In the week where scientists reported discovery of gravitational waves (previously predicted by Einstein in his General Theory of Relativity), we start a new series of Bible studies with the timely reminder that God is Creator and wants to be worshipped as such.

How important is it to God that we know him as Creator and Sustainer of the Universe? It is the first thing that we read in the Bible and it is a recurring theme through every part of Scripture. Every person in the entire world can know, through the evidence all around, that there is a Creator - and this can be the beginning of reaching out to him and knowing him in other ways. Ultimately, it puts us on a path of discovery which leads us to understand that the entire Creation came through Jesus the Messiah. We will also discover that those who deny that God is Creator put themselves on a road that leads to greater and greater depths of sin.

The First Statement in the Bible

It may seem an outrageous claim, but the only reliable account of the world's beginning in all the books in all the libraries in the entire world is in the first chapter of Genesis! Because it is the first thing we read in the Bible we can assume that it is of foundational importance. Thereafter, like for all main biblical themes, a thread weaves its way through all Scripture. If we follow the thread verse by verse through all the books, we gain a sense of its importance and we come to the conclusion that it is important to God that we know him as Creator.

It is important to God that we know him as Creator. Ultimately, this puts us on a path to knowing Jesus the Messiah.

"Bereshit Bara Elohim..."

Turning to a little Hebrew, the first three Hebrew words of the Bible are "Bereshit Bara Elohim", translated "In the beginning, God created". The first name given for God is Elohim. When a Hebrew word ends in im it is usually plural - yet we know that God is one. The Hebrew word Echad is used in Deuteronomy 6:4 to express this oneness of God, and means a unity with many parts, many facets and many expressions.

Do we see this principle of oneness in a plural form in the verses of the Bible, when we consider the Creation? The Holy Spirit "hovered over the face of the waters" (Gen 1:2). Jesus was there in his pre-incarnate form (John 1:1-3). God the Father, through his Son, by the power of his Spirit, spoke - making himself known as Creator.

The Hebrew word bara, which we translate as 'created', is a word that is only used in the Bible to express what God himself has done. It is not a word that is related to what others can do within Creation. As such, only God can know just what this word means - just what he did and how he did it. We can take something from God's Creation and re-model it to something else - wood from trees to build furniture, coloured pigments to paint pictures, clay and stone to build houses and so on. The Hebrew word for re-modelling, building within the Creation, is not bara: it is banah. Only God can create something from outside our universe. We can merely reform what comes to our hands.

Only God can create something from outside the created order – we can only remodel what already exists within it.

The word bara is associated with God's creation of the entire universe: the stars, the earth, the plants, the animals and mankind. That explosive moment when everything that we know in Creation came to be is beyond our imagination. From within the created order we can investigate what we find by observation and measurement, but we cannot get outside of it to find out how God did it. There is no human logic that applies to this.

What God wants us to know is in the Bible, within the limits he himself has set. We can ask questions but we may not get complete answers, so belief in God as Creator remains a matter of faith, faith that is ultimately a gift from him. This is an important matter as we follow the thread of revelation through all the scriptures.

Following the Thread

The thread of truth that God is Creator remains of fundamental and deepening importance right through the Bible. God watches over his Creation and intervenes in it. Consider:

• how he sustains his Creation and provides for his people according to his covenant with Noah (Gen 8:21-22)
• how he intervenes at times to send signs (e.g. the physical judgments on the earth, Amos 4)
• how he intervenes with miracles (e.g. the healing of a leper in 2 Kings 5, the lengthening of a day for Joshua (Josh 10:12-13) and Hezekiah (Isa 38), the many miracles which authenticated Jesus as Messiah (e.g. Matt 8, 14:13-21; John 4-5))

Furthermore, knowing God as Creator is a fundamental part of being in relationship with him:

• God first makes himself known to his people as the Creator (e.g. Gen 14:19-20)
• God will remind us of his greatness through his work of Creation when he calls us to repentance (Deut 32:6)
• When we consider God's Creation we should remember who we are, created beings, in contrast to who he is, the Creator (Isa 40)

Trusting in God as Creator: Job's Testimony

The account of Job shows that however much we know about God, there are aspects of both his character and our own characters that will always reach beyond our understanding. Job retained his faith through hard times, even though his suffering prompted questions that could not be answered through human logic. When God finally spoke, he reminded Job of who he is by first asking Job to consider the wonder of his creative deeds: "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding..." (Job 38-42).

This puts Job in his rightful place (and us in ours!). When we have faith in God as Creator we realise that we cannot answer many of the fundamental questions of life with human logic - including the matter of suffering - but faith, beginning with faith in him as Creator, leads to faith in him even in the most difficult of times.

Faith, beginning with faith in God as Creator, leads to faith in him even in the most difficult of times.

Meditating on God as Creator: Psalm 19

Meditating on God as Creator can lead us into amazing revelations about his character and our position before him. Psalm 19 is a wonderful psalm for meditation on the benefits of knowing God as Creator and it deserves a careful and prayerful study so that the Lord can speak to us in the same way that he did to the psalmist.

The psalm is in three main sections. The first section is a meditation on God's perfect creative power and his steadfastness, seen through the things he has made. The second part recognises that if God is so constant and trustworthy in his Creation then he is trustworthy in all his teaching.

The third part comes from a person who has confronted these immense truths and has come to terms with his or her own fragile character, whilst also recognising God's mighty hand over their life. So the psalm moves from wonder at the magnitude of Creation and its testimony of God's character - "the heavens declare the glory of God" (v1) - down to the confession of even hidden sins – "cleanse me from my secret faults" (v12). This is a Gospel message beginning with a meditation on God through his Creation.

Denying God as Creator: Romans 1:18-32

Romans 1 is to be contrasted with Psalm 19. Those who know God as Creator can be led to repentance, but those who deny him as Creator turn their backs on him - and finally he hands them over to the desire of their heart, which manifests itself in all manner of perversions, just as we see growing in the world today.

Horrendous sins can therefore accompany a turning away from the God of Creation. Vain imaginings based on the view that mankind developed by evolutionary accidents have their consequences. Some of these consequences are abortion of babies, tampering with genetics, relative morality, homosexuality, not knowing the difference between sin and holiness in all areas, and attributing wrongdoing to genetic make-up rather than to sin that must be cleansed. It is as serious as that in our day.

Those who accept God as Creator can be led to repentance, but those who deny him as Creator turn their back on him – which leads them into ever-increasing sin.

Other Important Passages

The first statement of faith in Hebrews 11 is in God the Creator. Before we come to the testimonies of faith in this chapter, the foundation is set in the first few verses – "by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God". This echoes Psalm 19, showing that a close walk with God begins with knowing him as he wants to be known - as the Maker and Sustainer of all things.

John 1 should be the subject of a deep meditation as a consequence of this study. We realise that our Saviour was present before Creation and that Creation was made through and for him. He was united with the Father in the Elohim of Creation and then stooped down into it as the Son of Man who came to save us.

2 Peter 3:1-13 is a meditation on the end times. There will be those who rise up to mock the Creator, while those who are close to him will hold fast to fellowship with him. A severe judgment - not by water, as in the Great Flood, but by fire - will come on those men and women who have refused to come to God the Father through faith in Jesus.

Danger of coming under God's final judgment on this earth can begin by first denying God as the Creator of the universe. If we take lightly what God has done in Creation and dismiss it as a myth, not taking seriously the consequence of sin that led to the Great Flood at the time of Noah, we are likely to be unprepared for the last acts of God on this earth prior to Jesus' return.

If we take lightly what God has done in Creation, as well as the consequences of sin that led to the Great Flood, we are likely to be unprepared for God's last acts on earth prior to Jesus' return.

Conclusion

The Creator will demonstrate once more his creative power and how he has sustained and held his Creation in balance when he acts in a different way at the end of this order of things. At that time, it will be likened to rolling the created order up like a scroll, making way for the new Heaven and new Earth (Isa 34:1-4; Rev 6:12-17; Rev 21). When all things are restored, peace will come to God's creation as the lion lies down with the lamb – something that only God can bring about in his time and in his own way (Isa 65:25).

Surely, if we neglect what the Bible says about Creation and the Creator – what God himself wants us to know and believe - we are in danger of taking all else too lightly.

Interested readers may want to explore the new website of the Biblical Creation Trust, which works in partnership with local churches in Britain to establish Biblical Creation as mainstream in church theology and apologetics.