God the Creator in the Book of Acts
In a number of passages in the Book of Acts, God as the creator of the heavens and the earth plays a crucial role. In the language of the Old Testament, the earliest community in Jerusalem, in the midst of rising conflict with the religious leaders, addresses God as the creator or heaven and earth. Paul and Barnabas call the non-Jews of Lystra to turn from worthless idols to the living God, who created heaven and earth. In Athens, Paul not only proclaims Jesus and the resurrection, but is also characterised as a staunch and able proponent of Jewish monotheism, only returning to his initial proclamation of Jesus and the resurrection at the end of his Areopagus speech.
In addition to these direct references to God the creator, Acts has a number of instances, often reminiscent of Old Testament texts, where God the creator is either actively involved in his creation or where people relate to God’s creation in different ways. For example, in his ascension, Jesus disappears in clouds. Peter’s Pentecost speech refers to enigmatic cosmic signs. Peter also refers to an eschatological restitution of all things. Acts mentions two earthquakes. The desert generation is charged with worshipping the stars rather than their creator. Later Paul ventures forth on the sea in his missionary endeavour and experiences divine presence and rescue in a major storm at sea. This presentation examines these instances and their function in the narrative and their implications for the purpose of Acts. In closing, the presentation also inquires what implications theses references have for communities who cherish the Book of Acts as part of their canonical Scripture. What might these references imply for the current discourse on environmental sustainability? What are the implications for some postmodern narrow views on God and his relation to the world? How can the church re-discover and re-appropriate God, the creator, and how would such a recovery change the understanding, worship and ethics of today’s Western Christians who, at times, reduce God to a provider of individual salvation and emotional support and stability in the various, pressing crises of late modernity.