Creation as Trust

I. Why Call God Creator?
Nicene Creed: God is "maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible"
"all things ... invisible": creation is a faith claim, an act of trust (Heb. 11:3)
The Father creates through the Son, by the Holy Spirit (Gen. 1, Ps. 33:6, John 1, Col. 1, Irenaeus, Nicene Creed)
So creation is not about showing the explanatory inadequacy of science (e.g., disproving evolution), but envisioning the universe as the work of a trustworthy God
Even the traditional proofs of God's existence are just ways of articulating the Creator/creation relationship
(Henri de Lubac: "something exists, therefore God exists")
II. "formless and void" (Gen. 1:2): creatio prima/immediata
God caused the universe from nothing (creatio ex nihilo: Gen. 1:1-2, Gen. 2:4b-6)
Alternatives to creation out of nothing:
1. Polytheism: The universe has many causes and powers (generally violent: Enuma Elish)
2. Platonism: God forms (and is bound by) a pre-existing universe
3. Pantheism: All is God; the universe is divine and self-realizing
4. Atheism: There is no creator-God; the universe is absolute
5. Dualism: The universe is eternal conflict between two equal powers
So our vision of the world influences our vision of God, and vice versa
III. "finished, and all their array" (Gen. 2:1): creatio segunda or creatio mediata
God shaped the universe, giving it form (Gen. 1:3ff, Gen. 2:7ff) :
 
"tohu" (formless)
"bohu" (void)
 
1
light / darkness: day / night
day-light / night-light, stars;
to rule
4
2
water / sky
water-creatures / sky-birds;
to increase
5
3
earth / seas, vegetation
earth-creatures / adam;
to increase, be ruled or rule, eat
6
 
finished
arrayed
  
 
7 (shabbat): rest and blessing
 
 
"God is in the details," not merely the generalities, of the universe
Alternatives to mediate creation:
6. Gnosticism: God only causes inferior, mediating creators; the world is essentially evil
7. Naturalism: Specificities owe entirely to governing natural laws
So creation is about specific interrelationships, not just identifying a "first cause" of the universe
IV. "I will make a helper" (Gen. 2:18): creatio continuata
Providence is God's continuing renewal, maintenance, and care for the creation
God is personally involved in creation, including our own lives (Luther's pro me)
Providence identifies God as creator with God as redeemer and perfecter (John 1:2-3, 6:35, Col. 1:16)
Alternatives to providence:
8. Fatalism: Beings are manipulated and unfree (rather than God being "with" them)
9. Deism: Like a watchmaker, God maintains no continuing relationship with his creation
So creating is interactive, not merely "intelligent design"
V. "It was very good" (Gen. 1:31): The Point of Creation
Against all these alternatives (acts of mistrust?), Israel affirms all three claims
The universe is thus creation, the sign-ificant work of a loving, involved God (Gen. 1:14-19, Ps. 104:19; Gen. 1:21, Ps. 104:26-27)
As an act of God's will, creation has purpose
Goodness names the purposefulness of the work of God's love (Gen. 1:31)
So creation radically affirms yet radically relativizes all things under God
VI. "The way to the tree of life": (Gen. 3:24): creatio nova
The purposeful creation points forward to its end (telos), not merely back to its beginning
Christians alone affirm that the new creation has arrived
The risen Jesus is the beginning of new creation (2 Cor. 5:17, Col. 1:18, Rev. 1:5)
The Son is the means and form of the Father's creation, enacted by the Spirit
The Son's incarnation brings creation and God into each other (Col. 1:15-20)
Only here should we speak of God as omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, etc.