by F.J. Foster

Created on: January 07, 2009   Last Updated: September 14, 2010

Probably no other question is more commonly asked, at least of Christians, than this. One essayist describes the topic as a conundrum, but assumes that strict Bible-believers are free from such worries because they are "faith-based," and not guided by "logical understanding."  As a result, she notes, such people can believe in a talking snake in the Garden of Eden, a man able to live in a whale, a herd of demon-possessed pigs, "... and that a man alone could build an ark that could house one of every animal. If you believe these things, it probably would not surprise you or seem absurd to you if you were told that God created Himself."   Oh, yes it would. But first, let's look at those former examples.

Nobody knows what the newly created world was like. The Bible is light on details. And nobody knows what ability Satan possessed to disguise himself.   Such a being, however, would probably have little difficulty impersonating a snake.

The Old Testament says nothing about a whale. It might have been that, or maybe even a large shark. The key to that puzzle really lies in the wording. The Bible describes a great fish, but more importantly that God had "prepared" it.  What was that preparation?  God might, for example, have caused the fish to sleep during the time Jonah was inside, thus slowing down, or even stopping, digestion. A God capable of creating man is capable of sustaining him, no matter the circumstances.

The herd of swine into which Jesus drove the demons was observed and reported by eyewitnesses. The gospels are eyewitness accounts written during the lifetimes of the witnesses. Without credible evidence, the early church would have rejected the gospels. Nobody was going to put their life on the line for something they weren't absolutely sure had actually occurred.

As for Noah, the usual assumptions are made here - and, as usual, they are wrong. He was not told to build an ark alone. He could have hired all the help he needed. In addition, he was given 120 years to complete the task. And he was not told to take one of every animal. He was told to take creatures of every "kind" by twos, and of those that were clean, by sevens. We have no idea what a "kind" was, but it obviously wasn't every single species.

As to God creating Himself, the idea is absurd. There cannot be a "self-caused being." It is logically impossible for anything that doesn't exist to

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