Bible Basics

Where did the world come from?

By Pastor Ben Berger

"By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible," (Hebrews 11:3).

We can only know the origins of the world and even of ourselves BY FAITH. Why? because no one was there to see it. Regardless of what you believe about the origins of the world, you can only believe it by faith. You either take man's word for it; or you take God's word for it.

God tells us about the creation of the world in the first chapter of the Bible, Genesis One. The first verse informs, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." The very first thing that God tells us about himself is that he is the Creator. The rest of the chapter clearly details what God made, when he made it and how he made it.

God created the world from nothing. Nothing existed before God. "All things were created by God and for God. He is before all things and in him all things hold together," (Colossians 1:16b-17). Only God is eternal; he does not have a beginning or an end.

God created the world with his Word. At least nine times in Genesis One we hear the phrase, "God said." When God speaks, things happen. In this case, God spoke and there was. God spoke and there was light. There was sky; there was dry ground and seas; there was vegetation; there were lights in the sky; there were birds and fish and land animals. However, God did not create everything by his Word. To create man the LORD God formed him from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being," (Genesis 2:7). God used his own hands to create man showing that man was the most important part of his creation.

God created the world and everything in it in six days. The word "day" can have different meanings. It can mean 1) period of sunlight, 2) 24 hours or 3) a long period of time (back in my day). At the end of each day's creation God said, "And there was evening, and there was morning - the _____ day," (5,8,13,19,23,31). Evening and morning add up to 24 hours. Thus, God created the world in six 24-hour days.

In his account of creation God repeated one other phrase. Six times between verses 20-25 God said that the plants and animals would each reproduce "according to their kind." The LORD is a God of order. From the beginning God shows us his order and design. He designed the living parts of his creation to reproduce according to their kind. In other words, apple trees produce apple trees and dogs produce dogs and man would produce man.

Praise God for his order and design and for his entire creation. "By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done," (Genesis 2:2-3). What a wondrous God we have who has created a world that shows his wisdom and power, and especially his love. God has given us his creation to enjoy. He has shown us that he is the Father of all and our Father because he made us. Next month we will discover why God made us.