Strangers in a Strange Land

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth Genesis 1:1 NASB

Created – Why do we love sunsets? Or being at the ocean? Or viewing majestic mountain ranges? Do you have the same feelings when you see city streets, tall buildings or sports stadiums? Why are we so thrilled with natural beauty? Even deeper, why do we think it is “beautiful”?

The answer has something to do with our cultural heritage and something to do with the way we are made. Examining both helps us realize that God’s creative act is far more important than an ancient account of how things began.

First, let’s review what we know about the Greek idea of cosmos. Even though the word is Greek, the concept is very much a part of the ancient world, including the Semitic one.

By a long tradition this term had to the Greek mind become invested with the highest religious dignity. The very word by its literal meaning expresses a positive evaluation of the object—any object—to which it is accorded as a descriptive term. For cosmos means ‘order’ in general, whether of the world or a household, of a commonwealth of a life: it is a term of praise and even admiration. Thus when applied to the universe and becoming assigned to it as to its eminent instance, the word does not merely signify the neutral but expresses a specific and to the Greek mind an ennobling quality of this whole: that it is order.[1]

Jonas goes on the remind us “ . . . the universe was considered to be the perfect exemplar of order, and at the same time the cause of all order in particulars, which only in degrees can approximate the whole. Again, since the sensible aspect of order is beauty, its inner principle reason, the All as perfect order must be both beautiful and rational in the highest degree.”[2]

Cosmos was considered “a divine entity and often called outright a god, finally even the God.”[3] This means when the early followers of Yeshua spoke of the “world,” they were using terms already invested with divine qualities. They did not have to explain “Big Bang theory” or ask any of the kind of questions we have in our apologetics. Their audience knew the gods were active in the world and that men had affinities and obligations to them.

Now it was cosmos that was declared to be the great ‘city of gods and men,’ and to be a citizen of the universe, a cosmopolites, was now considered to be the goal by which otherwise isolated man could set his course. He was asked, as it were, to adopt the cause of the universe as his own, that is, to identify himself with that cause directly, across all intermediaries, and to relate his inner self, his logos, to the logos of the whole.[4]

Consider David’s famous poem about Man’s place in the universe. In Psalm 8:3 David reflects on the fact that Man is of concern to God. You know the verse, but did you appreciate the implications? First, God is the creator. Second, the creation speaks to men about Him. Third, men are able to “hear” this voice. Fourth, because of this, they have a place in God’s creation. Fifth, this place is not some insignificant role but rather a lofty, honorable position “a little lower than angels.” In other words, the entire psalm describes being at home in the world.

So it was for the Greek classical idea of cosmos. “The practical side of this identification consisted in his affirming and faithfully performing the role allotted to him by the whole, in just the place and station in which cosmic destiny had set him. . . . ‘To play one’s part’ . . .”[5]

But something happened. Men began to feel antipathy toward the world, especially with the discovery that they were expected to perform a role simply because they were born into this place. Law became grinding restriction. The Greek idea of individuality, of personal worth, challenged the classical idea of an assigned lot in life. The Hebrew God, who designed Man as a person of value, was submerged into the Greek idea of polis; the whole was more important than the parts. David’s insight, that the God of all creation cares about each individual, was replaced by the great Greek ideals of absorption into the divine. In Greek thought, we counted, but I didn’t.

Greek thought had been a grand expression of man’s belonging to the world (if not unreservedly to mere terrestrial life) and through knowledge that breeds love had striven to heighten the intimacy with the kindred essence of all nature: gnostic thought is inspired by the anguished discovery of man’s cosmic solitude, of the utter otherness of this being to that of the universe at large. This dualistic mood underlies the whole gnostic attitude and unifies the widely diversified, more or less systematic expressions which that attitude gave itself in gnostic ritual and belief.[6]

What happened in the history of human thought was cataclysmic, especially for us. Men lost their intimate connection to the universe. That sense of belonging, the inner pull of our created design subliminally felt in sunsets and waves, in starry skies and waterfalls, was replaced with mechanical determinism. It was more than a loss of nature. It was a loss of purpose, and with it, a loss of value. When there is no God above, there are no ethics below. Anything became possible because nothing mattered. The gods left the world behind, and men made of it whatever they wanted.

Interestingly, Christian apologetics used the combination of logos and this Greek idea of cosmos to produce the cosmological argument for God’s existence (something the Bible never even worries about. You might ask yourself why). The result is a completely impersonal God, a God of systems and mechanics and design, not a God of emotional involvement with real people. What the argument proves is a “first principle,” literally and extension of Greek philosophy. What it does not prove is that God cares.

Evangelism today should not be about saving me for heaven. It should be about saving me for earth. It should be about restoring awe, the Creator and the creation. Without that, what good is “heaven”? Someplace to run away to when I die? Evangelism is returning God to His creation, and saving ourselves from oblivion in the process. I think we accomplish more for drawing people close to God by talking about rainbows than about sin offerings.

Topical Index: creation, cosmos, gnosticism, salvation, Psalm 8:3, Genesis 1:1

[1] Hans Jonas, The Gnostic Religion, p. 241.

[2] Ibid., p. 242.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid., p. 248.

[5] Ibid., p. 249.

[6] Ibid., p. 251.