On the Architect of All Things
Reflections on a Divinely Ordered Cosmos
One of the recurring themes of Scripture is that creation is a building designed by God, who is the supreme architect of all things.
This is evident in the very first chapter of Genesis. In Genesis 1, God is portrayed as an architect or builder, busy about his work, and satisfied with the results of each day’s labor. He begins each day stating the day’s planned work (which, as Prov 8:22–31 makes clear, is done according to the blueprint of his perfect wisdom), then performs the building project, which is followed by an after-project assessment and (sometimes) a naming of the work, before a retirement for the evening (as it were) prior to the next day’s work. This can be illustrated with the first day:
- The plans: “And God said, ‘Let there be light’”
- The building: “and there was light” (with some further modifications: “And God separated the light from the darkness.”)
- The assessment: “And God saw that the light was good” (with a naming of the work: “God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.”)
- The laborer’s evening retirement: “And there was evening and there was morning, the first day” (the order of evening followed by morning is otherwise inexplicable)
The same basic pattern is seen in each of the six days of God’s creative work.
God is sovereign and all-powerful. He clearly did not need six days to perform the work of creation: “It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens” (Jer 10:12). The fact that God chose to create the world over six days is for our sake, who are made in his image. Man was made to reflect the work of the divine architect in his own creative endeavors. It was also made for our sake so that we would see the majestic beauty, goodness, wisdom, order, and design that God built into the world he formed and fashioned.
The Pillars of the Earth
The image of architectural design that emerges in Genesis 1 is extensively reinforced in the rest of the Bible. Here are some important examples:
1 Sam 2:8: “. . . the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and on them he has set the world.”
Job 38:4–6: “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone?”
Job 9:5–6: “[God] shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble.”
Job 26:7, 11: “He stretches out the north over the void and hangs the earth on nothing… The pillars of heaven tremble and are astounded at his rebuke.”
Ps 24:1–2: “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.”
Ps 75:3: “When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants, it is I who keep steady its pillars.”
Ps 102:25: “Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.”
Ps 104:5: “He set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be moved.”
Prov 3:19–20: “The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens; by his knowledge the deeps broke open, and the clouds drop down the dew.”
Isa 24:18: “For the windows of heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble.”
Isa 40:21–22: “Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in.”
Isa 48:13: “My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand forth together.”
Amos 9:6: “Who builds his upper chambers in the heavens and founds his vault upon the earth; who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the surface of the earth—the Lord is his name.”
One of the most prominent architectural terms found in such texts is “foundation,” referring to the substructure upon which the rest of creation was set. In Job 38:4–6, a foundation slab is carefully designed and measured with a plumbline, then set on supporting bases, and capped with a cornerstone. Another of the key images is that of the pillars on which the earth rests, and which can be said to shake when the world faces times of trouble. In Isaiah the sky is pictured as a tent set on a solid base, capturing what many biblical scholars have noted, namely that creation is not any kind of building, but in particular a tabernacle or temple, which is further reinforced in the temple-like depiction of the new creation in Revelation 21–22 (which is why, as Rev 21:22 says, no earthly temple is to be found there). The sky in Isaiah 24:18 is said to have windows, which corresponds with the image of the “expanse” or dome God placed between the earth and the clouds in Gen 1:6. In all such texts, God is portrayed as the consummate architect setting the created order on solid and unshakeable ground.
Divine design is powerfully manifested in two additional biblical texts that speak of God’s purposes in creating the world. In Ps 19:1–6, we read:
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words,
whose voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
and its circuit to the end of them,
and there is nothing hidden from its heat.
The world God made is personified and is profuse in praise of its creator. Every single facet of creation reveals the goodness and beauty of the one who made it. In another key text, Prov 8:22–31, the central idea is that creation was flawless because it was built according to the architectural design of God’s eternal wisdom, which “was beside him, like a master workman” (Prov 8:30). God is the supreme master builder, and everything he has made clearly manifests his wisdom and skill.
More than a Metaphor
The extensive architectural language in the Bible is often understood as mere metaphor. Though this imagery is not meant to be taken literally (there is no solid dome over the earth, nor did Moses intend us to think there was, etc.), I would suggest that it is more than merely an evocative or picturesque enhancement of what would otherwise be a prosaic depiction of the physical creation. What the architectural language of the Bible reveals, I would contend, is the precise order and minute design of God’s creation. That is to say: the evidence of divine order and design is found in every aspect of creation, in the natural world just as much as in the products of human craftsmanship.
This was instinctively understood in the past. In the Middle Ages, for example, as C.S. Lewis puts it, you find that man “was an organiser, a codifier, a builder of systems. He wanted a place for everything and everything in the right place.”[1. C.S. Lewis, The Discarded Image, 10.] And rightly so: God is the one who has created a world in which everything has a place and everything is in its right place. When medieval man looked at nature, he thus saw an ordered world. One of the central ways in which the medieval understanding of an ordered creation was expressed was through its cosmology. As Lewis has shown,[2. Lewis, Discarded Image, 96.] the primary cosmological understanding in medieval Christian Europe was that the
Earth is surrounded by a series of hollow and transparent globes, one above the other, and each of course larger than the one below. These are the ‘spheres’, ‘heavens’, or (sometimes) ‘elements’. Fixed in each of the first seven spheres is one luminous body. Starting from Earth, the order us the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn; the ‘seven planets’. Beyond the sphere of Saturn is the Stellatum, to which belong all those stars that we still call ‘fixed’ because their positions relative to one another are, unlike those of the planets, invariable. Beyond the Stellatum there is a sphere called the First Movable or Primum Mobile.
In this understanding, “[a]ll power, movement, and efficacy descend from God to the Primum Mobile and cause it to rotate,” which in turn causes each descending sphere to move symphonically in what was called the “music of the spheres.”[3. Lewis, Discarded Image, 102.] “The human imagination,” Lewis continued, “has seldom had before it an object so sublimely ordered as the medieval cosmos.”[4. Lewis, Discarded Image, 121.]
Medieval observers did not fully understand the size and movement of the planets, nor the size of the universe. Lewis freely admits this, but also makes a striking argument for the truth of the medieval “model” of the cosmos when considered from a different vantage point.[5. Lewis, Discarded Image, 216–23.] Modern scientists grasp the physical dimensions of the universe better than the medievals, though enormous gaps in knowledge still remain regarding the modern scientific understanding of the universe (the three-body problem, for example). The medieval model, however, is true in precisely this sense: it is able to explain the design, order, coherence, and splendor of God’s creation. Modern science (what Lewis would call scientism) is almost wholly unable (or unwilling) to do this, which reveals its own blind spots. If one can explain the distance between the galaxies, the precise movement of the planets in our solar system, the physical composition of the stars, and much else, but cannot explain the order with which God has framed the cosmos, is such an explanation wholly true? I would argue, following Lewis, that the answer to this question must be “No.” The medieval model of the universe, in fact, got right that which is most important. Modern science, on the other hand (at least of the purely materialistic sort), gets much right, while failing to understand that which matters above all else.
The Bible expresses the order that the medieval model articulated so powerfully by portraying the world as a carefully designed and expertly built edifice. The evidence of divine design is present from the smallest to the largest realities observable in the world, both in nature and in the way in which humans adapt nature to their own purposes.
All Nature Sings Thy Glory
Some of the most amazing evidence for divine design in the world is found in nature, all of which reflects careful divine ordering, often with mathematical patterns that could not be the result of blind chance. The Fibonacci sequence or spiral is seen in “in the smallest, to the largest objects in nature”: in animal organs and shells; the arrangement of leaves, seeds, and flowers in plants (e.g., sunflower spirals, pinecone scales), all of which optimize things like light exposure for maximal growth; in hurricanes; and in galaxies; all of which enhance structural stability. The golden ratio is seen in things like the spiral patterns of leaf arrangements and branching structures, such as in the angles of successive leaves in many plants, enhancing growth efficiency. Fractal patterns are evident in tree branching systems, with smaller branches replicating the structure of larger ones, which enhances photosynthesis in a compact area. Many other items could be mentioned, such as consistent strength and storage-enhancing hexagonal patterns in honeycombs; crystal lattice structures in minerals (seen in quartz, diamonds, etc.); fractal geometry evident in rock formations; tessellation in formations like the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland; wave patterns in sand dunes; and the mathematically precise symmetry in snowflakes.
The mathematical structures evident in creation led Johannes Keppler (1571–1630) to write that “[g]eometry, which before the origin of things was coeternal with the divine mind . . . supplied God with patterns for the creation of the world.”[6. Johannes Kepler, Harmonices Mundi, Book IV, Chapter 1 (1619); translated by Charles Glenn Wallis in On the Shoulders of Giants. This appears to be another way of saying, as does Jeremiah 10:12 (quoted above), that God made the world through his own wisdom, rather than that geometry exists independently of God.] Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) wrote similarly:
Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe, which stands continually open to our gaze. But the book cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and read the letters in which it is composed. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it; without these, one wanders about in a dark labyrinth.[7. Galileo Galilei, The Assayer (1623); translated by Stillman Drake in Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo.]
Such thoughts about the mathematical underpinning of creation prompted Sir Isaac Newton (1643–1727) to conclude that the “most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.”[8. Isaac Newton, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1713); translated by Andrew Motte (1729).]
Abundant evidence for divine design is also found in human and animal bodies. With regard to the former, we can see this design in the irreducible complexity of cells wherein every component must be exactly what it is for the cell to operate; this is manifest in the molecular systems of cells, in the information content of the genetic code, and in the process of DNA replication.[9. Michael J. Behe, Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution, 39–45; Stephen C. Meyer, Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design, 110–20.] It is evident in the “fine-tuning” of the human eye, the exact structure of which is necessary for the eye to be capable of processing visual stimuli.[10. Michael Denton, Nature’s Destiny: How the Laws of Biology Reveal Purpose in the Universe, 55–60.] The brain’s neural network reveals divine order and design, since its precise structure is necessary for consciousness and complex functions like reasoning to be possible.[11. William A. Dembski, The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance through Small Probabilities, 170–175.] Examples are legion, though this is a sufficient sample to illustrate the point.
With regard to life on earth scholars like Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Richards have shown how life on earth is only possible because of large number of “fine-tuning” parameters, that if not exactly what they are, would make life impossible: gravity; electromagnetic force, which maintains the atomic and molecular stability necessary for life; the strong nuclear force constant which binds protons and neutrons in atomic nuclei, a necessary presupposition for stable nuclei in carbon and oxygen; the earth’s position relative to the sun, enabling liquid water to exist, not creating too little or too much heat; the moon’s size and distance from the earth, which stabilizes the Earth’s axial tilt and tides, which are vital for a stable climate; etc.[12. All of these examples come from Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Richards, The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos Is Designed for Discovery, or the summaries in the two articles hyperlinked at the beginning of this paragraph.] Divine order and design is evident at the highest level: our world and our universe. It is even apparent in the human soul.
In the human transformation of the world, we see this order reflected clearly as well. The Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio, mentioned above with reference to natural patterns, are two of the most powerful manifestations of divine design in the humanly constructed realm as well. Why are these patterns so prevalent? The precise proportions of the Fibonacci sequence and the golden mean are often unconsciously reflected in works of architecture, which suggests that there is something fitting and obvious about them that does not even require conscious thought, though the patterning is often deliberate as well. They achieve aesthetic harmony, proportional balance, and are visually appealing, all of which is obvious on observation, and confirmed by calculation. They are, in other words, natural reflections of the order God has built into the universe.
When men are left alone to build buildings that are functional but also pleasant places to live and work, they reflect the order and purpose God has built into creation. As just a single example, Clive Aslet has recently written of how traditionally designed houses in England, like those on Black Road in the town of Macclesfield, in addition to being “inherently pleasant and dignified,” had “[n]o architect . . . near” them (they were created by relatively unskilled builders using pattern books) “at the time they were designed.” “But,” Aslet continues, “their proportions conformed to a tradition that stretched back more than 2,000 years, transmitting the wisdom and experience of generations, from the Ancient World into our own.”[13. Clive Aslet, King Charles III: 40 Years of Architecture, 58.]
In contrast, many (if not most) modern architects design buildings solely to make political or cultural statements,[14. See David Watkin, Morality and Architecture.] or simply to express their own individuality. Most of these modern buildings can bypass the patterns that emerged when traditional building methods were employed, but only because of modern technology like reinforced concrete and steel supporting beams. However, a large number of the buildings that do bypass such traditional patterns and methods end up being harmful to the environment, needing to be replaced every 30–40 years.[16. Quinlan Terry, “Appropriate Materials and Construction for Buildings that will Endure for Centuries” (Chapter 9), in The Layman’s Guide to Classical Architecture.] Traditional buildings, in contrast, often last for centuries and are enjoyed by most of the people who must live and work in them because they are built according to time-tested principles of function and beauty. These principles, which do not require rejecting all modern advances in building technology, nor imposing a single architectural style on all buildings, are not mere opinions. This is not to suggest that personal preferences don’t play into aspects of building, but simply to say that there is something more basic at work in the classic principles of building. Certain foundational principles are consistent across time and cultures because the Supreme Architect has built patterns and laws into creation, and his image bearers naturally reflect these patterns in their own creations (or sub-creations as J.R.R. Tolkien calls them).
Conclusion
The evidence of God’s sovereign, creating hand is evident in every single dimension of the universe in which we live, from the smallest particles to the entire structure of the universe. The biblical teaching that the world was fashioned as a divine temple would lead us to accept nothing less. The heavens, stretched out as a magnificent and radiant tent over the earth, do indeed declare the glory of God. The architect of all things smiles on his creation, and so should we. As the seventeenth-century Anglican minister and poet Thomas Traherne put it: “[W]e please God when we are most like Him. We are like Him when our minds are in frame. Our minds are in frame when our thoughts are like His. And our thoughts are then like His when we have such conceptions of all objects as God hath, and prize all things according to their value.”[16. Thomas Traherne, Centuries, “The First Century,” section 13 (Brooklyn: Angelico, 2020), p. 7.]