The universe does not operate on the basis of its own power. Today, R.C. Sproul teaches that the continued existence of all creation depends every moment on God’s sustaining hand.
I would think it would be a more than safe bet to say that 99 percent of the people who are alive in the world, and even 99 percent of Christian people in the world today, think in terms of the universe’s operating on the basis of its own power. The assumption of our modern worldview is somewhat mechanical—namely, that there is such a thing as the laws of nature, which laws operate according to inherit power. That is, power within objects, forces within this world that have built-in power. So if you observe a pool game in progress and you see the one player step up to the table with his cue stick in hand, and he then aims the cue stick at the cue ball, and he moves his arm, issuing a cue stroke, as it were, a billiard stroke, and the tip of the cue stick then hits the cue ball. And when that happens, what immediately follows is the cue ball begins to move and roll across the table and hopefully hits the intended object ball, which had been at rest.
Once the object ball is hit by the cue ball, then a couple of actions take place. The cue ball can carom off the object ball or spin back or follow forward, depending on what spin you impart to it. And you hope that then the action of the object ball is that it rolls across the table and sinks into the pocket as you intended. So that the player is using his mind; he has an intention to carry out a purpose, and so, he exercises his force on the cue stick, which then imparts force to the cue ball, which then imparts force to the object ball, which then moves and goes into the pocket. And our assumption is that there’s some transfer of energy going on here in this sequence as we observe it, so the one thing causes another thing which causes another thing which causes another thing, and that that power is real and active.
Again, the theologian asks the question, “Well, does that mean that the universe operates without any assistance from God, other than His imparting the initial motion or the initial power to His universe at the time of creation?” Classically and historically, the Christian faith affirms that the ultimate power in the universe by which, and upon which, every other power depends, not only originally but moment by moment, is the power of God. Remember the Apostle Paul, when he debated with the Athenian philosophers, said that it was in God we live and move and have our being. And you recall when we looked at the early stages of philosophy in the pre-Socratic era, that one of the major questions that philosophers were discussing was the question of motion. What makes anything move? Which is really a question of causality.
And so, the Christian view has always been that God is not only the prime mover in the sense of the first mover but that no motion can take place in this world ever. No power can be exerted at any time apart from the power of God. That God does not create a universe that functions or operates independently from His moment-to-moment empowering of it. The Christian idea is there is no inherent power in nature, but that nature’s power is always dependent upon the primary source of power who is God. Now people don’t think like that in the twentieth century. Here, a secular view of the world has virtually captured the thinking of people today.
