Apologetics
Behind my house is a conservation area. A beautiful brook is the centerpiece of this area; meandering through thick woods of birch, maple and pine. Several marked trails invite visitors to travel along the banks of this brook. One trail leads deep into the woods and up and over a small “mountain” that was deposited there for my enjoyment by retreating glaciers. There are several overlooks along the way that offer stunning views of the farmland below as well as the foothills of the White Mountains of New Hampshire off in the hazy distance. To the observant hiker there is evidence of other activity to be seen; rare and beautiful Lady-slipper wildflowers poking up from behind fallen and rotting trees, clusters of tiny flowers of red and blue cascading down rock faces, scat from deer and coyote, and scratches on rocks from black bear sharpening their claws. One overgrown path (nothing more than an old deer run, really) leads to a gorgeous waterfall that falls forty feet into a crystal clear stream at its base; after a thunderstorm it is a sight to see. However, few people even know of its existence since the only way to view it is by tying a fifty foot long rope to a tree and climbing down its rocky bank. It is altogether one small corner of one small piece of wilderness in one small town in one small state (Mass); yet its beauty, complexity and awesomeness cannot be overstated. Every time I visit it I am overwhelmed by the creative artistry of our God. That He would pour so much beauty into such a small piece of His glorious masterpiece (a piece that few will ever see), astounds me. After my most current visit to this “holy wonderland” I found myself returning once again to the story where it all began. In Genesis 1:1-2 we read:
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."
“Yeah, I know this,” you might be thinking. “I’ve read it hundreds of times.” I would hazard to guess that you may have read it so many times that perhaps you no longer read it all; convinced it is forever ingrained in your memory. However, I would caution you against this neglect. The importance of these opening lines to the most holy of books is incalculable. The words of Max Lucado in his introduction to the Book of Genesis say it best:
"So there you are a teenager at your grand-parents house. You don’t really want to be there, but its one of those family things and so you’re there. You sit politely and act like you are listening as your folks and grandparents talk. Then your grandmother says something that catches your attention. She refers to your great-grandfather and the trip he made to America from the “old country.” “What?” you ask. Grandma smiles, knowing at some point we all wonder about our origin and here you are wondering about yours. She unravels a tale of your family escaping persecution and settling in eastern Virginia. Next she invites you into her room, where she opens a large chest that has sat at the foot of her bed for as long as you can remember. A rush of cedar and mothball fills the room. “Thought you might like to see this,” she explains, handing you a black-and-white photo in a large walnut frame. “It’s your great-grandpa. And here is his father,” she hands you another photo, one of a cowboy wearing a wide-brimmed hat and riding a horse. Piece by piece, the chest tells its family tales. Soon you find yourself lost in a floor covered with old wedding gowns, photo albums, diplomas, and bronzed baby shoes. And before you leave, you find yourself the owner of something precious…a heritage, an ancestry, a beginning, an origin. You know that you are part of a family tree. You aren’t an isolated pond, but rather a part of a river winding through a great canyon. You leave a richer person. Knowing where you came from says much about where you are going. Perhaps that’s why the first book of the Bible is a book of beginnings. God wants us to know from where we came. Learning that will teach us much about the place we are going."
Knowing where we came from and where we are going is crucial in choosing the correct road on which to travel. Maybe that is why these opening verses have become such a battleground. If our great Enemy can be successful in casting doubt on our point of departure, then he makes the choice of which road to travel one of personal preference. Suddenly, the “Map” God has given us and the directions that go with it become optional and our destination becomes lost in a fog of uncertainty. One destination is as good as the next. After all, if our origin is simply a matter of scientific discovery and explanation, however miraculous it may appear, does not our destiny become one of scientific inevitability? And if our “birth” is merely myth; then how can we trust the accounts or even the existence of our biblical ancestors? Cast doubt on verses 1 & 2 and our entire history comes into question. If these verses truly are myth; then our “family tree” comes crashing to the ground. Maybe it’s time to take a closer look at these Genesis verses and the real miracle hidden there.
I, too, have read these verses hundreds of times in the forty plus years since I was first introduced to them. However, this time I saw something that had escaped me these past forty years; something, I believe, that rips creation out of the hands of science and places it back in the Hands of God. I have always found myself amazed at the miracles of creation; man from earthly clay, woman from the bone and flesh of man, plants created and thriving before there was a sun, and of course, the big miracle of something out of nothing. However, re-reading the Genesis account it suddenly dawned on me that the big miracle was greater than I realized. It wasn’t “out of nothing something;” it was “out of less-than-nothing…everything.” Look at verse two again:
"And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."
The earth was without form. In other words, it did not exist. So why add that it also was void. Void essentially means nothing, empty, zero. However, “void” added to a state of non-existence (without form) is a double dose of nothingness. This was no simple void, like the void of a Black Hole that is a nothingness loaded with celestial energy. This void is a total state of emptiness and non-being. What I had never caught before was this: not only did nothing exist (without form); it was actually less than nothing (formlessness plus void). In other words, it wasn’t just that the “bread” had not been made; it was the total absence of flour, water, yeast, salt, and even an oven.
“So what,” you may say. “I mean, come on. Is it really that important a distinction? I think creating something out of nothing is a pretty big deal. Aren’t you just nit-picking?” I will try to answer, but bear with me because we are about to wade into the theoretical and improvable primordial ooze from which philosophy and theory emerged. And ironically, these philosophies and theories were not given birth as man contemplated the meaning of what is; but rather as he contemplated the meaning of what isn’t…the plentitude of nothing, zero.
Surely it is difficult to imagine unity or “form” to emerge out of the chaos of the “great nothing”; but that is only if you believe that nothing (or zero) has no value. That was not the belief held by the ancient Mayans or certain cultures within the Middle East in both a spiritual and mathematical sense. When it comes to the ability to represent large numbers, the Mayans appear to have been centuries ahead of anyone else. They were possibly the first culture to employ the zero; which was born out of a metaphysics that embraced “the nothingness out of which everything unfolds.” Zero was not only a number with value (a fact that seemed to have escaped the early Romans and their zero less numerical system) but it was spiritually speaking, the nothingness from which the totality of the cosmos emerged. For a brief lesson on zero and the scientific and philosophical thought surrounding its creative power I will yield to physicist F. David Peat. Listen to his words as I allow his point to make mine:
"Some years ago I met Hunbatz Men, who founded the Mayan Indigenous Community near Merida, Mexico, and who has studied the meaning and symbolism of Mayan mathematics from the traditions of his people. For Hunbatz the symbol for zero is identified with the Mayan letter G or “ge” which is symbolic of the beginning, the moment of creation, the essence of existence, the Egg/Creator out of which all is born. In his book “Secrets of Mayan Religion/Science,” Men indicates the association of the letter G with the Milky Way. And since the Mayan believed that numbers were spirits, the number zero is that spirit which is the creation of all number and which mirrors the creation of the universe.
This notion of a “nothingness” out of which the totality of the cosmos was created has astounding resonances with the physics of our own time. A development of quantum theory, called quantum field theory, deals not only with material particles like electrons, protons, and atoms, but also with energy fields like light (electromagnetism) and the forces that hold the nucleus of the atom together. Within quantum field theory, both particles of matter, like the electron and proton, and the quanta of energy such as a photon of light, appear as vibrations of quantum fields. But what is particularly interesting about the field is that its lowest energy state, called the ground state or vacuum state, is the state of total emptiness, for within this state no excitations exist. One would expect the vacuum state to be empty of all vibrations and all energy. But paradoxically this absolute zero of the quantum world is totally full of energy. It is packed with infinity of energy, so there is more energy packed within the vacuum state than in the whole observable universe. Within the “zero” of the quantum field is the totality of creative energy in the cosmos. Out of this same “zero” many physicists believe that the universe was born. The universe, we believe, was created within the big bang. But from what did this big bang originate? Physicists believe that it was generated out of nothing…out of the vacuum state…for this aboriginal state of nothingness was subject to quantum fluctuations. Out of these fluctuations an actuality was manifested…the zero manifested itself into unity. And from the infinite potential of the vacuum, from the infinitely empty and infinitely full, was born all that exists."
Do you see the importance of the distinction now? Much of this philosophical approach to mathematics as it applies to spiritual and scientific “realities” is pretty heady and out-there; but it is becoming a well-traveled road by those who seek non-biblical answers for our origins as well as our inevitable end. Steven Hawkings once said, “If there is a God, the language he uses to communicate is mathematics.” The coronation of math and science as co-regents over creation has been going on for centuries. And now through quantum field theory the inauguration seems all but certain for those who are already kneeling before their throne; except for that one little detail…”without form, and void.”
Imagine you are walking along through a sparsely populated area and you come across a vacant lot. On this lot is a chaotic mass of boards or every size, fasteners of every type, pipes, wires, shingles, insulation and other assorted building materials. They are mixed together and piled haphazardly throughout the lot. Now if you are a skilled builder you could probably erect a rather nice house out of this chaos. But even if you were a novice you could probably erect some kind of shelter to keep out the rain and raccoons. A miracle is not necessary here; just time. All the building blocks are present. But what if there were no materials; no wood, no nails, no nothing. No matter how skilled you are, you won’t be building a house there. And what if there was not even a lot to build on. This is the difference between formless and formless and void; between nothing and less-than-nothing.
This is the Great Miracle of Genesis. This is the reason for the Lady-slippers and the waterfall in the woods behind my home. They are not products of scientific inevitability; of unity born from the explosive energy of “zero.” They are the intentional outcome of the Creator’s thoughts and with a single utterance of those thoughts, out of less than nothing the endless everything burst into being. It was not out of the chaotic and creative power of the “plentitude of nothing”; but out of the loving and creative heart of God. First there was the complete nothingness of non-being; then with a single holy intention came a swirling celestial soup of chaos. Finally, three gloriously creative words, “Let there be…” and suddenly there was “…and it was good.”
Our swirling, spinning “house” has come to rest in a place that is beautiful beyond description. As we open our front door, a path lies before us disappearing into a distant forest. It will sometimes be fraught with peril and there will be enemies and obstacles. Sometimes it will seem to go on and on forever and you will begin to doubt you have chosen the right path. Sometimes it will grow so narrow that branches from both sides will claw and scratch at you until you are bleeding; but you know from where you came, you know where you are headed and this is the only road to “OZ.”
We may have come from less-than-nothing but we travel toward the Eternal Everything. And we follow the same path traveled by our ancestors Abraham, Moses, Jacob, David, Paul and thousands of others. And we travel the road that Jesus, our older brother walked. Certainly that is a journey worth taking…whatever the cost!
Besides look at all these beautiful Lady-slippers along the path. And is that a waterfall I hear up ahead?
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