I thought they were people too. Turns out that along the Great Ocean Road, the 12 Apostles are world famous stone islands on the southern shore of Australia. Originally known as the "sow and the piglets," no doubt the existing name gives these formations a little more significance.
They are beautiful and they stand out against the natural elements. One can begin to understand why they're called the 12 Apostles. If you have a chance to see them, go.
I'm still hooked on the wonder of God's creation. I notice that we're seeing some activity around the creation/evolution questions. Let me throw another iron in the fire. I believe God hasn't concluded His creation. Just imagine what He is doing in you.
Psalms 51:10 (NIV)
"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me."
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3 comments:
Ah - another iron in the fire.
Since I'm writing off the cuff here, I anticipate that the following thoughts may be contested, debated, discarded, disavowed, etc. Nevertheless, I'll put them out there and see what, if anything, happens.
Christians readily believe in God's ability to transform the human heart and soul. We don't believe that one's spiritual state is a static condition. Rather, one's spiritual condition, or relationship to God, is susceptible to change. No, that's too weak. It must change. One's spiritual life either grows or disintegrates (dare I say evolves or devolves?) in accordance with one's responsiveness to God's calling, working, etc., in his or her life. One either grows in grace or sinks more deeply into sin and depravity. What one doesn't do is "tread water" or stay in one place spiritually. In essence, Christians, especially Wesleyans, accept an "evolutionary" view, if you will, of spirituality.
If we can accept, even desire, the possibility of evolution in spiritual matters, why can we not accept a corresponding possibility in natural matters? The concept of holiness is that one can become, or be made, increasingly holy. That's an evolutionary process, a process of change that God works in us by grace. If God works through an evolutionary process in one realm of creation, the spiritual, why could He not work through a corresponding process in another realm, the natural or material world? Such a correspondence would testify to consistency of methods across domains. I find such consistency remarkable and reassuring. God is not fickle. He is deliberate and consistent - yesterday, today, forever - the one immutable constant in, or above, or outside of, the universe.
Some interesting conclusions Evie! However, the big difference I see is that the physical creation really has no choice - to evolve or not - we do - we cannot be compared in this way with other domains - we are unique to Him - yet, we must choose to accept His will to become all He wants us to be! God increase our desire to evolve spiritually to be like Him!
Blessings!
Faye in Ontario
Faye - your point is well taken. One of the blessed characteristics that distinguishes humankind from the rest of creation is our capacity to exercise free will. As you've noted, similar to all analogical arguments, the correspondence across domains that I've posited certainly has limitations.
Yet, there are people who do not perceive themselves as making a choice about whether or not to follow God's will. Sometimes they don't know that the choice is theirs to make - for instance, those who've never heard the gospel. The historical evangelical understanding in such cases has been that such folks nevertheless will bear the consequences of their sinful state. Through no choice of their own, they have been born into a state of inherited depravity. Consequently, regardless of whether they make a conscious choice to do so, they will evolve in either a state of grace or a state of sin. This tenet frequently has been presented as a "spiritual" law that is every bit as binding as the "physical" law of gravity. Free will is a moot point in such cases.
I think a more serious limitation of my analogy is the fact that I've compared the work of God within individual believers to the work of evolution throughout species. Perhaps a more apt analogy would be a comparison of God's work within a denomination or tradition and the work of evolution within a species. That would require more careful study and a much more nuanced argument than what I've developed thus far. Nevertheless, it could be interesting.
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