The Bible teaches us that Adam and Eve’s fall into sin was not just an isolated act of disobedience.  Rather, it was an event of catastrophic significance for the whole of creation.

Romans 8 describes all of creation as “groaning” under the corrosive effects of the Fall.  Not just human beings, but all of God’s good handiwork has now been drawn into the sphere of our mutiny against a good God. 

Look around you and consider the scope of the Fall…

Marriage… marriage is a good creation of God, designed for our benefit.  But can you think of even one marriage that is not distorted and violated in some way by sin? 

Family… families fall apart all the time.  And even the best of families are often severely strained by our fallen tendencies — like the materialistic bent which encourages parents to neglect the children for the sake of other things.

The State… the state is a good ordinance of God, but one that is now often twisted and distorted by outright tyranny in many places in the world.  And even the most democratic of countries cultivate political systems that form government policies as a response to pressure from special interest groups, rather than as a response to the demands of justice, mercy, and faithfulness.

We could go on.  Art, technology, work, sexuality, eating, drinking… everywhere you look in the wide scope of creation you’ll see the same sort of distortions.  The good possibilities of God’s creation are being misused, warped, and exploited for sinful ends.  Everything has now been caught up in the train of Adam’s failure to obey God.

But perhaps the distortion is most obviously found in the mirror.

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“It was a dark and stormy night…”

Many of you will recognize these as the immortal words of Snoopy, that aspiring novelist.  Snoopy often sat on top of his dog house, hunched over his typewriter, trying to get the rest of his great novel to flow out of that opening sentence.

But what you may not know is that Snoopy actually borrowed those words from Edward George Bulwer–Lytton, a Victorian novelist who died in the 1800’s.

Bulwer–Lytton used those words to begin his novel, Paul Clifford.  And every year, in July, the “Bulwer–Lytton Award” is given to the novel that is distinguished by having the absolutely WORST opening sentence of any novel published the previous year.

Now, I don’t know what Bulwer–Lytton’s novel Paul Clifford was all about, but we all know this much about it, don’t we?  We know that in the first chapter something BAD is going to happen.

“It was a dark and stormy night…”

The reader is just waiting for the story to start off with some accident or crime that will become the problem that has to be resolved throughout the rest of the narrative.

In literature (and in movies) what’s happening in nature often reflects what’s happening at the center of the story. 

There’s a reason why it’s “always winter and never Christmas” in Narnia at the beginning of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.  And there’s also a reason why that long winter starts rapidly thawing into a beautiful spring in the middle of that story.  Aslan is on the move.

Or — if you’re more of a Tolkien person — compare the beauty of the Shire with the dark gloom of Mordor. 

Beauty (or the lack of beauty) in the surrounding environment reflects what’s happening at the center of the story. 

Well, the same is true in God’s story.

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In our “Faith” studies we’ve been hammering away on the goodness of all the “stuff” of creation.  Christianity is not a gnostic religion.  Are you familiar with gnosticism?

Gnosticism was an early heresy that denied the fundamental goodness of creation.  The gnostics taught that this world was not created by the Supreme Good God, but by an evil, rebellious, “lesser” deity.  And so the world that this “lesser” god made was an evil place… a prison from which we need to be rescued.

For the gnostics, salvation consisted of withdrawing and detaching one’s self from this evil world.  And if you withdraw and detach yourself sufficiently from the “stuff” of this world, then you can achieve a sort of mystical/spiritual union with the Supreme Good God.  And that’s how you achieve salvation.

As I said — heresy.  This teaching declares outright war on everything that the Bible has to say about this life and this world.

Consider what Paul says in 1 Timothy 4.1–5.  He says that it is a departure from the Christian faith (in fact, he says it’s the teaching of deceitful demons!) to withdraw and detach one’s self from a world “that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.”

And then he says this:  (Someone once called it a “manifesto.”) “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.”

And then in verse 6 Paul tells Timothy that IF he drives this particular point home to the believers whom he serves (as their pastor), THEN he “will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed.”

It’s very plain.  False teachers accuse / malign / incriminate / denounce / blame / besmirch God’s creation (or some parts of God’s creation).  Faithful believers declare the GOODNESS of God’s creation.

In fact, right here we find one of the great reminders of the world of difference between Christianity and every other religion, worldview, opinion, or philosophy that you could line up against it.

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In these “faith” studies, we’re going to continue to develop what Christians believe about creation for a few more weeks (before turning our attention to what we believe about sin).

Have you ever asked the question, “WHY did God create this world?”

Sometimes well–meaning (but poorly taught) Christians say that God created this world because he was lonely and desired the companionship of man. 

Well, a unitarian god might get lonely and find himself in need of fellowship and companionship, but not the God of the Bible!  The God of the Bible exists eternally as three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

And these three persons live in perfect fellowship, perfect community with one another, in need of nothing. 

So… why was something created?

Augustine’s answer to that question was beautifully simple…

If you ask who made the light, Genesis 1 tells you — it was God.

If you ask how he made it, Genesis 1 tells you — he made it through his creative word, by saying, “Let there be light!”

If you ask why he made it, Genesis 1 tells you that as well — because it was GOOD to do so.

There might be other things to say about God’s goals in creation (such as the fact that a community of perfect love naturally desires to serve others with that love), but we have a fully sufficient answer to our question right here.

The cause and reason for creation is so that a Good Product should be created by a Good God!

Everything that God has created is wholly and unambiguously GOOD!  Now, of course, sin has since entered the picture of God’s initial work of creation, and sin has introduced various ways to abuse created realities.  But never forget that the created realities themselves are good!

On seven different occasions in Genesis 1, God pronounces his works of creation to be “good.” And the very last verse climaxes, you may remember, with “And God saw everything he had made, and behold it was very good.”

God takes a very positive view of all that he has made, and we dishonor him if we take a negative view of anything that he has made.  Think through the implications of this.  None of God’s works in creation are morally compromised in and of themselves.

In fact, God takes such a positive view of everything that he’s created that he refused to just scrap it when mankind spoiled it!

Rather, he determined — at the cost of his Son’s life — to make it new and good again!

As someone has said, “God has made no junk, and God doesn’t ‘junk’ what he has made!”

G. K. Chesterton once quipped: “Paradox is truth standing on her head to attract attention.” Consider the many paradoxes bound up in the Christmas story…

“Infinite, and an infant. Eternal, and yet born of a woman. Almighty, and yet hanging on a woman’s breast. Supporting a universe, and yet needing to be carried in a mother’s arms. King of angels, and yet the reputed son of Joseph. Heir of all things, and yet the carpenter’s despised son. Oh, the wonder of Christmas.”

That was Charles Haddon Spurgeon. He describes paradoxes much better than I do.

But actually it really doesn’t require poetic genius or piercing insight to detect the riddles of Christmas. Just consider the story again, taking care not to rush over its magnificent irony. 

Like a star exploding, the glory of God bursts over a group of shepherds as a whole host of angels heralds the good news of the New Born King. But when the shepherds make their way to Bethlehem to see this awe–inspiring thing that has happened, they find that they have to push their way through a crowded stable to catch their first peek of the Fulfillment Of All The Promises Of God.

If the inn was packed by the time Joseph and Mary arrive, we can imagine that the stable was maxed out as well. Think of the stench and the humidity of all the barn animals and all the beasts of burden with out–of–state license plates.

Yes, this is the environment in which the Son of the Most High God makes his appearance. He’s wrapped in cloths and placed in the kind of box from which cows and donkeys eat their dinner.

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