CHAPTER 3
CREATION
Everything was created by God. A little boy was once asked if he knew what 'to create' means. 'Yes,' he said, 'to make something out of nothing.' It was a good answer.
If a man is making a table, what does he need? Wood, nails, glue, tools. If a woman is making a cake, what does she need? Flour, sugar, butter, eggs, a cooker. God made everything out of nothing. That is creation.
It was an easy thing for God to create all things. He did it simply by speaking. The Bible tells us, 'He spoke, and it was done.' So in the book of Genesis ('the book of beginnings') we keep reading: 'And God said, Let there be . . . And it was so.'
God created everything in six days.
Light.
Air and clouds.
Dry land and things that grow.
Sun, moon, and stars.
Sea creatures and birds.
Land animals and man.
It happened immediately when God commanded. And there were no mistakes; there was no need to have a number of tries. Everything was perfect.
The seventh day God rested. That is why He gave the Sabbath day (one day in seven) as a day of rest in which we cease from work and play. Why do we now keep Sunday instead of Saturday? Because it is the day when Jesus rose from the dead and in the days of the Apostles the day was changed from the seventh to the first. The important thing from the beginning was one day in seven.
As most children know, some people do not believe that God created the world. They think it just happened. A famous German mathematician, Athanasius Kircher, once had such a person come to see him. He placed a beautiful globe of the world in a corner of the room so that his visitor could not help seeing it. Very soon the visitor asked: 'Where did you get that beautiful globe? Whoever made it?'
'No one,' said Kircher, 'it just happened.'
The other man, of course, was amazed at this answer and just stared at him.
'Well,' said the famous mathematician, 'you are amazed if someone suggests this little globe just happened, and yet how can you think such a thing of this great and beautiful world?'
At school you may be taught that man was not created but that he came from animals. This is known as Evolution. The Bible clearly tells us that God created Adam from the dust of the ground, and Eve from Adam's side. We cannot, of course, in a little book like this try to answer all the attacks on the Bible account of creation, but we just mention a few things:
1. Evolution is just a theory; it has never been proved. Many famous scientists are (and have been) Christians and believe fully in the Bible account of creation.
2. The Bible is not a science book, and we agree that a lot more could be said. But there is no mistake. There is nothing contrary to true science. A true scientist's work is to observe, to write about what has been observed, and to make deductions from that. It is the place of the historian to write what has taken place. No scientist was there to observe creation. But God was.
3. We do not see evolution taking place now. Better-quality horses may be bred, but we do not see a horse changing into a cow, or a pig into a sheep.
People in all ages, in all cultures, in different countries have been able to understand the beautiful account of creation. Even little children can understand it. How great God is! How beautiful the world He has made! How kind a Creator!
And how wonderful that we can speak to this great Creator in prayer! This great God loves His people. Sometimes on a very starry night they look up with amazement at the heavens: 'When I consider the heavens, which Thou hast made, the moon and stars, the work of Thy fingers, what is man? . . . ' And they feel, 'This great God is my Saviour and my Friend.'
Suggested Bible readings
Genesis 1.
Genesis 2.
Psalm 8.
Psalm 33: 1-9.