Order

Various Latin forms of our the word translated “Order” occur some 180 times in Calvin’s Book 3 of The Institutes of the Christian Religion. More importantly to us is the frequency and significance of its use in Scripture, either directly or by the underlying idea.

Overview of “Order” in Scripture

Let us here briefly survey some major instances where the theme or manifestation of “order” occurs in the Bible.

1. In the opening verses, Gen. 1:1-2, we see God’s work on a disordered, empty of meaning / purpose system.
2. The Creation of Gen. Ch 1 is in a highly ordered manner, six individual, specific days of Creation and the seventh designated for rest. Creation does not all come at once, but in an ordered sequence.
3. Creation is made in the context of separateness, a special form of ordering, which is expressed in and by each day’s work.
4. All the living beings created are after their own “kind,” again separated and distinct, hence ordered, with respect to all other living creations.
5. Night and day, light and darkness, are separated and ordered.
6. In Gen. Ch. 2 we see a closeup of the Creation of Adam and then Eve, again in an order of Creation as well as an order of distinction.
7. In the Fall recorded in Ch. 3 we find the supreme vandal enter the Garden, an ordered Creation within which Adam and Eve could do their work of tending God’s Garden and have direct communion with God Himself, all in sinless (hence ordered) state. The great lie of the Serpent, the deceit of Eve and willful rebellion of Adam lead to the great disordering of Eden and Creation itself.
8. The very first scene that follows the expulsion from the Garden is a worship event by two brothers, Cain and Abel, the first two sons born to Adam and Eve. All the events of Adam and Eve’s life from their expulsion to such worship event–which likely number 15 years or more–have not been disclosed to us. God’s revelation is itself ordered, and selective, highlighting that which we need to understand, not all the many details about which we could be curious.
9. God interrupts Cain’s ‘worship’ of his bloodless sacrifice of his grains. One might say that Cain’s sacrifice was one of his convenience, as he was a grower of grain, and could offer what most-closely came from his own hand, rather than what God required, which was modeled by God’s Own sacrifice of the living creature in the Garden to provide coats for Adam and Eve. And, so, God confronts and rejects Cain’s alternative, and one might say, disordered sacrifice offering.
10. Cain’s rejection and Abel’s acceptance creates in Cain the great disorder of hatred even to the point of killing the very ordered, created being that was his brother Abel. In so doing, Cain became the extreme vandal, a murderer, emulating the Serpent’s actions in the Garden. Now upon the Fall, man’s own heart has a hatred against God leading even to the extreme willingness to put to death the highest image of God, that of a human, and even in this case a brother.
11. Such murderous act of Cain then creates the ultimate disorder in the family of Adam and Eve, the permanent extinguishment of life itself, that of one of their sons.
12. The consequence of Cain’s sin was then a further banishment of wanderer away from the family of Adam and Eve, creating yet another form of disorder, the net loss of both sons. It is difficult to fully grasp the deep pain the parents must have felt at that moment of realization and for the many many years of the remainder of their days.
13. There follows Cain’s own attempt to create a great order, that of a city, with an architecture that models human exaltation, together with skills in metal working and music. But this all appears to be in further rebellion to God’s common of Cain that he should be condemned to wandering.
14. Then we see a further corruption, a disordering, of God’s creation by wrongful intermarriage with the distinct, ordered line of the descendants of Seth, Adam and Eve’s third son. (There are many interpretations of what the brief revelation given to us means; but relevant to us was that this event was yet a further attempt at making ruin what God had ordered).
15. This then led to God’s call of Noah and his family, distinct from all the rest of human life at that time, again order, or more accurately, re-ordering Creation. After the Flood, a new ordering begins with the three families descending from Noah, albeit we are shown immediately that such re-ordering was not without the presence of sin (Noah’s drunkenness, and the serious, likely sexual, misbehavior of Canaan). The Flood shows us that God can reorder His creation, but sin, and death, remains, and will continue to do so until the final death, judgment, and new Creation.
16. The call of Abram out Mesopotamia to be the source of blessing to many nations begins God’s renewed work at creating another form of ordering out of the entire fallen human race.
17. Every aspect of the full revelation of the OT Law and practices beginning in Exodus Ch 20 reflects separation (ordering) on many levels: the nation Israel from all others, the distinctive role of the Levites with respect the Tabernacle, and even more so the descendants of the family of Aaron for the priesthood function, and every detail given in the remainder of the first books of the Bible as to the ceremonies, feasts, sacrifices, and legal commands.

Deception as Disorder

The Book of Proverbs begins with nine chapters that lays down a distinction between “Wisdom” and “Folly” (though we need a stronger word for “folly,” as that suggests something only a little naughty and pointless: a better term would be “Colossal Stupidity” of “Utmost Deceit” or even “Disordering Corruption of Wisdom”).

What is it about the opposite to “Wisdom?” Such opposite takes what is “True” and slants it, twists it, distorts, hides it, mixes it up, often in such a way that what is total error still looks as though it is “true,” or mostly so, which is the essence of deceit. So the opposite of “true,” namely a “lie,” is just one way of understanding of not-Wisdom. A more common form of not-Wisdom, and a customary starting point for error, is just ‘a little’ distortion of what is true, which of course is then false, but it may appear to be harmlessly false. Such appears to have been the rationale of Eve in response to the Serpent’s questions and suggestions.

Let us consider the below passage from Proverbs 8.

8:1 Does not wisdom call?
Does not understanding raise her voice?
2 On the heights beside the way,
at the crossroads she takes her stand;
3 beside the gates in front of the town,
at the entrance of the portals she cries aloud:
4 “To you, O men, I call,
and my cry is to the children of man.
5 O simple ones, learn prudence;
O fools, learn sense.
6 Hear, for I will speak noble things,
and from my lips will come what is right,
7 for my mouth will utter truth;
wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
8 All the words of my mouth are righteous;
there is nothing twisted or crooked in them.
9 They are all straight to him who understands,
and right to those who find knowledge.
10 Take my instruction instead of silver,
and knowledge rather than choice gold,
11 for wisdom is better than jewels,
and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.

Proverbs 8:1-11 (ESV, highlights mine)

We see many things in this passage:

• Wisdom is personified, as a great voice proclaiming what is real, true to a culture (8:1-4)
• Wisdom has an important message for both daily life and beyond (8:5, 10-11)
• Wisdom is “true” (8:6-7)
• Wisdom stands contrary to error, which is wickedness, an abomination (8:6-8)
• Wisdom is of great, even greatest, value (8:10-11)

But most-relevant to our present concern of “Order” is that the wickedness of error is that is disorders Wisdom. If we look at the Koine version of this passage, from the LXX (Septuagint), we can dig further into such nature of disorder.

Pan-oúrgos (Prov. 8:5)

In Prov. 8:5 (ESV) we see the admonition to “learn prudence.” The Koine word translated “prudence” is panoúrgos. A good definition of the word is below:

Strong’s G3835. πανοῦργος panoúrgos; adj. from pás (3956), all, every, and érgon (2041), deed, work. Able to do anything, hence shrewd, cunning, crafty, unscrupulous (2 Cor. 12:16; Sept.: Job 5:12). In late writers, also in a good sense, wise (Sept.: Prov. 13:1; 14:8, 15).

Zodhiates, S. (2000). The complete word study dictionary: New Testament (electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers.

 This word, panoúrgos, is significant, as it can be used in a very good sense, as a trait of excellence of a wise, mature person. But like a ‘weapon,’ it can be turned to great mis-use, and evil, as a trait of a deceiver. In our culture, we live under the assault of such weaponized, evil panoúrgos often characterized by terms of advocacy, ‘spin,’ debate, argument, even advertising. In a sense it is what all lawyers do on behalf of their clients in courts, as do public ‘spin doctors’ / advertisers / salespeople do in public forums: they cleverly twist, distort, confuse a fair portrayal of the total reality of some situation for some cunning purpose.

Consider the example of a person entering a car dealership to consider the purchase of a new automobile. This is a big deal issue both as to the long-term purposeful utility of ownership, and the attendant costs of such, but also because of the very significant expense of the decision. What will the salesperson do? Engage in Q&A to learn what such person’s interests and concerns are so as to get them into the best circumstances for saying “yes” to a purchase. Never will the the salesperson go through the consideration of what alternative exists to making such an expensive commitment. Rather, the ‘pitch’ is always directed toward the joy, happiness, meaningfulness a person will experience by making such purchase. Such directness is not inherently evil, unless it involves direct lies or misrepresentation, but it clouds the big, important issue as to whether a person really needs a new car, and what else they would be giving up because life has limited resources so choosing one thing necessarily gives up another. And if debt is involved, that is another big issue, even a moral one.

So here at Prov. 8:5 we are given a twin teaching. That the hearer of Wisdom’s voice should themselves be clever, seeing the whole, big picture, but also alert to those other false users of cleverness skills who will and are seeking to take one’s attention away from Wisdom’s voice.

Orthós (Prov. 8:6)

Next we see Wisdom characterized by speaking “what is right” (Prov. 8:6 ESV). The Koine word translated “right” is given below:

Strong’s G3717. ὀρθός orthós; adj. Straight, erect, upright. Used with anístēmi (450), to stand, to stand straight up from a prostrate position (Acts 14:10). In a moral sense, straight as opposed to crooked, meaning upright, true, right, good (Heb. 12:13).

Zodhiates, S. (2000). The complete word study dictionary: New Testament (electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers.

The word orthós is the root of our word “orthodox” and “orthogonal” (a term of geometry) and means straight usually in the sense of “true” as an arrow or cue stick would necessarily be to be accurate. We even use the idea even in statements such as: “Hey, doc, give it to me straight,” meaning we want the medical professional to communicate the exact truth of a matter, without any element of distortion or obscuration. We even talk of a “straight-talker,” as a point of admiration. (And we rarely see or hear such a straight-talker on the political bloviation TV programs).

But here we see the essential trait of Wisdom is that it is a straight-talker. So when it tells us about righteousness and sin, heaven and hell, good and bad, it is giving it to us “straight,” orthós. And some other voice who says there can be no hell because “God is love” is ‘giving’ it to us ‘slant.’

Skoliós (Proverbs 8:8)

4646. σκολιός skoliós; , adj. from skéllō (n.f.), to dry. Crooked, bent or warped from dryness, such as wood. Of a way or parts of it (Luke 3:5 quoted from Is. 40:4; Sept.: Prov. 2:15; Is. 42:16). Figuratively, meaning crooked, perverse, wicked (Acts 2:40; Phil. 2:15; Sept.: Ps. 78:8; Prov. 22:5). Of masters, perverse, unjust, in contrast to epieikḗs (1933), gentle, tolerant (1 Pet. 2:18 [cf. Sept.: Prov. 16:28]). Also from skéllō (n.f.): sklērós (4642), dried up, dry.

Zodhiates, S. (2000). The complete word study dictionary: New Testament (electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers.

Our next word is skoliós in Proverbs 8:8 translated as “crooked” in the ESV. So skoliós is the exact opposite of our previous word orthós. It is interesting that in English a common term for criminal is “a crook.” We don’t often think of it, but such term conveys the every idea of being not “straight,” which is what a “crook” is in some way.

So in every matter of consideration, where voices are heard, be they vocal or in writing or in images, the question to be asked is which is orthós and which is skoliós? Who is the truth-speaker, the straight-talker, the true Wisdom in this situation?

Again in our context, skoliós is a force of dis-order, taking that which is ordered, straight, and make it something different. In cunning deception such skoliós is small, gentle, seemingly harmless, ok, close-enough, no big deal. But that’s part of the cunningness of deception is to make the deviation appear either to not exist or not to matter, either way is a fine starting point for a deceiver so long as it causes departure from what is straight. Once the slant begins, it is easier, natural even, that the slant remains and moves one ever further from what is true, and likely every more deviant from orthós.

Strangalo-o (Proverbs 8:8)

Joined with skoliós of Prov. 8:8 is the Koine word strangaloo:

στραγγαλόω strangaloo; strangle (Tob 2:3 BA), pass., w. intr. sense choke ITr 5:1. [The word does not occur in the New Testament]

Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., Bauer, W., & Gingrich, F. W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 947). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Clearly we get our English word “strangle” from this Koine word. The ESV translates it as “twisted.”

Like our previous word, the intent of strangaloo is to pervert the truth especially in such a way that the deceived person cannot even recognize that the truth exists, or ever existed, and especially to prevent discovery of the way back to reach the truth.

Pseúdos (Proverbs 8:7)

Strong’s G5579. ψεῦδος pseúdos; noun from pseúdomai (5574), to lie. A lie, falsehood (John 8:44 [cf. Col. 3:9; 2 Thess. 2:11; 1 John 2:21, 27]; Sept.: Ps. 5:6; Jer. 5:2). Lying in general (Eph. 4:25). 2 Thess. 2:9 refers to false, fictitious, pretended miracles. An idol, a vain or false idol, as used in the Sept.: Is. 44:20. Rev. 21:27 refers to making a lie, i.e., making idols and contriving false miracles. See Rev. 22:15 (cf. Rom. 1:25); Sept.: Hos. 7:3; 11:12. Of false gods (Jer. 3:10; 13:25).

 Zodhiates, S. (2000). The complete word study dictionary: New Testament (electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers.

Our final view of the opposite of Wisdom, Truth, is the Koine word pseúdos. This is the root of many English words (psudo-), giving the the idea of “almost,” or “nearly so,” or “sort of.” Again this is part of the cunningness of deceit that what is given as false, or slant, is not obvious to be such. It is typically shaped to be very close to what is true, so much so that it can appear to be just another way of expressing what is true, but like the worm on a fishhook it conceals the hook, and the frying pan that follows.

The Devil as the Great Dis-Orderer

We know from Gen. 3 and the Serpent’s deception of Eve, but also from the clear statements throughout Scripture that the Devil is by nature a liar, and the father of lies. What we can learn from Proverbs Ch 1-9 is that one way of understanding the effect of such lies is to take that which is ordered, true, straight, Wise, and making it seem almost to be the same thing as that which is slanted, twisted, pseudo-‘d, and so really the opposite of that which is ordered.

The Devil is the greatest of all vandals. He has always sought to dis-order, vandalize, ruin, kill every ordered entity and system created by God beginning with the highest point of God’s creation, that which was created in His image. And the greatest form of vandalism is sin against God, and its consequence of death itself, our universal experience in both measures.

Entropy

Entropy is a scientific term for a fundamental principle of the natural world. It has a parallel standing to other principles such as Newton’s Laws, and in particular the “Conservation of Momentum,” and the “Conservation of Energy.”

“Conservation” Laws, such as of matter, momentum, and energy are fundamental to scientific observation and engineering methodology. Entropy, on the other hand, is an equally essential principle but it is a rigid Non-Conservation Law. In the discussion which follows, we can see how ever increasing disorder is that state of our natural world, and can be understood to be yet another manifestation of the consequences of the Fall.

Conservation of Matter

Let us first consider what conservation laws look like. Conservation of Matter is the simplest to visualize. In the discussion that follows, we are considering ordinary physical processes.

Conservation of Matter is a law that says if you add two substances, say A and B, their respective masses (measured in any unit system such as pounds, grams, etc.) the resulting mixture, say C, will have a mass exactly equal to the sum of A and B. So if one were to take 10 pounds of water and one pound of sugar, and combine them, the result would be a dissolved solution whereby the sugar ‘disappears’ into the water but the weight of the result would be 11 pounds. Not 12, not 10, not 9, but the weight would be exactly 11.

A chemical version of the Conservation of Matter is expressed using the equations of a reaction, such as the burning of carbon in air (oxygen). Here the “A” is carbon, and the “B” is oxygen. The result in a perfect, complete combustion is CO2, carbon dioxide, the “C” output. (In addition there is a release of thermal energy, “heat,” which we need not consider here). Conservation of Matter then assures us that for each carbon atom, one pair of oxygen atoms, will always yield one compound of CO2 because what when “in” (one carbon and two oxygen atoms) has to come “out,” in this example as the molecule carbon dioxide where each atom of the molecule adds up to to what went into forming it, because matter must be conserved.

Conservation of Momentum

One of Newton’s Laws states that the upon a collision of two objects, A and B, the post-collision momentum must equal the combined momentum of the two objects pre-collision. So if the two objects got stuck together, and so became object “C,” we can determine the momentum of “C” as necessarily being the combined momentum of A plus B. If, instead of combining, the two objects are deflected by the collision, the principle still holds but now we can say the the momentum of A after the collision, say A’ (A prime), and B’ must together be exactly equal to the momentum of A plus B prior to the collision.

Conservation of Energy

There is another conservation law, that of energy, that works exactly in this same way though it is not as easy to visualize. Let’s try this. Entering a system is a high temperature and pressure gas stream, A. Within the system, such gas stream A is used to spin a turbine by flowing across rows and rows of the turbine blades and the rotating shaft of the turbine then rotates a generator which produces electricity; we can think of this as being one output from the system, say “B,” but it does not take any of the mass away, just some of the energy of A away in the form of electrical energy. Finally, there must be an exit stream of mass flow from the system, C.

So because of the Conservation of Mass, we can know that the mass rate of flow at A must exactly equal that of C, because everything that’s going “in” must go “out” (we are not considering unsteady flows) and noting flowed out of the system at B. But we have another conservation law here, that of energy, which tells us that the energy flowing in at A must exactly equal to the sum of the two outflows of energy, namely B (the energy extracted to make electricity) plus C the energy remaining in the mass flowing out of the system. No energy is ever ‘lost.’ It is always conserved, but often as here, part of it is transformed into another kind of energy (electricity). This example is exactly how, in principle, electricity is generated by turbines using natural gas to create a high pressure and the high temperature mass stream (the “A” in our example) needed to spin the turbine to spin the generator to make electricity.

Non-Conservation of Entropy

What we all know is that some processes can be reversed and other cannot. If in a Conservation of Matter experiment we used two blocks of iron, A and B, stacked them together and called it C, the mass of C would be exactly the sum of masses of A and B. Further, we could just as easily start with C, separate its two components, A and B, and find that the mass of C was exactly the same as the separate masses of A and B combined. So, we know this example is of a reversible process.

What about Humpty Dumpty who fell off the wall and all the kings horses and men could not put Humpty back together again? The Conservation of Mass Law tells us that the mass of all the pieces of Humpty after his tragic fall is exactly the same as the beginning mass of Humpty. But there is something very different about such outcome compared to our immediate previous example. This difference is expressed in another fundamental law, namely the Non-Conservation of Entropy.

Any given state can be measured in terms of its Entropy, just as its mass, momentum, and energy. The Law of Entropy states that whatever we do with a starting material, A (Humpty), the result, B (the pieces), will have an increase in Entropy. In other words, the Entropy of any system undergoing change produces Entropy. (This is a much more complicated subject than we can address here, but the general principle as stated is correct).

Well, getting more Entropy sounds like it can be a good thing, but as a general rule, it’s a bad thing, because it’s a measure of decay, of irreversibility.

Entropy appears in many contexts of the natural sciences and engineering. One important form is that which characterizes the value of various forms of energy. Energy is Conserved, but not all forms or conditions of energy are of equal value. Consider this comparison. We could have electrical energy stored in the form of a battery, measured in some energy units such as watt-hours, whereby such stored energy could be used to provide so many watts of output (like a light bulb) for so many hours, so 100 watt-hours of battery energy could power a 100 watt bulb for one hour, or a one watt bulb for 100 hours, and so forth.

Now consider another form of energy, a mass of water at just a few degrees warmer than its environment so its thermal energy (in reference to its environment) has so many thermal units, such as could be measured in BTU, or joules, or some other energy unit. Now there is an exact mass of water at say 2 degrees F greater temperature than its environment that has the same total energy as our 100 watt-hour battery example. It make appear to be inconsistent because the energy unit systems are so different, but they can all be converted into equivalent units just like any pound mass can be converted exactly into so many kilograms.

So, now, we have two absolutely equal energy systems, our battery and our mass of slightly warm water. However, although they are equal in energy quantity, they are extremely unequal in energy value. We can easily use the battery stored energy to create warm water (by resistance heating it, or by spinning paddles within it), but we cannot easily, nor completely convert the warm water to stored battery energy.

We say that the energy in the warm water has less “availability,” which is another way of saying it has much much greater Entropy that the energy in the form of the battery.

Every time, every single time, anything ‘burns’ by combustion or by the exothermic nuclear reactions such as used by our sun and all the stars, the energy is conserved but the entropy increases, meaning that all the after-the-fact energy forms have less available energy than what began each respective process. We can think of available energy as ‘running downhill’ becoming ever less available to do work.

Put in other terms, the increasing entropy is a result of increasing disorder. Our universe is all going ‘downhill’ because every moment of every process the Entropy of everything in it (again the entire story is a little more complex) is going up.

The same principle applies to information. If we considered the ordered, low Entropy, condition of a library of books, and then a peculiar explosion occurs that separates every letter from every word on every page of every book such that after we have an enormous pile of individual letters, we have gone from a low Entropy state to a very high Entropy state, and you cannot put Humpty back together again.

In a certain sense, every propagation of lies is like such explosion at the library, whereby what was codified, accessible, and true has now become random noise from which it is impossible to discern what the truth of the prior ordered system had been.

This is Satan’s work, beginning with the Fall. God is One Who creates order, and Satan does the opposite, always the opposite. Physical death, is the ultimate demonstration of disorder. Walk among the graves of a cemetery and read the headstones, research the lives that were lived within the carcasses now below your feet. What had been incredibly, and amazingly, been ordered, now lies utterly inert, completely incapacitated, and irreversibly disordered, ever decaying even further. This makes Satan very happy. But God operates outside of, above, beyond natural systems, but is constrained by all things being in conformity with His Absolute Holiness. So God ‘solves’ this problem of ultimate separation of soul from body and both from God Himself, as He promised He would, even at the moment of the Fall, when He told Adam and Eve, and the Serpent too, that there would come a seed from Adam and Eve by which the Fall will be resolved by redemption and a new life, by what we know as the Covenant of Grace. And it was that promise that has propelled the Serpent ever since to fight against such promise, first by Cain’s killing Abel, and so it has continued to our day.