It’s a Cosmic Affair
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16 NASB
World – “God is the God of the entire cosmos; God has to do with every creature, and every creature has to do with God, whether they recognize it or not. God’s work in the world must be viewed in and through a universal frame of reference.”[1] Have you considered the depth of Fretheim’s insight? God is not your God. He is not there to take care of your concerns, be the subject of your theology, place His blessings on your community or obligate Himself to your wishes. In fact, He is at work in your enemies, in those who disagree with your thinking, in pagans and non-believers. He is at work in the entire cosmos (the Greek word in this text translated “world”), not just the human community. He is shaping all animate and inanimate existence to serve His purposes. If you imagined anything less, then your God is much too small.
John’s editorial comment on the relevance of the conversation between Yeshua and Nicodemus notifies us that the role of the Son is not delimited to our human needs. Something is happening in this unique event that rocks the foundations of everything. Something is happening that affects Saturn, Centaurus, NGC 262, ants, termites, eagles, nanoarchaeum equitans, snails, lions and you. Something is happening that goes way beyond forgiveness of sin. This is a cosmic redemptive act. This is big—really big!
And perhaps even more than that. Whatever God is doing in the Messiah, it alters everything including those things which have not yet come to be. It is more than just a restoration of the universe. It is a redemption of time. What is yet to become is affected by what the Messiah has already done. Nothing will ever be the same again.
It’s easy for us to forget the scope of the Messiah’s actions. It’s easy to focus on what we need from his dedication and obedience. But there is much more at stake on that night in Gethsemane than our sins. It is myopic to suggest that “Jesus died for my sin” is the purpose and goal of the cross. Once we recognize John’s insight, we can appreciate the monstrosity of disobedience and the supernal recovery of obedience. We are being swept up in something beyond our wildest imaginations. We are being carried along in the reclamation of God’s expression of love.
I’m sure Nicodemus knew nothing about galaxy IC 1011.[2] But he knew something about God, and what he knew was enough to realize that when God moves, everything shakes. YHVH has given His son the power to shake up creation. That’s what he’s doing. I suggest you stop trying to find stable ground.
Topical Index: cosmos, Messiah, John 3:16, world
[1] Terrence Fretheim, God and World in the Old Testament: A Relational Theology of Creation, p. xiv.
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IC_1101
I just started a new career in OTR (over the road) trucking. I’m hard pressed to say if anything is stable. I mean everything is dynamic with capital letters. Everything is moving, changing, morphing, forming, and flowing. Every aspect is fluid, always in need of attention, planning, figuring and modifying.
I’m figuring Skip’s description is akin somewhat to my discovery of this new field of work. It pretty much requires ALL of my attention ALL of the time. Except for those 10 hour breaks the government requires everyday. Umm, shall I say Shabot Shalom? Everyday I fear for my life driving. I try to do everything I can and know to stay safe and complete each delivery safely and on time.
I love it. I’m only idle when I am suppose to be. The rest of the time it is all with some fear and trembling. I’m busy, engaged, challenged, trusted and relied upon, and given everything I need to function and fulfill the purpose I signed up for.
I’m humbled to think I am part of this cosmic adventure, regardless of my seemingly insignificance in the whole scheme of things!
Thanks for some new insight, Skip.
You Reckon? (too?)
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. [Someone is praying for us!! – Hallelujah!]
Meanwhile, back on the planet..
Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
~ You open Your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing ~
Therefore..
~ Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!! ~
My favorite hymn. Thank you, Carl.
We’re not too small for God!
IC 1101 is the largest known galaxy, 6,000,000 light years in diameter
with about 100 trillion stars. Mind boggling!
Yet, God knows each hair on our heads by number. Double mind boggling!!
The number on my head is decreasing rapidly with time!
Skip or anyone: Just curious about how we became so focused on forgiveness of sins as Yeshua’s purpose. Any recommended book or reading ??? Thanks
A couple things come to mind. First, the human creature is egocentric. Our most important words are “I” and “me”. So when it comes to ‘faith’, it’s natural to think ‘what’s in it for me’. Second, the ‘church’ has done an amazing job of ‘packaging’ personal salvation as the ‘end-all’ of the ‘faith’. Forget why Yeshua said the Father sent him, i.e., that “His Kingdom come on Earth as in Heaven”, and focus on what’s important to us, that is ‘me’. The mission of the Church then becomes saving souls for some ‘disembodied’ existence, some where out there in time and space. And so we end up with stuff like “Not of this World”, “I’m just passing through” and the “Rapture”. To me, those are the starting points for why we are where we are in thinking of Yeshua’s mission. Of course, God is up to something much more Cosmic. And when the ‘faith’ becomes down to ‘what’s in it for me’, then you become a ‘follower’, not because of what the Messiah’s mission was and still is, but you become a ‘follower’ out of fear of what will happen to ‘me’ if I don’t, that is, ‘me’ becoming extra crispy, as the Creator tortures me for all of time. I might suggest a book called “Surprised by Hope” by NT Wright.
It’s a wonderful book!
Fortunately an easy question 😉 … there is but one “book or reading” to recommend … the TORAH as compiled by Moshe.
And ask as Shlomo: “Give Your servant therefore an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil…” (1 Kings 3:9)
Note that he did not ask for wisdom (a “spiritual” or “supernal” gift), as most people would think. But he asked for internal change.
Read Skip’s book Crossword Puzzles. I’m reading it now.
Skip. Very thought provoking view. Thank you.
Carl. Is the creature awaits the correct interpretation of the verse or is it the creation?
Pieter. Thanks for reminding that our greatest wisdom is to discern between good and evil then to act out the good.
Seeker, – it is both creature and creation.
Thank you Carl
I do not wish to diminish the bounds of God’s love but neither should it be understood in an irrelevant context. To infer that the bounds are something along the lines of how we today understand the word “cosmos” is, apparently, off base. As you suggested, Nicodemus knew nothing about galaxies, quasars or black holes. What was pertinent to them was something much different.
In some research I have learned that the Greek word (cosmos) appears about 180 times in the New Testament. Its related verb is “to order, arrange…to deck, adorn, equip, furnish, dress….” Liddell & Scott define it as “order… good order, good behaviour, decency…the form, fashion of a thing…of states, order, government… II. An ornament, decoration, embellishment, dress… III. a regulator…IV. the world or universe, from its perfect order…mankind, as we use ‘the world’, N.T.”
The heavenly bodies were considered by the Greeks to be only another part of that embellishment, and much more a part of their, “world” than we perceive them to be of ours today. Support for this idea that κόσμος is, “society” is found in the May-June 2004 issue of Archaeology Odyssey, on p. 26 in an article entitled “Is Homer Historical?” by one Gregory Nagy. He explains that to the Spartans, the κόσμος was the sum total of their government and their social order – their society.
Even the way the King Jame’s translators used the word, “world” was perhaps meant to be taken more in a temporal rather than a physical way. Just as we use, “the world of the dinosaurs” to define a time period and way of life dominated by a particular animal rather than this physical planet that we still inhabit.
The main point being is that when we read this word 180 times in the New Testament, we should understand it more along the lines of human “society” than an inanimate “cosmos”.
Why is that, Dan? I’m not sure I follow and quite interested in your thoughts on this but not sure I agree.
Laura,
Why is it important? Because we will misunderstand God’s word unless it is precisely translated. (Even then it is difficult.) Every small mistake accumulates and throws us off track, and sometimes for a lifetime.
I appreciate Skip’s work dearly because he goes to great lengths to help us understand how we should properly understand what each word he studies really means. Oftentimes, our English translations totally mistranslate the ancient word, and even when they do use the seemingly correct English equivalent, what that word means now and what it meant two thousand years ago may be much different. The point is, without knowing a word’s background, we may be misunderstanding, to a lessor or greater degree, exactly what the author was trying to convey. And such is the case with cosmos/world/society.
I know nothing of Greek but I can look up words in Strong’s concordance and other lexicons and/or search the web and I was surprised not to find Skip comment on these more primary definitions for the Greek word κόσμος (cosmos). (Ironically, the word is never translated “cosmos” in the KJV but always “world” except for once when it is translated “adorning”).
Certainly we are able to understand “world” as “people” or “society” in scores of verses without translating it as such but, 1. Why not use the more accurate word, and 2. Sometimes it can lead to confusion and inaccurate beliefs if not correctly translated. The following verses are all from the King James. Would they not be better understood if each word “world” were translated “society”?
Joh 12:31 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
Joh 16:33 In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
Joh 17:9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
Joh 17:15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
Joh 17:16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Joh 18:36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight
Joh 21:25 many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books
Rom 1:8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
Rom 4:13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
“My kingdom is not of this world” is an ideal example. Mainstream Christians think they’re going to heaven because of verses such as this but that is not what Jesus said.
How much bigger a misconception, based on one inaccurate word, can one make?
Hi Dan, just a consideration. Part of the “society” that we manufacture is made up of the resources we have and how we utilize them. Biblically speaking, we can pollute the land we live in and creation reacts in such a way as to expel the polluters from that place. Day four tells us that happens on a “cosmic” scale and that it’s all connected in one way or another. I don’t understand how all that happens and I don’t need to, but the implications seem pretty clear. Nothing exists here in a vacuum, relationship is everything. Right down to the dirt we stand on.
YHWH bless you and keep you……
Good morning Fellow Sojourners…
Dan, I tend to agree with your understanding of world as this also then explains the term worldly in the NT to refer to human trends or behaviour patterns of that era… Including our current era and how far removed we have become of that instruction that every king must wrote two Torah’s. For me implying know the original and ensure that these are somehow translated into society governing statutes to keep the people focused on Torah practices…
“It is more than just a restoration of the universe. It is a redemption of time. What is yet to become is affected by what the Messiah has already done. Nothing will ever be the same again.”
A redemption of time. Let us hear more about this.
Hello Seeker,
You may be referring to this verse regarding “worldly”
Titus 2:12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
You are correct in associating worldly with the word under discussion as they both come from the same root, cosmos. The lusts of the society. But what is also interesting is the last word in this verse, which is, “world”. The Greek word here is not “cosmos” but “aeon”. And as you can guess, this word, like the English “eon” or “age” has more to do with a long indefinite period of time than the physical world. The “kingdom” of the dinosaurs might variously be described as the “world” (society) of the dinosaurs, or, the “age” (aeon) of the dinosaurs, depending on what one is focused on. But the King James hides this type of info from us by translating both words as “world”.
The King James even translates a third different Greek word as “world”. That one is, Oikoumene, and is used in,
KJV Luk 2:1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
The word “world” used here does not insist that Caesar taxed the whole universe, or the whole planet, or just their society, no, it is somewhere in between. It seems best understood as the lands controlled by the Roman Empire (which only makes sense.) Therefore it includes the familiar societies or civilisations (kosmos) but it also includes the lands of the barbarians which Rome controlled (oikoumene), but not, for example, China. The important, and argumentative point being, kosmos might not include everyone.
There is even a fourth different Greek word that the King James associates with, “world began”. That is “chronos” and as you can guess it has to do with time.
Tit 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
The phrase “world began” is the word “chronos” in combination with a form of the word “aion”. The physical world is not directly in this equation and yet the word appears.
So, caveat emptor. Whenever you read “world” in the King James (and others) you may have no idea what the original Greek was, and what the author was really trying to express, unless you look it up and are willing to believe it.
Thank you Dan. You have opened a new world for me so to say… For interest sake. What word is used in John 1:1 where John refers to in the beginning for this could also imply when the world began.
I will probably write about the connection between John 1:1 and Genesis 1:1 in the near future.
Thank you. Nice discussion in part 2.
Seeker
The following is from Strong’s concordance regarding “beginning” as from John 1:1
G746, arche, ar-khay’
From G756; (properly abstract) a commencement, or (concrete) chief (in various applications of order, time, place or rank): – beginning, corner, (at the, the) first (estate), magistrate, power, principality, principle, rule.
So, it seems this word has no direct connection with the other words in question. It has to do with time in the sense of commencement, precedence and beginning. But what is also of interest is the absence, in the Greek, of the definite article “the” in front of “beginning”. That is a supplied interpretation by most translators and you don’t realize that unless it is in a lightface font. The point being, this might not necessarily be referring to the absolute beginning but to “a” beginning.
This root word information is easily available at the click of a mouse if you use any one of dozens of Bible programs for sale or for free. This info came via E-Sword. The program is a free down load. Many Bibles that are in the public domain can be downloaded for free and attached to it for searches. It is easily found on the web.
Thank you Dan. I will have to start using laptop as mobile and android does not work so well with these tools.
Could beginning and world began imply when God commences shaping our lives when we submit to His guidelines? As read of in JOB 38