What do you believe—really believe—about God today?
What we believe about God depends entirely on our perception of God—our God view, meaning how we see Him. We struggle to trust God when we do not really know Him in relationship. Do you trust people you do not know? It is one thing to meet people and become their acquaintance, and it is another thing to get to know them. To say, “I believe that God has all authority to empower me”… how do you know that?
We are helpless on our own. We can only be helped by a power greater than ourselves with the ability and authority to change how we think, if we are going to have a chance at recovery from our problem. Even if we agree that God exists, what does that mean for me in my recovery from my selfish sin addiction that leads to symptoms of every other form of addictive thinking, feeling and behaving.
Transcendent God
Dr. Stephen C. Meyer is a Cambridge University-trained philosopher of science, the author of peer-reviewed publications in technical, scientific, philosophical and other books and journals. His signal contribution to ID theory is given most fully in Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design.
Dr. Meyer talks about all matter in the universe as being singular in the sense that it is bound to a standard, or law, of cause and effect. What that means is that a singular universe under the law of cause and effect (the law under which we live by and are controlled by everyday) had to be caused in the first place from the beginning of it before anything could happen in it, to it, and because of it.
The sun happened in the universe. The magnetic gravitational pull of the sun caused the planets to orbit around it, and so the earth we live in orbits around the sun, following the singular cause and effect law of our solar system. We happen to live on the earth. At the earth’s core is it’s own magnetic field that repels against the gravitational pull of the sun just enough that it maintains the distance of some 93 million miles from the sun while it takes about 365 days to revolve all the way around it. To do this the earth travels at a clip of about 67,000 miles per hour. Because the earth has it’s own magnetic core, it has it’s own gravitational force that keeps us from floating off the surface of it into outer space everyday. While the earth is traveling 67,000 miles per hour around the sun, it is rotating on its own axis at a speed of just over 1000 miles per hour to spin a complete turn in twenty-four hours (the circumference of the earth is around 25,000 miles). Wow! We’re really moving. Do you feel that? Why don’t we feel that?
So while the sun happened to the earth, life happened on or in the earth, because of the sun . The earth’s atmosphere and stratosphere, and all that, happened to the life that is in the earth. Gravity and oxygen and carbon dioxide and nitrogen and water and food happened to every form of life that is in the earth since the beginning. We are alive today because of this singular cause and effect that is the law of the universe, and our sun, and our earth, and all of the life-giving and sustaining contents in the universe, sun, and earth.
Where did the earth come from? Where did the sun come from? Where did the universe come from? If the universe, and/or even the most rudimentary contents and processes that evoke cause and emit effect existed eternally from before the beginning, it would no longer be under the singular law of cause and effect, but would transcend that law into a creator of some kind. If the universe is transcendent than everything that consists within is transcendent, which of course, we know it isn’t and can’t be because of the evidence of cause and effect. Dr. Meyers explains that what separates God from the universe is that God is not singular but transcendent. God is transcendent and does not exist under the singular law of cause and effect. In fact, God created the law. God is the creator of the singular cause and effect law and system of the evolving, living, and working universe. The problem with evolution without God is that evolution would require the universe to be transcendent. Even the wildest evolutionary theories cannot answer where the very first thing came from, and how long was it stagnant before it began the process and activity of evolving. What brought whatever it was to life is and will always be the burning question.
Even the evolutionary forms of being in the universe had to be created by transcendent God. Whether creation took six days or six billion years is really beside the point. What matters when examining the the authority and sovereignty of God is to accept that God is transcendent and everything else, including the created spiritual reality, is singular; created and under the sovereign authority of Almighty God. The entire ever-expanding universe is under the authority of transcendent God. The worst disaster ever encountered on planet earth is not even noticed or felt in the context of the vast universe, yet as we explore the truth of Scripture, God is paying attention to the number of hairs on your head. You are but a speck on the earth. The earth is but a speck in the galaxy. The galaxy is but a spot in the universe, all created by transcendent God. Yet, God notices you. He notices every move you make; and every breath you take.