Creation

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Creation

• from
• Wayne Grudems
• Systematic Theology

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Creation

• The Work of God

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Creation

• Why, how, and when did God create the universe?
• We may define the doctrine of creation as
  follows God created the entire universe out of
  nothing it was originally very good and he
  created it to glorify himself.

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Creation

• A. God Created the Universe Out of Nothing
• 1.     Biblical Evidence for Creation Out of
  Nothing. The Bible clearly requires us to believe
  that God created the universe out of nothing.
  (Sometimes the Latin phrase ex nihilo out of
  nothing is used). This means that before God
  began to create the universe, nothing else
  existed except God himself.

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Creation

• Ø     This is the implication of Genesis 11,
  which says, In the beginning God created the
  heavens and the earth. The phrase the heavens
  and the earth includes the entire universe.
• Ø     Psalm 33 also tells us, By the word of the
  LORD the heavens were made, and all their host by
  the breath of his mouth.... For he spoke, and it
  came to be he commanded, and it stood forth
  (Ps. 336, 9).

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Creation

• Ø     In the New Testament, we find a universal
  statement at the beginning of Johns gospel All
  things were made through him, and without him was
  not anything made that was made (John 13).
• Ø     Paul is quite explicit in Colossians 1 when
  he specifies all the parts of the universe, both
  visible and invisible things For in him all
  things were created, in heaven and on earth,
  visible and invisible whether thrones or
  dominions or principalities or authorities--all
  things were created through him and for him
  (Col. 116).

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Creation

• Ø     The song of the twenty-four elders in
  heaven likewise affirms this truth
• You are worthy, 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. (Rev. 411)
• This reminds us that God rules over all the
  universe and that nothing in creation is to be
  worshiped instead of God or in addition to him.

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Creation

• Were we to deny creation out of nothing, we would
  have to say that some matter has always existed
  and that it is eternal like God.
• The positive side of the fact that God created
  the universe out of nothing is that it has
  meaning and a purpose.
• 2.     The Creation of the Spiritual Universe.
• God created the angels and other kinds of
  heavenly beings as well as animals and man.

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Creation

• Ø     The prayer of Ezra says very clearly You
  are the LORD, you alone you have made heaven,
  the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the
  earth and all that is on it, the seas and all
  that is in them and you preserve all of them
  and the host of heaven worships you (Neh. 96).

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Creation

• Ø     In the New Testament, Paul specifies that
  in Christ all things were created, in heaven and
  on earth, visible and invisible whether thrones
  or dominions or principalities or
  authorities--all things were created through him
  and for him (Col. 116 cf. Ps. 1482-5). Here
  the creation of invisible heavenly beings is also
  explicitly affirmed.
• 3.     The Direct Creation of Adam and Eve.

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Creation

• Ø     The LORD God formed man of dust from the
  ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath
  of life and man became a living being (Gen.
  27). After that, God created Eve from Adams
  body So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to
  fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of
  his ribs and closed up its place with flesh and
  the rib which the LORD God had taken from the man
  he made into a woman and brought her to the man
  (Gen. 221-22). God apparently let Adam know
  something of what had happened, for Adam said,

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Creation

• This at last is bone of my bones and
  flesh of my flesh she shall be called
  Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
  (Gen. 223)
• These texts are so explicit that it would be very
  difficult for someone to hold to the complete
  truthfulness of Scripture and still hold that
  human beings are the result of a long
  evolutionary process. It clearly portrays Eve as
  having no female parent

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Creation

• Ø     The New Testament reaffirms the historicity
  of this special creation of Eve from Adam when
  Paul says, For man was not made from woman, but
  woman from man. Neither was man created for
  woman, but woman for man (1 Cor. 118-9).
• The special creation of Adam and Eve shows that,
  though we may be like animals in many respects in
  our physical bodies, nonetheless we are very
  different from animals. We are created in Gods
  image, the pinnacle of Gods creation, more like
  God than any other creature, appointed to rule
  over the rest of creation.

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Creation

• 4.     The Creation of Time. (the succession of
  moments one after another).
• When we speak of Gods existence before the
  creation of the world, we should not think of God
  as existing in an unending extension of time.
  Rather, Gods eternity means that he has a
  different kind of existence, an existence without
  the passage of time, a kind of existence that is
  difficult for us even to imagine. (See Job 3626
  Ps. 902, 4 John 858 2 Peter 38 Rev. 18).
  The fact that God created time reminds us of his
  lordship over it and our obligation to use it for
  his glory.

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Creation

• 5.     The Work of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
  in Creation. God the Father was the primary agent
  in initiating the act of creation. But the Son
  and the Holy Spirit were also active.
• There is a consistent picture of the Son as the
  active agent carrying out the plans and
  directions of the Father.

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Creation

• The Holy Spirit was also at work in creation. He
  is generally pictured as completing, filling, and
  giving life to Gods creation. The work of the
  Holy Spirit is brought into much greater
  prominence in connection with the inspiring of
  the authors of Scripture and the applying of
  Christs redemptive work to the people of God.

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Creation

• B. Creation Is Distinct From God Yet Always
  Dependent on God
• God is distinct from his creation. He is not part
  of it, for he has made it and rules over it. The
  term often used to say that God is much greater
  than creation is the word transcendent. Very
  simply, this means that God is far above the
  creation in the sense that he is greater than the
  creation and he is independent of it.

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Creation

• God is also very much involved in creation, for
  it is continually dependent on him for its
  existence and its functioning. The technical term
  used to speak of Gods involvement in creation is
  the word immanent meaning remaining in creation.

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Creation

• This is clearly distinct from materialism which
  is the most common philosophy of unbelievers
  today, and which denies the existence of God
  altogether. Materialism would say that the
  material universe is all there is. Christians
  today who focus almost the entire effort of their
  lives on earning more money and acquiring more
  possessions become practical materialists in
  their activity, since their lives would be not
  much different if they did not believe in God at
  all.

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Creation

• The scriptural account of Gods relation to his
  creation is also distinct from pantheism. The
  Greek word pan means all or every, and
  pantheism is the idea that everything, the whole
  universe, is God, or is part of God. Pantheism
  denies several essential aspects of Gods
  character. If the whole universe is God, then God
  has no distinct personality. God is no longer
  holy, because the evil in the universe is also
  part of God. It ends up denying the importance
  of individual human personalities

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Creation

• Any philosophy that sees creation as an
  emanation out of God (that is, something that
  comes out of God but is still part of God and not
  distinct from him) would be similar to pantheism
  in most or all of the ways in which aspects of
  Gods character are denied.

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Creation

• The biblical account also rules out dualism. This
  is the idea that both God and the material
  universe have eternally existed side by side.
  Thus, there are two ultimate forces in the
  universe, God and matter. The problem with
  dualism is that it indicates an eternal conflict
  between God and the evil aspects of the material
  universe. Will God ultimately triumph over evil
  in the universe? We cannot be sure, because both
  God and evil have apparently always existed side
  by side. One recent example of dualism in modern
  culture is the series of Star Wars movies.

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Creation

• The Christian view of creation is also distinct
  from the viewpoint of deism. Deism is the view
  that God is not now directly involved in the
  creation. While deism does affirm Gods
  transcendence in some ways, it denies almost the
  entire history of the Bible, which is the history
  of Gods active involvement in the world. Many
  lukewarm or nominal Christians today are, in
  effect, practical deists, since they live lives
  almost totally devoid of genuine prayer, worship,
  fear of God, or moment-by-moment trust in God to
  care for needs that arise.

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Creation

• C. God Created the Universe to Show His Glory
• It is clear that God created his people for his
  own glory . . .
• Ø     The heavens are telling the glory of God
  and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to
  day pours forth speech, and night to night
  declares knowledge (Ps. 191-2).

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Creation

• What does creation show about God? Primarily it
  shows his great power and wisdom,
• Ø     It is he who made the earth by his power,
  who established the world by his wisdom, and by
  his understanding stretched out the heavens
  (Jer. 1012).

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Creation

• When we affirm that God created the universe to
  show his glory, it is important that we realize
  that he did not need to create it. We should not
  think that God needed more glory than he had
  within the Trinity for all eternity, or that he
  was somehow incomplete without the glory that he
  would receive from the created universe.

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Creation

• Ø     We must affirm that the creation of the
  universe was a totally free act of God. It was
  not a necessary act but something that God chose
  to do. You created all things, and by your will
  they existed and were created (Rev. 411)
• The creation shows his great wisdom and power,
  and ultimately it shows all of his other
  attributes as well. As creation shows forth
  various aspects of Gods character, to that
  extent he takes delight in it.

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Creation

• D. The Universe God Created Was Very Good
• When God finished his work of creation, he did
  take delight in it. At the end of each stage of
  creation God saw that what he had done was good
  (Gen. 14, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25). The material
  creation is still good in Gods sight
• This knowledge will free of us from a false
  asceticism that sees the use and enjoyment of the
  material creation as wrong.

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Creation

• Though the created order can be used in sinful or
  selfish ways and can turn our affections away
  from God, nonetheless we must not let the danger
  of the abuse of Gods creation keep us from a
  positive, thankful, joyful use of it for our own
  enjoyment and for the good of his kingdom.

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Creation

• F. Application
• The doctrine of creation has many applications
  for Christians today. It makes us realize that
  the material universe is good in itself.

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Creation

• A healthy appreciation of creation will keep us
  from false asceticism that denies the goodness of
  creation and the blessings that come to us
  through it. It will also encourage some
  Christians to do scientific and technological
  research into the goodness of Gods abundant
  creation, or to support such research.

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Creation

• The doctrine of creation will also enable us to
  recognize more clearly that scientific and
  technological study in itself glorifies God, for
  it enables us to discover how incredibly wise,
  powerful, and skillful God was in his work of
  creation. Great are the works of the LORD,
  studied by all who have pleasure in them (Ps.
  1112).
• The doctrine of creation also reminds us that God
  is sovereign over the universe he created.

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Creation

• Finally, we can wholeheartedly enjoy creative
  activities (artistic, musical, athletic,
  domestic, literary, etc.) with an attitude of
  thanksgiving that our Creator God enables us to
  imitate him in our creativity.