Biblical Principles that Govern the
Universe
I discovered from the Bible that I was enslaved to an
elementary principle. A
principle is a fundamental idea that serves as a foundation for
knowledge. I decided to try
and purge this elementary idea from my mind. Getting rid of a basic
assumption is not easy. My
biggest problem was finding a replacement principle. A mind without a
first principle is like
someone without a language. How can you even think without a language
to think with? Evidence from the universe is meaningless without
an accepted set of principles for selecting and evaluating
the evidence. How could I find
the
true
fundamental principle?
I call myself a
fundamentalist because I hold certain statements in the Bible as
foundational to spiritual truth. Did the Bible provide the true
principles for understanding the physical universe? Lord,
please show me the basic principles that govern your universe that I
might see it from the right
perspective.
God
asked in Job
38:33 “Do you know the ordinances of the heavens, Or fix their rule
over the earth?” The Bible teaches that the
universe is under laws and the same ordinances rule over the stars and
the earth. In Jeremiah
chapters 31 and 33, the Lord speaks of the fixed
order of the moon and stars. He speaks of a covenant for the day and
the night. Yet He says the
heavens cannot be measured and the foundations of the earth
beneath cannot be
searched out. The universe is a place
of order and universal
ordinances, yet there are limits to measuring the stars and
understanding the underlying geology of earth.
There is no question that the universe exhibits order and
predictability. The Greeks used the
word cosmos for an orderly arrangement: a place of laws and
mathematical harmony. How could matter change and the universe
continue under orderly
laws? What I was looking for was a simple biblical statement that
defined how the universe functions and changes. Does the
Bible mention a principle broad enough to cover the whole physical
universe?
Romans 8:19 - 22 “For
the anxious longing of the creation waits
eagerly for the revealing of the
sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own
will, but because of Him
who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set
free from its slavery to corruption
into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that
the whole creation groans
and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.”
The “whole creation” refers to everything in the universe. The
entire physical universe was
subjected to futility and corruption. “Subjected” is a
verb that is a combination of two
Greek words - "under" and "orderly arrangement". When used of
involuntary
submission, it means to "place under" in an
orderly fashion. Polybius, who wrote the history of Rome's
wars with
the Greeks, used this
word to describe those who were under an orderly military command.
Military units obey orders in unison
and according to an organized plan. Paul used an interesting
Greek word for this change: phthora. The Greek philosophers use
phthora to mean the process that began at the beginning [genesis] and corrupts all material things. How can
everything in the
universe be under an orderly
arrangement to fundamentally change? How could corruption be
subjected to an
orderly arrangement?
I noticed two Greek words in the text that explain the nature
of
this change. The Greek words are compounds of the word “together.” One
is
the combination of
“together” and “groans.” The other is the combination of “together” and
“pain.” The whole creation groans-together and pains-together. The
together-pain word was used
for
childbirth. The pains of childbirth are muscles spasms and physical
changes that act in parallel and in unison. The tenses of these
two Greek verbs tells us that the entire universe is groaning together
and
enduring together-pain right now. It is the universe itself that is
acting this way. The two together-verbs strongly infer that a
relationship is behind these universal changes. Relational changes are changes that happen
in parallel where no component of reality is unaffected by the changes.
I used to interpret these
verses as confirming the Second Law
of
Thermodynamics. As I
examined the text, I found this an unlikely interpretation for the
following reasons.
•
The
Second Law is not an orderly arrangement. It results from the chaotic
random
motion of atoms.
•
The
Second Law is not universal in scope since it excludes what God created
on the first
day. Scientists do not apply the Second Law to the internal processes
in atoms. They
imagine that atoms are perpetual motion machines. They use their
concept of perpetual motion atoms as the basis for their atomic clocks
and most of their units of measurement.
•
The
Second Law is not a together-process. Things that act-together do
so
because they have a
relationship. At birth the muscles and hormones of mother and child
respond together
because of an intimate relationship.
I found two biblical principles that clearly were universal in
scope.
•
The
first said that the universe is under a system of laws. Those laws are
the same in the
stars and in the earth. The universe is a place of order.
•
The
second universal principle is that God decreed that everything changes.
This fundamental change does not destroy matter since even the
corruption is an orderly arrangement.
Both of these principles involve the whole universe and relate
to
orderliness. Oh Lord, show
me how these principles govern your universe.
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This document is under a Creative Commons License by Victor McAllister.
What does that mean?
Last edited 10/23/2008