Created Order
“Our roots, our heritage, and our life experiences shape us, for in them, as in every aspect of the created order, the hand of the Lord is present…Our lives are always a work in progress….Our misuse of the created order, and desire to be creators in our own right, is at the root of our great illness, our fallen condition.” (Dynamis 4/4/2018, Edith M. Humphrey)
“Cain functions as the archetypal sinner. His trespass, and the curse by which it contaminates the created order, is likewise a microcosm of the effects of all human sin on the world. The most serious sins—namely idolatry, sexual immorality, and murder—tainted the earth itself and demanded sinful humanity be expunged for it to be purified (Lev. 18:24–28). Sin and wickedness, far from violations of arbitrarily imposed “rules,” are evil because they destroy right relationship between humanity and the created order…Because sin violates and corrupts the created order and its justice, it has consequences within creation. Corruption produces strife, discord, and death. Corruption gives a foothold within the creation to spiritual powers hostile to humanity.” (Fr. Stephen De Young)
“Death enters into the created order as a force of chaos, however it is not an eternal force because it belongs to the created order and thus is limited by time and space. It has no power over eternity or God, nor over those united to God. The book of Revelation makes it clear that as death had a beginning in the created order, it will also come to an end and does not continue in the eschaton. Death and Hades will not be able to hold the dead, and Death itself will be destroyed. The end of Death means no one will be permanently or eternally separated from God.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh)
“God can be known through His creation, but He cannot be understood or analyzed as though He were part of the created order, because He is uncreated and beyond human comprehension… Contemplating creation can help us understand God, but only if we already believe in God. And without faith it is impossible to please God. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him (Hebrews 11:6). Looking to creation to somehow ‘prove’ God’s existence can turn God into a part of creation rather than the source and ground of our being. God is not part of the created order and cannot be known by our reducing God to something that can be studied or proven by the created order….this is part of the mystery of God who is both immanent and transcendent. God touches moments in history, enters into the lives of individuals, and yet a huge part of what God is doing remains outside of our experience and beyond what we can know. God acts in His own way and time bringing about salvation, the restoration of the entire cosmos, yet doing it within the created order’s limits posed by time and space.” (Dr. Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, Fr. Ted Bobosh)
“Once you pit the symbolic against the real, once you forget that this world is real only because it is the symbol of the heavenly realm, then everything about the created order becomes by definition arbitrary. If creation is not a symbol of heaven, then its beauty and its goodness are no longer anchored in an underlying and eternal truth. In fact, an arbitrary world is somehow not only “false,” but also neither beautiful nor good.” (Timothy G. Patitsas)
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