So how does a God whose being is eternal and therefore (by definition of "eternal") changeless, manage to do anything new? I've already mentioned that more is at stake in this question than simply how an unchanging God does new and different things. Whole religious methodologies are at stake, whole worldviews, whole ways of relating to God and the world. But one particular issue within these wholes is God's freedom. The question is whether God is really free or whether His own Being compels and constrains Him. Human freedom is also at stake here, because obviously a God who is not free can never bestow true freedom upon His children, either. So how can it be that He, Who never changes, created the universe and then, after "six days", rested from that task?
One answer is, in short, that He didn’t. In this view, the universe is not something created at all. Instead, it is simply God Himself taking on ever-changing forms. Put another way, God made the world using, as the “raw material,” Himself. The universe is God’s “body,” His material form. The universe is made from God’s own Being and is co-eternal with Him. God's only "freedom" is to take on whatever forms He will, whenever He will, for as long as He will. Or in some variants of this worldview, God is an impersonal force, so that the issue of freedom does not even arise.
In this worldview, nothing that exists has any being (or essence, or nature) of its own. Instead, everything shares the one, divine nature. The secret of this life is to realize this. Man needs not redemption but awakening. If you will but realize that your sense of being not-God is illusory, and if you can deeply know yourself as divine, then you will have escaped suffering. You will realize that nothing that happens in this illusory world can harm the real you, the divine you. You will have peace, experiencing yourself as bigger than any suffering life can throw at you, knowing it is all illusion. (How divine beings came to be prey to such illusion, we do not ask.) And in your bliss, you will simply “go with the flow.” And as you realize at that deep level that everyone and everything else is also divine, you will find yourself at one with all that is.
To accomplish this shift of your psychological identity, you practice the art of meditation for many years. You seek to empty your mind of absolutely everything, because it is in that emptiness that the divine dimension of being becomes perceptible.
This of course is pantheism, and such is the religious practice it engenders. The way of life it encourages is exemplified (but not exhausted) by all the specific cultures of the Orient.
It is, however, very different from the Judeo-Christian tradition, in whose teachings the world has both a beginning and an end and is therefore not divine.
For Jews and Christians, God shares His Being (Essence) with nothing and no one. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is One."
For us, God begins and ends the world. He brings things into being from non-being, simply by forming the intention of doing so. (He doesn’t literally speak His intention, of course, because He has no vocal chords or tongue, but when we read, “and God said ‘Let there be light,’” it means He formed, in an intelligible way, the intention that light should henceforth exist.)
The question still remains for the Christian: how is it possible for Him to do that, to form an intention, since God is changeless? How can He say His creative, “Let there be…” without having said it from all eternity; that is, without the world being co-eternal with Him and therefore divine? Or if He did speak it forever (if He had that intention forever), why do things have a beginning and an end? If God is Creator by nature and if He is eternal, doesn’t He, to continue being God, have to have been creating forever and continue creating forever? (But if so, then isn't His very Being dependent upon His own creation? All this just keeps getting more and more complicated! There aren't any good answers, either, outside of Orthodox teaching.)
For that matter, on the same principle, how is it possible for an eternal, unchanging God to have any interaction with His changing world?
In the next part of this little series, we’ll have a short look at some "Western" answers to these questions.
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One answer is, in short, that He didn’t. In this view, the universe is not something created at all. Instead, it is simply God Himself taking on ever-changing forms. Put another way, God made the world using, as the “raw material,” Himself. The universe is God’s “body,” His material form. The universe is made from God’s own Being and is co-eternal with Him. God's only "freedom" is to take on whatever forms He will, whenever He will, for as long as He will. Or in some variants of this worldview, God is an impersonal force, so that the issue of freedom does not even arise.
In this worldview, nothing that exists has any being (or essence, or nature) of its own. Instead, everything shares the one, divine nature. The secret of this life is to realize this. Man needs not redemption but awakening. If you will but realize that your sense of being not-God is illusory, and if you can deeply know yourself as divine, then you will have escaped suffering. You will realize that nothing that happens in this illusory world can harm the real you, the divine you. You will have peace, experiencing yourself as bigger than any suffering life can throw at you, knowing it is all illusion. (How divine beings came to be prey to such illusion, we do not ask.) And in your bliss, you will simply “go with the flow.” And as you realize at that deep level that everyone and everything else is also divine, you will find yourself at one with all that is.
To accomplish this shift of your psychological identity, you practice the art of meditation for many years. You seek to empty your mind of absolutely everything, because it is in that emptiness that the divine dimension of being becomes perceptible.
This of course is pantheism, and such is the religious practice it engenders. The way of life it encourages is exemplified (but not exhausted) by all the specific cultures of the Orient.
It is, however, very different from the Judeo-Christian tradition, in whose teachings the world has both a beginning and an end and is therefore not divine.
“These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created. In the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, “ (Genesis 2:4)
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away…” (Revelation 21:1)
For Jews and Christians, God shares His Being (Essence) with nothing and no one. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is One."
For us, God begins and ends the world. He brings things into being from non-being, simply by forming the intention of doing so. (He doesn’t literally speak His intention, of course, because He has no vocal chords or tongue, but when we read, “and God said ‘Let there be light,’” it means He formed, in an intelligible way, the intention that light should henceforth exist.)
The question still remains for the Christian: how is it possible for Him to do that, to form an intention, since God is changeless? How can He say His creative, “Let there be…” without having said it from all eternity; that is, without the world being co-eternal with Him and therefore divine? Or if He did speak it forever (if He had that intention forever), why do things have a beginning and an end? If God is Creator by nature and if He is eternal, doesn’t He, to continue being God, have to have been creating forever and continue creating forever? (But if so, then isn't His very Being dependent upon His own creation? All this just keeps getting more and more complicated! There aren't any good answers, either, outside of Orthodox teaching.)
For that matter, on the same principle, how is it possible for an eternal, unchanging God to have any interaction with His changing world?
In the next part of this little series, we’ll have a short look at some "Western" answers to these questions.
.
7 comments:
Very well put. To sum up the last question, is it "If God is unchanging, then how could He transition from being the God Who Has Not Yet Created The World to being the God Who Just Finished Creating The World?"
I am looking forward to more! You have such a gift of putting complex issues so succinctly -- I really don't think I've ever seen its equal.
Too kind of you. Usually I'm guilty of gross over-simplification.
Yes, that's a good summary of it all. (Your head must not be hurting very badly!)
If God is unchanging, how could He change His actions? How could He oen day just start creating the world, which He had never done before? And how could He stop creating it six days later?
It's a tough subject and it will probably get tougher, so hang on.
Regarding the opening statement of this post, one could also say: Could God create a stone that even he could not lift himself?
We cannot answer these questions. I think you people need to accept the fact that there is no possible way you can comprehend God's character. You have obviously had alot of time on your hands to dwell apon these thoughts. Faith is not at stake - only the weak minded.
"If God is unchanging, how could He change His actions? How could He oen day just start creating the world, which He had never done before? And how could He stop creating it six days later?"
That's just silly talk. He could have created the world a million times over before that - how would you know? heh
The writings are open to interpretation. And what is six God days anyway? The first three words of Genesis - "In the beginning" is open to interpretation. No doubt there are many people who interpret this a different way.
Peace
Dear Anonymous,
There's a big difference, though. The Church does not teach us that God ever created a rock too heavy for Him to lift. But Christianity and Judaism both do preach a God who is unchanging, yet can stop and start doing new things. The various answers to how this can be are the foundations for whole different worldviews. The Orthodox worldview depends upon the Orthodox answer.
If God created the world billions of times over, that would be one answer the question, bujt it would be unsatisfactgory from an Orthodox point of view, because it would imply God MUST always be creating; i.e., was not free to start and stop when He pleases.
I agree with you that the creation accounts in Genesis are open to interpretation. There are widely divergent interpretations of it, too, among the Orthodox.
Anastasia, in reply to your comment I would have to say that you either refuse to think outside the square, or maybe you think outside the square a little too much?
We simply cannot understand Gods logic as it is far more complex than ours.
"Christianity and Judaism both do preach a God who is unchanging, yet can stop and start doing new things"
That may be so, but those things may just be new to us. His character is unchanging. The phase is simple really.... Say you made a cake out of maple leaves and silk that nobody has made before, is this not new? Why can't God create something new as well? Everything he creates is new. I write music, every piece of music I write is new.
If God created the world billions of times over - that does not imply anything. He can do whatever He pleases. Why, in your way of thinking does what I say imply "God MUST always be creating; i.e., was not free to start and stop when He pleases."
I think what i said leans more toward that he can do what he pleases? He could leave the world as it is forever if he liked or he could destroy it tomorrow.
I'm sorry if I just cannot understand your point of view, I look at things with alot more simplicity than you do obviously. In my opinion it's about faith, not logic. I just stumbled across this blog while surfing the net and I didn't read Part 1
Peace
Anastasia, in reply to your comment I would have to say that you either refuse to think outside the square, or maybe you think outside the square a little too much?
Well, you didn't HAVE to say that, it being a personal attack ... I do allow attacks on myself here, however, just not attacks upon others.
We simply cannot understand Gods logic as it is far more complex than ours.
Very true. I have written about God's unknowability in Part 7 of this series.
"Christianity and Judaism both do preach a God who is unchanging, yet can stop and start doing new things"
That may be so, but those things may just be new to us. His character is unchanging. The phase is simple really.... Say you made a cake out of maple leaves and silk that nobody has made before, is this not new? Why can't God create something new as well? Everything he creates is new. I write music, every piece of music I write is new.
It sounds to me like you're saying basically the same thing I am, in Part 4 of the series. Which is that God's Being and God's Doing are not one and the same thing. Problem is, a lot of people have been taught they are.
I think what i said leans more toward that he can do what he pleases? He could leave the world as it is forever if he liked or he could destroy it tomorrow.
But only if His Being and His Doing are not identical. Because His Being never changes, yet His Doing does.
Peace to you, too.
Hello.
Sorry about that. I thought about what I had said to you after I had posted it. Peace
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