The Fundamental Blog

In many circles of alternate theology you may find the idea passed around that we are all co-creators with God. Even within some supposedly Christian ministries, the idea of Naming-and-Claiming is put forth to the laity, though this is generally a thinly veiled prelude to asking for money. To the true Christian, this is rubbish. These professors of need fulfillment by the supposed doctrine of Give-to-Get and Name-and-Claim theologies prey on the unlearned and their doctrinal weakness. What amazes me most is that people will go along with whatever they say simply because the name of Jesus is tossed into the mix. What I can not understand is this; If the concept of giving-to get were a sound doctrine, why don’t the charlatans asking others to give, simply, “give,” away their own wealth and then retire on the bounty of the, “get,” which they would then be due? If we truly are co-creators along side God, why do we still have need?

If co-creation were a reality, don’t you think that we would have figured out by now how to feed, clothe and provide education and medical care to the indigent third world nations, (not to mention ourselves)? Co-creation is a myth. God tells us in Proverbs 14:2, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” It may seem plausible that we could influence the created things of earth, even cause creation, if a mind can endure a flight of fancy to that extent, but it only made up out of men’s heads. “Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.” Psalm 144:4. Still, we seem to want to favor the imaginations of men instead of the Word of God which clearly tells us that men are simple fools.

I know that these verses of Scripture are not saying that we can not create our existence but only that men are foolish, and that the things we might create are bound to lead us toward a way which is ultimately death. Before we go on, lets consider just this much for a moment. How could it be that if we were capable of creating anything at all, we would create things that would ultimately harm us? If we were able to speak things into existence, one would think that the training of the use of such power would begin in our elementary years, that our middle schools would be examples of adolescent fulfillment, that there would be scores of university doctoral programs based upon the right use of creative power. But hold on; I guess that if this were true we wouldn’t need training because we could self-create the perfect base of creative knowledge for ourselves. How can people claim that co-creation is even possible when we can not even reconcile the hot-dog industry with the bakers of hot-dog buns in order that they might find agreement on the number of items that should be in a package?

Look around and see if you can come up with anything that you can say was created by man. I’ll wager that you can not. “A man built my house!” No; God gave the abilities and the skill set to men who were then able to re-arrange the resources that God created, to put them together in such a way as to build a house, but they didn’t create it. Making something out of things that already exist doesn’t count as creating. Creation is making something out of nothing and that, friends, is the providence of God alone. In Ecclesiastes 1:9-10, we read, “…there is no new thing under the sun. Is there anything whereof it may be said, see, this is new? It hath been already of old time which was before us.” We may see something that we have never seen before, something that someone has put together in a way that we find unique, but not something that is truly new.

Rearranging the building blocks of God does not make us creators or even co-creators. The idea in the mind that has us stacking those blocks in different ways, the very mind itself that receives the idea, even the blocks themselves, all came from God. But let’s push on a bit and consider this; Can you name anything that was not made besides God Himself? The heavens and the earth and all that is in them are the work of the hands of God. Even the prayer we offer to God is His own, in origin. God established the avenue of communication we call prayer, the petition we set before Him is given to us by Him, the heart to come in prayer by faith is ours only because He has drawn us to Himself, and the utterance of the words is by the power of God’s Holy Spirit living in us. This is, I believe, the point Paul is making in 1Corinthians 4:7 when He tells us, “… what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” Paul is saying that everything we have, we have by grace from the hand of God, and that being the case, we should not act as though we got it on our own, apart from our Heavenly Father.

“But words contain the power of creation.” No, they do not. All creative power remains with God. For the next couple of proofs of God’s sole creative providence, a Trinitarian understanding is essential. We must be able to understand, and agree, that though the God of the Christian Bible is one, He is revealed in three personages, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Three, “who-s,” but only one, “what.” What I am getting at is that Christ Jesus is fully God as the Father is God, and as the Holy Spirit is also God. John 1:3 says, “All things were made by him, [God/Christ]; and without him was not anything made that was made.” Again, in Colossians 1:16, “For by him, [Christ], were all things created … … all things were created by him and for him.” There are other verses as well that attribute creation to God, and not just creation, but ALL creation! The point that ALL was created by God seems to be one that God really wants us to understand, that’s why He repeats it so often in Scripture, He wants us to really, “get it.”

This leaves us to consider that since God is responsible for EVERY-thing that has been created, man can rightfully claim ownership of NO created thing; further, since all things apart from God Himself are created things, man has created nothing. Equally true, man has co-created nothing as well. “But the other day, I was thinking of how much I wanted to talk with my Aunt Edna and I spoke out loud, ‘Aunt Edna, I wish you would call,’ and before the words had hardly left my mouth, the phone rang and it was her!” So you and your aunt both heard the prompting of God through the Holy Spirit at the same time and you now want to claim ownership of the event instead of praising God for His goodness? You, speaking the words, didn’t make her call. “You just don’t understand, words are containers and we fill them with meaning. When we speak that meaning into the realm of existence they go out and return manifest in reality.” Really?

If that were so, why don’t we have thousands of lottery winners every week? If we were able to create, or co-create, why can’t we tell our checkbook that it is going to have an additional $10,000.00 in it the next time we open it up, and when we open it, it’s there? Why does the supposed co-creationist usually end up with negative results? They don’t seem to be able to create security and personal wealth, but when they are caught out in a rain storm and say, “I’m going to catch a cold,” and do, it’s credited as being their own fault for, “putting it out there?” People all have needs. If co-creation were a viable doctrine, how could need still exist? Hungry people would create a ham sandwich, poor people would create a rent check and sick people would create medical miracles! The reality of this world is that it is fallen. We can create nothing on our own; apart from God there is no creative power in the universe and we need to see that as long as we pretend to share in the divinity which is the sole providence of God, we are in sinful rebellion against Him.

Our need is supplied: every needful thing is given; and everything that is given is needed. We may not understand that the things that God creates for us, provides for us and directs us toward, are the things that are truly needed. As we walk down the road that ultimately leads us to Hell, we don’t need lighter clothes, a fan and a cool drink of water, no; we need a Saviour that can turn us around and bring us safely home to paradise with Him. This is a need which God has already supplied but the problem is that too many people don’t recognize the need for Jesus. How can a person ever hope to create, or co-create their own utopia when they can not even see that the lock to the garden gate is already open and that the price is already paid for their admission? When you stand before the bar of God’s judgment and He examines your heart, as he will examine the hearts of all men, we need to be sure that the message He reads there is…


All for the Glory of Christ

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