Does an evangelical understanding of the 'laws of nature' make God seem more distant or close?
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We know from Einstein's General Theory of relativity that space and time cannot be considered separately. There is no absolute time from which God could observe a single "now" moment that applies to the whole universe. So in Genesis 2:1 "Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array," it seems to me that we should take that to mean that the universe was complete from beginning to end of time as well. After that the Bible begins from Genesis 2:2 onwards to give greater detail to what has already happened. So for the first six days, God was intimately involved in the creation, but not necessary in a temporal sequence as we perceive time, because according to relativity, time progress according to the circumstances of each individual observer. To our senses the differences in the progression of time are not apparent, but they are there.
Among the many verses that describe God's involvement in every aspect of our lives are John 1:3, Matthew 10:29, and Job 12:10.
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Of course when we see a tree we see God holding together, beneath the subatomic level, all the elements necessary for a tree to be. If God ever decided no longer to sustain the tree, a flower, a cloud, the Devil, then it would cease to exist.
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. (Hebrews 1:3, NIV)
In fact as God sustains all things by his own power even the sinner lives in Christ, yet not inwardly by faith but by his mere existence he proclaims God as he has life.
‘For in him we live and move and have our being. ’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring. ’ (Acts 17:28, NIV)
Now it is impossible to imagine God is distant when our breath comes from him:
In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind. (Job 12:10, NIV)
A. W. Tozer wrote an excellent book on the nature of God. In it he said:
This idea that God is an absentee engineer running His universe by remote control is all wrong. He is present in perpetual and continuous eagerness, with all the fervor of rapturous love pressing His holy designs. If you don’t feel that way about it, it’s unbelief that makes you feel otherwise; it’s preoccupation with this world. If you would believe God you would know this to be true. The goodness of God means He cannot feel indifferent about anything. People are indifferent, but not God. God either loves with a boundless unremitting energy or He hates with consuming fire. (A.W. Tozer Attributes of God, P44)
The 'laws of nature' simply show that God is fixed in his purposes as his power flows along unchanging rules.
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