By Jason Smith

“By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” (Hebrews 11:3)

On Christmas Eve, 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 had the unique privilege of becoming the first human beings to see the far side of the moon. Coming out of their fourth orbit, these astronauts — Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders — were mesmerized by the breathtaking view of earth, with all its beautiful and vibrant colors. It stood in stark contrast to the barren landscape of the moon in the foreground. In that captivating moment, the crew thought it was only fitting to read reverently from the majestic first verse in the Bible: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

Thus begins the grand story of Scripture. How different this account is from all the ancient pagan creation myths. For example, the Babylonian epic, Enuma Elish, speaks of the gods warring with one another and finally forming the worlds out of the carcasses of slain gods. In contrast, this God of Genesis, Yahweh, does not need already existing matter to create His universe. There is no battle raging in Genesis 1. God simply speaks, and a vast universe stretches into existence.

That phrase “the heavens and the earth” is called a merism, where two ends of a spectrum are used to encompass the whole. In Genesis 1:1, we are meant to take “the heavens and the earth” as the entire cosmos being created by the one God. Modern science has now caught up to Genesis in recognizing that there had to have been an absolute beginning to the universe, but for many centuries the consensus among secular scientists was that the universe was eternal. In contrast, Christians and Orthodox Jews have always believed that only God is eternal.

“Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” (Psalm 90:2)

God Speaks and Things Happen

“And God said, ‘Let there be light.’ And there was light” (Genesis 1:3). God merely speaks and things burst into existence. This same basic pattern is followed throughout the whole first chapter (see verses 6-7, 9, 11, 14-15, 20-21, 24, 26-27). And what’s the point? I think Psalm 33 best captures this.

In Psalm 33:6, we read: “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host.” Verse 9: “For He spoke, and it came to be; He commanded, and it stood firm.”

The whole point is that creation was instantaneous, just like the miracles of Jesus. Jesus did not need to take that water from the wedding in Cana, run to grab grapes from a local vineyard, press them down, and wait for the whole process of fermentation to be completed before He finally made wine. No, the whole point of this first “sign” was that Jesus transformed the water into wine in a moment (see John 2:1-11).

In the same way, God did not need long ages of stellar evolution before creating the first star.[1] Genesis offers no rhetorical flourish when describing the creation of those massive gas giants with all their incredible combustion. Almost as an afterthought, we read, “He also made the stars” (Genesis 1:16, NIV).

This instantaneous creation by His word displays God’s infinite creative power. All He has to do is exhale, as it were, and galaxies spin into space, whole worlds take shape, and all the various living creatures fill the earth. Just imagine how much power this Creator must wield!

God of Infinite Power

Yahweh is not like the gods of the ancient cultures, who needed humans to be their slaves because they were too tired.

“Have you not known? Have you not heard?
Yahweh is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
His understanding is unsearchable.” (Isaiah 40:28)

Nor did He need to kill other gods in order to form the worlds. It is simply the awesome power of Almighty God on full display. This is the God we were made to know and with whom we have to do (Hebrews 4:13).

You and I were made to bow down and worship such a God. And after considering His infinite power, this only makes sense.

“Worthy are You, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for You created all things,
and by Your will they existed and were created.” (Revelation 4:11)

Wired for Glory

But more than that, we were created to know Him. This is the greatest privilege imaginable: to know the Creator. That is why we ought to consider what the Bible says about Him. For knowing God is the key to finding true and abundant life. From the beginning, humankind was designed to be in relationship with this infinite Creator. We are wired for glory. That is why we hunger for glorious experiences, achievements, and relationships. But everything else will ultimately leave us empty and unsatisfied until we come to know the One who authored our life.

“And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).

Eternal life is found in repenting of sin against this Creator and trusting in Jesus Christ alone as Savior from that sin. I invite you to open your Bible and discover this awesome God for yourself.

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[1] As an aside, the current theory of stellar evolution that is widely accepted in the secular academy is that stars are born from the elements produced by already existing stars. The problem for the atheist is how those first stars came to be. While the current theory among secular scientists is that the first stars formed from a collapsing cloud of gas, this theory has numerous problems. See Rod Bernitt, “Stellar Evolution and the Problem of First Stars,” https://creation.com/stellar-evolution-and-the-problem-of-the-first-stars. Even the agnostic astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has admitted: “Not all gas clouds in the Milky Way can form stars at all times. More often than not, the cloud is confused about what to do next. Actually, astrophysicists are the confused ones here. We know the cloud wants to collapse under its own weight to make one or more stars. But rotation as well as turbulent motion within the cloud work against that fate. So, too, does the ordinary gas pressure you learned about in high-school chemistry class. Galactic magnetic fields also fight collapse: they penetrate the cloud and latch onto any free-roaming charged particles contained therein, restricting the ways in which the cloud will respond to its self-gravity. The scary part is that if none of us knew in advance that stars exist, front line research would offer plenty of convincing reasons for why stars could never form.” Neil deGrasse Tyson, Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2007), 187.