When we consider the beginning of the heavens and the earth, there are many questions that go unanswered. And there are many different opinions on how and when the events occurred.
One thing is vital to understand.
All things came into being when God spoke.
God spoke, and it happened.
We don’t know exactly how it happened. But we know that He spoke into nothing, and something came into being.
John 1:1-3 says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.”
We see that Jesus (the Word), was with God the Father before all things were made.
C.S. Lewis reminds us of the distinction between begetting and making. Jesus was begotten from God the Father. He wasn’t created by God. He existed before this world was created.
All of Creation came into being when God spoke.
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:26-27
When God created Adam and Eve, how old did He create them to be?
We don’t know their age, but I imagine they were immediately able to walk and function independently.
He spoke, and they came into being.
When He spoke creation into existence, He created science.
Things didn’t have to be as they are, but when God created the universe, He established principles for how His creation would behave. When God created science, He did so in a way that we could understand at a basic level, how things work. Science is observable, testable, repeatable. And so the behavior of God’s physical creation is predictable.
God made it that way, and He made us in a way that we can understand it.
So when He created, I believe He made Adam and Eve with an apparent age. Most likely they did not start out as infants. But their bodies would have been formed with an apparent age, as though they had lived and developed to reach a level of maturity. Their minds, too would have been formed with an immediate capacity for understanding and reason.
Similarly, God could have done the same for stars and planets, and rocks and everything that we see.
I know this is a challenging thought to consider.
But if we truly believe that God can speak things into existence, should we not consider that He could make things exactly as they are now, and skip all of the history that brought them to this point?
And at the same time, behave and exist consistently as though they had developed over time, to arrive at this moment, in keeping with scientific expectations?
Regardless of these speculative thoughts, one thing we know is that when God spoke, He made something out of nothing. And it was good.
He was pleased.
His creation reflected His character.
God is good, and so we can be assured that everything He makes is good and pleasing to Him.
In order for something to come from nothing, there must be intervention from the outside. We know from observation and experience that things don’t just appear without an explanation. For this to happen, it goes against our understanding of science.
Science cannot explain how everything came into existence from nothing. Or if the claim is made that matter has always existed, we can’t wrap our heads around that either. For our experience shows that everything must have an origin. Truthfully, we cannot comprehend that God existed before anything else existed. We have no frame of reference for this, since we think linearly about time. But God existed before time began, and to Him, “before” may not have any meaning.
We think ourselves to be wise and clever, but there is so much beyond our understanding. We must be humble, and see beyond our finite abilities to explain.
“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. “ Psalm 8:1
“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you’re are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” Psalm 8:3
As we reflect on the existence of God, it really leads us to a place of awe and worship.
These things are beyond our understanding, and we finally find ourselves saying “I don’t know how it is possible, but I believe.”
Man’s attempt to explain may sound sophisticated and persuasive. But in the end, it comes up empty, and cannot satisfy the aching questions within our hearts.
We are here now, and so we know that somehow things came into being. But can we really understand how we got here? Or will there always be an element of faith, no matter what one’s theory?
We were created want to understand. To want to make sense of the world around us. Where did we come from? How did we get here? Where are we going?
What other creatures on earth have that impulse or capability?
Why should we care or consider our origins? What other creature on earth does that? Why does it matter?
We are unique creatures, made in God’s image.
God made us to ask these questions, in order that we might understand that before anything existed, He existed. And He created everything that was brought into existence.
This world was His idea, and He spoke it into being.
And at it’s beginning, it was very good.