A well-known scientist named Herbert Spencer died in 1903. Spencer said everything that exists, exists in one of these categories: time, force, action, space and matter. Now consider Genesis 1:1. “In the beginning,” that’s time; “God,” that’s force; “created,” that’s action; “the heavens,” that’s space; “and the earth,” that’s matter. All that could be noted about everything that exists is said in the first verse of the Bible.
Time
“In the beginning.” God Himself was before the beginning: “Your throne is established from of old; You are from everlasting” (Psalm 93:2). Some are troubled by the questions, “Where did God come from?” and “Who created God?” The answer is found in the definition of God – that God is the uncreated Being, eternal and without beginning or end.
Force
“God.” This is the ancient Hebrew word “Elohim.” Grammatically, it is a plural word used as if it were singular. The verbs and pronouns used with Elohim should be in the plural, but when Elohim refers to the Lord God, the verbs and pronouns are in the singular.
Action
“Created.” The word “created” comes from a Hebrew word meaning “to call into existence something that previously had no existence.” That Hebrew word is only used of God. Only God can create. He created something out of nothing. We can make things, but we have to have something we can use before we can make anything. God created out of nothing.
Space
“The heavens.” A typical galaxy contains billions of individual stars; our galaxy alone (the Milky Way) contains 200 billion stars. Our galaxy is shaped like a giant spiral, rotating in space, with arms reaching out like a pinwheel, and our sun is one star on one arm of the pinwheel. It would take 250 million years for the pinwheel to make one full rotation. However, this is only our galaxy; there are many other galaxies with many other shapes, including spirals, spherical clusters and flat pancakes. The average distance between one galaxy and another is about 20 million trillion miles. Our closest galaxy is the Andromeda Galaxy, about 12 million trillion miles away.
Matter
“The earth.” Psalm 136 connects the Genesis account of creation with the rest of Israel’s history in a seamless fabric. The creation account is not put in a category of “historical fiction.” The earth is a precious gift given to man by God. It is man’s stewardship; he is the overseer and manager.
