I would think it would be a more than safe bet to say that 99% of the people who are
alive in the world, and even 99% of Christian people in the world today, think in terms
of the universe's operating on a daily basis 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 inherent power. That is, power within objects—forces
within this world that have built-in power.
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 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?"
Again, that basic assumption that we make every time we watch a pool game, or watch
other series of events that take place before our eyes, is an assumption that not every
philosopher has accepted in history, and though Descartes' accepted it to a degree, some of
his disciples challenged it, and challenged it with a vengeance. And so the problem that
we're dealing with here philosophically, and it becomes a major problem when we deal with
questions of theology, is the relationship between what's called primary causality and
secondary causality.
Now, what's the difference? Primary causality refers to the ultimate source of power for
every action. And, 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. But
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.