"On the six successive days of creation, God spoke and what He said happened. That is to say, the means that God used to create the universe and all things in it was His Word.
There are three other times mentioned in Genesis chapter 1 when God spoke (verses 22, 28, and 29). In the first two of these God addressed Himself to His created beings and commanded them to be fruitful and increase in number, and in the last one God specified the food for humans, birds and animals.
On the other eight times of creation when God spoke, what He said did not need to be audible. In fact, on the eighth occasion (‘Let us make man in our image …’) God appears to have been speaking to Himself (or to the other members of the Trinity). On this occasion (and therefore on the other seven times as well) God’s ‘speaking’ was equivalent to God’s ‘decreeing’ or God’s ‘willing’.
In other words, the Word of God and the will of God are here synonymous. God willed the creation to take place, which occurred in eight separate stages spread over six successive days. These stages are marked for us in Genesis chapter 1 by eight separate ‘words’ from God (introduced each time by the formula ‘And/Then God said …’), but in essence they are the putting forth of God’s will on each occasion to accomplish His purpose, with no other reason or cause than that He desired it to happen.
All of this means that God did not use any evolutionary processes to bring about creation.
In the first place, creation, by definition, has to be instantaneous—it cannot be a process.
In the second place, the idea, called theistic evolution, that the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God would use a method of random copying mistakes to form His creatures not only makes a lie of what God Himself has stated, but reduces God to the level of man’s ingenuity. Creation was a series of specific and immediate acts of God, brought about solely by His Word or His will." CMI
There are three other times mentioned in Genesis chapter 1 when God spoke (verses 22, 28, and 29). In the first two of these God addressed Himself to His created beings and commanded them to be fruitful and increase in number, and in the last one God specified the food for humans, birds and animals.
In other words, the Word of God and the will of God are here synonymous. God willed the creation to take place, which occurred in eight separate stages spread over six successive days. These stages are marked for us in Genesis chapter 1 by eight separate ‘words’ from God (introduced each time by the formula ‘And/Then God said …’), but in essence they are the putting forth of God’s will on each occasion to accomplish His purpose, with no other reason or cause than that He desired it to happen.
All of this means that God did not use any evolutionary processes to bring about creation.
In the first place, creation, by definition, has to be instantaneous—it cannot be a process.
In the second place, the idea, called theistic evolution, that the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God would use a method of random copying mistakes to form His creatures not only makes a lie of what God Himself has stated, but reduces God to the level of man’s ingenuity. Creation was a series of specific and immediate acts of God, brought about solely by His Word or His will." CMI
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Genesis 1:1
