December 18 2023
NATURE AND MIRACLE.
I have a Dutch book, called Natuur en Wonder, written by Dr. J. H. Diemer, who died in a German Concentration Camp in 1945, being arrested for his anti-Nazi work during the 1940-45 German occupation of the Netherlands.
With a doctorate in biology, and writing from a Christian perspective, he was well qualified to provide insights into the matter of Creation, and its origin.
His writing is quite scholarly, pure academic parlor, making it a challenge to translate and his words acceptable to a wider audience. I am not sure whether I did manage this. Also, I started translating half-way in the book: missing the context.
Due to this my translating is more like paraphrasing: “Everywhere in the cosmos, creatures, in all their manifestations, both living and non-living, live in complete harmony with each other and, within their perfectly natural surroundings, show that their life-goal is service. For this reason a great treasure of connections is maintained between these different creatures, so intimately interwoven that it’s nearly impossible to detect their interlocking features”.
Basically, Dr. Diemer re-states the old adage: “everything is connected to everything else, from the tiniest amoeba to the giant whale.”
This is confirmed when he writes:
“That’s why the total exceeds the sum of its parts and, in the end, it all exists to serve God’s kingdom, from which we cannot exclude one solitary happening in heaven or on earth.”
Remember, this was written before 1943, some 80 years ago!
It is now clear that our tampering, our interfering with creation, has caused the atmospheric plight we now experience.
He then emphasizes the term: “God’s Kingdom”, a topic that dominates Jesus’ teaching. God’s Kingdom comprises everything ever created. When, through our greed species disappear – 40% of all frogs are gone, unnatural forest fires cause Climate Change – these actions constitute sins against God’s Kingdom, disrupting the totality of creation, now quite evident.
Prayer and the Kingdom.
Dr. Diemer writes: “When healing happens after fervent prayers or when it occurs somehow else, then really no supernatural intervention takes place. An answer to prayer for a believer, can be a sign of the miracle of God’s providential intervention. Here nothing ‘supernatural’ takes place, but through the guidance of faith the action is steered in a certain direction, which would not be the case without prayer and faith.”
Dr. Diemer connects prayer to the Kingdom, Jesus’ foremost preaching topic. He writes:
“A prayer request is only granted when the desired outcome serves the coming of God’s Kingdom”.
That begs two questions: (1) what constitutes God’s Kingdom, (2) what benefits its coming,
- What constitutes God’s Kingdom?
I have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating because it concerns the heart of the gospel: “Seek first the Kingdom!”. In a book I have translated: “Between the Beginning and the End: A Radical Kingdom Vision, by Dr. J. H. Bavinck, he devotes an entire chapter to this concept, a vision, generally not acknowledged by the church, which Dieterich Bonhoeffer has labeled, “Pious Secularism”, having the cake of creational exploitation, with a bit of Jesus’ icing on top.
Bavinck writes: “On every page the Bible makes plain that the meaning of creation resides only is the one overarching motif: God’s Kingdom. That’s why Scripture and Creation are never at odds: they form a unity where the one reinforces the other.” Genesis 1: 31 tells us that God was very pleased when he completed his act of creation, and said, “Behold is was very good.”The world in which we live, and all it contains, constitutes God’s Kingdom. John 3: 16 relates the purpose of Jesus’ crucifixion: To buy back creation from God’s arch enemy.
- What benefits the Kingdom’s coming?
Prayer benefits the coming of the Kingdom. Our daily prayer must be “Thy Kingdom Come”. Then try to make it come: Ora et Labora, is a saying the first Christians lived by: Pray and Work. 2,000 years ago, becoming a follower of The Way, meant leaving family, sacrifice livelihood, be ostracised by the larger community. Today it means being a creation-devotee, seeing and practising Creation as holy, and helping the destitute and poor, implementing Psalm 24: “The earth is the Lord’s and everything it contains.”
A vibrant implementing of this text, helps the Coming of the Lord, living a sacred life in anticipation of The New Creation to come.
Is it still possible to pray for the coming of the kingdom while our entire lifestyle is sinful?
Luther said, (In Latin, then the language of scholars), Pecca Fortiter, Sin Bravely. We have, under the guidance of The Evil One, God’s Arch Enemy, created a world, where God’s plan is completely thwarted. Trying to live according to New Creation Standards has become impossible. Yet, we must Ora et Labora: Pray and Work