God is the creator of both the physical and spiritual realms. “You alone are the LORD. You have made the heavens, The heaven of heavens with all their lights, The earth and everything that is on it, The seas and everything that is in them” (Neh 9:6). Both the physical and spiritual realms were created out of nothing, ex nihilo. Since God is the Creator of everything, all things belong to Him, and all things are subject to Him.
God is eternal and necessarily exists outside of space and time as we experience it.[i] This is beyond human conception since we experience all things in time that progresses from past to present to future. It is equally impossible for the human mind to conceive of a time with nothing prior to it and for time to extend back to infinity. But God created time (as we experience it) when he created the heavens and the earth. Time is therefore best thought of as part of God’s creation, but not the whole of reality and certainly not a constraint for God in any way.
A literal reading of the creation story in Gn 1 has God creating the universe in seven days. Many Christians believe that this refers to seven literal days while many other believe that this is an allegorical account of creation. Literalists point to the story reading as a historical narrative and the many references to it in other parts of Scripture seeming to understand it as a literally true account. Allegorists point to scientific difficulties such as God creating light on the first day but the sun and stars on the third day, the creation of the earth before the sun and stars, and the presence of plants and animals on an early earth that is known to not have been hospitable to life. Literalists sometimes counter that God could have made the universe and the earth quickly and in the recent past as if it were old, but this would imply that this aspect of general revelation is not trustworthy.
Regardless, the spiritual message of Genesis is that God created the universe and considers His creation good. This must be the case since God is perfect goodness and always acts in perfect accordance with His goodness. The same is necessarily true of the spiritual realm with regards to creation.
Relatively little is known about the creation of the spiritual realm except that it involved the creation of angels.[ii] Angels are spiritual beings without corporal bodies (Heb 1:13-14), are more intelligent than mankind (Mt 24:36), and exist in large numbers (Rev 5:11). Angels do not procreate, and so this large number of angels does not increase (Mt 22:30). Furthermore, there appears to be several different categories of angels. The Cherubim are guardians of great power (Gen 3:24) and serve as the steed on which God descends to earth (2 Sm 22:11). The Seraphim are attendants to the heavenly throne (Is 6:2). And there appears to be several additional ranks of angels such as thrones, dominions, and rulers (Col 1:16). The primary function of angels seems to be praising God constantly (Rv 4:8). Other functions of angels mentioned in Scripture include watching over believers (Ps 34:7), watching over children (Mt 18:19), and being present at church assemblies (1 Cor 11:10; 1 Tm 5:21). The only two angels that are mentioned by name in the Bible are Gabriel and Michael, both who have the title of archangel.
There are fallen angels as well as unfallen angels. It is known that everything that God originally created was very good. The fallen angels must therefore have been created good and then lost favor with God somehow. “God did not spare angels when they sinned but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, held for judgment” (2 Pt 2:4; see also Jude 6). Satan is the recognized head of the fallen angels (Mt 25:41) and is also known as the Devil and the Father of Lies. “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies” (Jn 8:44). Satan is also called the ruler of this world (Jn 12:31, 14:30, 16:11) and even the god of the world. “[T]he god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they will not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Cor 4:4). But this does not mean that Satan is equivalent to God. Satan is powerful, exerts evil influence on sons of disobedience (Eph 2:2), and even temped Christ in the wilderness (Mt 4:1; Mk 1:13; Lk 4:1). But in the end Satan will be defeated and spend eternity in eternal torment (Rv 20:10).
The three primary components to the theology of physical creation are that the universe had a beginning (i.e., it is not eternal), that it was formed out of nothing (i.e., ex nihilo), and that God did not necessarily have to create the universe but did so out of free will. Creation is also divided into first order creation and second order creation. First order creation (also called immediate creation) occurred when God instantaneously created the matter and energy that constitutes the universe, but in an unordered form. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters” (Gn 1:1-2). Second order creation (also called mediate creation) then occurred over time where God and the physical laws of the universe organized chaotic energy and matter into things like the stars, planets, and ultimately life forms.
Much of the rest of the theological debate about creation relates to whether and to what extent the creation stories should be interpreted literally versus allegorically or even mythologically. Literalists understand the six days of creation as six literal days, referred to as the Hexameron. Others view God as having created the formed universe instantaneously. Still others view the six days of creation as long geological periods. This said, God’s general revelation strongly indicates that the universe is more than 13 billion years old, that the earth is more than 4 billion years old, and the homo sapiens having existed for about 200-300 thousand years. Viewed as long geological periods, the creation account is remarkable in its agreement with the general understanding of modern science. Charles Hodge writes, “As the Bible is of God, it is certain that there can be no conflict between the teachings of the Scriptures and the facts of science … the Church has been forced more than once to alter her interpretation of the Bible to accommodate the discoveries of science. But this has been done without doing any violence to the Scriptures of in any degree impairing their authority.”[iii]
[i] Our mathematical model of space-time breaks down at the beginning of the universe when matter and energy become concentrated at a single point with infinity density. A classic and accessible book on the topic is Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time. Since God has always existed, He must (at a bare minimum) experience time in a manner that is completely different from the human experience.
[ii] Angel is a translation of the Greek word aggelos (άγγελος), which means messenger.
[iii] Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology: Vol. 1, Theology, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishing, 1871/2013: 573.
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