And God saw everything, that he had made,
and behold it was very good!
Genesis 1:31
Doesn't God say at the end of the creation report that everything was "very
good"? This would definitely contradict any catastrophe in the beginning and
the idea of a from then on fallen creation. It would also exclude any form
of evil, suffering or death from the family tree of "heaven and earth". But
as we look closer we notice that the text does not declare the "whole
creation" or "heaven and earth" to be very good, but only those things which
God had accomplished:
Thus, if we don't want to go further than what is written we have to admit
that the classification "good" refers to the individual acts of God only and
not to the whole world. And indeed there is something of which the text does
not say that it was good: the tohuwabohu, which followed the "beginning"! In
fact the tohuwabohu and the darkness, which happened at the same time, are
the only things in the creation report which are not a creation or the
product of a word of God and which are not called "good".
_Making good again_
In this context it is remarkable that from then on again and again it is
stressed that things were "good". Before the background of a tohuwabohu
disaster it is only logical that the works of God are characterized as
"good": they contributed substantially to the restoration of the damaged
earth to a "good" condition. In a totally intact and perfect creation it
would be more or less redundant to stress the fact that things were good,
but in the context of a restitution of the earth out of a tohuwabohu
disaster it is quite easily understandable.
Furthermore, the second sentence sets a certain contrast to the first,
limiting the focus from "heaven and earth" to the earth alone: Why was only
the earth tohuwabohu and not the heavens, too, if this was a good raw
condition? In addition there are, as we will see later, at least two more
clear indications that something was "not okay" with the earth.
_The "family tree of life" in a fallen creation_
The tohuwabohu disaster gives the whole family tree of life a special
background: the genealogies of heaven and earth passed through a crisis
situation. Relatively early, shortly after "the beginning" of Genesis 1:1, a
disaster happened, which caused a certain separation between the earth and
God. As a consequence, from then on God's acts are woven together with
circumstances which were not intended by him, i.e. with deficit and
destruction, tohu and bohu, but which he from then on included into his
plans and activities.
If we consider the fact that out of the chaos of the tohuwabohu our blue
planet with all its living beings developped, we can only stand in
amazement. But to this day, nature is in a puzzling condition: on the one
hand, we see an immeasurable variety of life, which is based on ingeniously
simple basic principles, for example the genetic code with only four
"letters" as universal language of all biological structures. This demands
an intelligent author, who wanted life and equipped it with almost unlimited
potential. On the other hand, we see competition, illness, aging and death
wherever we look. This conflict was a major problem for Charles Darwin, too:
I cannot ignore the difficulty which results from the vast sum of sufferings
everywhere ... There seems to be too much misery in the world ... On the
other hand I cannot at all be content with observing this wonderful universe
and especially the nature of man and to then conclude, that all this should
only be the result of raw forces. (swza 75,76)
Surely, here Darwin is a voice for many people who cannot understand how
good and evil, death and life, joy and suffering can coexist so close to
each other. How can a lioness lovingly care for her babies- and at the same
time devour those of the antelope?! The Bible addresses this seeming
contradiction in a few words. It stresses the fact that there really is a
God, who is the author of the universe, but immediately makes clear that the
earth is not in the condition which God had intended:
God created the heavens and the earth ...(Genesis 1:1)
But the earth became tohuwabohu ... (Genesis 1:1-2)
Everything that God had made was very good ... (Genesis 1:31)
It is not explained in this context what the exact cause of the tohuwabohu
was. Maybe the Bible avoids to pay too much attention to the negative, but
wants to focus on what God did. But on the subsequent pages of the Bible
this topic is dealt with again and again and even in detail, as we shall
see. In fact, the problem of evil is one of the most important subjects of
the whole Bible which continues up to its last pages, where it finally finds
its complete solution.
_FAZIT:_
Nature carries the trademark of an ingenious and loving creator,
but always still suffers from the consequences of the tohuwabohu -
a catastrophe, which caused separation of God and lack
for the whole earth and all forms of life on it.
Armin
www.urzeitundendzeit.de/creation_and_evolution.htm
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