Tried Like Silver
For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried.
(Psalms 66:10) ESV
Gravity is the force by which creation is being purified. It lets us reconcile physics, chemistry and biology with the broad narrative of scripture and the concepts of baptism, refinement and cleansing.
The Purpose of Creation
The purpose of creation is to bring about the permanent physical separation of light from darkness, day from night, good from evil.
– The Purpose of Creation
We’re making the case that God created the universe for a specific purpose. Understanding this purpose helps us to understand the world that we live in and the universe which surrounds it. This purpose also allows us to understand science as part of the ongoing plan God has to redeem mankind, rather than as a hodgepodge of disparate disciplines. We can incorporate physics, chemistry, biology and geology into a narrative which is in perfect harmony with the account of creation summarized in Genesis and expounded upon throughout scripture.
Here’s a partial list of scientific concepts which we’ve woven into the Biblical narrative of our theory of creation so far:
Scientific Concepts in Scripture
- Particle Physics
- First cause (before the big bang),
- Particle physics and the origin of the deep,
- Nucleosynthesis and the origin of the periodic table of elements (the big bang),
- Neutrons and the inherent corruption in the universe,
- the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR).
- Abiogenesis and the origin of life
- Descent with modification (devolution).
- Gravity
- gravity and the core accretion model,
- the firmament and the missing mass of the universe,
- the brightly shining wall on the edge of space.
- Relativity
- Absolute frame of reference and the weak nuclear force,
- frame of reference and the Geocentrospheric model,
- the unified field theory of gravitation and electromagnetism,
- a unified theory of everything, gravity, magnetism and redemption.
- Geology
- Radial shrinkage and circumferential shortening,
- Plate tectonics.
The Reason for Creation
The reason for creation is the manifestation of sentient life with free will.
– The Reason for Creation
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
(Ephesians 3:14) KJV
Having a purpose is great, but then we ought to be asking WHY? Why does there need to be a creation which has a purpose? Obviously the purpose of creation is part of a reason for creation. The Greek word translated reason in many Bibles is translated in the KJV as cause.
We have unified physics, chemistry, biology, geology and scripture into a reason, or cause. But this brings us again to WHY? Why does God need sentient beings with free will? Where we have to get to is a place of peace in our hearts because we can reconcile the ideas that God is loving and merciful but there are consequences for our choices and hell is real. This is when we’ll have the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything.
The Ultimate Answer
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;
(1 Peter 3:15) NKJV
Douglas Adams made a fortune writing an irreverent comedy about the answer to life, the universe and everything. There is one, he just didn’t find it.
Why did God create the universe?
The answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything:God created the universe so that sentient beings with free will could make a choice between light or darkness, life or death.
– The Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything
The choice is to believe in Jesus Christ. But how? How can choosing Jesus Christ have any bearing on physics, chemistry, biology or geology? Here’s how: The earth, at the center of creation, is part of a purification process. The force acting to purify the universe is gravity. Only the pure can go on into eternity with God, but purification can only be achieved by believing in Jesus Christ. Believing in Jesus Christ is the only thing which has the power to overcome gravity.
We can deduce the rationale behind this in two ways, through both scripture and physics. We’ll take scripture first and show you how three important concepts tie physics to the broad narrative of scripture:
- Sanctification (purification)
- Refinement (fining, tried)
- Cleansing
Here is how the words are often used:
- A word often used in the Bible for purify is sanctify or sanctification.
- A word used for the process of purification, or the refinement that applies to precious metals, is tried.
- When the process of purification is applied to people it’s referred to as cleansing.
Sanctification
Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God.
(Leviticus 20:7) KJV
In the Old Testament sanctification was a ceremonial ritual done in preparation for a religious observance. We have to be sanctified before we can enter the presence of the Lord.
And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the LORD will do wonders among you.
(Joshua 3:5) KJV
Refinement
The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts.
(Proverbs 17:3) KJV
The words tried and fining are used to describe purification. The Word of God is pure, and it’s the means by which we experience spiritual cleansing.
The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
(Psalm 12:6) KJV
Isaiah combines the concepts of being refined in a fire with the removal of pollution.
Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.
(Isaiah 48:10-11) KJV
Cleansing
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
(Ephesians 5:25-26) KJV
The cleansing has been accomplished by the work that Christ did to create and cleanse the universe, through physics, chemistry and biology, which is pictured for us by his sacrificial death on the cross at Calvary, and by his resurrection. This is played out in our lives as we live our lives to honor the Lord.
That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
(1 Peter 1:7) KJV
The Time of the End
And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed.
(Daniel 11:35) KJV
There will be a spiritual cleansing at the end of the age.
Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
(Daniel 12:10) KJV
This is the reason why Christians have been given the commission to reach out to the world. The accumulation of impurities is called the Earth, and because of the inherent instability of matter the core has melted and there’s a literal physical hell of burning fire inside it. Once the impurities have accumulated the mass will be discarded into outer darkness. Do you want to be discarded with it? It’s not personal. God isn’t being mean.
Salvation
- Call upon the name of Jesus Christ,
- believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
- confess your sin.
Read through the Bible in a year
| Reading plan | February 20 | |
| Linear | Deuteronomy 16-20 | |
| Chronological | Leviticus 22-23 |
Matty's Paradigm 