential atheists, Vitz discovered they all had one thing in common: defective relationships with their fathers. Vitz defines "defective" fathers as those who were dead, abusive, weak, or who abandoned their children.
Sigmund Freud wrote that his father was a sexual pervert. Thomas Hobbes's father was an Anglican clergyman who got into a fight with another man in the churchyard and, subsequently, abandoned his family. Ludwig Feuerbach, at age 13, was abandoned by his father, who openly took up living with another woman in a different town. Voltaire fought constantly with his father, causing him later to reject his surname.
Schopenhauer's father committed suicide when he was 16. Both Bertrand Russell and Nietzsche lost their fathers at the age of four. Sartre's father died before Sartre was born, and Camus was a year old when he lost his father. Hume also lost his father in early childhood. Hitler's father was a violent man who unmercifully beat Adolf, his mother, and even the family dog; he died when Adolf was 14. Stalin's father also administered brutal beatings to his son.
Obviously, much more evidence needs to be obtained on the "defective father" hypothesis. But the information already available is substantial; it is unlikely to be an accident.
Deuteronomy 6:7; Psalm 68:5; Proverbs 22:6; Ephesians 6:4; Colossians 3:21
Sources: Professor Paul C. Vitz, "The Psychology of Atheism," Truth Journal and his lecture, "The Psychology of Atheism," delivered at Columbia University (9-24-97); Anne Morse, "Atheism and Its Link to Bad Dads," Boundless
Citation: Submitted by Aaron Goerner, New Hartford, New York+
4. The Genesis narrative is made up of two stories, roughly equivalent to the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis. In the first, God is referred to as Elohim (the Hebrew word which speaks of God in the most general manner)... creates the heavens and the Earth in six days, then rests on, blesses and sanctifies the seventh (i.e. the Biblical Sabbath). In the second story, God, is now referred to by the personal name Yahweh, ... He creates Adam, the first man, from dust and places him in the Garden of Eden, where he is given dominion over the animals. Eve, the first woman, is created from Adam and as his companion. Ne may find some good thought in: Israel’s Two Creation Stories By Pete Enns, April 27, 2010 - here and another article here
5. Some believe that everything came from nothing... which is itself hard to conceive.
Some will say that everything came from some material that is itself eternal in nature. This would suggest that the material that was eternal had a moment for which there was no cause... a moment when eternal matter was somehow impacted. And that impact led to the universe. The point is not to unfairly simplify complex ideas...but to recognize that the existence of creation is far from being explained by science.
I can’t understand eternal matter... nor why impersonal material would randomly change...nor why there would be an effect without a cause.
6. God’s desire to be enjoyed...and delighted in... is reflected in...
Jeremiah 9:23-24:
Thus says the LORD, "Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things," declares the LORD.
Romans 9:22-24 says:
What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.
1 Corinthians 10:31 - Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Resources: Anne Robertson; Chris Howlett (Sermon Series: Ancient Creed, Living Faith),
