Creation, a Short Study

1. God Created the Universe Out of Nothing
2. Creation is Distinct from God Yet Always Dependent on God
3. God Created the Universe to Show His Glory
4. The Universe God Created Was “Very Good”
5. The Relationship Between Scripture and the Findings of Modern Science

God Created the Entire Universe Out of Nothing
• Biblical Evidence for Creation of the Entire Universe 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; it is then said that the Bible
teaches creation ex nihilo.) This means that before God began to create the universe, nothing
else existed except God himself.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Gen 1:1 ESV)
“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.” (Heb 11:3 ESV)
Biblical references: Ps 33:6,9, 90:2, Jn 1:3, Acts 4:24, 14:15, 17:24-25, Rom 4:17, Col 1:16,
Rev 4:11, 10:6

Because God created the entire universe out of nothing there is no matter in the universe
that is eternal.

The Creation of the Spiritual Universe

This creation of the entire universe includes the creation of an unseen, spiritual realm of existence: God created the angels and other kinds of heavenly beings as well as animals and man. (rev 10:6, Acts 4:24, Ps 103:21, 148:2-5)

“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 9:6 ESV)

“For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.” (Col 1:16 ESV)

The Direct Creation of Man: Adam and Eve

The Bible also teaches that God created Adam and Eve in a special, personal way.

“Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” (Gen 2:7 ESV)

“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 that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.” (Gen 2:21-22 ESV)

It would be difficult to accept the complete truthfulness of Scripture and still hold that human beings were the result of a long evolutionary process.

God “formed man out of
the dust from the ground….not over a period of millions of years – at the random development into some complex organism.
And the woman was not some product of evolution from some other human being–but directly formed out of man.

We are created “in God’s image,” the pinnacle of God’s creation, more like God than any other creature, appointed to rule over the rest of creation.