When the early church developed basic statements of faith, which came to be what we confess as the Apostles Creed, they found that it was not enough to simply confess a belief in God the Father. They also confessed that He is the creator of heaven and earth. The creed is organized by means of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But this division is not simply based on identifying the persons of the Trinity, it is also based on the division of labor within the Trinity. The particular task which is credited to each of the persons is part of this confession. The tasks spelled out in the creed concentrate on God's work of salvation for His people. It is important to remember this when we look at God the Father as the creator of heaven and earth.

The Work of Creation

Basic to confessing God the Father is understanding that He is the creator. The Christian believes that God created all things in heaven and on earth by the Word of His power. "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth," Psalm 33:6. The Christian doctrine of creation simply holds that God alone is eternal, that He alone has existence in and of Himself, and that everything that exists besides God does so by God's will and by His action. As the sovereign God, He called into existence a creation from nothing. There was no previous existence in any form whatsoever. To hold that God created out of nothing (ex nihilo) is necessary in maintaining the proper distinction between God and the creation.

The creation is dependent upon God, yet it is distinct from God. God gave a distinct existence to the creation, but did not withdraw from the creation. God is present in all of the creation by the Spirit who is active in all the world, but not in that He is a part of all the world. This doctrine of creation says a great deal about God. It also says a great deal about His dealing with the creation and specifically His dealing with man.

The Importance of the Doctrine of Creation

The tendency today is to talk about creation, (even in a Christian context) merely from the perspective of science. Science involves the study of creation, but examining the creation (science) cannot answer the question of origin, where it came from and how it came into being. That is a theological question.

We believe God to be the one eternal God and as the sovereign God He brought this creation into being by the word of His mouth. Creation is a matter of faith as is stated in Hebrews 11:3 "by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible."

If we cannot properly understand who God is unless He is viewed as the creator God, then it follows that the Biblical account of creation is important. If we hold that the fact that God is the creator is important we can then not dismiss the details of the creation account as being unimportant. The Biblical account of creation must be taken seriously. The plain reading of Scripture says that God brought all things into being out of nothing, "in the beginning God create ..." and He brought all things into being in the space of six days. The report by the Synod of the Reformed Church in the U. S., on "The Days of Creation" says this, "to defend six-day creation is to defend the proposition that the Bible means what it says, and that its meaning is clear."

The following quote from Ursinus' commentary on the Heidelberg catechism in his comments on question and answer #26 underscores the importance of holding to a biblical doctrine of creation.

" To believe in the Creator, is to believe: 1. That he is the Creator of all things. 2. That he sustains and governs by his providence all things which he has created. 3. That he has also created me, and made me a vessel of his mercy, that I should obtain salvation in Christ; and that he, by his special providence and grace, will lead me to that salvation which he confers upon his people. 4. That he has created all other things for us, that they may contribute to the salvation of the church, to the praise of his glory. In short, to believe in the Creator, is to believe that God created me that I might contribute to his glory and that he created all other things that they might be subservient to my salvation. ‘All things are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's,' as if he should say all things are created for us, and we for God. (1 Cor. 3: 22, 23.)"

Covenantal Dealings Is Based Creatorship

Often when Scripture makes reference to the worship and adoration of God it begins with a reference to God as creator. Certainly when Scripture presents the good news of salvation provided by grace it is based on God the creator.

We can look at several examples of this in Scripture. In Psalm 121, when the child of God looks to God for all he stands in need of he says in verse 2 "my help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth". When the apostle Paul spoke on Mars Hill to the philosophers in Athens he presented God in this way, "God, who made the world and everything in it" Acts 17:24. Paul's purpose is that they believe in God, in doing so he makes sure that they understand that God is the creator.

In Isaiah 40 the prophet speaks comfort to the lost. When he tells sinners that they will be saved and their enemies destroyed he speaks at length of the God who will accomplish this salvation as the God of creation. When the apostle John presents Christ in his gospel he begins the account of the incarnation by making reference to God's work of creation by the Word in John 1:1-3. The God who saves you is the God who made you.

Rooted in the fact that God is the sovereign creator is the providence of God. The one who brought all things into existence is also the one who upholds this creation in the palm of His hand. Many people ridicule the idea of a sovereign God. They point to such things as hurricanes, destructive fires, disease and terrorist attacks, and they say "how can these thing happen if God is really in control?"

Many Christians also struggle with these things. The reason they struggle is because they have a poor understanding of who God is. As the Heidelberg Catechism explains the implications of confessing God the Father as the maker of heaven and earth it deals with the down-to-earth struggles of believers. This part of the confession has tremendous implication for how we deal with life on a day to day basis. It is the foundation for comfort and hope as we go through life day by day.

The catechism states in #26 that the God whom we confess is one "in whom I so trust as to have no doubt that He will provide me with all things necessary for body and soul". There is recognition that in this world in which we exist, because of God's just curse on the creation due to man's sin, there are many struggles that we must deal with. The question is how. How can we deal with disease and war and disasters?

To confess God as the creator is to confess that we depend upon Him and put our trust in Him to meet our every need. First of all you can trust Him because He is Almighty God. The God who you can rely upon to keep you in the midst of the troubled life is the God who laid the foundation of this world, who hung the stars in the heavens and who upholds every creature in the palm of His hand. Certainly this God, the God of creation is able to take care of you. He is able to turn whatever comes in your life to your own good.

Not only is He the powerful sovereign creator, He is God the Father who made heaven and earth. A father loves and cares for his children. God the creator is a faithful Father. God tells Jonah that He cares for His creation. Even more so, His love as the Father for those with whom He has made covenant, for those whom He has sent His Son, and for those who are the recipients of His grace, is a love that will never fail.

So the God to whom you can look to and trust in for every need and comfort is both able to provide because He is the Almighty creator God and He is willing because He is God the Father. The question of how we can trust God to help us in all of our needs is answered in these words from #26 of the catechism, "...for He is able to do it, being Almighty God, and willing also, being a faithful Father."

Know and Confess Your Creator

This is no small matter. With the present day emphasis on having a personal relationship with Jesus, many Christians really don't know whom they believe in. People imagine who their God is, and they don't want doctrine to get in the way. It is not uncommon to hear someone say, "well my God wouldn't do this, or that" or "due to my concept of God I can't accept that God would eternally punish sinners". So we end up with a God who is no different that then an idol made by human hands.

However, when we take the Bible seriously concerning all that it says about God the creator and His work of creation, we then put our faith in God as He has revealed Himself. This is the God in whom we must believe and whom we must confess. When we confess the God who has revealed Himself to us and not the one we have imagined then He is the God that we trust for eternal life.