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REFLECTIONS ON CREATION PART 2 9/13/2016 12:34:49 PM
(continuation of Blog) How Jesus used Stories
In Luke 16:20-25 we find the story of Lazarus and the rich man who saw a literal hell and paradise. Now we know some of the Jews believed in a place called “Abraham’s Bosom” and Jesus was giving a principle (this life decides our destination) in a context they could understand. He used what we call “fiction” to convey truth. Jesus used a “myth” to present truth. We know it was myth because of Jewish history and opposing texts.
Peter’s experience with symbolic truth.
In Acts 10:11-23 Peter is in a trance and a sheet holding unclean animals comes down, and a voice asks him to kill and eat. Peter has never eaten anything unclean and refuses. Later the Spirit lets him know he is not to consider any human unclean because they are not Jews. The animals were symbolic and not for him to eat.
There are many stories in the Bible we fail to understand because we are too concerned if they actually happened as reported. However, whether we believe they are literal or not is irrelevant to our understanding of their truth. It is the same with the creation story. What does it say about God and our origins? Beyond this we guess at the mystery. Jesus uses the story of Jonah in the fish as symbolic of his time in the grave. Those who can’t accept it literally will stumble and may never come to an understanding of the truth of Jesus.
The mystery of time and space
Many can’t accept mystery; we want answers. We see evidence and speculate; humans have been wrong before. There is an immense space out there where humans have not been; laws they have not known where the material world intersects with the spiritual; the physical with the meta-physical; and space with time. For those who depend on human dating, what is time to God? Does it exist beyond this earth? Was there a time it did not exist on this earth? Did God use our concept of time in creating life or his? Or the universe? Who can answer these questions?
Truth is not always available in measurable facts. Some who have stopped believing over evolution, claim honesty led them away. Can we be honest about our knowledge in this vast cosmos? God is mystery, and so is how he created. It is enough for me to say, he did not do it with violence and death—this would be against his character as seen in Jesus. Therefore, I cannot be a long-era evolutionist.
Even if one prays about “truth” but holds on to their version like a dog with a bone, it becomes more important to them then God. It’s better to accept the mystery. Do we really know what the evidence means? Theories abound like the recent one by a group of scientists experimenting on the theory that our world is an illusion.*
There is immense space where the heavenly world resides; where space and time intersect. Does God have many universes and a control room he calls heaven? Do angels travel through black or white holes to minister to us? Is this any less irregular than the cosmos being unintentional and evolved by some system we can’t comprehend? But like quantum physics, truth is much stranger than any of us can imagine, and we haven’t even scratched the surface. I think most scientists would agree.
* Could our entire world be an illusion? That's the question that scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory are asking. They've started collecting data with a unique experiment called the Holometer that will answer some questions about our universe, including whether or not we live in a hologram.
