Systematic Theology – Creation and Providence

The Goodness of Creation

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 2 of 17

Track: #2

Year:

Dictation Name: 2 The Goodness of Creation

[Rushdoony] Our subject now is the goodness of creation. In a very beautiful and moving paragraph Calvin, commenting on Romans 9:14 and predestination said, and I quote “The predestination of God is indeed in reality a labyrinth, from which the mind of man can by no means extricate itself: but so unreasonable is the curiosity of man, that the more perilous the examination of a subject is, the more boldly he proceeds; so that when predestination is discussed, as he cannot restrain himself within due limits, he immediately, through his rashness, plunges himself, as it were, into the depth of the sea. What remedy then is there for the godly? Must they avoid every thought of predestination? By no means: for as the Holy Spirit has taught us nothing but what it behoves us to know, the knowledge of this would no doubt be useful, provided it be confined to the word of God. Let this then be our sacred rule, to seek to know nothing concerning it, except what Scripture teaches us: when the Lord closes his holy mouth, let us also stop the way, that we may go no farther.”

Calvin’s sacred rule should be ours also. Many men are bold concerning God’s word, to set it aside when they are unable to govern even their wives or their children. In every area the limits of our thoughts must be governed by God’s word. We who are creatures should not be so rash that we want to go beyond God’s word in our thinking. We must not allow a pagan mentality to intrude. For Hellenism, for neo-Platonism, the superior, the true, the valued world was the world of spirit, of ideas of mind. For them matter was formless and meaningless and barren unless dominated for a time by form or ideas. Thus they held, as we have seen, that ideas or spirit alone can qualify as good. Neo-Platonism thus depreciates the material. Manichaeism goes further, to call it evil. But the Bible says all things were created by Him -Colossians 1:16, all were created very good - Genesis 1:31. And the fall gives no warrant for downgrading the material, the fall was total, it affected man and nature, mind and body alike. Satan is a purely spiritual being, but he is also purely evil, so that we cannot exalt spirituality as though in and of itself it constituted something superior.

God both before and after the fall remains totally Lord over creation, and it serves him and he rejoices in it. We are told in Revelation 4:11 “Thou art worthy oh Lord to receive glory and honor and power. Thou has created all things and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.” Again in Romans 11:36 “Of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever.” God in speaking to Job describes the majesty of His creation. Man is not the measure, God His, and so He speaks to Job reminding him of this. His purpose is God centered, theocentric, but it includes all of creation. He rejoices in all of it as do the angles. Just we read in Job 38:4-7 God says “ 4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding. 5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? Or who hath stretched the line upon it? 6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the corner stone thereof; 7 when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”

But, some will object, this has reference to creation before the fall. However most of what God declares to Job about His creation has to do with the world after the fall. As for example God’s very great delight in behemoth in Job 40 verses 15-24 God says “15 Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox. 16 Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly. 17 He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together. 18 His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron. 19 He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him. 20 Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play. 21 He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens.2 2 The shady trees cover him with their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about. 23 Behold, he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not: he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth. 24 He taketh it with his eyes: his nose pierceth through snares.” Behemoth, we’re not sure what he was; a wild buffalo, or a mammoth, an elephant, most scholars say hippopotamus.

I recall some years ago a professor who was a humanist citing this passage from Job, and holding it up to ridicule. How could God rhapsodize over a hippopotamus? Now unhappily many theologians would agree; and many Rabbi’s and medieval scholars, and even Luther. Some have held the behemoth was a symbolic representation of Satan; this of course makes nonsense of the text. Of course they would read that it had reference to Satan before the fall, his fall. But there is no ground for this in the text, it is neo-Platonism, and neo-Platonism makes it difficult for man to believe that God can enjoy His material creation, that God can enjoy a hippopotamus and take a delight in His creation when He has man to enjoy. After all why should God waste time rhapsodizing over a hippo when man is around?

Well these people would have the catechism to read that man should be the chief end of God to glorify and to enjoy man forever. But God identifies the hippo, if that is what the behemoth was, as the chief of the ways of God. Now no theologian could have ever written that sentence. He would have given God much more dignified standards. Proverbs 8:22 in the Hebrew has the same expression concerning wisdom, so that God speaks to both the Hippo and God the son as chief in the ways of God. This is an amazing fact, it tells us of God’s total delight in His creation. Calvin’s words are thus words of wisdom. We are neither to deny what God says, nor to know more than He chooses to reveal to us. We are not to make more of what He has said then what He has said, nor less for that matter. What we are told makes clear God’s delight in His creation. His purpose through all eternity is the regeneration and the restoration of all things through Jesus Christ. The doctrine of creation thus militates against a man-centered perspective.

Darwinism and the doctrine of evolution foster humanism. It gives us a man-centered view. For all such people God does not exist, the world is an accident which is come out of chaos and therefore man is the sole light of reason in an empty universe. In this empty universe, which is the result of an accident, nothing has meaning and hence nothing, including conservation or life, makes sense finally. But God’s care we are told extend to all creation. Nehemiah 9:6 reads “Thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens with all their hosts; the earth and all things that are therein; the seas and all that is therein. And Thou preservest them all.” Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 3:11 “11 He hath made everything beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.” A marvelous statement, God hath made everything beautiful in His time. God’s wisdom is in and behind all His creation. Many, many Psalm’s celebrate God’s creation and the glory thereof.

There are too many who preach as though the world were nothing to God, he had no joy in it and therefore we are not to enjoy this material universe. Don’t enjoy that beautiful scenery, think about heaven. Don’t enjoy the physical pleasures of life, think about heaven. Think about the fact that you’re going to die, and all this is going to pass away. But such charnel house theology is not scriptural. God who made everything beautiful in his time, and who tells us of His delight in a hippo, expects us to enjoy the world He has made, to praise Him for it, and to look forward to even greater joys and delights in the new creation.

It is a sad fact that too many theologians see the material aspect of creation in revolting terms. Some have even described man as excrement, as dung, as manure. Many humanists have shared this view. Transcendentalism sought to transcend man in this world. I recall some years ago one of the most famous preachers in America looking at a congregation in a beautiful redwood setting and declaring in his very first sentence “in God’s sight you are all dung.” He went out of his way to express contempt for man, and for God’s creation. Now in God’s sight we may be sinners, but it’s a different thing from saying we are dung, it is wicked to speak so. Man is a creation in God’s image, fallen or unfallen, sinner or redeemed, he is God’s creation. David declared “I will praise Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Thy works and that my soul knowest right well.” Psalm 139 verse 14. When we look at ourselves, our bodies, we have to recognize that we are a masterpiece of God’s creation, and that we are His property. The fall is not normative nor eternal, it is God’s purpose that is, and His purpose is the resurrection of the body.

Decay does overcome us all, but decay is not a sad fact it is the prelude to the eternal order, to restoration. Charnel house theology is therefore neo-Platonism and Manichaeism. It identifies holiness with pointless spiritual exercises, and sometimes is actually closer yoga than God. It spiritualizes into meaninglessness all of the Bible passages which speak of the triumph of God’s kingdom. As Isaiah 2 verses 1-4, Isaiah 65:20, Jeremiah 31:33 following, as these scriptures and others tell us that the time will come when the world itself will be restored, men redeemed and so under Christ that no evangelism will be needed, “for Thy shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them saith the Lord.” In Isaiah 19 verse 18 we are told that even in Egypt, type of the enemies of God 5/6ths will call on the name of the Lord. Creation reveals God’s majesty and glory as Psalm 19 makes clear, and David turns joyfully to the law of the Lord as He thinks of the glories of creation. To despise creation is to despise its maker, the Lord God. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God Thou hast made everything beautiful in Thy time. Thou hast made us for Thy purpose, and has made us the crown of Thy creation. Give us grace oh Lord day by day to be faithful to Thy purpose, to rejoice in Thee, in this Thy creation, in one another, in our calling, and in the privilege of being Thy people. Give us the joy of victory, make us strong in Thanksgiving. Open our eyes oh Lord that we may see that this is our Fathers world, and that we should rejoice in it. Grant us this we beseech Thee, in Jesus name, amen.