Ac­cor­ding to the Apos­to­lic Creed, God is the Cre­a­tor of the he­a­ven and the earth. The first ver­se of the Bib­le exp­res­ses this simp­ly and cle­ar­ly: ”In the be­gin­ning God cre­a­ted the he­a­ven and the earth” (Gen. 1:1).

The he­a­ven and the earth here re­fer to the whole uni­ver­se. The uni­ver­se con­tains not­hing that exists in­de­pen­dent­ly of God. All things vi­sib­le and in­vi­sib­le, ani­mals, and pe­op­le are part of the to­ta­li­ty of God’s cre­a­ti­on. God dec­reed a be­gin­ning for the uni­ver­se, and he will al­so dec­ree its end.

God is the po­wer be­hind all things

God him­self has exis­ted sin­ce the be­gin­ning of all things and will exist for ever. Eve­ryt­hing el­se has been cre­a­ted by him. Ac­cor­ding to Chris­ti­an faith, the exis­ten­ce of God and his work of cre­a­ti­on can­not be exp­lai­ned by re­a­son. For a child of God they are mat­ters of faith: “I be­lie­ve in God, Fat­her Al­migh­ty, Cre­a­tor of the he­a­ven and the earth.”

Scien­ce tries to sol­ve the mys­te­ry of the earth’s ori­gin and the de­ve­lop­ment of na­tu­re and man. But it has ne­ver been ab­le to give an ex­haus­ti­ve exp­la­na­ti­on of the ori­gin and pur­po­se of life. Faith, on the ot­her hand, as­su­mes that there is an al­migh­ty God, a he­a­ven­ly Fat­her, be­hind all things.

Even the re­gu­la­ri­ties that pre­vail in na­tu­re, which we call laws of na­tu­re and which seem unc­han­ging to us, were cre­a­ted by God. Ba­sed on our be­lief in cre­a­ti­on, we can pre­su­me and un­ders­tand that God may al­low ex­cep­ti­ons to these re­gu­la­ri­ties, which are per­cei­ved as mi­rac­les by us.

God cre­a­ted eve­ryt­hing with his word

The Bib­le’s desc­rip­ti­on of cre­a­ti­on shows that God cre­a­ted eve­ryt­hing out of not­hing with his word. The as­sump­ti­ons of ini­ti­al chaos and the the­o­ry of the Big Bang are ba­sed on hu­man ra­ti­o­na­li­za­ti­on, not the Bib­le.

The desc­rip­ti­on gi­ven in the Bib­le about God’s cre­a­ti­on and the ori­gin of the uni­ver­se is qui­te brief. The Bib­le is not a text­book of scien­ce, and it does not even aim to give a de­tai­led ac­count of the ori­gin and his­to­ry of cre­a­ti­on. The main to­pic of the Bib­le is God’s re­la­ti­ons­hip with man.

The Bib­le emp­ha­si­zes that God’s cre­a­ti­on is good. When God cre­a­ted the world, he saw eve­ryt­hing to be good. But all things that God cre­a­ted car­ry the he­a­vy bur­den of the con­se­qu­en­ces of the fall: God’s work is cor­rup­ted by sin and evil of all kinds.

Sal­va­ti­on in Je­sus

God is a Fat­her who lo­ves his cre­a­ti­on. He has cre­a­ted eve­ryt­hing, and he has the­re­fo­re al­so pre­pa­red sal­va­ti­on for fal­len man in his Son, Je­sus Christ.

God cre­a­ted man to be an eter­nal being. As a con­se­qu­en­ce of the fall man be­ca­me mor­tal (Rom. 5:12). Through faith in Christ, ho­we­ver, man can in­he­rit eter­nal life in he­a­ven. God cal­ls all pe­op­le to pos­sess this life.

Text: Pent­ti Sau­lio

Pub­lis­hed: Sii­o­nin Lä­he­tys­leh­ti 2/2001

Trans­la­ti­on: S.-L.L.

Jul­kais­tu eng­lan­nin­kie­li­ses­sä kie­li­liit­tees­sä 11/2013