A. The work of creation is God's making all things of nothing, by the Word of His power, in the space of six days, and all very good. (Gen. 1:1; Heb. 11:3; Ex. 20:11; Gen. 1:31)
Scripture Proofs
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Gen. 1:1)
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)
For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Ex. 20:11)
And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. (Gen 1:31)
In the last post, we covered that God's decrees are executed in his works of creation and providence. Today we'll discuss his work of creation. I think the answer given covers the topic more than adequately: "The work of creation is God's making all things of nothing, by the Word of His power, in the space of six days, and all very good." Each of these statements are easily backed up by Scripture.
God made all things out of nothing; well, when the Bible says "God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1), it's easily implied that nothing existed before that moment except God. Note that the verse does not state that God himself was created in the beginning; he was already there. God has always been around. This is not illogical; a being with the power of being within himself does not need a cause. He, unlike us, does not need someone to grant him the ability to be. He has always been there. We can't grasp that; everything we can think of has some kind of beginning in time. But even time didn't exist until God created it, so how can he have a beginning in time?
The next phrase refers to his creating by "the Word of his power." The author of Hebrews says this very thing: "By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God" (11:3). Genesis also attests to this when it says, multiple times, that "God said" and what he said happened. (1:3, 6, 9 ,11, 14, 20, 24, 26). There is no mention of God taking some kind of pre-existing material and creating something with it except in the case of man, who was formed out of dust (2:7). No, God simply spoke and it came to be. What power!
The next phrase, "in the space of six days," is a hotly-contested issue for some reason or another. Some people say it means six literal days. Others claim it means six ages or indefinite spans of time, citing the fact that, since the sun and moon were not created until day four, there was no such thing as a literal, 24-hour day before then. I tend to fall in the first camp: the Bible affirms that "in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day" (Ex. 20:11). In fact, in context, that verse is the reason God instituted a six-day work week with a Sabbath; it is the last verse in the fifth commandment itself (20:8-11). The work week and Sabbath are intended to model God's work of creation! I don't really see why people argue against it or what the big deal is. However, this isn't a mountain I'd die on; if someone wants to argue with me about this, they won't get a response, as I don't think it's a live-or-die, you're-not-saved-if-you-don't-believe-this issue.
The last phrase, "and all very good," is not one that Christians argue about. It's very clear that God made creation good. "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good" (Gen 1:31). Paul agrees: "For everything created by God is good" (1 Tim. 4:4). In fact, the only thing that was not good is that man was initially alone, and God quickly fixed that problem, making it good (Gen 2:18-25). It is only because of man that things went bad, but we'll get to that later.
To read the full catechism, click here.
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