My friend Kemper wrote:
Our experience with God begins with Him revealing to us some fundamental truths as an anchor to our understanding. God’s intent is for us to know Him that we may have a relationship with Him and with each other. John wrote of this in 1 John 1:3-4, That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. With this in mind God begins His fellowship with us by recording in Genesis 1:1; In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. The creation of heaven and earth was not only created in the beginning, the creation of heaven and earth was the beginning. Since there was a beginning, there must have been an initiator of it. Therefore, verse one of Genesis tributes that initiator as God who created creation.
As Genesis continues it appears that verse two should have preceded verse one for it states; And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. It is hard to imagine that the Lord would be the origin for such chaos. Yet it plainly says that God created the heaven and earth which was formless and void. However, it should be concluded that creation was created and existed as a thought or imagination of God’s intent and remained formless and void until God formed it with His words and filled it with His purpose. Creation was created and complete within the Almighty God before he spoke His word.
Something From Nothing
Although creation was formless and void and not yet manifested in a physical state, it was considered created. This principle of creation is important to understand. By faith, creation came into existence as an imagination of God’s intent and by faith He was inspired to speak it into the manifestation of a physical state with His word. The Apostle Paul in Romans 4:17 records that God, “calleth those things which be not as though they were.” This means that creation was created out of nothing, because that is what “be not” is. God spoke into existence that which did not exist. If creation wasn’t created from nothing it would not have a beginning, nor would it be considered created, but rather invented (or altered) from an existing substance.
Creation remained hidden within God until He revealed it by His word. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear (Hebrews 11:3). So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it (Isaiah 55:11). God declared “that which was not” into existence, manifesting His intended design by His word, being empowered with the integrity of His nature. God, who cannot lie, spoke the truth, but truth is only truth because God spoke it. Even as Proverbs 16:10 states; “A divine sentence is in the lips of the king: his mouth transgresseth not in judgment.”
The existence of the truth is founded on the integrity of God. Therefore creation’s physical existence is solely founded on its adherence to His word of truth. There is no other principle available for it to be upheld. Genesis 1:2 continues, And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. The “face of the waters” which the Spirit of God moved upon, was the surface of God’s deep well of wisdom from which were drawn His creative word. We find in Proverbs 18:4; The words of a man’s mouth are as deep waters, and the wellspring of wisdom as a flowing brook, also in Proverbs 20:5; Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out. Even as man is affirmed to have such a well, so does God whose likeness he was made. The Holy Spirit moved upon the face of these deep waters of God’s wisdom and brought forth His instruction and counsel in words that illustrated God’s purpose. These words framed the world creating elements and principles for it to abide by.
God’s Word Is His Son
God’s Word, being full of His intent, was begotten of the Father in the person of His Son, whom John tributes the creation of all things; In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made (John 1:1-3). Ephesians 3:9 also confirms that God created all things by Jesus Christ. The Son, which is in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18), has the same intent as His Father. For He was abiding within the Father before creation’s conception and was entrusted with its formation upon being sent of His Father. This intent of the Father is His Life and His intent abides within His Son (the Word of God). When man corresponds to the Father’s intent he enters into eternal life. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son (1 John 5:11). For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself (John 5:26). The Father has life in Himself because He is “life,” the “I am that I am,” with no beginning and no end. He exists and therefore that which He creates exists. His life is in His Word which sustains those that obey and abide in it. Outside of His Word is not life but death, for there is no source of sustenance outside of God and His plan.
— To be continued —