What is the Truth about Creation (Part two)

Who is God? Who created Him? What is He like?

In Exodus, God introduces himself to Moses by saying “I AM”. That has been interpreted to mean that God is eternal, he exists outside of time and space. This fits the Genesis creation account. If there is a start to the Universe, something or someone must have preceded it, caused it to come into being. Therefore, God not only began to create the heavens and the earth, he created time itself.

Ancient Hebrew does not have the same verb tenses that English has, but the tense used here and throughout most of the first chapter of Genesis approximates the imperfect tense. If you are like me and do not recall what that means, it is an action that began in the past and continued or continues. You might say, “God began to make”.

The heavens can mean the sky, or everything above the earth, that is the universe. “And” is an important word here. As in English, the writer can mean “together” or consecutive action, such as I went to the bank and the post office. I believe consecutive action is appropriate here. God began to make the Universe and then the earth. How much time passed with that “and”? I believe it was about nine billion years, according to scientists today. That is, the Universe is thought to be about 14 billion years and the earth about 5 billion years old.

If you think that is amazing, wait until you see what comes in the second sentence!