The first verse of the Bible “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” has been the subject of more commentators than any other verse in the Bible. There are many different interpretations of this verse also. There are nearly as many interpretations as there are commentators! I want to scream, “More detail, God, would have been appreciated.” But no, that’s all we really get! Alright, then let’s use Kipling’s six brave men. He wrote in poetic form, “I keep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.” There is a lot more to that poem, but I’ll limit my research to these six honest serving men. Today, I’ll just look at the “How.”
God did it all with just his “word.” He simply spoke everything into existence. Augustine says, “O God…Thou hast made heaven and earth out of nothing—something great, yet something small. For, Thou art almighty and good to make all good things, the great heaven and the small earth. Thou wert, and there was nothing else from which Thou didst make heaven and earth”[1] Aquinas agrees, “The universe—all that exists except God—was created from nothing (ex nihilo). It is contingent; that is, it came from nothing, and it can go into nothingness. In fact, it would become nothing right now if God were to withdraw his causal power that keeps it in existence.”[2] Norm Geisler summarizes the result of this truth. He writes, “The world is not eternal. It came into existence by God’s decree. Its existence is totally contingent and dependent upon God. The universe was not created from preexisting material (ex materia), as dualism or materialism claims. Nor was it made out of God’s essence (ex Deo), as pantheism claims. It was brought into existence by God out of nothing that preexisted.”[3]
But there is a huge litany of modern scientists who argue that “nothing can come from nothing.” Thus the modern view is “ex materia.” There was some existing matter from which life as we know it evolved. Whatever that matter was, a big bang began the process that leads us to today. This seems to be the main view today. But my old professor observed, “Even Jastrow, a confirmed agnostic, said “That there are what I or anyone would call supernatural forces at work is now, I think, a scientifically proven fact” (God and the Astronomers, 15, 18). Jastrow adds some embarrassing words both for skeptical astronomers and liberal theologians: “Now we see how the astronomical evidence leads to a biblical view of the origin of the world. The details differ, but the essential elements in the astronomical and biblical accounts of Genesis are the same…[4] Norm concludes, “In view of the incredible order in the universe, it is difficult to draw any conclusion other than existence of a supernatural, super intelligent Being is behind it all. As one scientist quipped, you can lead a skeptical astronomer to order but you cannot make him think.” Let me add something from the bible to “think” about. John 1:1, intentionally focusing on Genesis 1:1 said, “In the Beginning was the Word…” Then in Verse 14 he adds, “And the word became flesh and dwelt amongst us.”
[1] Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, ed. Roy Joseph Deferrari, trans. Vernon J. Bourke, vol. 21, The Fathers of the Church (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1953), 373.
[2] Norman L. Geisler, Norman L. Geisler, and William D. Watkins, Worlds Apart: A Handbook on World Views, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1989), 28–29.
[3] Norman L. Geisler, Norman L. Geisler, and William D. Watkins, Worlds Apart: A Handbook on World Views, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1989), 39.
[4] Norman L. Geisler, “Big Bang Theory,” Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999), 106.