I would like to make a few comments in response to the article “THAT versus HOW in Creation” by Dr. Aaldert Mennega which appeared in the January 1971 issue of THE OUTLOOK.
In the first paragraph Dr. Mennega says: “And from Scripture we also know the most basic answer to the question of how God created because it says very clearly that God created by the power of His Word: God spoke and it was.” In the third paragraph, he adds: “God’s creative acts are not of the same nature as His present upholding acts, but are wholly other.”
In the Bible I read about God’s creative acts, for example, in Psalm 33:6: “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made”; and in Psalm 33:9: “For he spake and it was done; he commanded and it stood fast.” In the Bible I read about God’s present upholding acts, for example, in Job 38:12: “Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his place?” and in Psalm 107:25: “For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which Iifteth up the waves.” In Psalm 104, verses 19 and 20: “He appointed the moon for seasons” and “Thou makest darkness and it is night, wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.”
The language used to tell us about God’s creative acts seems remarkably similar to that used to tell about His present upholding acts. Even more cogently, Psalm 104:30: “When thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created; and thou renewest the face of the ground” uses the present tense of the Hebrew word bara, to create. This is the same word as is used in Genesis 1, but in Psalm 104 it refers to God’s present upholding activity.
John Calvin considered God’s creative activity and His present upholding activity to be very closely related. He wrote (Institutes, Book I, Chapter XVI): “Moreover, to make God a momentary Creator, who once for all finished His work, would be cold and barren, and we must differ from profane men especially in that we see the presence of divine power shining as much in the continuing state of the universe as in its inception.”
Some years ago I suffered an attack of acute appendicitis, and God chose to heal me through the use of surgical techniques, injections of antibiotics, blood transfusions, intravenous feedings, and hospital care, according to the “laws” of physiology and medicine. Docs that make God subject to those laws? If God is active in upholding the universe (and He is) without being made subject to the laws of nature, why is it thought necessary for Him to become subject to natural laws in order to use them in His creative activity? Surely, He can create in whatever way He chooses.
Furthermore, if Dr. Mennega’s statements are correct, then God’s creative activity must be restricted to that small region of the dim and distant past to which scientific study has not yet penetrated, a region which will be still smaller tomorrow.
Psalm 90:2 says: “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God.” We know that the Cascade Range of mountains in the western United States and the mountains of Hawaii were formed by volcanic processes. Those majestic peaks, Mt. Rainier, Mt. Baker, Mt. Kilauea, and others are volcanic cones. Through scientific study we have learned a great deal about those mountains and the processes by which they were formed. If, as Dr. Mennega says, “we cannot know anything about God’s creative acts except that which God has revealed to us in Scripture,” then we would have to conclude that God did not create those mountains.
But listen to Psalm 24: “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world and those who dwell therein. For it was He who founded it . . .”; and Psalm 95:3-7: “For the Lord is a great God, a great king over all gods; the farthest places of the earth are in his hands, and the folds of the hills are his; the sea is his, he made it; the dry land fashioned by his hands is his. Come! Let us throw ourselves at his feet in homage, let us kneel before the Lord who made us; for he is our God, we are his people, we the flock he shepherds. You shall know his power today if you will listen to his voice.”
DR. MENNEGA REPLIES
I want to thank Dr. Menninga for taking out time to respond to my very brief article “THAT versus HOW in Creation.” Although his concepts lack a conclusion, I will briefly respond to some of the issues he raises.
The language used by the psalmist and by Job to tell about God’s creative acts and His upholding acts is indeed very similar. This, however, does not indicate a similarity between these two types of acts, but, rather, a similarity in the response to the knowledge of these acts, which is one of awe-filled humility in the presence of such great wisdom, majesty, and power.
It is good that Dr. Menninga takes seriously the texts he quotes which speak of God’s creative activity and His upholding activity. I think we should always keep in mind, however, the context of such texts, and therefore I would like to fill in by adding what Job 38:4-11 tells us. Here God rebukes Job and says that no man may presume to have any understanding of how God laid the foundations of the world, and that God’s ways are far beyond our understanding. To think that scientific study should be able to penetrate these creative acts in the ever-receding tomorrow is a false hope, and quite contrary to Job 38.
Standing in the tradition of the Reformation, we do well to take note of what John Calvin said. But if we quote Calvin to strengthen our position we must quote him in the proper context, lest we do in injustice to him or to the cause which he espoused. In his Institutes, Book I, Chapter XVI, he does indeed speak of God’s creative and upholding activities, but does not at all state that these activities are “very closely related.” A more careful reading of that chapter will reveal that Calvin is here countering the position of deists, epicureans, etc., by insisting that God is not only the sale Creator of the universe, but that He is also today very much present in all that happens. This is indeed a soundly biblical position which I wholeheartedly endorse.
Be it far from any of us to say that Jehovah God is a “God of the gaps” to be used only there where a “natural” or scientific explanation is wanting. He is upholding His creation from moment to moment, in all events, for in Christ all things cohere. Both His creative acts and His upholding activity are incomprehensible. The vast amount of knowledge we have accumulated through scientific study about God’s upholding activity can give us only a very limited idea of what reality is all about. God is the Creator and Sustainer of all that is, and transcends that which He created. He therefore is neither subject to the laws which hold for His creatures, neither is He limited or confined to these laws, in either His creative acts or His upholding acts. To insist that God must have created by means of the laws which we have been able to extrapolate from His handiwork is limiting God to our understanding, and would surely reduce God to a very small god. But our God is an omnipotent God, Who holds the helm in all events.
AALDERT MENNEGA
Clarence Menninga is a professor of Physics at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
In the Bible I read about God’s creative acts, for example, in Psalm 33:6: “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made”; and in Psalm 33:9: “For he spake and it was done; he commanded and it stood fast.” In the Bible I read about God’s present upholding acts, for example, in Job 38:12: “Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his place?” and in Psalm 107:25: “For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which Iifteth up the waves.” In Psalm 104, verses 19 and 20: “He appointed the moon for seasons” and “Thou makest darkness and it is night, wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.”
The language used to tell us about God’s creative acts seems remarkably similar to that used to tell about His present upholding acts. Even more cogently, Psalm 104:30: “When thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created; and thou renewest the face of the ground” uses the present tense of the Hebrew word bara, to create. This is the same word as is used in Genesis 1, but in Psalm 104 it refers to God’s present upholding activity.
John Calvin considered God’s creative activity and His present upholding activity to be very closely related. He wrote (Institutes, Book I, Chapter XVI): “Moreover, to make God a momentary Creator, who once for all finished His work, would be cold and barren, and we must differ from profane men especially in that we see the presence of divine power shining as much in the continuing state of the universe as in its inception.”
Some years ago I suffered an attack of acute appendicitis, and God chose to heal me through the use of surgical techniques, injections of antibiotics, blood transfusions, intravenous feedings, and hospital care, according to the “laws” of physiology and medicine. Docs that make God subject to those laws? If God is active in upholding the universe (and He is) without being made subject to the laws of nature, why is it thought necessary for Him to become subject to natural laws in order to use them in His creative activity? Surely, He can create in whatever way He chooses.
Furthermore, if Dr. Mennega’s statements are correct, then God’s creative activity must be restricted to that small region of the dim and distant past to which scientific study has not yet penetrated, a region which will be still smaller tomorrow.
Psalm 90:2 says: “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God.” We know that the Cascade Range of mountains in the western United States and the mountains of Hawaii were formed by volcanic processes. Those majestic peaks, Mt. Rainier, Mt. Baker, Mt. Kilauea, and others are volcanic cones. Through scientific study we have learned a great deal about those mountains and the processes by which they were formed. If, as Dr. Mennega says, “we cannot know anything about God’s creative acts except that which God has revealed to us in Scripture,” then we would have to conclude that God did not create those mountains.
But listen to Psalm 24: “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world and those who dwell therein. For it was He who founded it . . .”; and Psalm 95:3-7: “For the Lord is a great God, a great king over all gods; the farthest places of the earth are in his hands, and the folds of the hills are his; the sea is his, he made it; the dry land fashioned by his hands is his. Come! Let us throw ourselves at his feet in homage, let us kneel before the Lord who made us; for he is our God, we are his people, we the flock he shepherds. You shall know his power today if you will listen to his voice.”
DR. MENNEGA REPLIES
I want to thank Dr. Menninga for taking out time to respond to my very brief article “THAT versus HOW in Creation.” Although his concepts lack a conclusion, I will briefly respond to some of the issues he raises.
The language used by the psalmist and by Job to tell about God’s creative acts and His upholding acts is indeed very similar. This, however, does not indicate a similarity between these two types of acts, but, rather, a similarity in the response to the knowledge of these acts, which is one of awe-filled humility in the presence of such great wisdom, majesty, and power.
It is good that Dr. Menninga takes seriously the texts he quotes which speak of God’s creative activity and His upholding activity. I think we should always keep in mind, however, the context of such texts, and therefore I would like to fill in by adding what Job 38:4-11 tells us. Here God rebukes Job and says that no man may presume to have any understanding of how God laid the foundations of the world, and that God’s ways are far beyond our understanding. To think that scientific study should be able to penetrate these creative acts in the ever-receding tomorrow is a false hope, and quite contrary to Job 38.
Standing in the tradition of the Reformation, we do well to take note of what John Calvin said. But if we quote Calvin to strengthen our position we must quote him in the proper context, lest we do in injustice to him or to the cause which he espoused. In his Institutes, Book I, Chapter XVI, he does indeed speak of God’s creative and upholding activities, but does not at all state that these activities are “very closely related.” A more careful reading of that chapter will reveal that Calvin is here countering the position of deists, epicureans, etc., by insisting that God is not only the sale Creator of the universe, but that He is also today very much present in all that happens. This is indeed a soundly biblical position which I wholeheartedly endorse.
Be it far from any of us to say that Jehovah God is a “God of the gaps” to be used only there where a “natural” or scientific explanation is wanting. He is upholding His creation from moment to moment, in all events, for in Christ all things cohere. Both His creative acts and His upholding activity are incomprehensible. The vast amount of knowledge we have accumulated through scientific study about God’s upholding activity can give us only a very limited idea of what reality is all about. God is the Creator and Sustainer of all that is, and transcends that which He created. He therefore is neither subject to the laws which hold for His creatures, neither is He limited or confined to these laws, in either His creative acts or His upholding acts. To insist that God must have created by means of the laws which we have been able to extrapolate from His handiwork is limiting God to our understanding, and would surely reduce God to a very small god. But our God is an omnipotent God, Who holds the helm in all events.
AALDERT MENNEGA
Clarence Menninga is a professor of Physics at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.