According to the Book of Genesis, God created the world and all that is in it in six days. Then He
declared it all to be "very good" (Gen. 1:31). The Creator rested on the seventh day (Gen.2:1-3).
While there were other "creation stories" among the pagan nations of the ancient world, the biblical
account is unique in that God existed before creation and called the physical world into being from nothing
(Gen. 1:1, 2: John 1:2, 3). These pagan nations, particularly the Babylonians, believed the material universe was eternal
and that it brought their gods into being. But Genesis describes a God who is clearly superior to the physical world.
God began organizing a shapeless and barren earth (Gen. 1:2), providing
light (1:3-5), and separating land from water (1:6-10). The creation
of plant and animal life followed, including creatures of the sea, air, and land (1:11-25). Man
and woman were created on the sixth day (1:26-28), before the Creator's Sabbath rest (2:1-3).
Scholars disagree about the length of the creation "days". Some believe these were actual twenty-four
hour days, while others believe they were periods of undetermined length. Regardless of the length of these days, the biblical
writer is declaring that God created the world in orderly fashion as part of a master plan. The world did not just evolve
on its own or by accident.
The "gap" theory, advanced to reconcile the biblical account of creation with geology, holds that
creation in Genesis 1:1 was followed by catastrophe (1:2), then succeeded
by God's re-creation or reshaping of the physical world (1:3-31). But this theory reduces God to
a weak being with little control over His own creation. The powerful God who created the world also presides over its destiny.
Man and woman are the crowning achievements of God's creative work (Ps.
8:5). As free moral beings who bear the image of God, they were assigned dominion over the natural
world (Gen. 1:27, 28). They alone among the living creatures of the world are equipped for fellowship
with their Creator.
