The creation account is found in Genesis 1:1-31. According to the Bible, Creation happened “ex nihilo.” Ex nihilo is Latin for “from nothing." This means that God created everything out of nothing. He did not use existing matter to create the earth, the planets, or the rest of creation. Let's discover why ex nihilo is crucial to the Creation account:
The concept of ex nihilo is extremely important to the Creation story because it demonstrates God’s great power and divinity. When God created the heavens and the earth, He did not use any existing materials or matter. He created everything literally out of nothing. The Lord spoke everything into existence (Psalm 33:6). When God was creating the heavens and the earth, He said, “Let there be…” (Genesis 1:1-31). He didn’t use pre-made substances. When God created everything, He created it out of nothing.
Rather than using preexistent resources, He spoke everything into being by using His Words. God is our great and powerful Creator. He did not need resources or preexistent matter to create the heavens and the earth. In other words, God did not need resources or matter to form all of Creation. All God needed was Himself. Through His power and divinity, He spoke all of Creation into existence. Ex nihilo is crucial to the Creation story because it shows God’s power and divinity. Before God created the heavens and the earth, there was nothing. All matter, energy, and atoms were created by God during the Creation week.
Prior to God creating the heavens and the earth, the Trinity coexisted together in perfect unity. There was nothing and no one else in existence outside of the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. The Trinity was completely satisfied in and of themselves. Out of their great love, they chose to create the heavens, the earth, and everything upon the face of the earth. God’s special creation was mankind as God created mankind in His own image (Genesis 1:27). Mankind is also unique among God’s other creations because He created us out of the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7). While God created the heavens and the earth by speaking them into existence, He breathed the breath of life into mankind (Genesis 2:7).
A second major reason why ex nihilo is crucial to the Creation story is because it disproves evolution. Evolution teaches the idea of natural selection and survival of the fittest. According to the theory of evolution, the“Big Bang” brought everything into existence. Rather than believing God created the world, the Big Bang teaches that everything came into existence by chance. In other words, there was a “big bang” that created the entire universe and everything in it. The earth, mankind, and animals just happened by meaningless consequence.
Furthermore, within the theory of evolution, it teaches that mankind evolved from animals. According to evolutionists, mankind all stem from a common ancestor called “LUCA” (Last Universal Common Ancestor), who lived nearly four-billion years ago. Many people believe that evolutionists teach that mankind comes from a variety of different primates such as orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas; however, evolutionists actually believe that humans and monkeys have the common ancestor of “LUCA.” Nonetheless, ex nihilo is crucial to the Creation story because it disproves evolution. The heavens and the earth did not just spring into being by chance.
The Bible tells us that God intentionally created the heavens, the earth, and mankind. The fact of mankind, animals, and how the world works correctly attest to Creationism. Inside every person is a moral law that God has created within us. Deep in our hearts, we know when we have done something wrong. This is because God has given each of us a conscience. Animals do not know right from wrong, but humans do. If we had only evolved from a common ancestor called “LUCA,” we would not have this moral law written upon our hearts. We would act as mere animals rather than the humans that we are. If the world was a by-product of the Big Bang, we wouldn’t have moral laws. We would not feel guilt or shame.
As it is, whenever we do something bad, we feel shame. Even at young ages, we feel guilt and shame when we do something wrong. If evolution was true, we wouldn’t experience these feelings. Thus, ex nihilo is crucial to the Creation story because it disproves evolution. Evolutionists try to persuade us that God did not create the world out of nothing and that we are a result of natural selection or survival of the fittest. As Christians, we know this isn’t true because God created the heavens and the earth ex nihilo.
Ex nihilo is also crucial to the Creation story because it helps us to understand where we come from. We do not come from primates nor did we evolve from “LUCA.” Rather ex nihilo proves to us that God created the world out of nothing and that He created us as His special creations. The Creation story would not be the same if ex nihilo was taken away. If God didn’t create the heavens and the earth ex nihilo, it would attest to the idea that God used pre-existing materials and resources to create everything. It would argue against God’s omnipotence and power. Ex nihilo in the Creation story attests to God’s omnipotence and it helps us understand where we come from.
The world was not formed by chance, but rather by God. He created everything ex nihilo and now eagerly desires for us to be brought back into a right relationship with Him. God created the world out of nothing and breathed the breath of life into our nostrils in order for us to live. If we do not have ex nihilo as the foundation of the Creation story, all interpretations of Creation would be up for debate. Where we come from and how we were formed would also be up for discussion. If God did not make the heavens and the earth ex nihilo, then He would have had to rely on something else in order to create the world. To believe this lie would impact a person’s relationship with Christ and their Christian walk.
Ex nihilo is crucial not only for the Creation story but also for our daily lives. Ex nihilo is vital to the overarching Christian story because it attests to God’s power and divinity, it disproves evolution, and it helps us understand where we come from. All parts of the Creation story are important because a large majority of the Christian faith is accounted for in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis. If we leave out the aspect of ex nihilo in the Creation story, we are leaving out an important testimony to God’s omnipotence, power, and divinity.
The planets, the stars, and the earth were all spoken into existence by God. He did not use anything to assist Himself while creating the heavens and the earth. God created everything ex nihilo because He is all powerful and He is completely self-sufficient. To argue that God did not create the heavens and the earth ex nihilo would contradict God’s omnipotence. Ex nihilo is crucial to the Creation story because it attests to God’s power, disproves evolution, and helps us understand where we come from.
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