“I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.”
This post is part of a series where I will try to lay out the basics of Christian teaching in simple terms. The first in the series will be God as creator.
What we believe
- We believe that God made the universe: heaven and earth. This encompasses everything in physical reality.
- We believe that the universe had a beginning — the moment of creation.
- We believe that God made it out of nothing. (Hebrews 11:3)
- We believe that God made the universe by a rational, orderly design. Genesis 1 describes a process of creating spaces and filling them, and doing so in a certain order so that the needs of the next stage are already present. See also Proverbs 8:22-31.
- We believe that God created by free grace: the universe was not necessary to God in any way. Thus the creation is an act of love; God imagined and lovingly gave being to us, providing what we need to live and prosper.
- We believe that God was satisfied with what he created, pronouncing it “very good” when he was finished.
- We believe that because God is personal, the ultimate purpose of the universe is to give being and scope to a multiplicity of persons.
What we don’t believe
- We don’t believe that the universe is eternal or self-existent.
- We don’t believe that the universe was created out of material already present (as is often the case in ancient creation stories).
- We don’t believe that random chance either caused the universe or dominates its fate.
- We don’t believe that the created material universe is inherently evil.
- We don’t believe in a god who abandoned the universe after making it (as deists such as Einstein or Thomas Jefferson do).
- We don’t believe in a mindless, impersonal universe where things happen without meaning.
How this affects you
- You are loved by God. He imagined you and spoke you into being. He wanted you around.
- You have a purpose. Since God created you, that purpose can be found by pursuing God’s will.
- Your life is not a matter of random chance. Nothing that happens to you can put you beyond God’s purposes and his love.
- Because God chooses to remain involved in his creation, he has made it possible to find him by seeking.
- Creation reflects God’s skill and eye for beauty. (“The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament displays his handiwork.”)
- The deep cries of the heart for connection, love and purpose are central to God’s intentions for creating the universe.