Rev. Laning is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Chruch in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Our God, the true God, is the Creator of all things. The Creator spoke the word, “Let there be light,” and immediately light came into existence where there had been no light. The calling into existence of things that before were not—that is what is meant by creation.

Creation out of Nothing

Most scientists of this world refuse to believe this. They reject the idea that all that we see around us was created out of nothing. Although they may speak of this present universe beginning with a “Big Bang,” the explosion of which they speak is not the same as a creation out of nothing. The Big Bang theory begins with something, not nothing. It really teaches that first there was something, and then that something exploded. It is, after all, inconceivable that “nothing” could have exploded. It would have to have been “something” first.

By beginning with “something,” the Big Bang theory really implies that this creation may have always existed. A universe, it is thought, can collapse to a single point (called the Big Crunch), and then explode into a new universe. In the mind of some who hold to such a theory, this back-and-forth of Big Crunch, followed by Big Bang, followed by Big Crunch, etc., may be unending. It may never have had a beginning, and perhaps it will never end. Scripture, however, states clearly that the entire creation did have a beginning. It began when God called all things into existence.

God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were,

Rom. 4:17b.

Light did not exist. It was one of those “things which be not.” Then God called it into existence by the power of His words, “let there be light.” Such is the wondrous way that light came to be.

An Act of a Personal God Whose Counsel Stands

God does not need His creatures. He would not be incomplete without us. It is for His pleasure that He created all things. It was not an act of necessity, but a free act of His will:

…for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created,

Rev. 4:11b.

A personal God, who creates for His pleasure, is far different from the impersonal force that many worship as their god. There are many who are like Albert Einstein. They look out at the creation and stand in awe of some impersonal force that they think they see behind it. “Veneration for this force, beyond anything that we can comprehend, is my religion,” he is reported to have said.¹ Yet such a religion is vain. Jehovah is not an impersonal force. He is a personal Being who by an act of His will brought the whole of the creation into existence.

By an act of His will He created, and His counsel always stands. That His counsel stands means that He always accomplishes His good pleasure. God said, “Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear,”and it was so. The Almighty accomplished His will when He created. He stated His desire, and what He desired immediately took place.

He accomplished His will then, and He has been accomplishing His will ever since. Notice the relationship between these two texts that are both found in Psalm 33:

For he spake, and it was done (v. 9a).

The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever (v. 11a).

There are many who say they confess the former (God accomplished His will when He created), but who refuse to confess the latter (God always accomplishes His will throughout history). Yet Scripture puts these two truths together. They are inseparable. To sing Psalm 33 with sincerity is to praise God for His wondrous act of creation, while confessing Him to be the only one whose counsel standeth forever.

¹ Quoted in Walter Isaacson’s, Einstein: His Life and Universe (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007), 384-385.