"The beginning and the end"

Memorial moment "The beginning and the end" (Rev. Dr Scott Murray)

"A world that has its beginning in God, and thus has a beginning, also implies that it has an end and at the end there is a moral judgment."

The beginning and the end

"Such amazing nonsenses get perpetrated on the ignorant! One that has always galled me is the myth that modern man discovered that the earth was a sphere and that until the modern "scientific" age, people thought the earth was flat and those who traveled to its edge merely fell off. This is complete nonsense. The ancients were quite clear on the spherical nature of the heavenly bodies and their circular movements in relation to each other. Aristotle remarks on this at some length in his "On the Heavens." Long before the late medieval explorers, such as Prince Henry the Navigator, Basil the Great was aware of these things and recounts the fact that the sky above the southern hemisphere is quite different from the sky with which he had familiarity above the northern hemisphere. The presumption that results from the flat earth myth was that the ancients were merely knuckle-dragging ignoramuses who knew nothing of the modern "scientific" facts. And if they were so ignorant as to believe in a flat earth, their testimony about cosmology must also be faulty.

Yet, Basil the Great was conversant with the cosmological theories that were circulating in his day, including familiarity with Aristotle's work, On the Heavens, and the theories of Zeno of Citium (334-262 B.C.), who argued that the universe itself was god. Basil understood such pantheistic theorizing, although it arose from minds for which he had great admiration, as a sign of spiritual darkness. Such godless theories began with unbelief, an unwillingness to see God's gracious hand at work in the creation of all things. Unbelief was the organizing principle in understanding the meaning of physical phenomena. Without that presupposition perhaps other, better conclusions could have been reached by people trying to construct a cosmology.

A world that has its beginning in God, and thus has a beginning, also implies that it has an end and at the end there is a moral judgment. By making the world eternal, it extricates humans from the possibility of an end. Ultimately, cosmological arguments are moral arguments. The doctrine of creation tells us who we are and what we are for. Humans have only ambiguous moral value apart from the creating God answering those questions about us. And when the humans laugh at the idea that God has answered those questions in the words "In the beginning, God created" (Gn 1:1), they have already made a clear religious decision that dethrones God and enthrones nature itself, including the humans who are ridiculing the God who created them.

We may not scorn our ancient forefathers because they are ignorant of science. They just confessed that God was the maker of the earth and all that is in it, including us and not we ourselves (Ps 100:3). The idea that the universe is self-creative is impossible; everything must start somewhere. The One who makes it also brings it to a close. Come, Lord Jesus!"




Rev. Dr Scott Murray
Memorial momen 12 June 2013



Psalm 100 (ESV):
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20100&version=ESV


Basil the Great

"Do not imagine, O man, that the visible world is without a beginning; and because the celestial bodies move in a circular course, and it is difficult for our senses to define the point where the circle begins, do not believe that bodies impelled by a circular movement are, from their nature, without a beginning. Without doubt the circle (I mean the plane figure described by a single line) is beyond our perception, and it is impossible for us to find out where it begins or where it ends; but we ought not on this account to believe it to be without a beginning. Although we do not experience it, it really begins at some point where the draughtsman has begun to draw it at a certain radius from the center. Thus seeing that figures which move in a circle always return upon themselves, without for a single instant interrupting the regularity of their course, do not vainly imagine to yourselves that the world has neither beginning nor end. 'For the present form of this world is passing away' (1Co 7:31) and 'Heaven and earth will pass away' (Lk 21:33).

"The divine decrees of the end and the renewing of the world are announced beforehand in these short words put at the head of the inspired teaching. 'In the beginning God made' (Gn 1:1). That which was begun in time is condemned to come to an end in time. If there has been a beginning do not doubt there will be an end. Of what use is geometry-the calculations of arithmetic-the study of solids and famous astronomy, this laborious vanity, if those who pursue them imagine that this visible world is co-eternal with the Creator of all things, with God Himself; if they attribute to this limited world, which has a material body, the same glory as to the incomprehensible and invisible nature; if they cannot conceive that a whole, of which the parts are subject to corruption and change, must of necessity end by itself submitting to the fate of its parts? But they have become 'futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools' (Rm 1:21-22). Some have claimed that heaven coexists with God from all eternity, others that it is god himself without beginning or end, and the cause of the particular arrangement of all things.

"One day their terrible condemnation will be the greater for all this worldly wisdom, since, seeing so clearly into the sciences, they have willfully shut their eyes to the knowledge of the truth. These men who measure the distances of the stars and describe them, both those of the north, always shining brilliantly in our view, and those of the southern pole visible to the inhabitants of the south, but unknown to us; who divide the northern zone and the circle of the zodiac into an infinity of parts, who observe with exactitude the course of the stars, their fixed places, their movements, their return and the time that each takes to make its revolution; these men, I say, have discovered all except one thing: the fact that God is the Creator of the universe, and the just Judge who brings forward a proper recompense for those things done in this life. They have not known how to raise themselves to the idea of the consummation of all things, the consequence of the doctrine of judgment, and to see that the world must change if souls pass from this life to a new life. In reality, as the nature of the present life presents an affinity to this world, so in the future life our souls will enjoy a lot conformable to their new condition. But they are so far from applying these truths, that they merely laugh when we announce to them the end of all things and the regeneration of the age. Since the beginning naturally precedes that which is derived from it, the writer, of necessity, when speaking to us of things which had their origin in time, puts at the head of his account these words: 'In the beginning God created' (Gn 1:1)."


Prayer:

We praise and thank You, O God, for You are without beginning and without end. Through Christ You are the creator and preserver of the whole world; but above all, You are His God and Father, the giver of the Spirit, and the ruler of all that is, seen and unseen. You made the day for the works of light and the night for the refreshment of our bodies. O loving Lord and source of all that is good, mercifully accept our praise. Conduct us through the day and bring us to night's beginning. As we go about our daily work keep us now in Christ and keep us free from sin; and at the end bring us to everlasting life through Christ, our Lord. Amen.



Foto: Kerstin Lindén