The Evangelical Universalist Forum

Evolution, The Flood, and God’s True Nature

I’m certainly not an expert in heremeneutics, but I do wonder if we try to get more out of Genesis 1-3 than it was designed to teach. OTOH, speculation is fun as long as we don’t hang too much weight on it, and remember to put our trust in that which is very clear.

And it seems that instead of saying “God created” some could interpret that to mean “The Trinity created” or in other words, that the word ‘God’ could be replaced with “Trinity”. I think that is very cumbersome.
“For the trinity so loved the world” “And behold, an angel from the Trinity” “for the trinity will cover you with their wings” (of course no one is actually saying that)
My point being that the word ‘God’ is talking about the Father, and is not replaceable with the word ‘trinity’.

edited to make more sense :slight_smile:

Yes Dave, I agree. I think we read more into the Bible than what it is actually trying to tell us. To say that man’s sin caused all to biologically break down and that this is why we grow old and physically die seems a bit far fetched. We were not made to physically live forever in our present form and neither was anything else. If this was not so, then how would the earth give way to new life coming into it? If the world did not move and change, it would be nothing but a still framed picture. To me, God is a Spirit who moves over the heavens and earth continually forming and reforming all that is in them.

I agree. My reference to the Trinity was only to distinguish it (all three persons of the Godhead) from the creation.

And to reiterate: Lucifer was part of Creation; therefore I can’t find a good reason not to believe that he too was created (and, like man, quickly fell thereafter)—during the Creation Week.

We know that none of this took God by surprise. But He knew that without some degree of free will, we can’t freely choose to love Him. (And I believe that everyone, whether living or dead, sooner or later, will freely choose to receive the gift of Jesus. God is a consuming fire–of love. Remember Daniel’s friends in that fiery furnace: The Son of Man was there with them, and when they came out, only their bondage had been burned off!)

But theoretically, why not? There was no death or disease before man sinned. Satan, who has the power of death (Hebrews 2:14), who is the “god” of this world, brought in death through man’s sin—not God. And not only physical death, but sickness, poverty, natural disasters, and everything opposed to life.

Again, God knew this would happen, even though He didn’t will man to sin. (And He knew He would then ‘work things together for good.’)

Death is being purged out in stages, reversing Satan’s curses. We get a hint of this through prophecies regarding the coming ‘Millennial Age’:

Finally, “the last enemy to be destroyed is death.” 1 Cor. 15:26. It would follow that after death is completely destroyed, all people will be immortal. And we know that the physical creation (“the lesser reality”), will be merged into heaven (“the greater reality”):

All people will be immortal—as Adam and Eve were before they sinned; however…is it only members of the Bride of the Lamb who will receive glorified, spiritual bodies, *or everyone? *I don’t pretend to know, but as you indicate, it’s fun to speculate.

The universe is a big place; will nations continue forever? I don’t know, but, *“Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end.” *Isaiah 9:7.

Blessings.

Hermano, no, I do not believe that man has that great of power over God’s design of the earth and all that is in it. The earth hangs in a balance and it works on a continual basis to restore and keep it in it’s proper balance. To me, Satan is but the workings of men who do not believe in a higher power. So I can agree with you on the fact that they are quite the legalists. Environmentalists will have us believe that man is but a blight on earth and that we are destroying it with our every move. I don’t buy it. It is not as fragile as they make it out to be To me, we are but specks of sand and this earth is capable of shaking us off as the dust on one’s feet. When I hear the cry of global warming, or is it global climate change now, ( sorry I can’t seem to keep track) I would say that this is basically an excuse to lay down more laws. As Colossians 2:20-22 says, “Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations-“Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle”, which all concern things which perish with the using-according to the commandments and doctrines of men?” It is said that God turns wastelands into habitable places and vice versa. So, the way I see it , maybe a little global warming is necessary to open up more land. I hate to admit it(no offense to anyone) but the thought of California being submerged under water doesn’t sound all that bad either. :laughing: To me, this is all a part of the great circle of life. We have only been given so much time here. And when that time is up, we must move on to the bigger and better things that God has in store or us, thus making way for new life and letting them have their turn.

I too am a skeptic of global warming—or at least the idea that it’s mostly man-made. And although there is a lot of room for improvement for the worst offending countries who pollute, I too am concerned about governments gobbling up more control in the name of environmentalism.

But here, I must disagree. If you believe in angels, you know that they are spirit beings who are smart, powerful, and immortal. For example, like God, I would imagine that for angels all human science, technology, and languages are child’s play. I think they were imbued with far more power and intelligence than their human brethren.

So Satan, the fallen angel, is more intelligent, informed, and powerful than we can imagine. And he doesn’t sleep. But he was defeated at the cross; and he was disarmed of his weapons. So we must recognize him and his strategies, and enforce the victory of Jesus.

Once again, I recommend my friend Richard Murray. He has an enlightening article, Is Satan Involved In Every Evil Occurrence?

Short answer: YES. But please do me the favor of reading and considering the points of this article before you disagree.

Blessings.

Hermano, I read the article you posted, however I do not believe in Satan, devils, angels, etc. as anything other than human beings and their workings. Colossians 2:18 says this: “Let no one defraud you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen.” As Jesus said, evil comes from the heart of man, and there are many people who still practice it and gain a following through deceit and ignorance.

I will read Murray’s article!

First though - musn’t we agree that satan has limited power, limited knowledge, is bound to one location at a time and is thus not omnipresent?
Giving any ground on those things would it seems to me, be disastrous.

Yes indeed. Satan is merely a fallen angel. Nothing more. He is not some sort of “evil God”.

Good Catholic J. R. R. Tolkien had one of his elven heroes almost kill Satan in one-on-one combat.

I am confident that Satan cannot read minds (as all too many seem to assume). Frankly, I doubt that Satan is even aware of your existence as an individual. That is, I do not doubt he knows about how many people there are in the world (just as does anyone with access to an encyclopedia), but if he were asked, “Could you point Andrew McGalliger out in a crowd?”, Satan would have to say no.

Dave, yes I agree that evil people have limited power and knowledge, however the problem is that we join in with them via our own sin or ignorance, increasing their power, growth and spread.

Geoffrey, If I am understanding you correctly, I can agree that the better definition of Satan would be a gathering of individuals operating as one “body” in sin. Thus it is a beast of our own making.

I affirm that Satan is a literal person who is an angel who fell into sin.

And that is all he is.

He is very, very limited in terms of power, knowledge, and presence.

All too many people imagine Satan as a quasi-equal with God, envisioning Satan as individually tempting each and every person every day, and even being privy to the thoughts each of us think. That’s all nonsense.

Satan is more like a super-villain in a comic book than that.

I may be guilty of overgeneralizing, but I suggest that to the same extent a Christian minimizes or dismisses the devil (formerly known as the archangel Lucifer), he most likely minimizes or dismisses:

-The complete victory of Jesus at the cross over the (very real) forces of darkness, and our own delegated authority over them

-The “divine exchange” at the cross, which includes health and prosperity:

Isaiah 53 indicates that Messiah would TAKE our sin and suffering, and GIVE us his righteousness and “shalom”—shalom being variously translated as “health,” “prosperity,” “safety,” “contentment,” “friendship,” and “peace.”
(And, of course, 3 John 1:2 says, “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.”)

-The Baptism in The Holy Spirit, and the Gifts of The Holy Spirit, still being available and necessary for us today

-Grace completely replacing legalism

(These convictions seem correlated, and tend to hang together, or fall together.)

He sure sounds mighty powerful to me! Outside of Christ, we are no match for him. (But obviously he is as nothing in comparison to God.)

I would definitely encourage each of you to invest the time to read Murray’s article Is Satan Involved In Every Evil Occurrence? (Thank you for doing so already, LLC)

Two short quotes from it:

Blessings.

Hermano - pm sent.

Speaking of evolution, if the Spirit( love, truth, etc.) that we find inside of ourselves evolved, then that means the Spirit of God was not eternally in existence. Likewise, to say that our Spirits were created by God suggests that there was no Spirit prior to the creation of man. I believe that we are made of the very essence of our Father and Creator. So to me, evil would be the thing that is created by man. It is going against our true nature.

You have more power over Satan and the unholy angels - then you think. Just by invoking the name of Christ. And I also believe, that brings help from the holy angels. And I would guess that they outnumber, Satan and the unholy angels. Just food for thought. :exclamation: :smiley:

I am not dogmatic about evolution, nor creation. But it seems to me that evolution is plausable. Evidence points, in my opinion, to a very old earth. To those who think it is only 6,000 years, I day: That is also possible, for God has the power to do it. But it does not naturally follow that God would merely create the illusion of an old earth, while making it young. I mean, to do so is basically deception on some level, or perhaps our evidence is flawed. It seems so highly unlikely that dinosaurs existed during the time of humans. If so, surely some glyphs would display this? Young earthars like to demonize the opposition. From my vieepomt, God could have done it anyway he pleased, but is that how he did it? Why the dogma?

On my phone, so excuse typos above. But, another question. How do we know angels are immortal? Perhaps I am nitpicking, but only God is immortal. He might choose to sustain angels for ages, but that does not make them immortal.

Actually, that question has been asked, on the secular Yahoo forums at:

Are Angels immortal or mortal?

Let me share, what was voted the best answer :exclamation: :smiley:

This is also discussed on the secular site Quora at:

Are angels immortal? Why or why not?

Now as a** free bonus**, I share this from Quora: :laughing:

What joke will make one burst into laughter for at least 30 seconds?

Gabe/All: of course, from the moment they were created as adults, Adam and Eve had the appearance of age. And here are some ancient dinosaur depictions.

I believe that everything that was created by God, both the physical and the spiritual, was created during Creation Week. For both angelic and human people, I think our existence within the classroom of time affords us the opportunity to choose to freely receive the love of God, and to obey Him. After Judgment, the Lake of Fire is a continuation of opportunity for rebels to be healed and free to accept Jesus. Then, when death has been totally eradicated, there is no more need for linear time: we will all be fully conscious of our eternal place with our loving God. And then the real adventure begins:

There is a lot of evidence for a young earth—depending on your scientific paradigm. Here is a short article based on the work of John D. Morris, Ph.D. (His father Henry, also a young earth creationist, was department chair of civil engineering at Virginia Tech, my alma mater): “Arguments for a recent creation.”

Also, a fascinating book I studied in a course on the history of science was called The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), by physicist and philosopher Thomas S. Kuhn. Kuhn’s book argues that “the evolution of scientific theory does NOT emerge from the straightforward accumulation of facts, but rather from a set of changing intellectual circumstances and possibilities. Such an approach is largely commensurate with the general historical school of non-linear history.” (Wikipedia.)

Kuhn coined the term “paradigm shift” to describe a fundamental change in the basic concepts and experimental practices of a scientific discipline, leading to a scientific revolution. This is in contrast to the activity of “normal” science, which he described as scientific work done within a prevailing framework (or paradigm).

Kuhn’s examples of paradigm shifts are primarily from the physical sciences: Aristotelian dynamics, Copernican astronomy, Newtonian optics, and Einstein’s theories of relativity. A paradigm shift is a crisis brought on by conflict between two or more paradigms, in which the best paradigm survives. Wrong presuppositions and prejudices must be recognized and abandoned, in deference to a new paradigm that explains the data better.

But, I would argue, there is a spiritual dimension to seeing the right paradigms, and letting go of false paradigms, even in the physical sciences.

Blessings.

I read the article, and I have no idea how to find arguments contra each one of them.
The propositions might be right, but I have no way of knowing.

So ‘duelling propositions’ are not going to help me as a layman. I try to keep an open mind about these things but, in the loooooooooong run, I don’t think my deciding either way matters at all. But it is interesting. :smiley: