When we say, “God created the heavens and the earth,” what does that mean?

For the sake of simplicity, let’s talk about just that part of creation that’s apparent to us: the universe that surrounds us. We can diagram it like this:

It is the entire cosmos, from the beginning of its existence and stretching onward through time: open space, galaxies, stars, planets, oceans, continents, plants, animals, and us. Some would be content to leave it at that. But as Christians, we believe that this grand expanse is the result of an act of creation ex nihilo, from nothing, by God the Creator. What does that mean?

The following diagram represents a view that’s quite common; it’s certainly the mental image I grew up with:

Here, God created the world, with all of its natural laws, and set it to going back at the beginning of time. Since then it’s been running more or less on its own, ticking along like a well-designed clock, neither requiring (nor, in a strict view, allowing) further divine input. The strict form of this view is called deism, which, as it denies miracles, an orthodox Christian must deny in turn; but allowing for the possibility of miracles, I think most of us tend to think of creation in just this way.

And yet, this image is severely lacking. It implies that God exists in time, and that Creation, once created, is no longer dependent on God. But we know that God exists outside of time, in Eternity; that the entire universe, all that is, from the beginning of time on into the future, was created as a single divine act. Consequently, the following is a much better image:

Here we see that God is not that which wound up the universe and set it going; rather, God is the ground of existence for everything that is, at every point in time. Creation is not something that happened “way back then”; creation is what allows the present moment to exist right now. The universe isn’t a clock, that ticks along on its own; the universe is a symphony, composed, scored, conducted, and played by the Lord. And he is present and active in every note.

The glory of man is that we are called to join the orchestra and play along: to allow Him to play through us.

James Chastek has an excellent post on why metaphysics (in the philosophical sense, not in the metaphysical bookstore sense) is so hard. About metaphysical proofs for the existence of God, he says:

Theist proofs that attempt to be scientific might have some value- I have little ability to judge them. They seem far too human to me. They occur in the comfortable human world of the most reasonable explanation. The metaphysical proofs are like staring at the sun or trying to hold your breath and explore deep underwater. Things are there, and there is occasional clarity; but much is blurry, you can’t see it for long, and you have to keep going down again and again to get a clear view of even relatively shallow things.

Read the whole thing; it’s short, and (unlike metaphysics) both clear and straightforward.