Previously we had seen that there is good empirical evidence for the fact that our universe did not arrive by mere chance or that there is no purpose or goal in the world. The best explanation is that behind this amazing universe of ours is an infinite mind that guides it along. But this is not sufficient because it leaves many questions unanswered. If we stop our inquiry at this point we will end up with deism and the human creature needs more than this. This raises the point that in addition to reason, logic and empirical evidence, we have a need for revelation and this is what theology addresses.

How is it possible that God who made everything can communicate with mere man? And Christianity goes even further by claiming that God came down to earth and became incarnated. We would rule this out a priori but we should not be too quick to do so.

I think that we need to seriously consider what is possible and not possible for God to do and in the empirical evidence we have for the universe, we have an indication of whether what Christianity claims is, at least, possible.

We have dealt with this previously but allow me to restate it. The best theory that we have as of now as to the origin of the universe is the Big Bang theory. It says that everything that exists started out as a very tiny point. Consider the period at the end of the last sentence and divide this period into a million components. Take one of these and divide it further into a billion components and repeat this billions of time until you get a point that the most powerful microscope cannot allow us to see. And, out of this unbelievably small dot, came all of the billions of galaxies and this unimaginably huge cosmos.

How do we know this? When we observe the universe, we notice that the stars and the galaxies are moving rapidly away from each other. If we were to reverse this trend, and go back in time, then these stars and galaxies would come closer and closer together until about 13.6 billion years ago they would coalesce into this tiny point that we were talking about. We, therefore, have evidence for this claim that the universe began in a very tiny point almost equivalent to nothing.

If we see that this huge universe was once smaller than the smallest of particles possible, then is it really beyond the possibility that God has entered His creation through the Incarnation?

The reason why I point all this out is so that we don’t immediately rule out things because they seem to our minds to be impossible and I am going to come back to this point later on. There are a lot of things in this universe – from the extremely large to the extremely little – that seem impossible and yet they happen.

Another crucial question that needs to be addressed and answered is: does He communicate to us? We can only go so far in terms of the evidence that the universe offers but there remain many questions about which the universe is mute. We need Revelation and through Revelation, we learn that God indeed communicates with us and this communication comes most fundamentally through the book that we call the Bible.

Very few people really read the Bible because they see it as a book of the past with no relevance to the present. Admittedly it is a very long book and it is not easy to understand. But let us make a few general points that will act as a background to what we have to say.

One of the striking things about the book is that in spite of the immense time span and the variety of authors there is a continuity in it which is seen in the development of major themes such as the redemption of creation. There are hints that a Messiah will come to save Israel. And there are veiled murmurings that the King of the Universe is going to visit His people. But a little more about this in the next letter.

Let us now consider what we are told in the Bible.

One of the things that we come across in the bible is prophecy. Prophecy can be understood in two ways. One as a declaration of God’s will. And the second, the more common one, predicting the future.

There are many examples of prophecies coming true but let me refer to one that occurs very early in the Bible. In Genesis 49:10, we read: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah…until Shiloh comes. And to Him shall be the expectation of the nations….He will wash his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes.”

The verses predict the coming of the Messiah and this will happen when a non-Jew will rule in Jerusalem. This is what happened with Herod, who was not Jewish and who was appointed to rule over Israel. This was the time that the Messiah was to come and this was also the time that Jesus appeared on the scene. The nations will rejoice in his coming and he will wash his clothes in wine – an allusion to blood.

There is of course the famous chapter 53 of Isaiah which predicts Christ’s suffering and there are many, many more prophecies and predictions. But this is not the place for this right now.

The Bible was the main repository of Jewish beliefs and it is by reference to the Bible that Jews developed their language about God. It is interesting to see some aspects of this language. So, let’s consider some of this terminology.

The first is the Word of God which is already prominent in the first chapters of Genesis. God creates through His word – He speaks and it is done. It is as if God’s language consist of verbs. God’s word is not like man’s word – His word always involves action. The Bible is not the first word of God. It is His Word, Christ, through whom all is made and He is the best exemplar of who God is and how He feels towards humanity.

Another prominent theme is that of Wisdom of God. This is present in Proverbs but also in the class of books within the Bible referred to as Wisdom literature. At certain times, Wisdom acquires the characteristics of a person, almost like a second self of God. Wisdom is active in creation guiding it and guiding man as well.

Another term closely allied to the Jewish understanding of God was the Temple. For many of us, the Temple simply refers to a structure within which services are carried out. But for the Jews it went considerably further. In a sense, the importance of the Temple was that it represented the point in space where God and man, where heaven and earth can come together.

More than this, it intimated that God was going to come and settle amongst His people. The Temple was a sort of incarnational symbol where the glory of God resided. They did not literally believe that He who created the universe can be located within the building, no matter how big and grand it was. It was more a symbolic representation of what, in some incomprehensible manner, was to happen in the future.

Another important way of talking about God was the Law. The Law was not just some arbitrary set of rules to be obeyed – it expressed a deep understanding of the will of God. The law is a force through which God makes Himself known and enables man to participate in this knowledge. The Law for the Jews had a much deeper meaning than is sometimes portrayed. The Law also reminded the Jews that creation is not chaotic but has a lawful component to it.

One other way in which God was talked about was by reference to the Spirit. Already, in the second verse of chapter one, of the book of Genesis, mention is made of the Spirit of God. “The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the water”. The Spirit of God was there at the very beginning of creation and He is there in upkeeping and participating in creation. After Jesus’ baptism, “Jesus, being filled with the Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness”.

In Nazareth, Jesus quotes from the book of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…”. And he goes on to say that “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing”. We will shortly see the deeper significance of these verses.

In the next letter we will consider the person of Christ and the claims made about him. We will see a summary of these claims and we will evaluate whether they make sense in light of what we know about creation and the characteristics of God summarized above.

Sincerely,
Bar-Abbas