There are many questions about creation. For example, is there a God? What does the Bible say about creation versus evolution? Does faith in God and science contradict? What does the Bible say about cavemen? What is biogenesis? What is the God particle? What is the multiverse theory? Is belief in God compatible with quantum physics?, etc.
In May, I wrote briefly about the seven days of creation (Genesis 1:1-2:3). In this and subsequent articles, I would like to comment on some aspects of the creation story.
Some people believe that, “the universe has always been and will always be. It is ungenerated and indestructible. … It contained no place for God.” (James Montgomery Boice’s Genesis, Volume 1, 1999, p. 13). If the universe has no beginning or end, then there is nothing for a creator to create. Atheistic scientists are in favour of this view.
Some Bible passages seem to tell us that the universe is expanding (e.g., Isaiah 42:5; 44:24; 45:12; Jeremiah 10:12; 51:15). An expanding universe does not negate the story of creation in Genesis. Most scientists support the idea that matter did not exist prior to the “Big Bang” theory. At the moment of creation, time, space, and matter began.
In 1919, American astronomer Edwin Hubble formulated “a law for an expanding universe, which pointed to a moment of creation” (Boice, p. 14). He found that galaxies are moving away from each other, suggesting that they were once closer together. The universe is indeed expanding. If the universe is currently expanding, then, at some time in the past, the universe had a beginning of creation This is confirmed by Genesis 1:1 which tells us that in the beginning God created the universe.
The universe is not eternal. Only God is eternal and has no beginnings at all (Boice, p. 17). Boice wrote: “Science can take us back to the big bang, to the moment of creation. But if that original, colossal explosion obliterated anything that came before it, as science suggests, then nothing before that point can be known scientifically, including the cause of the explosion.” (Boice, p 17) God was the only eyewitness of creation. No human really knows how God created the universe, nor when. Regardless, Christians believe that the universe does have a beginning of creation.
However, Stephen Hawking (1942-2018), an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist and atheist, claimed that the universe never had a singular moment of creation. The January 2012 issue of New Scientist reports that on Hawking’s 70th birthday, Alexander Vilenkin (born 1949), Professor of Evolutionary Science and Director of the Institute of Cosmology at Tufts University, gave a lecture in his “honour.” Apparently, Vilenkin declared: “All the evidence we have says that the universe had a beginning.” It was the worst birthday gift ever for Hawking.
God is the creator. No one created him. Because God created everything, everything is His. He has the right to rule over us. One day, God will create a new heaven and new earth and they, like him, will continue into eternity. We who belong to Jesus through faith will continue through eternity as well.
