Can it be that our God-given dominion over creation is retroactive?
It is widely held that answers to prayers often depend upon prior events, and that such prayers are therefore retroactive. The rationale for this is that the spiritual realm transcends space-time, and that consequences of prayer are eternal consequences, therefore extending into the past. If, then, prayer can be retroactive for good, can all human desire and intentionality be retroactively effective, for evil as well as for good?
If the cycle of life and death is the necessary means for the development of life and the evolution of species, death may be regarded as the answer to the human will for life and the will to become like god. Human sinfulness thus becomes the retroactive “cause” of all death and destruction from the beginning of creation. Natural evil is necessary for the self-determined development and hence autonomous existence of the creation, which is consequent to human willfulness. The wages of sin is death.
There is also a good side to this dominion, executed through Jesus Christ. If we accept the human Jesus as the foundation of the eternal pre-existent Logos, then all of the goodness of creation is through Him. His human will for all that is good in creation had retroactive authority, and we participate in that process when we have fellowship with Him. But He also accepted the penalty for the dark side of human will, with the wages of death. The doctrine of atonement is that our sins retroactively “caused” the death of Christ. By the same principle, our sins are at the root of all evil, for all time. On the other hand, His authority and victory depended upon the future faith and obedience of His people. It is by our faithfulness that He overcame death, and that He exercised His powers as the Son of Man. His authority is as a King who has a real kingdom, with a multitude of faithful subjects. Without the subjects, there is no King. In all of these things, we have all participated, for both good and evil.
We speak of the creation as revealing God’s attributes. But the fuller picture is that it also reveals the full scope of human nature. The analogies between the created world and human nature are not just because we are a product of the created world, but because we have placed our imprint upon all nature. The good side of this is through the incarnate Jesus Christ, thus revealing God, through the creation. The evil side is through our sins, which Paul speaks of in Romans 8:19-25. The whole creation is subjected to futility, awaiting redemption. Nature groans, and it’s our fault.
We, corporately, have thus created the world we live in, and we reap what we sow. In the present age, the wheat and tares are intermixed, and so we all share in one another’s blessings and curses. So, yes: natural evil is of human origin. In Adam, we have all had a hand in it. But the good news is that those who are in Christ also have a hand in the victory over evil – the victory over sin and death – and the consequent redemption of all creation.