What We Learn From Reason

First, human reason is helpful, but the issue is primarily a biblical one. That is, divine revelation is the proper place to find answers, and the issue will only be settled on its authority.

However, some people object to this.

The End for Which God Created the World, by Jonathan Edwards (Author), Jason Dollar (Editor)

It is interesting that Edwards begins here, with reason, not Scripture. He gives many reasons why Scripture is the best source, but he nevertheless opens with arguments from reason. It seems he wants to bring those who respect reason as the primary source of understanding into this conversation. Perhaps starting with Scripture would have driven such as these away.

He also wants to deal with the various arguments people bring from reason on this topic – clearing away the brush, so to speak.

So, on to his arguments:

1) God is not in any way dependent upon what he has made, nor did he create the world as a result of some personal insufficiency.

Reason demonstrates that God is infinite, eternal, unchanging; God is independently glorious and happy. If He were not these things, we would not consider such a being to be God – as we would not accept an imperfect God.

God needs nothing from the creatures He has made. God created everything from nothing; had there been some material with which God created, we would have looked for the creator of that material – He would be God.

All of creation is dependent on Him. in this case, how could He be dependent on something from creation?

2) The existence of God precedes any actions he performs, which means his existence cannot be the ultimate end of any of his actions.

For God to act, He first had to exist. Therefore, His divine works depend on God’s powers and attributes as noted in the first argument – His perfections. None of His works can happen without these. From this we can reach one conclusion: that which is valuable in itself is also capable of being sought and obtained by God in His ultimate end for creating the world.

3) God’s ultimate end in creating the world must possess the attributes of originality, highest value, and attainability.

These attributes are foundational for what is to be learned next. What is meant by each?

Originality: God existed before creation and He knew the purpose of creation before He created. How does anyone build or create something without having in mind what it is he wants to create, and what the purpose of that which is to be created is?

Highest value: it must be the most valuable thing in existence. If it is something of lesser value, then why would God have created a thing of higher value?

Attainable: something God is capable of attaining. It must be possible for God.

4) If it is possible for God to be his own ultimate end, then he is morally obliged to do so.

God existed prior to creation (obviously), and He is the most valuable thing in existence (nothing else comes close). With this, He meets the first two criteria. He is also perfect and holy – and, inherently, perfection and holiness are attainable for God.

It is, therefore, fitting that every other being in existence show God the proper honor and respect he deserves in everything they think, say, or do.

With all this, it is clear that God Himself is the highest object of God’s moral respect. Compared to Him, what worthiness does any other being hold? Morally, God is obligated to respect and honor Himself more than any other being. God’s ultimate goal in creating the world is to show supreme honor and respect to Himself.

5) Whatever is good, worthy, and valuable in an absolute and original sense must be what God aims at as his ultimate end for creation.

When we know what God values, we will know His ultimate end for creating the world. We know He values only things which are truly valuable.

6) When some effect (that is simply and absolutely good and valuable in itself) is caused by the creation of the world, that effect is one of God’s ultimate ends for creating the world.

Some good and valuable results came from God creating the world. These valuable effects resulted from the process of creation. This came about not by accident; God does not do things in an arbitrary manner.

…whatever God values ultimately must be what he intends to obtain in creating the world, and whatever he actually obtains is his ultimate end.

So, what are those things? In other words, what effects of creation are simply valuable in themselves?

7) Creation provides a forum for God to exert his glorious attributes.

God has many abilities, and these enable Him to carry out many amazing acts. It good and fitting that God shows His power, wisdom, righteousness, and goodness through such actions. He had all of these before creation, but without creation these would never have been put to use; these powers would have remained dormant.

Of course, God would know all of this about Himself; He needed nothing from creation to make Him aware of these attributes.

Therefore, one of God’s ultimate ends for creating the world was to provide a forum where he could exercise and express his intrinsically valuable and glorious attributes.

As previously discussed, when some effect that is absolutely good and valuable in itself is caused by creation of the world, that effect is one of God’s ultimate ends for creating.

8) Creation provides a forum for other beings to see the exertion of God’s glorious attributes.

Absent creation, no one would see these attributes because there would be no one to see these. It isn’t enough that God had these attributes; His exertion of these is just as valuable as His having these. The exertion only had meaning if there is some being to witness the act.

God exercises these attributes in order that they are seen and known by others. He doesn’t have to show Himself; He knows all about Himself already.

It is an infinitely good thing in itself that God makes his glory known to a glorious society of created beings.

The existence of a society of created beings that knows God and sees His acts is an excellent thing in itself – not as a means to a further end, but an end itself. This knowledge of God cannot be a one-time event – as God is infinite – but an ongoing growth, or increase, of knowledge of God. Such a society is of infinite worth to God – He is obligated to value it since it is the best and most fitting thing that can exist.

But why is this so? First, because existence is better than non-existence; second, knowledge exists as a created thing in a created being, and this has intrinsic worth; finally, the most untarnished kind of knowledge is knowledge of God and His glory.

Hence, when intelligent beings obtain knowledge of God, they have obtained something of infinite value in itself. From this, we can determine that this is an ultimate end of creation.

9) Creation provides a forum for other beings to enjoy their knowledge of God.

Put very simply, other beings in creation are to worship God, to love and cherish His perfect qualities. His perfect attributes and glorious actions are the most valuable things in existence. Hence, He must love and value Himself most of all, and He also loves when others love these attributes and actions.

10) Creation provides a forum for the full goodness of God to flow in streams from the infinite fountain of his being.

Recalling my earlier study on Edwards, the term used then was the divine fullness of God. God is infinitely full of all possible good; all of this good is capable of flowing from God to His creation, and the supply of this good is inexhaustible. In other words, God is able to communicate His fullness.

When God created the world, it seems reasonable to say that this was an ultimate end: the communication of His own infinite fullness. He brought things into existence as a way to show and share His goodness, glory, and holiness. Edwards clarifies this:

…God was moved to create the world in order to overflow and spread his glory throughout the whole of it, and he had this desire before the creature existed.

In order to communicate, there had to be creation to participate – to receive this divine goodness.

Conclusion

In desiring to communicate his fullness as an ultimate end of creation, we can see that God makes himself his own ultimate end.

As it relates to the human beings of creation – the creature made in God’s image – it is clear that what this means for man is that deification, or theosis, is our ultimate end in God.