Every religion has it’s origin of the world story. But as Highlander said, there can be only one. The world was only created once and in only one way, regardless of how many different stories there are. For Christians, creatio ex nihilo, or creation out of nothing, is the stance that is taken.
There have been disparaging arguments among Christians in recent years, maybe even longer, regarding the belief that God created everything from nothing. I don’t understand this. It is the very first thing we learn when we open the Bible. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Ok sure, in English we dumb a lot of words down, and create could mean any number of things. One could say, “Look at this awesome bouncy ball I created out of pencil erasers.” Or, “Check out this character I created in Elder Scrolls 832: Return to Morrowind’s Oblivion.” Yes, according to the English language, you did create those things. But in reality, all you did was make them. Someone else created the objects you used to do what you did.
The Hebrew
Other languages have deeper meanings for words. And ancient Hebrew is no different. The Hebrew word בָּרָא, pronounced bara, literally means to create from nothing. And it is only used with God as the subject. This means that God created everything from nothing, but also that only God has this ability.
And a few verses down, in verse 7, it reads “And God made…” The Hebrew here is עָשָׂה, pronounced asa, and it means to make. Nothing fancy here, no deeper meaning, just plain old to make. This is not by accident. Because God had already created everything in the beginning, the only thing left is to make.
The Artist Analogy
Picture the sculptor getting ready to “create” his masterpiece. He has his subject and design ready. He has a block of the finest marble delivered and sets about carving the stone. After days of painstaking work, his sculpture is complete. The people love it and praise his creation. While it is true that he created the design, he still made the sculpture out of marble.
The same can be said for inventors. Da Vinci was a genius and invented many useful contraptions. While he came up with his ideas himself, they were made out of materials that were available to him. He didn’t create the items necessary to build his machines.
CONclusion
Many people still argue the origin of creation. Whether there was an intelligent designer like God or a random bang in the universe, people can’t see eye to eye. Creatio ex nihilo is what the book of Genesis is describing when it says that God created the heavens and the earth.
