Our premise is that we can glimpse a measure of the future divine glory to be revealed by recognizing the flawless symmetry between the written word of our Creator (the Bible) with the spoken word of our Creator (Creation/nature). Again, the word ‘nature’ is only used reluctantly as an indulgence to the common perspective, without any intended offense against our Creator.
There is little doubt we have all seen similarities between some of the features of creation and how the gospel truths and divine principles are expressed. The resurrection is defined as an awakening, paralleling our natural awakening from a death like sleep to the dawning of a new day. Also, mankind is the exclusive animal species that produces clothes to cover the shame of our created form, mirroring the lesson of atonement exclusively directed to those who had been originally made in the image and likeness of the Creator. The annual agricultural process is a creational parable projecting the path to divine acceptance, defined as fruitfulness. It begins with the plowing of the dust of the earth into which the seed of promise is sown, paralleling how the seed of the word of promise can only be sown successfully in those suffering under the curse of the dust (dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return) whose hearts have been circumcised.
The chicken or the egg … the flesh or the spirit
In order to reap the benefits of this field of meditative examination, the first issue we have is that our Creator did not simply examine His creative order, and then draw parallels to His principles and truths in His written word. Divine principles are as ancient as our Creator, who is from everlasting. The principles of the Creator were actually the design guidelines, the template for Creation. Our Creator is not subject to the universe. The universe is subject to Him and is a direct result of His creative and sustaining attention. The reason why the features of creation so perfectly project divine truths and principles is that these truths and principles served as the design template for the features of creation. The chicken or egg origin question is a mere diversion, a cheap magician’s trick of isolating our attention away from the reality that both the chicken and the egg both came first together. However this was not the case with creation and divine principles. The divine principles have been from forever. The creative order is a result of these eternal principles. This perspective defines the divine truths and principles as the projector and creation as the screen upon which these truths and principles can be appreciated.
With this foundation and perspective we are free to find the divinely hidden pictures in the mosaic of creation. Let’s begin with how the design features for the vastness of the universe were focused through the design features of the Kingdom of God established at Mt Sinai.
Basic physics and basic Scripture
We learned in High School Physics1 that there are four distinct features comprising our universe. They cannot be reduced or expanded from these four components: time, space, matter and energy. It should be understood that none of these components restrict our Creator or His nature. In Christ’s immortalized state he was not constricted by space or matter or energy. As an immortal, time is inconsequential except in the context of his mortal followers. The parallel between the divinely mandated foursquare configuration of the wilderness encampment and the four design components of the universe is only the first stage of the parallel. At the center of each matching design is our Creator. Those four universe components of time, space, matter and energy parallel the inner foursquare encampment of the Levites and priests, surrounding the Tabernacle. Extending out from that inner foursquare spiritual design is the foursquare political design of the 12 tribes, with three separate tribes placed at each of the four sections. This perfectly parallels the laws and observations of the universe. Each of the four universe components can be broken down into exactly three separate divisions… no more and no less.
Time sub-divides into past, present and future. Space sub-divides into height, width and depth. Matter sub-divides into solid, liquid and gas. It is energy where our original perspective separates those with seeing eyes and hearing ears from mere scientific examination. Our physics professor explained there were two main categories of energy: passive and active. Passive energy is potential energy at rest, like a car on a roller coaster at the top of the starting hill. Active or kinetic energy is energy in motion, like the moving car on the roller coaster. There is one other category of energy that understandably escapes the attention of the physicists and scientists. That is the Holy Spirit. It cannot be isolated in a lab or experimented with or measured. The Holy Spirit category of energy cannot be described as merely potential or simply kinetic. This is the third category of energy making the third leg of the fourth universe component. This mirror-like observation between the divine construction of the Kingdom of God at Sinai and the basic features of creation validate our continued pursuit of the veiled glory of our Creator in the things that have been made.
Our next commentary will consider the progressive relationship between the recreational environment and the spiritual environment. As the spiritual environment has (and will) changed, so has (and will) the recreational environment.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One