In the Beginning was Light

In the Beginning was light!

The void of an empty universe, not yet created, was God whom did create everything, and everything became something from nothing; but not in time and space.  Since God is not confined to time and space the following is attributable to humanity alone.  

“In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters.”  “Then God said, let there be light, and there was light.  God saw how good the light was.”  (Gen. 1: 1-4)  

“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 came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be.  What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”  (Jn. 1: 1 - 5).

Darkness is overcome through Light and the Word of God is that Light.  This phenomenon is the  beginning of creation even though like God there is not a type of birth; it always has been!

From the Confessions of Augustine as he responded to the question of creation; as this very question was raised he says; “Let me hear and understand how in the beginning you made the heaven and earth.  Moses wrote this, wrote and parted, passed hence from you to you.”  “For if he were standing before me I would hold him and ask him, and beseech him by yourself to open these things to me.”  “But, since I cannot inquire of him, I beseech you - you, O Truth, full of whom he spoke truth - you my God my God, I beseech to forgive my sins, and as you gave to him to speak these things, grant me also to understand them.”   (cf Confessions Book XI chapter 3).

“Behold, the heavens and the earth are.  They proclaim that they were made, for they change and vary.  On the other hand, whatever is, but has not been created, has nothing in it now which was not there before.  This is what it is to change and vary, that something is there that was not there before.  They also proclaim that they did not make themselves.  We are because we have been made;  we did not exist before we existed, and therefore could not have made ourselves.  (cf Confessions Book XI chapter 4).

“What did God do before he made heaven and earth?”  “He was preparing hell for those who pry into his mysteries!”  “I boldly say that before God made heaven and earth, he did not make anything.  For if he created, what did he make but a creature?  And would that I knew all that I desire to know for my profit as well as I know that no creature was made before any creature was made.”   (cf Confessions Book XI chapter 12).

From Book XII Chapter 3, Augustine says, “Have you not taught me, O Lord. that before you formed and separated this formless matter there was nothing - neither color, nor figure, nor body, nor spirit?  And yet, it was not absolutely nothing, for there was a certain formlessness without any shape.”  

To believe the premise that the universe was formed before our world came into being is not a matter of understanding this mystery.  If this creation was done in increments, as in building a formed structure, it would place God in a matter of time.  Forgetting God has no beginning, this theory would mean that he created the universe in a past tense and now was in the process of creating what we hear from Genesis.  Placing God in a sense of time and space means God will have a future and at some point everything has a termination.  It isn’t in trying to analyze how or when the universe and our part of the cosmos came into being, but accepting and thanking God for what we’ve inherited as part of his plan.  

Augustine continues with; “This is what I envisage, O my God, when I hear your Scripture saying, In the beginning God created heaven and earth, and the earth was invisible and without form, and darkness was upon the deep - not mentioning what day you created them.  This is what I understand, that it is on account of that heaven of heavens, that intellectual heaven where to understand means to know all at once  - not in part, not darkly, not through a glass, but as a whole, in full view, face to face.  It is to know not this thing now, but all at once, without any succession of time.”  (cf Confessions Book XI chapter 13).

Therefore, time and space, light overcoming darkness, the beginning mentioned in Scripture still exists the need to learn and understand Augustine’s inquiry and our acceptance of the same.  This article adds to the question and the answer to it remains profoundly a mystery.

Ralph B. Hathaway, Spring 2021