Chapter 4.1, Part Two

After yesterday considering the Why of Creation, we now turn to the Who. Who made all this?  The Confession's answer is that God did. This is the only realistic answer when it comes to the data of the universe. Does the secular humanist seriously expect us to believe that all things came from nothing? "Well, then," the unbeliever asks, "where did it all come from?" The Christian answers that all things must have come from someone able to create them, which can only be God. The same argument holds for the vaunted Big-Bang Theory, which says that the universe exploded into being. Did the universe explode into existence by its own power or by something else's power? Was it non-being that created being? How is that reasonable? If it was being that created being, what was this being? The poor secularist cannot even talk about the Creation without having to face the glorious Creator he is trying so hard to avoid. For the universe was created by God so that "invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature... are clearly perceived... in the things that have been made" (Rom. 1:20). The universe was created to bear testimony to the glory of God, so even questions asked about the origin of Creation can only be answered by reference to God.

The truth that God created all things prompts some important denials that strike at the heart of postmodern unbelief. If God created the world, then the world is not self-existent. Everything created is dependent on God for its original being and its present sustenance. The world and the things in it also are not eternal, since they were willed into existence by God at a certain time.  Mankind is therefore not divine, so that narcissistic self-worship in condemned. Moreover, the world is not autonomous.  That is, Creation - including men and women - is not subject only to its own laws and decisions but is subject to a higher power, namely, its Creator. All Creation is thus answerable to God for his approval and judgment.  For this reason, writes Johannes Vos, "all attempts of men or nations to live independently of God are foolish, wicked, and doomed to failure in the end."  We see what a subversive statement it is for Christians today to read the first verse of the Bible: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1)!

It is not incidental that the God who created all things is the Trinity: "the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."  We should ascribe all of God's works to the Trinity, since the three divine Persons co-operate in all that God does. Not only does the Bible describe the one God as three Persons, but it includes many statements directly ascribing creation to the Trinity. First Corinthians 8:6 join Father and Son in creating: "there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist."  Ps. 104:30 speaks of God sending his Spirit in order to create. Christians are well warranted in comparing the cooperation of the Trinity in creation to their work in salvation: the Father ordains, the Son accomplishes, and the Spirit applies. Hebrews 1:2 says that it was through his Son that God created the world, and John 1:3 agrees that "All things were made through him." Genesis 1:2 shows "the Spirit of God... hovering over the face of the waters." All things are according to the will of the Father, through the work of the Son, and by the power of the Spirit. Therefore everything in all Creation resounds to the praise of the same Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit into whose name believers in Christ are baptized for salvation (Mt. 28:19).