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In his letter to the Christians in Rome, the apostle Paul interspersed his writing with several doxologies. These are short, spontaneous outbursts of praise to God, arising from some statement made about Him. In one of these doxologies, Paul used a simple but sublime description of God, ‘from whom, through whom and to whom are all things.’ This formula sums up so much of what Christians believe about God and His relationship to His creation.
We’ll concentrate on the first phrase; all things being ‘from Him’. He is the origin of all things animate and inanimate, seen and unseen. The actual mechanics of creation might be controversial, but there can be no argument among theists about the universe’s origins as having a creator. So rather than getting bogged down in the ‘when and how’ of creation, we could make useful progress by thinking rather about the ‘who and why’? Seeing God as creator – that is, in simple terms, One who made something out of nothing - puts us at odds with the famous cosmologist Prof. Stephen Hawkin of Cambridge University, whose latest M-theory outlined in his recent book ‘The Grand Design’, sees the origin of the universe as simply the solution of a set of mathematical equations. This solution postulates that the universe has up to 11 dimensions, plus time, and says we may be part of a ‘multiverse’ rather than one universe.
Hawkin is quoted as saying, ‘one can't prove that God doesn't exist, but science makes God unnecessary’, and hence he does not believe in a personal God. If the universe arises from the laws of physics, then if there is no physics, there is no universe, so who made these laws, and more especially, who set the values of the material constants in those mathematical equations that give us the particular solutions? The existence and continuation of human life today depend crucially on the precise values of the various immutable physical constants of the universe. These relate to the operation of the four fundamental forces of nature (gravity, electromagnetic force, and strong and weak nuclear forces). Christians believe that God fine-tuned these physical constants to their precise, present values so that human life can exist.
Dr Rodney Holder has sensibly said that ‘In the end, surely it is far more rational to believe that the universe was deliberately designed by God, with the express intention of producing intelligent beings with the capacity for a relationship with their Maker, than the alternative of a multiverse minus God.’
Christianity is the story of how God set about the difficult task of bringing sinful men and women, one by one, into such a relationship with Himself. The story, if true, is certainly remarkable, that the Son of God, the divine agent of creation, came into this world, and on the cross, as Peter wrote, ‘suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God’. His sufferings made it possible that we could have the opportunity and the option of coming to God.
The writer of the book called Hebrews in our New Testament tells us a lot about faith. It is, he wrote ‘the evidence of things not seen’, and he went on to say that through faith, we comprehend that the universe, in terms of time and space, history and geography, was ‘framed by the word of God’. This includes the creation of individual parts and the harmonious organization of the whole. The consequence is that ‘things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.’ So the laws of physics of today were not the origin of creation.
In fact, he then makes the general statement that ‘without faith, it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is’, and also that He rewards them who diligently seek Him. In the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament, wise king Solomon wrote to the young people of his day: ‘Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth’. He then gives all kinds of reasons why remembering God becomes more difficult with increasing age. Please could I commend to you this sensible advice? If you want to be serious about seeking God, your creator, then now is the best time.
Coming to God through faith in Jesus Christ is what Christianity is about.
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