Welcome back to
The Creator Revealed.
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If beauty is in the
eye of the beholder,
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it is certain
that our next guest
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sees the beauty
of God's creation
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and expresses it ever so well.
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I would have to agree with you.
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Nathan Greene is
really one of the premier
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Christian artists of our age.
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And if you have
an image in your head
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of what Jesus looks like,
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it could well have been
painted by Nathan Greene.
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So we're delighted
to have him with us.
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Absolutely.
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And I'm hoping that we're
going to be able to see...
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Oh, yes, in fact, we can
see some of these paintings
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that you've been working on.
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Welcome, Nathan. Thank you.
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So we've be
talking about the beauty
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that's present
there in the creation
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and the encouragement that
the Bible actually gives us
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on obviously the
biblical worldview
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to actually see that beauty
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and gain joy from it.
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But what I'd like to ask you is,
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as an artist, you know,
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somebody who
really appreciates beauty
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and produces
beautiful things yourself,
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how is it that the creation
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inspires the work that you do?
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Well, you know,
when you think about it,
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artists study a lot of the same
things that scientists study,
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chemists,
physicists, mathematicians,
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they study things
like symmetry, and harmony,
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and perspective, and proportion,
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and economy of design.
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These are all things
that artists study well.
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And for me, in particular,
as a Christian artist,
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I look at nature and
I see all these things.
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I don't know, I'm
not a mathematician,
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I don't
necessarily define things
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or study things in terms
of equations and numbers,
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but I see symmetry and
harmony in balance in nature.
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And so it's evident to
me that there is a designer
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and a master artist involved
in creating the world for us.
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Yes.
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Well, I have to admit
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that I'm
fascinated by these paintings
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that you have up behind you,
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and I'm wondering
if you can tell us
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a little bit about them.
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I see that there's one
that looks fairly complete,
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that would be over
your right shoulder.
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So tell us, is this a
series that you're working on
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or where are those coming from?
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Well, my agent and
one of our clients,
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our patrons who
prefers to remain anonymous,
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they came up with the
idea of creating a new series
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of paintings
depicting the seven days,
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seven literal days of creation
from the Book of Genesis.
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I'm almost done
with the project.
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The paint you see
over my right shoulder
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is day one of
the creation series.
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Okay, so this would be,
"Let there be light," then.
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Yes, let there be light.
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And the Spirit of God
hovered over the waters.
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And so you see
Christ the Creator standing,
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really floating over the
waters that were on the earth.
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And you might
notice in the background,
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there are many equations
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representing the laws of nature,
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and other designs and things
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that God truly had in
mind as He completed our world.
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I think I might see...
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I think I might be able to see
some DNA in there, am I right?
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There is definitely
DNA, there is photosynthesis,
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there's many equations
like Maxwell's equations,
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Einstein's field
theorems, and E=MC square,
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there is the golden mean,
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this ratio that is found
often in nature, in many things
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that is thought to be
kind of an ideal proportion,
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found in things
like the nautilus shell,
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the rose petals, the way
they're aligned on a rose
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are lined up
according to that ratio.
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It's even
thought that that ratio
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appears in the
human form and human face.
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And something that artists have
been aware of for a long time.
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You know, one of the things
that I like about artists,
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and I have a number of
friends who are artists,
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is really a point
that you raised which is,
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artists are
trained to be observers,
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and scientists are
trained to be observers,
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and yet we really
are coming at things
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from very, very
different angles.
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What I would be
interested in is,
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how you think the art
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that you do would be different
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if you didn't believe the Bible,
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if you didn't
believe that in the creation,
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let's say, would
things be different?
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Would you be
choosing different subjects,
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painting in a different style?
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That's an interesting question
because I have many friends
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who are artists that some
are believers and some are not.
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And even those
that are not believers,
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they often find
the greatest enjoyment,
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I think, in painting
landscapes and wildlife
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and things that are nature,
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that are reflection
of what God has created.
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I think people, you know,
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the idea would be for everybody
to have faith and confidence
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that there is a
Creator and a Designer
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for the world around us.
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But even people who
don't believe that seem to see
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and appreciate the
beauty that is there.
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But I think because I was born
and raised in a Christian home
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and recognize the
importance of this,
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I see a Creator in
everything around us,
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and I believe that
the beauty, and design,
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and all the laws of nature
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which are also
reflecting beautiful design
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are evidence of God
as the master artist
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and as the master
designer of our world.
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I'm looking now at the painting
that's immediately behind you,
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and I can see that
that one's not complete yet,
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but it looks to me like
you're actually depicting God,
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I'm guessing,
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creating Adam, shaping
Adam, actually working as,
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essentially, a
sculptor in there.
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Yes.
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Yeah, this is day six
of the creation series,
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it's the last one.
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I actually went
ahead and did day seven
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before finishing day six.
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So this is my last
one, and this depicts Christ
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as the Creator
forming Adam from the ground
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and there'll be
a glow over Adam,
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almost like a supernatural glow,
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and it was on day
that land animals,
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mammals were created.
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And several days after all
botanical life was created.
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So this is kind of a flourishing
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Edenic environment
where Adam was first created.
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You know, Nathan,
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there's undeniable beauty
and symmetry in God's creation.
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And I see it everywhere,
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but I wished I could
look through your eyes.
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I'm always so interested in
a composition of your artwork.
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It's beautiful.
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God's given you a true gift.
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Thank you.
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One of the things that I do
see in that particular painting
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that jumps out
at me as a biologist
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is that tiger down there.
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You know, I grew up in,
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particularly during the time
that I was a child in Malaysia.
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If there was one
thing I was taught to fear,
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it would be tigers.
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You know, you didn't go
wandering off into the jungle,
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for some reason or
other, cobras were okay,
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but those tigers
could really get you.
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So tell me a little
bit about your thinking
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in including this interesting
collection of animals
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along with God
creating the human being?
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Yes.
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Well, to me, the design
of the animals themselves
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are remarkable and beautiful,
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and to my mind they're
evidence of the Creator.
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The tiger is
especially amazing to me.
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I mean, we have house cats
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that are a little
hint of what a tiger is,
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but just the thought
of such a massive animal
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and the fact
that they are becoming
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more and more endangered
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is the reason
why I wanted to show
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one of the original
tigers in my painting here.
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But also a variety of life
and not just North American,
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but from other
continents, got an elephant,
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I got what I'm
calling a gazelle.
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I'm not from Africa.
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I'm not sure
exactly what species,
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but I gave it a
name Gisele the gazelle.
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By the way, tiger
reappears in day seven as well.
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I guess it's just the
tiger fell in love with Adam
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and want to hang
around for day seven.
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There you go.
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You know, when I
was a little boy,
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I had a pet monkey.
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My mother didn't think
much of that pet, I'm afraid.
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But he was fantastic.
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And, but I have to
admit, I have to admit that
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there was a desire
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and the fear when
it came to tigers.
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I would love to
have a pet tiger.
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Yes.
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And you'll get
to in the new earth.
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And this is one of the truly
beautiful things about these...
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You know, I'm sorry, we can't
be showing the tiger right now
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because we are
having some Skype issues.
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This is what
technology is, right?
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This is what
technology does, yeah,
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but...Oh, that's beautiful.
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Oh, isn't that wonderful?
This would be day five.
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Yes.
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I think that the thing
that kind of strikes me
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at an emotional level
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with these
paintings is in fact seeing...
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Oh, what a beautiful tiger.
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Yeah, that's the Sabbath
there. Oh, that's beautiful.
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It is seeing these
beautiful creatures
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that unfortunately,
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in the current
world, are problematic,
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really problematic.
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So I can still hear Nathan,
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unfortunately we
can't see him anymore,
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but I want to thank you so much
for sharing your art with us
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and with the rest
of the world, Nathan.
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And it's greatly appreciated.
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Thank you.
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Thank you, Nathan, so much.
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I have a beautiful picture.
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Everyone always tells me
that I have the heart of Mary,
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I love to sit at the
feet of Jesus and learn,
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but I live in a Martha world.
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So Nathan did a
beautiful picture of Jesus,
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Mary and Martha, and
Mary sitting at His feet,
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Martha's rattling
the pots and pans,
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and I feel like
a blend of the two.
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You know, I see
these sorts of things
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and I wonder
whether I haven't done
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something wrong with my life.
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Maybe I should have
succumbed to that temptation
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to be an art major in college.
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But there is so
much beauty out there,
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so much, so much
that really glorifies God.
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And it's fabulous
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to see artists
sort of worshiping God
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through the work that they do.
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And you do that
with your photography.
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With my photography.
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But also I like to imagine with
the work that I do in general,
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you know, every one of us
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no matter what it
is that we do in life,
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each one of us is
called to worship the Creator
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and that's not
something that we do just
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when we're in church.
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That's something that we
can do in our everyday lives
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as we share the
Creator with others.
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Amen.
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And I just want to encourage you
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that when it come next Sabbath,
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go out into God's
creation after church
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and look at what the
Lord has done for us,
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worship the Creator.
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