Questions Part II - Did God alone create?

Over summer, we covered some questions that had come to us from the congregation. One question that came up was:

Does the Science theory of splitting atoms, super accelerate them and smash them together to create matter somehow fit in with the Big Bang? Is this what God did to create the world and life itself?
 
To help frame this question it is important to note the difference between creation and manufacture. Starting with a quick look at the reality of transformation of energy to matter we saw how creation is an act of God. The Hebrew verb for the act of creation (bārā’) can only have as its subject God. In using this word no other subject is employed or implied. “To create” is exclusively an act of God, it is used in the first and last verse of the creation story (Genesis 1:1 and 2:4).
 
In Genesis and elsewhere the Bible insists that at the point of the beginning there was nothing apart from God (Hebrews 11:3; Revelation 4:11), and what exists apart from God was brought into being by Him. So God did not make the big bang happen to create the world – He needed nothing, neither matter nor energy, in the universe to build from. He created the matter and energy.
 
We need to understand that God lives outside time and space as he created these concepts. He made all that we know and see, and we as humans can explore that which exists not create new things.
 
This means:
God is to be worshiped as the Creator;

• creation is to be viewed as a reflection of the signature of God.

              “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Ps. 19:1).
                “O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures” (Ps. 104:24).

• We live out our lives in a world that He has created and sustains. All around us and within us there are fingerprints betraying His handiwork. Knowing this (as we do whether we acknowledge it or not) should make us live dependently, reverently, and expectantly.

 
Creation is never to be viewed as inherently evil.

• God intends in His plan of salvation to re-create this fallen world and provide for His redeemed children “a new heavens and new earth” in which to live. Even now, the present creation waits (Romans 8:19) — subjected to futility as it has been by sin (Romans 8:20) — groaning in sounds that resemble childbirth (Romans 8:22), for the “new world” (Matthew 19:28), the home of the righteous (2 Peter 3:13). The resurrected redeemed will thus dwell in a transformed) physical universe in union and communion with their resurrected Lord.
• We must never view creation (and our physical bodies) apart from God’s claim of ownership and demand for holiness. We are, as Paul insists, to present our “bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” as an act of “spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1).

 
The story of creation signals that we are God’s handiwork — made by Him and for Him and that (through redemption) forever.
 
God Bless 
Pastor Greg