There is a Creator God I can identify with, says the cichlid fish, what about you?

Preamble: This article, the bulk of the content comes from my own comment for a blog entry by a US pastor, Ps Prentis.  Ps Prentis’ article can be accessed here: Hardened hearts won’t understand

My understanding of the finches (subject) of Charles Darwin from which all of the various evolutionary hypothesis and theories “evolve” from, are different species of the same kind.  The kind is finch, and there were many different featured (eg. different beak shapes or sizes) finches, but they were still finches. 

Human being or Man, is a kind.  And so, although an “ang mo” pastor (referring to the US pastor, Ps Prentis) and I share many common features, we do have different features, for I am a Chinese man and he is “ang mo” man, but we are both man, NOT monkeys.  Monkey is another kind. 

On the Galapagos islands (the location of Darwin’s study), there were tortoises, iguanas, even mocking birds, apart from the species of the finches.  In fact, each island was dominated by particular finch(es), but there were of course, “cross-living”, just like, we do find “ang mo” men in Singapore, and a (the) US pastor could find Chinese men in his state.  But there was no such thing (NOT even hypothesis of it, then) like iguanas were evolved from the tortoises or the other way round, or that any of birds of air, somehow were evolved from the land kinds.  There was not even the hypothesis, then, of the finches could have evolved from the mocking birds or vice versa.  So much for evolution of Man from monkey!

As to questioning of miracles, we can say the same thing, too, of the evolution (evolutionists commonly claim that there is no duplication of the miracles of Jesus, like feeding of 5,000, and Jesus’ walking on water), that no one has duplicated the evolution of a monkey into a man, either!  Bible has account of oil that did NOT run out (until all the containers were used up); I have heard of testimony of little food or petrol that did NOT run out too (until certain event happens, like when additional provision has arrived).  It is NOT uncommon to hear of testimony of cars running on almost empty tank driven by believers, could still move for many tens of kilometres until a petrol source is reached.  Well, I have seen legs grew just by my prayer to the Lord for it to grow!  Can one explain how it can be humanly possible for me to have accomplished it, based on my own ability!  If such miracles still happen today, why is it NOT possible, in the days of Jesus walking the earth, that those miracles recorded in the Word, did happen?

All of these “gravity defying” scenarios are possible because there is a Creator God.  God is the Creator of all of the universe, and as the Creator, He could modify and change things around, for, as the El Shaddai, the all powerful, He has the power and means to accomplish anything and everything.  Scripture recorded for us, that He could simply speak things, including living things, into being.  Well, if there had been one initial “Big Bang”, why is it NOT possible that, that initial big bang was work of God, the Creator, or used of, by God (I am NOT necessarily supporting the “Big Bang” theory).

I am NOT saying we are gods (as in Jesus is God, or God is God; god in Scripture can mean judge or magistrate) but we are creators after God, though of a lesser degree.  A simple illustration or metaphor I can give, is this: 

Imagine there is a cichlid fish (a very common and “hardy” fish) in a large aquarium.  When it first came into the tank, it saw there were some other fishes it had NOT seen before.  Every day it would find food in the tank (dropped in by the owner - you), and it would eat it, like we eat vegetables or fruits from the plants of the earth.  It also find that it needed to carve out a territory for itself (cichlids are very territorial), and would fight for its space and food.  Occasionally, it would find worms in the tank (again, dropped in by you), and it would eat them, too, like we eat meat from animals of the earth. 

It would, at times, fight with other fishes, and even managed to kill some of them.  But typically, it does NOT eat up the entire carcass, but would devour the eyes of the dead fish(!), leaving the carcass to pollute the water. And so, from time to time, it finds the water in which it lives becomes refreshed (water-change by you), and its enclave got “wrecked” (by you, when you were changing the water and cleaning the tank).  Occasionally, it could see this peculiar but powerful thing moving about in the tank; that is your hand! And then, it found new plants appeared; and new fishes, too, and even some others, of its kind, cichlids.  And some of the cichlids looked every different but they were of the same kind, cichlids.  By the way, there are over 1,400 species of cichlids in the world.  And “bless its soul”, it finds one cichlid it likes, and mates up with her.  It brings her into his enclave, and jointly, they beautify their home (Cichlids would pick up tiny objects with their mouths, and then spew them out at specific area or target).

Did the cichlid create the entire environment that he has found himself to be in?  No, he, being in the environment, explored it, and then carved out a place he called his own.  You are the creator of its environment, just like God created the entire environment that we are in.

Did the environment of the cichlid remained constant?  Not really.  Did it, the cichlid, contribute to the instability of the environment?  Yes, it did, with its own discharge (its own shit, high in certain chemicals which when reached certain level would be harmful to the fishes themselves), and with its other activities, like killing and leaving carcasses in the water.  Who was monitoring the going-on in the environment of the cichlid?  You - as the creator and owner of the aquarium.

Then, does NOT the cichlid find new lives, it cannot account for?  What do you think should go through the “head” of the fish?  “Some “God” created the universe, all that there is, here, including lives.  He has given me a mate, too, and now I, too, can produce my own kind.  How great is this “God”, that He could defy gravity, so to speak, miraculously, have the water refreshed, for example! ….”  Who is this “God”?  You!

See, to the cichlid, things were bigger than life, so to speak, but as suggested in the preceding para., it has the heart {or mind of its soul} to know there is a “God” - you!  And there were miracles it could NOT explain.  Do you have your heart so hardened you can perceive no longer, there is a God?  Is your heart so hardened that you would NOT give Him, the honour and glory due Him? Romans 1:20-21 put it this way:

20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.  (I encourage you to read my separate exposition of Romans 1:20 - “We are without excuse”)

Is there no way out for the ones hardened of heart?  The posture of God concerning this, can be gleaned from these words of Jer 29:12-14:

12'… call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
13 … seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
14'I will be found by you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will restore …

Today, begin to call upon the God of the universe.

Today, pray to Him. He will listen to you.
Today, seek Him with all your heart.
He will allow Himself to be found by you. And He will restore you.
He will change your heart of stone to the heart of flesh.
He will cause the scales on your eyes to fall off.
He will allow you to know Him (ginosko-know – know Him in a personal way).

Anthony Chia, high.expressions

PS1: “Bro Anthony, you don’t believe in evolution at all?”  My current position is along this line:

My position is CLOSER TO what has come to be termed as "biblical evolution", where I believe that God created a set of "kinds" of plants and animals at the beginning.  The many kinds and species have passed through some biological changes with the passage of time and changes to the environment or habitat.  There has been, and nature will continue to have, adaptation or “micro level evolution”, but central to my belief is still that human beings or Man was literally created in God's image, as given us in the Book of Genesis. My view rejects any evolution theory (and there are many evolution theories put forward by people) that claims that Man is evolved from monkey.

Central to my rejection above is that Man and animals are unlike in that Man is tripartite (spirit, soul and body), whereas animals are only with soul and body (life + form).  An animal cannot evolve to be a man.  Man is a special kind of its own, a special life-form that has a spirit that came from God, the Creator (Unlike for animals or plants, for Man, God breathed His breath into Man at Creation [For clearer understanding of this, read this article of mine: Man is Tripartite]).

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We are without excuse

For the invisible things of him {God} from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they {men} are without excuse {for NOT acknowledging God}. (Romans 1:20, KJV).

God’s defence, just look at creation
This verse is used to show how God can hold “innocent”, “uninformed” people accountable for NOT acknowledging Him as the God of the universe. Essentially, the verse gives God the defence for ultimately acting against men who acknowledged Him NOT.

The invisible can be seen from the created visible
This verse is saying we cannot claim innocence by arguing that we cannot see the invisible things of God, like His power and the Godhead. The verse is saying from the visible things, i.e. from His Creation of the world, the invisible things of God, including such things as His eternal power and divine nature (including, Godhead ), can be understood.

In what way is it really so, that from Creation (of the world), we could have understood of the invisible things of God, including such things as His eternal power and divine nature (godhead)?

Eternal power can be understood
The verse said from the things made in Creation, one can tell God’s eternal power, NOT just power, but eternal power. The point is that things created including such things as the heavens and skies; such existed from the beginning; in other words, it was NOT that it was ever Man was earlier, and then, such things as heavens and skies were created. Putting it in another way, nothing ever created by Man, as idols or gods, could have created such things as the heaven and the skies, including all the celestial bodies. That is why the verse even point to “eternal” power and NOT just power. In other words, there was already a “power” before Man came into being, being worked to produce the heavens and skies, and all of the universe. There was power executed from ever, ever, ever before Man. And today, after a long, long, long time, there are still the heavens and the skies, and all the celestial bodies; pointing to indeed, NOT just power but eternal power of the being, God. Ps 19:1-6 is an example of scripture passages telling us God’s such creation:

1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.
3 There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.
4 Their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun,
5 which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
6 It rises at one end of the heavens
and makes its circuit to the other;
nothing is hidden from its heat. (Ps 19:1-6)

That was why the Apostle Paul went on to state, in verses 22 & 23 of Romans 1, that unbelieving men were fools, even though they might think they were wise, because they exchanged the glory of the eternal God (creation of the world pointed to the glory of God) with images/idols men made; what is made subsequent, cannot be responsible for the creation that came before, can it! Of course, NOT; what futility of mind when men acknowledge NOT God (neither glorifying Him or giving Him thanks {v21}).

God’s divine nature evident from Creation
Even God’s divine nature has all along being evident in His Creation, even the divine aspect of the Godhead. How best can one express this divine aspect of the Godhead? I will use the phrase, “harmonic threesome” to describe it; it is one with three, and three in one, and existing in perfect harmony. In other words, we should be able to find many fine examples in creation pointing to such a harmonic threesome existing in the Godhead. Before we look at the examples, of course, I must point out the harmonic threesome in the Godhead is referring to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

I will now mention a few harmonic threesomes in the created universe to illustrate that creation is pointing (pointing, NOT equal) to the Godhead, and we are without excuse to have NOT noticed any of it.

Firstly, we look at the harmonic threesome of the universe: the universe, in essence, is of space, matter and time, with each permeating and representing the whole. In fact, the universe is looked upon by scientists as a space-matter-time continuum.

If you like, you can do a parallel between the harmonic threesome of the universe and the triune Godhead; it will go like this: Space (like the Father) is the invisible, omnipresent background of everything. Matter (like the Son) reveals the universe (like the Godhead) visibly, the understandable form. Time (like the Spirit) is the entity by which the universe (like the Godhead) becomes applicable and understandable in events and experience. In Mathematical representation, one way of expressing the harmonic threesome is “1=1 x 1 x 1” – one with three and three in one.

Secondly, we can look within time itself, and we again see a form of harmonic threesome at work. Time is future, present and past. The future is the unseen of time, manifest moment-by-moment in the present, experienced and understood in the past; and time is a past-present-future continuum.

Thirdly, we turn to that which is closer to heart, Man; Man is body, soul and spirit, again a harmonic threesome, working together. Like matter is a “component” of universe, we can zoom in, and look at the body, a “component” of Man, and we will find some more examples of such harmonic threesome in place, in the body; these would include, for examples, the 3-parts arms or legs of Man, even the 3-parts fingers!

Creation as a parabolē
Please understand that I am NOT here saying such reasonable deductions of eternal power creation and presence of harmonic threesomes are proving all of what God is; rather what I am saying is that Romans 1:20 is pointing to Creation as a kind of parabolē (Greek word for parable) of God. Proper interpretation of a parable is that the metaphor (Creation, in this case) points to certain aspects of the object (God, in this case), and it is NOT the metaphor is equated as the object, or we should NOT be literally looking at every aspect of the metaphor, NOT referred to, in a parable, and said that the object must be like that (in all aspects), as well. In fact, even in the relevant aspects, the likeness is only metaphorical, NOT identical.

We pattern after God, NOT the other way round
Another way of putting it is that there is a patterning of the metaphor of certain aspects of the object, and is NOT the other way round. For example, on the subject of begetting, just because begetting in Man suggested a counterpart, it does NOT mean that the Holy Spirit is a female. It also does NOT mean that since there is the Father, and the Son, there must be the Mother, or that the Holy Spirit is the Mother or the Holy Spirit must be a female. We are created in the image of God, we are a creation given a certain manner of multiplication in numbers or pro-creation, but it does NOT mean that when we, as a child, have father and mother, it necessarily means that the Triune is Father, Son and Mother. We have to be very careful in using Romans 1:20 to back our argument for saying, erroneously, that the Holy Spirit is the Mother or is female, for God is gender-neutral (Those interested in understanding of the gender-neutrality of God, can read my separate article – “God is gender-neutral, He is spirit”).

Please pardon me for being crude; that God created man to shit the way we shit does NOT mean that God likewise shit the way we shit or even shit at all. We are His creation, created in His image, in some respect, we pattern after God, but God does NOT pattern after us.

I am NOT saying there is no relevance of Romans 1:20 even in a matter of shitting. This is how I will look at it: Wow! Look how wonderfully the whole digestive system of man is. We consume food by the mouth; the food passes through our body, yet is still outside of our body. Various secretions come out of our body to digest the food; and the nutrients then get absorbed into our body, leaving the waste, which passes along, without its decay hurting the lining of our body, and eventually leave our body in controlled fashion. How can such a system just happened, someone must have “engineered” it. How great are His wisdom and knowledge! What great power He has! And that someone, is the Divine God. This is how men are without excuse; not because we shit, God also must shit!

Conclusion
How can we NOT recognise God in what have been created? Creation has been declaring the glory and majesty of God. By observing how specific and exact the interworking of all of creation, one can only come to the conclusion that there is a God, right from the beginning.

God's glory is displayed by the things around us. God's invisible qualities, eternal power and divine nature are shown to us in how we are made, in the world in which we live, and the universe surrounding us. God has made himself clearly known to us. All of humankind is without an excuse before Him, because enough aspects of who He is, has been revealed in Creation.

Much like examining an art work reveals aspects of the artist, looking at our world reveals to a certain extent God’s nature. The size and expanse of the universe and the uniformity of its physical laws clearly reveal God’s power and authority over all creation, and the extraordinary complexity and ingenuity of life reveal God’s indescribable intelligence and wisdom.

In fact, Science has shown that details of earth’s design and natural processes were perfectly crafted for the benefit of life; had our planet were of a different size or resided at a different distance from the sun or if liquid water was not present or light traveled at a different speed, life might NOT exist.

Therefore, people who deny God’s existence cannot claim ignorance, since they must actively ignore the voice of nature all around them (Ps 19:4)

While Romans 1:20 pointed to the conclusion that we have just stated, we still have to remember that creation only testifies to her Creator, God. Such testimonies were and are enough for Men to acknowledge God. Regardless of the Word, there were enough grounds for God to expect men to acknowledge Him, by glorifying Him and by giving Him thanksgiving.

With the Word, the facts about God and truths of God are further revealed to us. In other words, doctrines and theologies concerning God are in the Word, and from the Word. Creation and manifestations, events or experiences only testify to facts and truths of the Word. Since given the Word, men are expected to properly handle the Word, and NOT forming doctrines and theologies from creation, manifestations, events or experiences, per se. May this also be a timely reminder for all (that theology must be Word-based), even as we recognize that just from looking at His Creation, we are already without excuse of NOT acknowledging Him.


Anthony Chia, high.expressions - Lord, may more of your children realised that they have to go pass mere acknowledgment of you from their viewing of your Creation, and move into understanding you through your given written Word, and even further, through a personal relationship with you while according to you the highest reverence, for you are NOT just Father, NOT just Creator, but is first of all, the Holy Almighty God.

[Added on 20 March 2012: If you want to know more of how to enter into a personal relationship with God, leave me a comment {yes, even now} or send me a note at the email address given below]


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