Joseph the Carpenter – God’s Choice for Perfect Dad

Forget Ozzie Nelson.  Forget Cliff Huxtable.  Forget Fred McMurray.  Forget “Father Knows Best.”  Joseph the Carpenter is, hands down, the perfect dad.  But don't take my word for it. Ask God.  He is the one who chose Joseph as "Father of the Year" for every year in eternity.

Its' true that Joseph doesn’t get all the good press his wife, Mary does, and perhaps rightly so.  After all, she carried God Incarnate in her womb for nine months, while God the Father carefully and lovingly knit his only son together in her womb.  Carrying the Son of God - that’s a major responsibility.

But God didn’t just choose Mary as the perfect mother to bring Christ into the world. He chose Joseph as well.  Of all the men who ever lived, God the Father chose Joseph the Carpenter to be the earthly father of Jesus. He chose Joseph to be the man who would support Jesus, defend him, feed him and train him up in both the ways of God and the ways of a skilled craftsman.

Yet Joseph the perfect human father gets far less recognition than I think he deserves.  Perhaps it’s because he – in cinematic terms – has no dialog.   In theatrical stage-play terms, he’s a “spear carrier,” someone in the chorus who is necessary, but not important enough to have dialog.  There is no fatherly Magnificat, no "here I am, Lord" moment for Joseph.  Instead, he let his actions speak for him.

I think it’s time that Joseph the Carpenter, earthly father of Jesus, got some of the credit he deserves.   

Consider this:

Joseph received four prophetic dream visions which are reported in the bible. In each case his answer was “Yes, Lord, right away.”  Moses argued with God. Abraham debated with God.  Jacob even wrestled with God.  But when Joseph got his heavenly messages, his response was always immediate, decisive and affirmative. 

Each time, the command he received threw his life into turmoil.  Yet – based on his actions – that sudden turmoil didn’t matter to him at all, at least not when compared with his commitment to serve his Lord and God.

The first time occurred when he learned that his betrothed was pregnant.  

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about:  His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”  (Matthew 1:18-21)

Even though Joseph must have felt betrayed, and even though he could have exercised his right to publicly divorce her - or even have her stoned - he chose to quietly divorce her, to spare her from public shame.  

Clearly,  even wounded as he must have felt, thoughts of revenge or punishment or payback were not in him.  He was a good man.

But then came his first dream vision, when an Angel of the Lord spoke to Joseph and told him what God wanted him to do.  Because Joseph was the faithful and God-fearing kind of man that he was, this word from God changed everything. Immediately.

In the first dream vision, that Angel told Joseph to go ahead and marry his betrothed Mary, even though she was pregnant.  Joseph knew this would shame him in his own hometown.  He knew he'd be labeled either a sex offender by “knowing” her before marriage, or – more likely – he'd be known as a cuckold, since nobody apparently seemed to think Joseph was the unborn child’s father. 

Yet, after the dream vision in which an Angel of God told him the child was conceived by God, and that he should marry his betrothed fiancée and raise her child as his own, Joseph decided that God must have his reasons.  Which was good enough for Joseph

The bible says:

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.  But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. (Matthew 1:24-25)

So Joseph married a pregnant girl and assumed all responsibility for her child, who was now also his child.   At the very least, by this selfless, obedient act, he saved Mary’s reputation.  Perhaps he even saved her life, since infidelity before marriage was a stoning offense.

Then Joseph went further, giving up any thoughts of marital intimacy until after the baby was born, presumably some months into the future.  For a young man with normal drives and passions, that must have been difficult. 

Yet the bible says that he did what he was told, without complaint.

Then the second time Joseph had a dream vision – this one about Herod’s threat to kill Jesus - Joseph didn’t even wait till morning.  Sure, he’d lived in Bethlehem for at least two years, and must have established himself with a home and a business that supported his growing family, but when God said “Go,” Joseph went.  He didn't close his shop or put his house on the market.  

As before, he followed God's command without question and without hesitation

So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod.  And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet:  "Out of Egypt I called my son." (Matthew 2:14-15)

Of course, any good father would do whatever it took to protect his son's life.  But Joseph was an adoptive father, and some people (mostly people who don't know any better) might expect less of him.  But not God – he had no doubt what Joseph would do. 

Note:  As an aside, I am both adopted by my parents and I am an adoptive father.  I know the bonds between father and child are no different than for those of a child I’d sired.  I’m just saying …

So Joseph, Mary and at least Jesus – and perhaps, by this time, the first others of Jesus’ brothers and sisters – got up in the night, fled to Egypt, and started a new life, which was becoming something of a specialty for Joseph and Mary.   

Then some time later – the bible doesn’t say just how much time later - Joseph got his third dream vision, this one telling him to head home.

After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead." (Matthew 2:19-20)

Once again, Joseph had to decide if he would, as ordered, close down his new business and hit the hot, grueling and not entirely safe road back from Egypt to Judea.  And the bible makes it clear that this was exactly what Joseph did.  He didn’t argue, or drag his feet, or even mutter under his breath.   

He did his Lord’s bidding.

Now Joseph’s final recorded dream vision is often overlooked, because Matthew doesn’t set it aside in quite the way he did the first three dream visions.  However, this was a “big one.”  But to realize why this was the "big one" requires you to read between the lines, at least a bit.  While they were already on the road back to Judea, Joseph got another course-correction message.

So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.  But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there.  Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth.  So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene. (Matthew 2:21-23)

This was the last time that Joseph had a dream vision encounter with God – at least it was the last time we know of.  And this one was very likely just as emotionally gut-wrenching as his first dream vision, the one that commanded Joseph to marry Mary, and to raise her son as his own.   

That is because, once again, this command put him at “ground zero” for being judged harshly and unfairly by his fellows back in Nazareth. These were men and women who thought they knew his entire story about Joseph, Mary and that boy, Jesus.  They were the ones who thought of Joseph as a cuckold, or worse.

Consider:  It shouldn’t be surprising that, after heading for Bethlehem to participate in Caesar’s census, Joseph and Mary decided to remain in the ancient City of David.  There, they were unknown.  There, as far as anyone knew, their firstborn son had been born of a married couple.  There was no “shame” waiting for them in Bethlehem. 

The story of the Magi makes it clear that Joseph and Mary and Jesus stayed in Bethlehem for at least two years, if only because Herod’s murderous orders targeted every male child born during a two-year period.  But Bethlehem had been their port of shelter, the home they planned to return to.   Read it carefully - this last dream vision makes it clear that the couple had planned to return to Bethlehem from Egypt.  Yet to fulfill prophecy, and to once again save young Jesus' life, God commanded them to go back to Nazareth.

But was Nazareth really such a bad place?   

Actually, I think so.  Small towns can be like that.  Recall, for instance, that later, when - early in his ministry - Jesus went there to teach in the synagogue, the town-folk got so incensed at him that they drove him to the edge of a cliff, doing so with murderous intent. It was only a miracle that saved Jesus from that fate.   

So clearly, this was a town made up of judgmental hotheads.  First Century redneck yahoos, who, when provoked (and it didn't take much to provoke them) could turn themselves into a virtual lynch mob. Yet that’s where God sent Joseph and his family, and once again, Joseph said “yes Lord,” even as he moved to obey.

Even before he first encountered God's messenger, Joseph was a good man at heart. When God spoke, it became clear that Joseph was God-fearing man who obeyed his Lord without question or hesitation. He was a devoted family man who always acted to put his wife and his son first, ahead of anything he might prefer for himself.  

God chose well when he chose the perfect human earthly father to raise up his only begotten son, Jesus.

Despite his importance, Joseph only appeared in two Gospels – Matthew and Luke – and his choices and decisions are only really played out in Matthew.  He was referred to in John and Mark, but only in past tense as the earthly father of the now-adult Jesus.  Most of what we really know of him comes from Matthew. However, everything we know about him points to the fact that he was, indeed, the perfect earthly father for Jesus – obedient, steadfast, loving and protective. He was a man who put his wife and his son ahead of him, every time, and he was a man who didn’t count the cost of his obedience.

However, there is one other thing that we do know about Jesus.  The Talmud – that basic guide to living a Godly life used by the 1^st Century Hebrews – considered the term “carpenter” to refer to a “takton." This also applied to the term “son of a carpenter.”  In the Aramaic of the day, a takton was a deeply devout person, well-schooled in scripture.  Who better to teach the young son of the living God about faith and scripture?  I'm speculating here, but this fact could offer an additional reason why God chose Joseph to be the earthly father of his only begotten son.

While. for 2,000 years, Mary has gotten most of the good press, it is only reasonable to assume that God chose Joseph with the same care as he chose Mary.  Out of all the men who’d ever lived, Joseph was seen by God as the ideal man to be the earthly father of his only son, just as Mary was the ideal mother for Jesus.  Joseph lived up to those expectations, always putting Mary and Jesus first, always obeying God’s every command, and never once questioning or hesitating.   

He accepted his role with dignity, and fulfilled that role with diligence. 

The rest of what we know about Joseph is based on inference.  We presume he died before Jesus began his ministry, for there is no mention of a funeral, and Mary appears several times in the Gospel during her son's ministry without her husband present. This includes a gala social event – the wedding feast at Cana – where you’d expect her to be accompanied by her husband.

The bible also tells us that Joseph fathered at least six other children – four named sons and at least two unnamed daughters.  Two of those sons – though they did not believe in their older brother until after his resurrection – became church leaders after Jesus’ death, going on to write the epistles of James and Jude.  So, as a father, Joseph did himself proud – not just with his oldest son, but with at least two of his other sons.   

I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and say all his kids turned out exceptionally well.

Note:  Regarding Joseph's other children, both the Roman Catholic and Orthodox faiths hold the belief that Mary was a perpetual virgin. They state that the named and un-named brothers and sisters of Jesus were either step-brothers (assuming, as the Orthodox do, that Joseph had a previous wife before Mary and was, by the time of that marriage, 80 years old or older) or they were His cousins.   

I honor their belief without sharing it.  Several reasons:

First, I can and do venerate Mary as the sanctified mother of the son of God without needing her to be a perpetual virgin.  The Old Testament prophecies do not demand that, and the New Testament’s inspired Gospel writers did not say that she was a perpetual virgin.  So I consider it "extra-biblical," and subject to devout belief on either side of the issue.

Second, the bible says clearly that Joseph “didn’t consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son.”  To me, that clearly suggests that Joseph did consummate the marriage later.  If it was not so, this verse from Matthew (1:21) would have read differently.

Finally, the bible is consistent in naming James as a brother of Jesus – never as a cousin or step-brother or just a relative – and it is also consistent in referring to the brothers and sisters of Jesus. Not once, but several times.

But that question really has very little to do with my respect for Joseph, God’s choice to be the earthly father of his only son, our Lord Jesus Christ. 

As a father, a husband and a man, Joseph is worthy of emulation, but first you’ve got to really look at this strong, quiet man of God.  As a father - and as one who has lost a son - I find Joseph to be that perfect father, just as Mary was that perfect mother.

Convicted by The Holy Spirit

 Ask, And The Holy Spirit Will Help You Fight Sin ...

One Sin at a Time

Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:16 that "All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness," and it is often useful to remember that this "God-breathed" means that the Holy Spirit was inspiring the scripture writers.  However, it is perhaps even more useful to remember (or realize) that the indwelling Holy Spirit can and does "God-breath" on the born-again followers of Jesus, to help each of us live better and more Christ-centered lives.  All we have to do is ask.

I have been working on four distinct sets of sinful behavior that I want to reject from my life; however, on my own, I found it hard to make any inroads in those sinful traits that were now causing me so much grief.  So I decided to ask The Holy Spirit to help me out - to rebuke me, to correct me, to teach me and to train me to live a life free from these sins.

What follows is my path from one to four sins, and my "proofs" that The Holy Spirit really does work within me - and if God's Spirit can and will work in me, He will work in anybody.  The procedures I observe here are all possible because of the Holy Spirit. Any improvements within me are due to the blessed intervention of the Holy Spirit, and even with His help I suspect that I have a long way to go - and that's my fault.

There is nothing special about me, nothing to make me worthy of special favor.  So, before I continue, I ask you this:

If you have some habitual area of sin you would like to eliminate from your life, and if you have accepted Jesus into your life, then go ahead and ask the Holy Spirit to help you, to - as Paul said to Timothy - teach you, to rebuke you, to correct you and to train you.  I believe that if you ask with a sincere desire to change, the Holy Spirit will work with you.  However, if you have not asked Christ to take control of your life, realize that such a born-again experience is necessary before the Holy Spirit can be inside you, from where He can help you.

Perhaps you'll receive your help in ways different from my own - perhaps you'll hear His voice, or see the words (at least in your mind's eye).  But based on my experience, my unworthiness and the real and reliable impact of the Spirit, I believe that any Christ-follower can ask for these gifts, and confidently expect to receive them.

So back to my experience.

After I asked in prayer for this help from the Holy Spirit - and I chose to begin with a single and troublesome sin - I didn't know what to expect.

A red flashing light whenever a sin approached?

A blare of trumpets and a thundering voice from above?

To be honest, I wasn't entirely sure that The Holy Spirit lived within me, for I sensed no presence there.  There had been no "dove" moment, no "licking flames of fire" moment, no Pentecostal rushing of wind or, really, anything else.  But I knew I needed help, and I knew I'd accepted the Lord, so I asked for The Holy Spirit to catch me when I sinned.  Preferably quickly enough to short-circuit the sin before it became obvious.

That first sin has many related names. Prejudice. Bigotry.  Pride.  Self-Righteousness.  But I really think it all boiled down to Judgment, and I wanted to, as Scripture says, "judge not, lest I be judged."  What this amounted to was, when I saw someone who was in some way "different," my mind immediately made a (never positive) snap-judgment on that person.

Wild tattoos and equally-wild hair and body-piercing?  Snap-judgment.

Racial, ethnic and religious difference?  Snap-judgment.

Political or philosophical choices?  Snap-judgment.

After I'd come back to church after many years, I realized what this was within me.  I quickly came to hate that sense of self-righteous judgment in myself.  Yet I'd been raised up in a time when judgments were not just acceptable, but expected.  It was part of my family, and part of my culture.  I had no idea how to rid myself of these self-righteous snap-judgments, especially since the reaction within me seemed as quick as thought.

I wasn't sure that even The Holy Spirit (if He did dwell within me) would be fast enough - forgetting, of course, that with God, all things are possible.

What I found was this:

As soon as such a self-righteous judgmental reaction had started - before it could even gain much headway within my awareness - I "received" a clear message that I was about to sinfully judge another.  It wasn't in words - at least not in spoken words. It was more like reading something that had been typed out, yet I could not literally "see the words." Yet I could "read" them, and they were always just words - no emotion came with them.  No emotions of rebuke or correction.   No sense of anything akin to human awareness on the other end of the words. 

It was just a "knowing," in the form of a brief, declarative statement that, more often than not, froze me in my tracks before my sinful, self-righteous judgment could be fully-formed.

I'm not sure what you'd do with a message like this - but what I did, each time, was freeze my reaction in its tracks, then voice a small sub-vocal or softly-spoken prayer thanking the Spirit for convicting and rebuking me.

The more often this happened, the more quickly I was "caught in the act," stopping my next self-righteous judgment before it even got started.  Occasionally, I was rebuked before that reaction could get started, and that proved to be a form of spiritual training intended to prevent sin. This, to me, was and is indeed a gift from God.

I used this "ask-the-spirit" again in dealing with homeless panhandlers.  Once I ignored them with scorn, judging them but also denying them any help.  I even complained to store owners who let the homeless hang out, thereby "forcing me" to run a gauntlet of real human need, "forcing me" to ignore the plight of my fellow man.  In retrospect - now that I know that God expects me to help the needy instead of shunning them - I have the tiniest bit of a sense of what Saul must have felt once he realized that instead of persecuting the followers of Jesus, he should have been one of them.  I don't put myself on the same plane as Paul, except that I "persecuted" a group of people who definitely included "the least of these," in the terms of Jesus.

However, after I'd returned to church after many years, I realized that I was judging these poor and hopeless fellow humans.  Some might have been scam artists, but others were clearly the people Christ had commanded me to help.  Worse, even when I did consider giving them a donation, I was judging their worthiness to receive my alms-gift.  Someone in a wheel chair who'd lost a leg was "worthy."  Someone who seemed physically able, not so much.

But, thankfully one day it was given to me that it was my "job" to offer them my blessing and my charity; it was God's job to deal with those who were running scams.

Still, once I decided to help, there were times when I caught myself changing lanes at an exit ramp to avoid where panhandlers might be hanging out.  That way I wouldn't have to "judge" their worthiness, but I wouldn't have to give, either.

However, the more I thought about it, I realized that each new in-need panhandler was yet another opportunity to give - and that was a blessing ... to me.  So I asked the Holy Spirit to help me to fight off my feelings of judgment and of parsimony, and He has.

Here's the best example I have of how the Holy Spirit has helped me.  Just recently, I not only got into a lane away from where one of these panhandlers might be, but I'd purposely "lost myself" in my smart phone, so I could pretend (to myself) that I didn't see him.

As soon as that hard-hearted act was beyond catching and correcting, I got a most stern rebuke from the Holy Spirit.  It was the inner equivalent of a scolding in bright, fiery letters (that's an analogy, folks - no real flames).  I immediately had to agree with the Spirit that I'd purposefully (not entirely consciously, but not entirely unconsciously, either) avoided the man in question, because I just didn't want to be bothered.  My "need" to be left alone trumped his need for generous help from a fellow human being.  Me.

As I drove away, the shame of what I'd just done sank in.  I really got a sense of what a "rebuke" was.  It was harsh and strong because, as I thought back over it, I recognized that the Spirit had hinted that I should help this man - so I'd not only ignored the man in need, I ignored help from the Spirit - help that I'd specifically prayed to receive.

For something that is neither heard nor seen nor felt, that rebuke "tanned my hide" but good.  And despite the shame and the pain, I thank God for that lesson - it's one I won't easily forget.

Knowing that while it would not erase the sin, it would at least eliminate the damage my sin had caused, I did a u-turn, got back on the freeway, went to the next exit, got off, then circled around and back on, this time heading toward "my" exit.  There, I not only was able to give this hard-luck man something to help him get through the night, along with a blessing, but I also learned that earlier that day, someone had stolen his sleeping bag.  So (assuming he was telling the truth, and I do believe him), he needed my gift even more than on a usual evening.

Doing this did NOT erase my shame, but at least the man on the street corner didn't have to suffer for it.   Very clearly, "somebody" had caught me out and rebuked me most sternly, and rightfully so.  And though it hurt, I was and am grateful for that rebuke from the Holy Spirit.

There are two other sins for which I've asked for help from the Holy Spirit, and have gotten the same kind of help.  First, I realized that I was an "angry" driver - judging others for not driving the way I thought they should.  Driving was like combat, and I was not about to take prisoners.  But since it all remained in my mind (or at least inside my car) I hadn't given it much thought, until I read a scripture and commentary about anger, and the harm my anger does me.

So I asked the Holy Spirit for help, and the results were, no-joke, miraculous.  Now, every time I even start to judge another driver and react with anger, I get a wordless message of calm, and I immediately let go of my rage and calm down.  Sometimes, the Spirit even heads me off before I could react (though in each of those cases, I could tell that anger was just instants away from erupting).  And I find I'm driving much less aggressively - yet, amazingly - still getting to where I'm going in just about the same amount of time.

Finally, and perhaps my biggest sin-challenge, was the sin of bearing false witness.  Even as I admit to this sin of deceit, I find myself reluctant to call it lying.  I'd grown up that way - I was that "bright kid" who was always creating chaos but not getting caught.  Early, I learned that the "right story" was far better than accepting the consequences of my actions.  Unfortunately, that was a lesson I'd carried into my adult life.

My late wife, Karol, did not find that attribute appealing, and for 20 years, I worked on this habit - without God's help, and with only moderate success.  The results were much better than if I hadn't tried, but much worse than it could have been.  And when, as a recent widower, Lynn and I connected and married, I re-embraced my old faith in God and began to try living more as a child of God.  However, when my depression would strike, causing me to miss client/business deadlines, I re-learned the lesson that the "right story" was far better than accepting the consequences of my actions.

But just a few weeks ago, after my wife and I faced and weathered a crisis - and weathered it because I told her uncomfortable truths instead of the "right story," I realized that I no longer wanted to live that way. I no longer wanted to be a follower of the "Father of Lies," Satan.

Having seen what my own efforts could do, once again, I asked the Holy Spirit for help.  So far, I am getting the help that I need, in the same recognizable ways.  I know the Spirit is working in me on this, because I really did NOT want to include this sin into this blog - I'd been content to do three, which is how I'd planned things  But I got a push that could only have come from the Holy Spirit, directing me to own up.  I actually started-and-stopped several times before I wrote this last part.  And truth to tell, I find I have a long way to go.  This is a life-long sinful habit that will not be gone overnight - and won't be gone at all without the diligent help of the Holy Spirit.

After reading this back over, I do not want to come across "self-congratulating" in any sense.  All glory for any of my successes in any of these four areas goes to the Holy Spirit.  He has done all the heavy lifting - all I have to do is listen and respond, which is not always as easy as it might seem - but that difficulty comes from my own hard-heartedness, and not from any lack of rebuking from the Holy Spirit.

Bottom line. If you're a believer in Jesus and have accepted him as your personal savior, then the Holy Spirit lives within you. Ask Him for His help in overcoming some of your more intractable sins ... and you will receive help. Perhaps not like the help I receive, but help.  The Holy Spirit is there for you, but ... hey, you've got to ask.

My Search to Understand The Awesome Nature of God Lead Me to a Proof of God Proved by Science:

Even Secular Scientific Skeptics Can’t Deny This Proof

Introduction:  Far too often, I’d read and either mis-understood - or just didn’t “get” - the idea of the phrase Fear the Lord.  However, once I got studying on it, and asking for help in finding answers, I eeventually came to understand that the Fear of God actually means reverential trust and unreserved awe. 

“Fear” - that in-awe feeling you get when contemplating God's Holy Majesty - is the glimmering of our understanding, as mere mortals, of just how awesome God really is.

The term The Fear of God, as explained in Proverbs (9:10) and Psalms 111:10, is about wisdom.  “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.”

I came to understand that sense of awe, at least intellectually. However, I didn’t “feel” that awe - to me, it was a concept as remote as creation itself.   

I realized that, to really understand The Fear of the Lord, I was going to have to feel awe-struck by God’s majesty. And I desperately wanted to feel this awe, to Fear the Lord and, in doing so, find the beginnings of wisdom.

So, first, I prayed for a clear, unambiguous and “felt” understanding of God’s awesome nature.  Then, having asked for help, I went looking for that awesome nature of the God of Abraham and Moses, the God who sent his only Son to Earth as the perfect blood sacrifice for the sins of all who believe in him.  Including me.

Unexpectedly, I was led back to the beginning of everything – not by some passionate evangelical preacher, but by an extremely well-credentialed scientist writing about the geological origins of the planet earth.  That was the last place I'd have thought to look for that "awe," but God knew right where to lead me.

In the Beginning:  Follow with me as we go back just a bit farther than 13.7 billion years ago, believed by scientists to be “the beginning” of … well, everything. 

Now picture this.  Before “the beginning,” there was nothing.  Literally nothing.  Not even empty space.  Nothing existed.  Not an atom, not a photon, nothing at all.  Not even time. 

As someone grounded in matter, illuminated by light and whipsawed by the steady advance of time, it’s hard for me to imagine a “time” before time, a “time” when none of that existed.

However, God can imagine this.  After all, He was there.  Before He created all that is, the non-existence was:  “Without form and void,” as it says in Genesis 1:2 (KJV).

Then, in a blink of time too short to measure, “nothing” was gone forever.  In that blink, in a flash of light, “everything” was suddenly here. The universe – all of it.  Energy.  Matter.  Mass.  Empty space.  Even time. Created in a flash of light.

Time itself began at that instant. 

Where did all this "everything" come from?  Again, Christians know.

“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”

More than thirteen billion years after that incredible instant, it is now possible for astrophysicists to imagine and describe the universe at the moment of creation.

More to the point, we can, too.  All we have to do look up into the sky on any dark, clear night.  The universe shines forth in incredible majesty. 

However, while we can see our glorious universe today, if we look back to that timeless nothing that didn’t exist (remember, nothing existed) before God said “Let there be light,” it’s hard for me – and, I suspect for any reasoning person – to really comprehend the absence of anything.

Scientists may be able to describe the conditions before the Big Bang with remarkable precision, but I’m not sure that even a genius like Stephen Hawking can really grasp … nothing.

Today, scientists have learned that to uncover the facts about anything in this physical universe, you must answer five simple, specific questions.

Who, what, when, where, why and how.

We can use those six questions to examine what scientists know, and what Christians believe, and perhaps draw some conclusions.

So how do these scientists stack up in their understanding of the sudden creation of the universe?

When it comes to the beginning of everything, scientists can describe in very specific detail “what” happened at the instant of creation.  And they believe they know, plus or minus a hundred-million years, “when” that instant of creation took place. They even know what happened in the nano-seconds after that spectacular instant, as creation started to unfold. 

Scientists also know approximately “where” the Big Bang took place – they are convinced that it remains at the center of our present universe, and that seems logical enough to me to "give it to them."  

But for all their supposed knowledge, these genius-grade scientists cannot explain “why” the Big Bang happened, or “how” it happened.  Or, for that matter, “who” created the singularity (a precise scientific term, explained below) that suddenly erupted into everything that is or ever will be.

Those are the three big questions about which the world’s best astrophysicists and other scientists can’t even offer creative guesses.  Some of those scientists, such as Dr. Robert Hazen, are actually brave enough, and have enough integrity, to admit that they not only don’t have answers, they don’t have clues … or even guesses.

But Christians know the answers to “why,” to “how” and – more important – to “who.”  Their answer can be found in John 1: 1-5 (NIV).  The “beloved disciple” made it clear that God spoke the universe into creation:  

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning. Through Him, all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.   

In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Reluctantly, secular science agrees with scripture that before there was light, there was nothing – not even darkness.  There was nothing at all – not even the absence of something.

That nothingness is an intensely challenging concept. It is hard for scientists – or laymen – to honestly contemplate a nothingness that’s not even an empty, aching void.  However, despite their lack of answers, the challenge of conceiving of what “there” was – before there was anything – is not too great for some philosophers and some scientists to at least try to address. 

For instance, remarkably well-credentialed scientist and author, Dr. Robert Hazen, wrote compellingly of this state of pre-creation non-being in his book, “The Story of Earth – The First 4.5 Billion Years, From Stardust to Living Planet.”  I picked this book up a week or more before I began looking for the "awe" of God, and had no idea what I'd find there. But God knew that I would read:

… at the origin of all things – the Big Bang – about 13.7 billion years ago, by the latest estimates.  That moment of creation remains the most elusive, incomprehensible, defining event in the history of the universe. 

It was a singularity – a transformation from nothing to something that remains beyond the purview of modern science or the logic of mathematics. 

If you would search for signs of a creator god in the cosmos, the Big Bang is the place to start …

Imagine – a secular scientist at the top of his game is forced to turn to the nebulous concept of an un-named creator god to explain something that is beyond his science, his mathematics or his secular scientific philosophy.

Awesome Revelation:  Believe it or not, Dr. Hazen’s book, as represented by that paragraph on the first page of the first chapter (a chapter appropriately called “Birth”) came to me as the answer to that very specific prayer of mine, which I mentioned in the introduction.  

Here's how that came about.

I had been reading the term “fear God,” which is quite prevalent in the Old Testament.  However, that term was quite puzzling to me, a professing but confused Christian living 2,500 years after that first Testament had been written down.  The whole idea of “fearing God” seemed at odds with my conception of a New Testament God who so loved me that he sent his only Son to be crucified, just so I could be forgiven and justified before that same loving God.

However, upon further study, I learned that what is usually translated into modern English as “fear God” or “fear of the Lord” really meant, when it was first written, something like: “hold God in unspeakable awe for the great and powerful things he does,” or words to that effect. 

With that foothold toward understanding finally in my grasp, I prayed to the Holy Spirit for understanding. I wanted to know – to know what – that sense of awe was supposed to be. And then I wanted to feel that awe, to actually “fear God.”

Within days of that prayer, I picked up that book – which I’d ordered from Amazon weeks before I’d began puzzling over the whole “fear God” question.   I love reading popularized hard-science books - I have a passion for it, and this time, that passion led me to answers.

As I was puzzling over that “fear God” question, I read that paragraph quoted above from Dr. Hazen’s The Story of Earth – The First 4.5 Billion Years, From Stardust to Living Planet. 

Suddenly, in the blink of my own eye, I finally began to realize what it meant – and more important, what it felt like – to actually fear God.  Suddenly, I felt what it meant to be in unspeakable awe of God.  And now that I have that sense of awe, I’m not sure I’ll ever find any other single act of God that is more awe-creating than that instant of creation itself.

God not only created the universe – and all that is – in the blink of His eye; He loaded every last bit of “everything” for our entire universe in a spot smaller than a sub-atomic particle, such as an electron or quark.  Everything that is or ever will be, loaded into that invisible speck.  

 If that doesn’t inspire awe, consider this.  Our leading astrophysicists have projected that – based on what we can see and measure – there are more than 100 billion galaxies in our universe.  In those galaxies are an average of 100 billion stars - our Milky Way is enormous, with more than 200 billion stars. 

Orbiting around those billions of stars are at least 500 billion planets in the average galaxy – not to mention moons, planetesimals, asteroids, meteors, comets and space junk left over from the day of creation.  There might be a trillion or more planets orbiting the 100 billion or so stars in that average galaxy.

On some of those trillions of planets, there must be life – and, some of that life on those far-distant planets will be the extraterrestrial equivalent of sparrows. 

God, who created all that exists in our universe, and who keeps track of everything he created – including each sparrow who falls (regardless of the planet the sparrow comes from) – still sent his Son to Earth, to be tortured and murdered as the perfect blood sacrifice for sinners like me who believe in him.  Then, as foretold in prophecy, He rose from the dead to prove His power over death, as well as life.

Now that is awesome!  That is something I can feel.

God’s Creation:  Old and New Testaments alike agree – and no scientist can disprove this belief:  God “spoke” or “breathed” the universe into existence.  Before He spoke the Word, there was nothing. Not even the absence of something.  No time – nor lack of time.  Just … nothing.

Then, at His single Word, with His single breath, and in the blink of God’s eye, everything that has ever existed – or ever will exist in our universe, going back over 13.7 billion years - burst into existence. Everything that is was created in that single divinely-ordained instant.

Who but God could do that?  Even Dr. Hazen, that remarkably well-credentialed scientist who wrote that paragraph, acknowledged that his science could do nothing to explain the instantaneous transition from … nothing … to … something.  To everything.

Dr. Hazen has the intellectual integrity, when he could explain it no other way, to choose to send us looking for an unnamed creator god to explain the Big Bang. To Dr. Hazen, that creator god was not “God” as we know him.  Dr. Hazen wasn’t ready to concede that.  However, Christians should have no trouble filling in the blanks.  There are 44 verses in the bible that attest to the fact that the God of Abraham and Moses is the only God.  So if an unnamed actually creator god exists, He has to be our God of Abraham and Moses.

Returning to the moment of creation, that act he ascribed to the unnamed creator god, Dr. Hazen went on to explain what happened next.

In the beginning, all space and energy and matter came into existence from an unknowable void.  Nothing.  Then something.  The concept is beyond our ability to craft metaphors.

Our universe did not suddenly appear where there had been only vacuum before, for before the Big Bang there was no volume and no time. Our concept of nothing­ implies emptiness – before the Big Bang there was nothing to be empty in.

Then in an instant, there was not just something, but everything that would ever be, all at once.

Remarkably, this “everything that would ever be” – including all the matter to make up, as we know, more than 100 billion galaxies, each averaging more than 100 billion stars – came into existence in a volume smaller than the nucleus of a single atom. 

Scientists use the word “ultra-compressed” to describe this … idea … that everything that exists in our entire universe was contained in a single atom’s nucleus. 

To stretch your mind just a bit farther into the realm of holding God in awe, that sub-atomic particle which contained everything was … all there was.  That infinitesimal point was the entire universe. At the moment of creation, there was nothing except that point.  There was no “outside the universe.”   

That conceptual place, “outside the universe,” didn’t – and still doesn’t – exist.  At least not in a sense physics can define.  And, 13.7 billion years later, there is still nothing “outside the universe.” 

Except for heaven, of course, and hell, but you won’t find many credentialed scientists speculating about that.

For lack of a better term, scientists call that incredible instant when space and time, matter and energy all came into being, all at once, as the “Big Bang,” though most agree that a singularity the size of a sub-atomic particle is hardly "Big," and that there was no actual “bang.” 

However, I call it a miracle, an act of not just a scientifically-acknowledged but unnamed creator god, but the supreme act of creation of our own one and eternal God, the maker of heaven and earth. 

God spoke the Word, and there was light.  And that light illuminated everything.

Awesome Ongoing Creation:  But astrophysicists who study the Big Bang believe that creation – the work of Dr. Hazen's unnamed creator god ­– didn’t stop with that instantaneous creation of … everything.  That undifferentiated point-source of all that is and will ever be – that singularity – had to become … well … differentiated.   

From that single point-source of everything to become the universe we know, God had to create sub-atomic particles like electrons and quarks, then atoms – the building blocks of matter.  He also had to pull from that singularity things we take for granted: atoms, photons, time, energy and empty space.

Astrophysicists believe they can describe with incredible precision what happened every nano-second in the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang, that instant when the Universe burst into existence.  Yet no scientist can explain where “everything” came from, or how “everything” came to be.

Nor do they even have a clue as to why that undifferentiated point source singularity transformed itself into the precise elemental building blocks that were going to be God’s necessary tools for creating life on Earth, and if it exists, elsewhere in our universe.  Nor can these scientists explain the “who” of cosmic creation – God – or “how,” that spoken Word that created everything. 

Literally.

Conclusion:  Awesome God, and His awesome universe.

There was nothing random about what Dr. Hazen’s creator god did in charting out what happened from that instantaneous moment of singularity all the way through the unfolding creation of the universe.   

Our God has kept creating – stars and planets and galaxies.  And Man.  Life on our planet, and God’s crowning achievement. One that includes Dr. Hazen and all the skeptical scientists who cannot, at least not with intellectual rigor, explain away God and His creation.

With hard-science degrees from MIT, Harvard and Cambridge, Dr. Hazen knows the limits of science.  He knows where science ends and the creator god begins.

One instant, there was nothing.  The next immeasurably short span of time later, “everything” was here.

It was almost as if God spoke the Word, and everything was created, all at once.

Now, when I pray to God, I know what it feels like to “fear God” – to be in awe of his incredible powers.  I conjure up 100 billion galaxies, each averaging 100 billion stars – those numbers are awesome enough.  Then I consider all the planets that might have sparrow-like creatures, each of which God marks when it falls.  

 I think of the intricate dance of creation, where massive early-generation stars had to blow up to create the elements necessary for life which then coalesced in other stars, and other planets.  And those blew up, too, adding more elements and triggering the creation of our Earth 4.5 billion years ago.

Finally, I think of the billions of people on this planet of ours today – and all the billions who came before us – and consider that God knows and loves each one of them.  He sent his Son to Earth to atone for all the sinners who would come to believe in Christ.  Then He sent out, generation after generation, apostles and missionaries to make disciples of all nations, and all people.

With all that swirling in my head, I think on how God sent his Son to suffer and die for me - specifically for me - so that I may have eternal life. 

If you can’t find a bit of awe in all of that, you’re not trying very hard.

 I welcome your insights.

 ***

Footnote – Defining singularity:  Here are scientific and mathematical definitions of that word, “singularity” which defines the universe at the instant of its creation:

Astronomy & Physics: A singularity is a point in space-time, such as a black hole, at which matter has infinite density and infinitesimal volume and the curvature of space-time is infinite.

Mathematics: A singularity is a point at which the derivative does not exist for a given function but every neighborhood of which contains points for which the derivative exists.