Chapter 2: Creation's Design Specification
The design specification for any project provides the precise requirements for that proposed design, giving in-depth detail about each step to be taken toward its completion. It provides the engineers and builders with all of the information necessary in order to achieve the intended outcome.
Any commercially designed building, highway, airport facility, fish hatchery, or parking structure would have been carefully described in its design specifications. Every engineer, architect and facility planner working on the project would have had the design specifications within easy reach. So, too, any human-aid project would also have a design specification describing every aspect of the proposed services, staff development, demographics of the area in which assistance would be provided, and the funding projects required in order to make it sustainable. It is the design specification which sets the standard for each part of the engineering and planning. It is the criteria against which aesthetic appearance is judged, and it is the legal document which determines compliance for any of the many sub-contractors and financial institutions working on a project.
Some 13.73 billion years ago, just before the Big Bang was initiated, God had a statement of his design specification firmly in mind. It has been his guiding principle in all that he has done within the universe since. Partial statements of that design specification are found throughout the Bible. In fact, as more of God's plan for redeeming the world became progressively known, he revealed more of the details of his design specification.[1]
[1] This is probably a good place to begin an explanation of how God began the process of giving his written word, the Bible, to humans. The earliest recorded statements of God's interaction with humans come from the Mesopotamian area known as the Fertile Crescent. This area is also called the "Cradle of Civilization." It is the area known today as the Tigris-Euphrates Valley that contains or borders countries such as Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and the Persian Gulf region. The first usable phonemic alphabet (one that represents spoken language sounds rather than ideographs such as hieroglyphics) came from this same area and is known as the Phoenician alphabet dating from 1050 BC. Moses composed the first written accounts in the Bible. His life and that of the earliest Hebrew people are easily verified by secular history. The alphabet Moses used to write the first portions of the Old Testament is well documented, even though the form of the letters changed after the Hebrew captivity in Babylon (586 BC). Nonetheless, there is ample evidence that the books Moses wrote in approximately 1450 BC have survived until today in essentially a word-for-word reproduction. This is true because the Hebrew people considered the writings of Moses to be sacred and were careful to preserve them exactly as they were written, even though the alphabet was later modernized. However, not all agree that Moses was the author of the first five books of the Bible. For comments regarding Moses' authorship of these books, see www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/moses.html.
Consequently, probably the most comprehensive design specification in the Bible was written by the Apostle Paul in approximately 60-62 AD. This was less than 40 years before the last book of the Bible was written. Looking back to that time 13.73 billion years earlier—although the Apostle Paul certainly had no idea of a date that was based on the speed of light—he said:
Even as he [the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ] chose us in him [our Lord Jesus Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without blemish before him (Ephesians 1:4).
Throughout the remainder of this book, Bible quotations appear in color as above. Numbers in longer Bible-quotation paragraphs identify the verse locations. The full reference is again given at the end of both longer quotations or single verses.
Creation's "short" design specification
This short statement from Ephesians 1:4 is probably the most concise design specification for creation written in the Bible. In this short statement, however, we find four full expressions of God's purpose, and one implied statement:
1. God had already chosen us. God's role in creation was entirely active. Before the first 0.01th of a second[2] elapsed after the Big Bang, God had already designed humanity with all of our marvelous endowments, he had established his future plans for giving us our rich capacity for achievement, and he had made all of his plans for our future freedom which we would sadly use to cripple our own potential and that of others around us.
[2]Taken from The First Three Minutes, A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe, Steven Weinberg, ©1977, BasicBooks, a Division of HarperCollinsPublishers, page 5.
2. God had already chosen us to be his through a future relationship with Jesus. God created a world in which human beings would occupy a significant place. God's designated place for his future human creation was defined as being "in Jesus." As we see in many other portions of the Bible, humanity is incomplete when any individual would choose (as we will see is possible in #5 below) to remain apart from Jesus.
3. We were chosen before the world was made. This short design specification statement makes it clear that humanity was uppermost in God's thinking before creation was initiated. We are not secondary to his plan, nor will we be overlooked in the final completion of what he intends to do when he ultimately perfects his creation. Everything suggests that he waited a long time after the initiation of the universe before he began the final work of producing humanity. Nonetheless, every part of his plan was in order when he initiated the first dazzling display of energy 13.73 billion years ago.
4. We were chosen to be holy and without blemish before God. In addition to mere human existance, God added an important quality to his design specification. We are to be holy and without blemish. Two characteristics of this quality are mentioned in just this verse alone:
- First, the standard for our holiness is the same
standard God demands of himself. We were not designed
merely to be good. We were designed to be transparently
holy when God himself evaluates us. We will need to come
back to this topic because the topic of holiness, more
than any other, is the pivot on which God's design for
humanity turns. Take heart for now, however. None of us
will ever be capable of living holy lives in our own
strength, but as we will see, Jesus has made full
provision for producing his holiness in us.
- Secondly, now is the time for being holy. God did not design us so that we could be unholy now, waiting for some future heavenly state in which we would finally become holy. We are to be holy and without blemish before God now[3].
[3]The New Testament portion of the Bible was originally written in Greek. The New Testament was written after Jesus' death and return to life in 33 AD. Greek scholars can read Ephesians 1:4 in the exact words the Apostle Paul used to write it. We will comment more in Chapter 6 about the incredible accuracy of the Bible. But we know almost to the word what was written in the New Testament almost 2,000 years ago. Ephesians 1:4 gives us a good example of what God intended to tell us. In Greek, the verb infinitive "to be," has verb tense (time). In English, of course, an infinitive does not have tense. In English, we must give an infinitive tense by adding additional words. For example, we could say, "to be good now," or "to be good in the future." However, grammatically the Greek word "to be" in Ephesians 1:4 is an infinitive verb in the present active tense. The Greek words used when it was written simply meant that we were "chosen…to be holy and without blemish as we live now." The Apostle Paul was not telling us that we will be holy someday in heaven and that holiness is not a requirement in our present life. He was clearly telling us that God created us to be holy and without blemish today.
5. We were given the ability to choose between holiness and disobedience. God's provision of choice is suggested in Ephesians 1:4. If holiness is an option, then we also have the option of choosing that which is not holy. But you might argue that holiness is not stated as an option in this passage. The answer is simply that holiness does not exist unless there is the freedom of choice to either pursue it or reject it. Once God committed himself to creating beings with free moral agency[4], he could no more create them with a predetermined holiness than he could create them with a predetermined bent to evil. Holiness would be a meaningless concept if it did not spring from choice. The test for a reformed felon is not whether or not he can keep the law while he is still incarcerated. It is whether or not he will keep the law after he is released. This range of choice is equally true in regard to holiness. Holiness is only meaningful if we have the choice to pursue it or reject it.
[4] Free moral agency is a term applied to those created beings to whom God has given the ability to rationally choose obedience to him, or rebellion against him. The term free moral agency is not a biblical term, but the concept is, nonetheless, expressed throughout the Bible as a capacity of the human race. Thus, until Adam and Eve chose to obey or disobey God (Genesis 3:1-13), they were innocent, but they were neither holy nor disobedient. In their disobedience to God, they did not fall from holiness. They fell from innocence.
God's entire plan of creation is based on this fundamental principle. He has given each of us the responsibility to choose either holiness or disobedience to him. God is never the source of evil, but he offers choice because that is the prerequisite to holiness. And then, as we will see throughout this book, he understands our complete inability to produce holiness within ourselves. Consequently, at immense cost to himself, he has provided holiness for us from his own resources.
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