Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear—Hebrews 11:3

Scripture is the lens through which we must understand the creation. We saw in the last installment that we have a more sure word of prophecy in God’s inspired Word (Standard Bearer, December 2025, p. 121). In light of that more sure Word, we must not use creation and men’s interpretation of creation as our guide for understanding Scripture. Just the opposite, we must use Scripture as our guide for understanding creation. In this installment, we want to consider what God’s Word says about the origin of the universe. Although the truth regarding the origin of the universe is obvious, it is still vehemently denied by unbelievers.

When we encounter such denials of the truth, we might be tempted to compromise. When we hear that the universe came from a big bang fourteen billion years ago, we might be tempted to compromise what Scripture declares and accept the idea that God created the universe through the process of evolution. When scientists claim that DNA evidence shows that simple creatures evolved into more complex creatures over long periods of time, we might be tempted to believe the lie.

We intend in this series to look at creation through the lens of Scripture. Lord willing, future installments will look at specific issues such as how old the universe is, how long the days of creation were, and how do deal with scientific evidence that seems to indicate an old universe, among other topics.

Before looking at those specific topics, it may be profitable to use the lens of Scripture to look at some fundamental truths regarding the origin of the universe. The first and most basic truth concerning the origin of the universe is that God is its Creator.

Unbelievers cannot bring themselves to admit that God is the Creator and rather hold that the universe arose of its own accord. If they admitted that God in fact created all things, they would condemn themselves for not believing in Him and serving Him. Despite their loud protestations to the contrary, unbelievers nevertheless know that the universe did not create itself. That is the teaching of Romans 1:20 where it says, “… the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” Mankind is able to see that there is such an almighty power behind the existence of the universe and that this power was exercised by the Godhead. But they refuse to admit what is clearly true. No amount of evidence can make rebellious man turn from his denials; only a wonderwork of God can accomplish this.

However, God answers the question regarding the origin of all things in the very first verse of Scripture: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). Hebrews 1:10 declares: “And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands.” And, Hebrews 11:3 proclaims that “the worlds were framed by the word of God.” The rest of Scripture so clearly echoes the truth that God created, it would be redundant to multiply passages. While unbelief denies this basic truth and suppresses it, faith holds for truth what Scripture declares: God is the Almighty Creator of all things. A second fundamental truth regarding the origin of the universe is that God created the heavens and the earth by His powerful word.

Since unbelievers refuse to acknowledge that God created all things, they must explain how the universe could arise of its own accord. Generally, they try to invoke physical laws to explain how supposed hot gas clouds in the early universe could collapse under gravity over hundreds of millions of years and eventually form rotating stars surrounded by disks of material. Planets somehow formed from these disks as smaller clumps collided and stuck together. Somehow earth formed into a planet at exactly the right distance from the sun so that it would be neither too hot nor too cold to support life. Over billions of years, the earth’s atmosphere and oceans somehow became an ideal place for life to form. According to evolutionism, a chemical soup somehow evolved into complex molecules. These in turn somehow evolved into simple life forms, which evolved into multi-cellular organisms. Eventually, these more complex organisms somehow evolved into higher creatures including apes and humans. Somehow all this order and complexity arose through chance processes and naturalistic laws apart from the work of God.

In contrast, faith understands that “the worlds were framed by the word of God” (Heb. 11:3). The constant testimony of Scripture is that the universe is the product of God’s powerful creative word. Genesis 1 leaves the matter beyond doubt when it repeats the words: “God said…and it was so.” Genesis 1 does not merely teach that God created; it teaches how God created, that is through His mighty word. Psalm 33:6 declares, “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.” Similarly, Psalm 33:9 tells us, “For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.” God’s creative word was a powerful command that accomplished His wise purposes.

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A third important truth that Scripture declares about the origin of the universe is that God created out of nothing.

A fundamental axiom in naturalistic explanations for origins is that the universe and everything in it developed from an initial natural reality (for example, a quantum field having fluctuating energy and observing physical laws). Unbelievers posit that the heavens and the earth arose from billions of years of processes following a sudden expansion of space-time called the big bang. Naturalism assumes that the universe and everything in it ultimately arose from some natural reality rather than from the creative act of God. According to these explanations, the stars, the sun, the planets, the moon, the earth, and all its creatures all had their origin from what is essentially an eternal reality.

In contrast, Scripture declares that God created the heavens and the earth out of nothing. When Hebrews 11:3 speaks of “the worlds [that] were framed,” it literally refers to the framing of the ‘eons.’ God created eons of time (including the matter and space that exist in connection with time) in such a way that the “things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Heb. 11:3). God did not create the material of the visible universe (that is,“things which are seen”) out of previously existing material (that is, “of things which do appear”). He created the universe out of nothing.

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A fourth fundamental truth concerning the origin of the universe is that God’s creative word accomplished what it commanded immediately.

Unbelieving explanations dealing with the origin of the universe and of life on the earth, consistently hold that the order found in the universe and in living organisms all arose gradually through natural processes acting over long periods. After the sun and the earth formed, the earth took up its orbit exactly the right distance from the sun. After millions of years, it manifested just the right composition of nitrogen, oxygen, and water that allowed life to evolve from non-living chemicals. Somehow the building blocks of life (proteins, DNA, RNA, sugars, lipids, and a multitude of other compounds) came together and avoided the effects of water and oxygen (that normally tend to destroy complex molecules). Somehow these fragile building blocks gradually organized themselves into more ordered systems that were somehow able to harvest energy and somehow able to make copies of themselves and become simple living organisms. These single-celled organisms in turn were somehow gradually able to add more complexity and information  to themselves. Through the process of natural selection, these organisms gradually developed into more complicated multi-cellular organisms. Over billions of years, these organisms somehow developed into higher creatures, such as birds, reptiles, mammals, and ultimately human beings. All of this somehow came about by blind chance operating through natural selection over billions of years.

Scripture proclaims something far different than the idea of gradual processes. Genesis 1 does not proclaim that God caused one kind of plant to develop into another kind of plant. It does not say that less complex kinds of animals brought forth more complex kinds. It rather proclaims that God made each of the creatures “after his kind.” For example, Genesis 1:25 says, “And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind…” (see also, Gen. 1:11, 12, 21, 24). Whales and cows did not evolve from an earlier land-dwelling creature. Humans did not evolve from ape-like creatures. Scripture rules out the idea that God evolved some creatures into other kinds of creatures when it states the plain truth that God made each creature “after his kind.”

Furthermore, God’s individual acts of creating various creatures are presented as occurring immediately. For example, Genesis 1:11 says “And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.” The immediate fulfillment of God’s creative command is seen in the words, “And God said…and it was so.”

Lastly, the creation narrative has God’s creative commands being fulfilled, not over millions of years, but on individual days. For example, after the close of the fourth day in the previous verse, Genesis 1:20 describes the work of the fifth day: “And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.” Once God accomplishes the work of that particular day, the inspired writer announces: “And the evening and the morning were the fifth day” (Gen. 1:23).

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A fifth fundamental principle concerning the origin of the universe is that God created all things very good.

Those devoted to naturalistic explanations imagine that the universe, and the earth, and life on the earth, all arose by random chance. This implies that initially the universe was not at all suited for life. Over billions of years, it became somewhat suited; then better suited, and finally well suited for supporting life. Similarly, evolutionists suppose that weaker life forms evolved into stronger and stronger life forms.

Scripture, however, presents a completely different picture. The fact that Hebrews 11:3 speaks of the worlds being “framed,” implies that the word of God giving rise to creation caused it to be in a condition that functions well. That is the same idea the inspired writer gives us in Genesis 1 when six times it proclaims “And God saw that it was good.” God’s assessment of His creative work was not, “very weak,” “less weak,” “stronger,” “stronger yet,” and so on. Rather, each day God saw that His work “was good.” Then we read in Genesis 1:31: “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” Far from a rotten creation progressing through millions of years of imperfection and death, Scripture tells us it was all “very good.”

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The last fundamental truth that we treat is that when God created all things very good, it was perfectly suited to accomplish God’s purpose.

One of the most striking things about evolution is that the entire process is supposedly driven by blind and random chance and therefore can have no purpose whatsoever. That implies that there is no purpose for anything in the entire universe, including the lives of human beings. The thought that we exist simply because of random molecular interactions makes life itself meaningless.

In stark contrast to the purposelessness of evolution, Scripture declares that creation has a purpose. The purpose for which God created all things is the manifestation of His glory in the salvation of His people. That the purpose for creation centers in Jesus Christ is evident from Colossians 1:16, which says about Christ, “All things were created by him and for him.” That purpose is hinted at in the Genesis creation account that puts the creation of mankind last, only when the entire creation was ready for him.

Furthermore, we see purpose expressed in Genesis 1:28, “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” God called Adam and Eve to exercise dominion as His friend-servants. This is implied by the fact that God created mankind in His image: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Gen. 1:26). The glorious purpose for which God created us with righteousness, holiness, and knowledge of Him, is so that we could love Him and live with our Friend-Sovereign in covenant fellowship.

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By faith we understand that the origin of the universe was the work of God, carried out through His powerful word, bringing the creation into being out of nothing immediately, perfectly suited for the purpose of establishing His covenant with us. The same God who created all things for our sakes is the God who saves us to the uttermost. Knowing this, we confess with the psalmist, “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth” (Ps. 124:8).

You can access the Dutch version of this article, translated by Gerben Jongsma, by clicking the following link. De schepping gezien in Bijbels licht