Plantingas second chapter is entitled creation and starts with how the bible says that God created through Christ. I with many people always saw Christ as existing in heaven during creation but playing little role until his incarnation on earth. The bible actually says that Christ was involved in creation and God created through Christ. Interestingly enough, Plantinga says that the bible calls Christ the “wisdom of God” and “the word of God”. Christ as the word of God makes perfect sense to me as Christ came to the earth to die and give us the word of God through his life and teachings. However; I have always seen God the father as the wisest of the holy entities. I suppose that this verse may mean that God used his wisdom in creating the earth. Plantinga says that this shows how Jesus is the mediator with creation. But if Christ is a mediator then what was his purpose before creation?
I don’t really have an answer and I think part of the reason why is that as humans living on earth we have difficulty thinking outside of things we understand. We can’t grasp things outside of our reality. Lewis says that when we picture God we do it in terms of earthly things: the love of a father, the grandeur of a king, the magnificence of nature… I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to understand God because we’re trapped in our own experience.
In trying to reconcile my view of God by ‘earthifying’ him, I often thought that God must have created because he got lonely, bored, or wanted love from us. Plantinga instantly denounces these ideas upon discussing creation. There goes every reason that I ever thought of for creation. The interaction of the trinity with itself is more than enough relationship for God according to Plantinga. The ways in which I saw creation were reasons that people create and not Godly reasons for creation. Plantinga suggests that creation is an activity befitting a God that overflows with regards for others. This is a good way to look at it; creation not out of necessity but as a trait of God.
Just like you said humans will never understand God's purpose before creation, I think that we will also never fully know God's reason for creating us. I think that Plantinga has very good ideas when he says that it is "like God" to create us, but I think that this is something we will never truly be able to wrap our minds around.
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