Calvin as Gadfly: Before that, He was incomprehensible

John tells us that Jesus is the Word is God, and He’s an eternal being, and then tells us that He’s a Divine being from a brief account of his works. And this is a very practical approach, very practical knowledge, which we should become very familiar with because simply telling us that the name of Christ is actually “God” doesn’t really affect us. Our faith needs to feel it – to feel that Christ is God – by experience. Referring to the Son of God, John makes a statement which strictly and very correctly applies to His person.

Sometimes Paul declares that “all thing are by God” (as in Rom 11:36), but when the Son is compared to the Father, he is distinguished by His place as creator. Therefore, the normal way of saying it is employed here by John, that the Father made all things by the Son, and that all things are created by God through the Son.

John’s intention here, as I have said elsewhere, is to show that as soon as the world is created, the Word of God came forward and was working in the world. Before that, He was incomprehensible in His essence, and then He became known to everything by the effect of His power. Even some philosophers make God to be the Master Builder of the cosmos, and therefore it calls out His intelligence in doing all this work. They are right as far as they go, because this much agrees with Scripture – but they immediately fly off into esoteric but useless speculation, and it leaves us with nothing to gain from listening to them. We ought to be satisfied with the inspired accounts of the matter, with a serious grasp of the fact that it tells us more than we can understand already.

Catechism Buzz: Subject To Fall

If you have Duplo™ at home, you probably have helped your kids build a tower with all the square pieces. You made a nice strong base to support the structure, and then started building up. Eventually the tower gets tall enough that it is quite fragile - the slightest nudge or tremor will send it careening over and tumbling to the ground under its own weight in a loud, blue, red, and yellow mess.

If all things were ideal, such towers could stand indefinitely, but because we live in a world wherein external forces exists that can act upon the tower, we would say that the tower, however perfect, is subject to fall.

God created us in the same way - subject to fall. We were created in God's image: free from blemish, and contented to love, trust, and obey God. But along comes an outside force (Satan) who acted upon us, and having been nudged by him in the direction of rebellion, we gave into the temptation to be like God, and fell into sin. We were made perfect, yet at the same time subject to a fall.

God knew we were going to fall before He ever created Adam. God could have held Adam back from sinning and prevented the fall entirely. In fact, God has, in the pages of scripture, personally intervened so as to stop a man from committing a sin. I am speaking of how God Himself held Abimelech back from sinning when Abimelech was inclined to consummate a marriage with Abraham's wife Sarah (cf Genesis 20). We know that if God intervened for Abimelech, He certainly had the ability to intervene for Adam - so why didn't He? Why didn't God stop the fall before it happened?

I think it is because God's glory demanded the fall. In order to reveal who He is to Adam and Adam's race, in order to reveal His justice, His lovingkindness, His faithfulness, His deity: man. had. to. fall. God made Adam perfect and therefore only Adam was culpable for Adam's sin. God was under no moral obligation to make Adam in such a way as to be impervious to sin, nor was God obligated to keep Adam from sinning.

... to be continued ...

Cathechism Buzz: What He Does with Awesomeness

To answer the question "What is God," the authors of the Catechism pile adjective atop adjective to describe this magnificent, incomprehensible being. And one question which would naturally follow from the very existence of such a being is (with apologies to Kung Fu Panda) "What does He do with that sort of awesomeness?" The answer is that He creates. And the focus of the catechism turns from general creation to angels and men, because of God's unique relationship with them amongst all of His creation, particularly as it relates to His providence.


The popularity of angels fluctuates a bit, but on the whole, they are up there. Lots of people have opinions on them; there are many references to them in popular culture, including one of America's most beloved movies. There are whole theologies which focus on them. In the Scriptures, though, they are presented in a simple, straightforward manner, which is summarized by this Catechism answer.

Angels have an appearance which makes mortals tremble with fear and awe. When angels appear to men, men are terrified (Luke 2:9). and also want to worship them (cf. Rev. 22:9).
These beings are God's heralds—messengers announcing news from the heavens—chief of which are the birth and resurrection in the Gospels of Jesus the Messiah (Matt 1:20-24; Luke 1:26-38; Luke 2:9-13; Matt 28:5).

Knowing about angels helps us to understand the surpassing greatness of this God we serve, where even the creatures in His service are mighty and powerful, and our own place, created a little lower than the angels, and crowned with glory and honor.

Catechism Buzz: An Alternate Beginning

1 Fifteen billion years ago, give or take, WHWH* watched the heavens begin to form. Earth would come later.
2 (This verse left intentionally blank to allow for date changes due to mathematical, scientific, or philosophical error)
3 The spirit of Weh-weh hovered in the midst of the aftermath of the Big Bang and said, “Since Time’s already underway, let there be Chance!” Chance was already there too.
4 And Weh-weh attempted to separate the Time from the Chance, but they could not be separated. And Weh-weh cried, “Nooooooooooo!”
5 And there was Time, and there was Chance, one Aeon.

6 Some billions of years later, Weh-weh noticed that the earth had formed somewhere in the lower left of the heavens.
7 Since there was carbon in its primordial soup, Weh-weh sought to persuade Time and Chance to get to work making some proteins so there could be life.
8 Time and Chance said, “This could take a few billion years.” And Weh-weh cried, “Nooooooooooo!”
9 And there was Time, and there was Chance, the second Aeon.

10 After a few more billion years, Weh-weh awoke to find that the earth was now teeming with life. Dinosaurs roamed the earth, preying on one another.
11 And Weh-weh saw that it was harsh.
12 So Weh-weh begged Time and Chance to make something fuzzy.
13 Therefore Time and Chance slammed a meteoroid into the earth, causing a drastic cooling, wiping out most of the life, except for the fuzzy ones. And Weh-weh cried, “Nooooooooooo!”
14 And there was Time, and there was Chance, the third Aeon.

15 And Weh-weh saw that Time and Chance were speeding things up a bit, and he began to be pleased.
16 And he said to them, “I would like to make something of my own now. In my own image I would like to make it.”
17 And Time and Chance chuckled and said, “As if! We’ll take care of the heavy lifting, thank you very much.” And Weh-weh cried, “Nooooooooooo!”
18 And there was Time, and there was Chance, the fourth Aeon.

19 After another million years had passed, Time and Chance brought forth a man before Weh-weh. "Kinda hairy," said Weh-weh, "and kinda dumb."
20 Time and Chance said to him, "You know how we work." And Weh-weh said, "It will have to do. Keep going."
21 And there was Time and there was Chance, the fifth Aeon.

22 After another hundred thousand years, Time and Chance brought the man before Weh-weh and said, "We have now made him into your image, for we have given him Reason."
23 And Weh-weh said to the man, “Behold your god!”
24 And the man spoke to Weh-weh and said, "Who are you? I worship Time and Chance, for it is they who made me." And Weh-weh cried, “Nooooooooooo!”
25 And there was Time and there was Chance, the sixth Aeon.

26 By the seventh Aeon, all was underway. On the seventh Aeon, Weh-weh slept, and he slumbers still.

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* In all probability pronounced Weh-weh, with a nasal whine like a fussy baby’s cry. Some scholars prefer Wha-wha, in descending tones, similar to the sad trombone sound.

Catechism Buzz: I have Bigger Problems

I believe in miracles. I believe in miracles because I have experienced at least one bona fide, life-altering, crowd-bewildering sign from God. That particular miracle, the miracle of my re-birth, makes it simple for me to be a joyous and child-like believer in a young earth. Though I confess that sometimes the journey to simple faith is paved with hard-work and much consideration.

In seminary, I was privileged to take Biblical Hebrew for three years, and beyond the grammar classes, I also had the opportunity to take book studies that were based in the original language. I concentrated my study in the book of Genesis. I still have the first verse of Genesis memorized in Hebrew. I did this because I wanted to understand God's Word. I did this because God, in his mercy, allowed me to study.

Beyond my Hebrew labors, I studied the Gap Theory, the modified Gap Theory, I read an out-of-print copy of Dr. Sailhamer's Genesis Unbound. I talked to godly Young Earthers, ungodly Young Earthers, godly Old Earthers, ungodly Old Earthers, and people who were not certain that they were on planet earth. I talked to those who cared deeply about the issue, and I talked to those who could care less. I tried to see Genesis One as poetry, allegory, and literal. I studied. I labored. I worried. What would I say to a congregation about these things? How could I have a serious discussion with an unbeliever if he outs me as a dude who thinks the universe is maybe 20,000 years old? The horror! The shame!


I write all of this, not to impress you with my great learning or seminary degrees or even that I came to my position legitimately by way of angsty worry. I write all of this to say that none of this really helped me at all. Rather, it plunged me further into worry and doubt. If my Hebrew studies did anything, they demonstrated that Genesis One was patently not written as poetry or allegory. Moses meant what he said there. Moses believed the earth and everything else was made in six days. My certainty meter hovered at 95% certainty on this fact, and the 5% uncertainty was coming from me wishing that Moses had written something other than what was on the page.

Then, one day,I had finally had enough. I believe I was in a conversation with a guy whom I really wanted to come to Christ Jesus. I was sharing my faith in Christ, and the guy sort of blurts out, "Dude?! You aren't one of those guys that thinks the world is like 10,000 years old, are you?" I was irked, not because he had outed me as an unthinking, fundy, Luddite, but because I was talking about Jesus here! I had just telling him that Jesus rose from the grave after being stone cold dead for three days and he goes and jumps to something inane like the age of the earth...

Peace like a river flooded my soul. I am so thankful for that rascal. I smiled and said, "Friend, I have bigger problems than a young earth. I believe that a fellow was born of a virgin in Palestine 2,000 years ago. I also believe that this man was fully the Infinite Almighty God, and yet still fully a human like you and me. I believe that he ate bread, cried, had friends, healed the sick, healed the lame, and made the blind see. I believe that this man died for my sins, on purpose, and that he came back from the dead three days later. I believe that this man ascended into heaven, sat down at the right hand of God (God is One, but in three persons, by the way), and that even now he is taking keen interest in me and you as we have this conversation. I believe and know all of this, because God revealed it to me by his Holy Spirit."

Now think about that, dear brother or sister. Think about what I believe about Jesus. Dead men tell no tales. Dead men do not rise from the grave. Men are not born from virgins. A Triune God sounds like nonsense. I am holding out on the hope that a Jewish guy named Jesus will one day split the sky with a shout, shake the earth with his glory, and speak my name that I might burst out of my grave. I hang all of my hopes on the absurd. I have dedicated my life to foolishness. Six day creation? No problem for me, friend. No problem here at all. If Jesus is not risen from the dead, I am a man to be pitied.

And so are you.