Because God is good and everything He does is good, we can safely assume that all He creates is good. So in the beginning, when God created heaven and earth, they were good.
Then something went wrong.
Between Genesis 1:1, when out of His goodness God created the heavens and the earth, and Genesis 1:2, something happened. We are informed that what was created became "without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep" (Genesis 1:2).
The Hebrew work used in verse 1 for "created" is bara, literally meaning just that - creating something out of nothing. However, in verse 2, the Hebrew word describing the earth being formless, empty and covered in darkness is haya, which means to become, to happen, to occur.
What does this tell us? In the beginning what was made good apparently became bad. How? Numbers of theologians believe this is when the angel Lucifer fell because of his pride (see Isaiah 14:11-15; Ezekiel 28:13-18).
An Amazing Plan
From the beginning of time, however, we see the marvelous, compassionate way that God responds to catastrophes. After realizing that what He created was now covered with darkness, God didn't decide to just abandon it. No. He refashioned this planet that had lost its original beauty.
When this was done, "God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good" (Genesis 1:31). In fact, His new earth became the home for His Son's bride. It was definitely not a second-best place.
Not long after the introduction of the first man and woman, another great failure occurred. These human beings, fomed from the clay of the earth by God's own hands and made in His own image, fell prey to the deceiver, and Paradise was lost.
An angel with a flaming sword was posted at the entrance to the Garden of Eden so they would never be able to return (see Genesis 3:24). What was God going to do now after the whole purpost of man's creation - fellowship with Him - was lost? Well, He immediately gave them a most wonderful prophecy: the promise of the seed of the woman, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior (see Genesis 3:15).
Does this mean the cross was God's second best because His first plan for mankind failed when Adam fell? If we say that the coming of the Messiah and the cross (and what Jesus accomplished through His death) were an inferior choice next to God's original plan, it would be blasphemy!
God's gift, "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8), was God's greatest revelation of His love toward mankind, greater than what Adam ever experienced before his fall. And think about this: The original plan only made man in the image of God, whereas the second one made him a child of God (John 1:12). No, the cross is not second best - it is the very best!
From this point onward, man fails. Yet though this, we can still see how God magnificently weaves together His amazing plan from the beginning of history.
Time and time again, God has taken marred pots and turned them into vessls of His praise. Not only does He make them more beautiful, but through them, He also brings about His perfect will. Truly, His ways are above our ways.
But How Can This Be?
Are you still wrestling with, "How can God bring about His perfect will when I messed up so completely? I mean, I deliberately did what God did no want me to do. Ho can His 'perfect' will still be accomplished in my life?" You are not alone in your stuggles.
First of all, He is not working within the confines of time. God is eternal. To God, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day. He sees the moment of a failure in our life at the same time He sees us on that moment when we stand before Him as a faultless bride. He sees us the moment we were born at teh same time He sees us at the moment of our last breath. He is not restricted to seeing time progress in chronological ofder. He is not confined in time as we are.
He has thoughts about us that go far beyond what we can even begin to consider. He is working ourside of our realm of reference. None of us can totally understand God and His ways with our limited minds. We simply aren't capable.
But we can believe Him. Don't fall into the trap in which you will only believe God if you completely understand Him. Your unbelief will hinder the transformation He wants to bring about in your life. Please don't be a doubter. Join your heart with His and simply believe.
This is from my most recent Gospel for Asia magazine; it's an excerpt from K.P. Yohannan's book When We Have Failed - What Next? I was captivated by it, and thought I'd share it and see if there were any thoughts or discussion. I think it pretty much clears up whether or not sin/the fall was part of God's plan, huh?
8 comments:
That is really neat. I had never heard of the idea that God had already created earth, and then "darkness fell." I would be curious to learn more about it.
Very interesting, Kacy. But, I have to disagree about Genesis 1:2 where the earth "became" something bad. Or that Lucifer, when he fell, was what caused that. Check out these links, they are about the "gap theory" but they do have relevance to this discussion.
http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v14/i3/genesis.asp
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2005/11/28/scripture-allow-for-gap-theory
I think that explains why it doesn't say "become" instead of "was".
I looked up Isaiah and Ezekiel, what they described was the fall of Lucifer (Satan) and that he was thrown down to Sheol (hell). It doesn't say anything about him causing darkness to come to the earth.
Those were some of my thoughts, I'll probably say more later.
i'm not sure i agree either, but for different reasons than lucy.
i don't believe god's like "oh crap....i guess i'll have to send my son now. really didn't want it to go that far."
rather, the entire scheme of time of created, i believe, to show god to someone, to give glory.
by creating creatures that can and did fall, he then showed his infinite mercy and justice, and the compassion of taking on the form of the tiniest little ugly hick-living nobody-heard-of-him helpless baby. jesus then showed us god's character and god's way of doing things in his life on earth.
that guy really really struck a wrong chord with me with those last couple of sentences. what does he mean "don't be a doubter?"
the disciples were pretty much all doubters.
thomas even got a nickname for being a doubter.
if you don't express your own doubts with your faith, you'll always have nagging questions at the back of your mind, waiting for someone to come along and jump on them for you. often the church fails at being a place where you can express doubts. blind acceptance leaves us vulnerable to false teachers, i believe.
i don't like those articles or that organization. *scowl*
lol.
*sigh*
That was going to be another one of my points, thank you Sam.
Oh, and the only reason I put up those articles, was because they explained about the Hebrew part. If you get what I am saying.
The bible says that everything is part of God's will, that includes sin. Although, He is not the author of sin, He "allowed" sin to happen. God hates sin, yes, but any sin that happens, He uses for His glory. So, we don't sin any more than what would glorify God. Does that make any sense?
Why did God allow sin in the first place? Well, I don't think we will completely understand. But, it is for His glory in showing man judgment, wrath, mercy etc.
This another one of those subjects where we will never be able to understand God's thinking with our itty bitty, puny, tiny, little, finite brain.
Well, yes I agree about the doubting. It's healthy to doubt to an extent. I think that was just put there for the people who really don't get it, and since they can't understand God they won't put their trust in Him. I totally agree that church should be a place where we can express our doubts, but we have to work through them too, ortherwise we will be worthless as Christians because we'll never be able to trust God to our full extent.
I'm not sure I completely agree with all of it either, I just thought it was an interesting theory and i'd throw it out there.
I'm really sorry Lucy I don't have time to read the articles right now...but I'll take a look at them ASAP! I'll write more later...
yes--that makes sense, verya.
i just think you can't really ever say "don't doubt."
"trust" or "have faith," yes, but stifling any doubts inside you or inside other people is not really going to help anyone get anywhere, imho.
Yes, I totally agree. If you doubt, then it can even help you to learn more, as you search the scriptures.
I agree. Too much doubt though, will only get in the way if it is never dealt with. Just came out wrong I guess.
What's new? story of my life...
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