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so if god said let there be light and there was light was he living in the dark? looks like it 2 me
I think I might be able to clarify the Christian position.
The bible begins with the words: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and the darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.” (Gen 1:1, 2). The phrase “in the beginning, God created” can also be translated roughly from Hebrew as “When God began to create.”
St. John’s Gospel begins: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:1-5) In Greek the word for “word” is “logos” which was also understood at the time to mean the whole of being, or the whole of existence.
You are correct in saying that darkness is in fact absence of light. Darkness as we find it today is not made, but rather exists when the light does not shine in a particular place. However, the dualism that you suggest is not compatible with the logical proofs of the existence of God that St. Thomas Aquinas developed. (In order for the Universe to exists, everything had to come from somewhere, and in the beginning there had to be one source from which the universe as a whole would draw its existence.)
Even if, as you suggest, the two were contained within one being, that logic still does not hold because “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand; and if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand?” (Mt. 12:25, 26)
What the 1st section of Genesis suggests is that God, by his own power, created something outside himself. The darkness that existed “in the beginning” “when God began to create,” is indicative of the separation of the world of the earth from God, who is “the word” and “the light.” We are separate, because God created us separate from himself.
Our free-will is not a God unto itself, but rather a manifestation of the created reality that we are created separate from God the creator. The purpose of that freedom is that we have the ability to truly say “yes” to God. As G. K. Chesterton said in his book Orthodoxy, it’s like the Christian God cut off his own hand so that the hand might shake hands with him by its own free will.
You also asked about Satan, and the existence of dark or fallen angels. The word angel means messenger. God created the angels as rational creatures, which mean that they have an intellect and a will, but they are purely spiritual beings; they do not have physical bodies. Satan is a word that means enemy or adversary. Satan and the other fallen angels used their gift of free-will to oppose God, and were cast out of heaven (Rev 12:7-9). As an angel, a messenger, “he is a liar and the father of lies,” set in opposition to God, who is truth (Jn 8:44; Jn 14:6).
The mystery of evil that you allude to is the result of the exercise of his free will in a way other than what God intended. “God did not create death, and he does not delight in the death of the living.” (Wis. 1:13) There is a difference between God’s divine will, and his permissive will. His divine will is what he wants to happen; his permissive will is what he allows to happen. However, his permissive will is always ordered to his divine will.
He allows evil to exist because he intends to bring out a greater good from it. Good things can come out of bad situations. Suffering can build character like weight training can build muscle. The mysterious part about the mystery of evil is how exactly he intends to bring the good out of evil. That is the question humans can’t answer.
The Good News is that God is not just a passive observer in all the mess and the evil that abounds in the world. As Christians, we believe that God sent his only begotten son to Earth in order to suffer and die in order to conquer the power of sin, death, and evil as a whole.
It looks like sin is victorious in this world, but that is an illusion, a lie from the lying devil. God allows it to persist because of his permissive will. He will unveil the truth when the time comes. (By the way, the word “Apocalypse” is the Greek word for unveiling.)
Until then, we need to recognize that God is still present among us. The Church is the Body of Christ (Col 1:24). I don’t mean the Church as in the building, but the communion of believers. The people aren’t perfect, but in striving together to fulfill Christ’s commands, we are all working together towards holiness, making the world more like heaven one good deed at a time.
Christ is already victorious; the battle has already been won. Christ’s calling is to trust God, while loving our neighbor as ourself in order to demonstrate to the unbeliever the loving nature of the God who lives in us, so that they may come to believe (Jn 15).
Sorry to take up so much space, but I thought this might help shine some light on the topic. I hope this helps
darkness is rather absense of light so if god is light then satan is darkness how come seeing as god is light how did he have angel's of darkness with him how did he let his own angel's get wicked did he turn the same blind eye as now when true followers of god die at the hand of ppl with darkness inside them when u ignore wrong doing rnt u the same as the one doing it coz u never did anything 2 prevent it so god must have darkness in him coz u cant be good if u rnt bad coz then u wouldnt get good or bad so u would have 2 do both at a stage 2 know what is good 4rm bad so i think god and satan r one in the same three in one good,bad,and free will 2 decide what is good or bad
I was born into a christian family I was a christian 4rm when I could understand a bit of what is going on 4rm about 7 years old or so I thought because everything was a just is so because the bible says and you cant question god what the bible says is the word of man the only word of god as fare as any one can say was the stone tablets the ten comandments nothing else in the whole bible is the word of god, who then did god tell about when and how he made the world that we now live in who was there in the first place 2 write down the events of god making the earth its such a load of crapp
so in saying that haileybre gods light never shines on us because because he is never here he is in hevan the whole tym then people say he sends his angels down 2 look over you but didnt gods best angel become satan so would you realy want his lesser angels looking after you why does his angels have different grades in the first place
Rev. 21:23 says that the New Jerusalem will not need the sun or the moon, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is the light.
My belief is that the third heaven where God resides had no need for light, because he was there, and when he said, Let there be light, he was speaking of the light for the earth.
Thanks bazz for your opinion, but I'll stick with what God's word, the Bible, says rather than your mixed (human/worldly)theories - remember, God said 'my thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways, are not your ways' - just Maybe, He's Bigger than you....maybe....Take care !!
No he was not living in the dark. he said let there be light while he was creating the earth. he was not living on the earth. he was living in heaven.
and like amblessed said God himeself IS light.
He wasn't living in the dark, because darkness is created. Rather, he lived in the absence of anything...dark is just an easy way to think about it. When nothing existed, he did.
i agree that the new jerusalem wont need the sun or moon 4 light ist called a light bulb oh and if he was at the third heaven where is he now?
bazz you are VERY confused - if you read the Bible, you'll find your answers...Take care !!
Everyone is right, and besides, you can't see in the dark, and God is the ultimate light
God IS light - the new creation needed physical light so He spoke it.
