Creation is Complex

DISCIPLESHIP

Irreducible Complexity

          

God’s creation is enormous.  God’s creation is also enormously complex.  The greatest minds of the world have not even approached being capable of comprehending the complexity of God’s creation in either its macro aspects or its micro aspects.  Humanity cannot even comprehend the material size or complexity of the physical universe let alone the complexities of how the various materials bodies interact and affect one another.  We cannot yet even comprehend how humans interact and affect one another.  Discipleship is complex because of ignorance that somehow thinks it comprehends more than it does.  Discipleship can be effective only at the level and degree of knowledge, understanding, and practical application of what is known and understood. 

           For those blinded to God’s existence, it is easier to deny the existence of a God capable of creating the complexity of the universe than to try to comprehend Him.  Instead of attempting to know and comprehend the Creator, unbelieving humanity seeks to know and comprehend the creation thereby replacing the worship of the Creator with the worship of the creation (science; Romans 1:19-25). 

We must remember that Satan’s intent in overthrowing God’s established order of sovereignty was first to question what God had commanded by questioning Eve who had received secondhand from Adam what God said to Adam.  Eve knew only what Adam told her and therefore was naturally UNSURE of what God had said.  Learn from this!  Deception is inherent in ignorance of understanding the direct communication from God.  READ YOUR BIBLE!  Be careful to whom you listen (even preachers).  Satan was an angel created to serve man! 

“¹⁵ And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. ¹⁶ And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: ¹⁷ But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:15-17).

 “Thou shalt not eat of it” establishes levels of sovereignty.  Although Adam was given “dominion” sovereignty over his own will and sovereignty over the first creation, God retained sovereignty over Adam’s will and the supreme sovereignty over creation.  Understanding this is the first level of faith and faithfulness.  Sovereignty is a word that communicates two truths:  CONTROL and JUDICIAL AUTHORITY.  There is no purpose for judicial authority apart from moral or legal failure and applicable justice for that failure.  This is true for all levels of judicial authority (government).  Faithfulness is ALWAYS defined as OBEDIENCE in every area of the understanding of what we know and believe.  ADAM WAS SUPPOSED TO DISCIPLE AND GOVERN EVE!

Eve should never have had the conversation with the “serpent.”  The “serpent” should never have had this conversation with Eve.  The serpent’s purpose was not honest.  The serpent’s purpose was intent upon confusion and deception.  Therefore, the “serpent” did not go directly to Adam who had received the Edenic Covenant directly from God and who would have known exactly what God had said.  The “serpent” went to Eve because she had been given the conditions of the Edenic Covenant second handedly from Adam.  Therefore, what God had said could be questioned and Eve could be deceived.  This is the subtilty of the “serpent” mentioned in Genesis 3:1.  Eve should have redirected the “serpents” question to Adam.  This is all part of God’s order (levels) of sovereignty. 

“¹¹ Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection {statement from which the rest of the instruction of the text flows}. ¹² But I suffer not a woman to teach {no permission from God}, nor to usurp authority {authentéō: to dominate; the idea is to take authoritive leadership} over the man, but to be in silence {communicates a state of being; stillness, quietness, non-argumentative or threatening}. ¹³ For {because} Adam was first formed, then Eve {Eve sinfully took dominion when she persuaded Adam to make a determinate choice of will against God’s will}. ¹⁴ And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression” (I Timothy 2:11-14).

Adam’s failure and fall was due directly to his failure to adequately disciple his wife by teaching her exactly what God said to him.  This failure was not Adam’s sin, but it opened the door for his wife’s deception, which opened the door to his following the direction of someone he loved more than his love for God.  Herein lays the conception and birthplace of compromise and the first form of idolatry.  Idolatry is simply any degree of misplaced loyalty to God.  Idolatry is corrupted worship.  Idolatry is the worship of anything created, beginning with putting self-first before God.  Idolatry can extend into worshipping anything other than God.  Idolatry then is any corruption of the order of God’s ordained sovereignty.  This includes the inclusion of anything God has excluded from righteousness.

The Fall or Judicial Failure

We have no record of the conversation Adam had with Eve regarding the responsibilities of the Edenic Covenant.  We know Eve was not present at the time God gave the Edenic Covenant to Adam because Eve had not yet been created.  We do know from the account of the serpent’s deception of Eve in Genesis 3:1-8 that Eve had been informed regarding the “Thou shalt not eat of it” command from God.  Since we have no record of God saying this again to Eve, we must assume Eve was informed and warned by Adam.  We also see in Genesis 3:3 that Eve communicated some additional conditions that did not exist in God’s original instructions to Adam. 

Did Adam add these conditions or did Eve add these conditions?  We do not know.  We only see the first addition of rules to regulate behavior beyond what God said.  This is where religion was born.  Religion always adds to what God says or diminishes what God has said.  Religion is the greatest difficulty to overcome for religion is the confusion between “thus sayeth the Lord” and but here is what God means.  God hates religion because it is founded in confusion thereby propagating and procreating more confusion. 

“¹ Now the serpent was more subtil {cunningly deceptive, crafty, or tricky} than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? ² And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: ³ But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. ⁴ And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: ⁵ For God doth know {instilling doubt in God’s motives} that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. ⁶ And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food {lust of the flesh}, and that it was pleasant to the eyes {lust of the flesh}, and a tree to be desired to make one wise {pride of life}, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat {following his wife’s usurped leadership}. ⁷ And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. ⁸ And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden” (Genesis 3:1-8).

Satan Fell First

           We are not told in Scripture by God when He created angels.  We are not told if angels were created prior to Adam and Eve or after.  We only know that they were created before the fall and they, at the time of their creation, were “very {superlatively} good” (Genesis 1:31) like everything else God had created. 

We are not told how many angels God created.  We know from Scripture outside of the Genesis account that angels do not marry or reproduce (Matthew 22:30 and Mark 12:25).  Therefore, their original number at the time of creation is eternally fixed unless God decides to create more.  We know from Revelation 5:11 that the numbers of faithful angels are “ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands” (one-hundred million plus millions more).  We do not know if this is an exact number.  This number is most probably intended to reflect an innumerable quantity; “an innumerable company of angels” (Hebrews 12:22).

           We know from Hebrews 1:14 that the original purpose for which angels were created is to be benevolent servants of God and humanity, especially servants for the protective custody of redeemed.  The primary enemy of the redeemed is the “mystery of inequity” created by the operations of fallen angels.  Benevolent angels are the “hedge” of protective custody God puts around His faithful (Job 1:10).  These benevolent angels guard the faithful believer from the temptations and influences of fallen angels seeking to corrupt.  Another primary guardian is the Word of truth that creates fences to keep a believer from wandering into areas contrary to the will of God.  These fences are established by knowing with surety what God has commanded. 

“⁷ And of the angels he saith, Who maketh {appoints} his angels spirits {spiritual beings, not physical beings like humanity}, and his ministers {li-toorg-os’; benevolent public servants} a flame of fire {blazing flame of light}. ⁸ But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. ⁹ Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. ¹⁰ And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: ¹¹ They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; ¹² And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. ¹³ But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? ¹⁴ Are they not all ministering {li-toorg-os’; benevolent public servants} spirits, sent forth to minister {li-toorg-os’; benevolent public servants} for them who shall be heirs of salvation” (Hebrews 1:7-14)?

“Hath God said” poses no problem to the person that KNOWS “thus sayeth the LORD.”  However, there is no guardian greater than the free will of man to choose righteousness over unrighteousness.  There are no external controls upon the human will greater than the God given internal ability of choice.  Although free will choice is greatly corrupted by a fallen nature, ignorance, pride, and selfishness, every individual still has the ability to choose between right and wrong; good or evil.  How important then is the command to: “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (II Timothy 2:15)? 

What importance then is the statement of II Timothy 3:16-17?  Other than a fallen nature of corrupted desires contrary to God’s will, the greatest enemy of any man is ignorance of God’s will.  Knowing and understanding the Word of God is the only surety to avoid the deception inherent in the question, “hath God said.”  The question is based upon the assumption of ignorance.  Humanity is suffocating in its own apathy and ignorance of the Words of God.  Deception is like a fungus growing in the dark depths of the ignorance of God’s will.  Discipleship is educating the ignorant.  People without ignorance do not need discipleship.  The need for discipleship presumes ignorance exists and seeks to correct it.

“¹² Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. ¹³ But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. ¹⁴ But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; ¹⁵ And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: ¹⁷ That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (II Timothy 3:12-17).

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Numerous studies and series are available free of charge for local churches at: http://www.disciplemakerministries.org/ 
Dr. Lance Ketchum serves the Lord as a Church Planter, Evangelist/Revivalist. 
He has served the Lord for over 50 years.