Creation

‘Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? 

Isaiah 40:26a.

The Hubble spacecraft set off in 1990 courtesy of a lift by a space shuttle. One of its missions was to determine the Hubble Constant, that is, the rate by which the universe is expanding!  Listen to what the Scriptures have to say on this: ‘He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.’ (Isaiah 40:22).` God’s word had been telling all who read it that the heavens were being stretched out.

 When you consider creation you face two options about its beginning. One is the faith view of evolutionists. They hold to a chance beginning. We, and all that there happens to be, has taken untold billions of years. The other faith option is spelt out in the Scriptures: ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’

 Evolutionists make their claim on their view of science. This flows from their naturalistic interpretation of evidence viewed in the ‘now!’ Creationists make their claim, also using the same evidence for their interpretation of science but in the light of divine revelation. In either case you come up against an insurmountable barrier. Where did ‘Chance’ come from or ‘who made God’? Therefore in both cases the element of faith, based upon knowledge, introduces the religious factor to those in either camp.

The word for ‘create’ illustrates its uniqueness and special association with Jehovah – Elohim. From out of nothing God created the heavens and the earth. He spoke and it was done! When you look into the heavens, or into a flower or droplet of water you get a glimpse of the Lord’s beauty and power. There have always been people who deny the existence of God, any type of god. Others have corrupted the Creator’s being and character into hideous caricatures and worshipped aspects of creation rather than God Himself. Romans 1:20: ‘Since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.’ 

When you read the first chapter of Genesis the word ‘Bara’ is used. This means create out of nothing, a unique beginning specified. Between Genesis 1:1 and 2:3 there are forty-six times listed to the direct act or will of God as creator. When we check out references to the creation we come across Psalm 33:6: ‘By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.’ In Jeremiah 51:15: ‘He made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.’ In the New Testament all of this is summed up in the person of the Word made flesh, Jesus. John 1:1-3: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him was all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.’

We are not the end product of a heavenly experiment dragging us from the swamp to the ape and into an ‘Adam.’ The first man was God’s special creation. We will consider him in a later meditation. The very integrity of God’s creative act, the authority of His word, the foundation for our faith and the understanding of Jesus according to the Gospels hinges upon the special and separate creative acts of God, especially for Adam.

In other sections of the Bible God’s other creative work is highlighted. This includes the creation of the nation of Israel (Isaiah 43:1), a future new heaven and earth (Isaiah 65:17) and when we cry out to Him for a new heart and a new beginning (Psalm 51:10).

Therefore I am faced with a choice about authority over my faith’s foundation and understanding of God and creation. I choose to take my stand upon the Word of God for I know in whom I have believed!