³ By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

Faith is a prerequisite for every human being when it comes to the origins of the universe, where everything came from. One the one hand, it has possibly always existed, what cosmologists used to call the “steady state” existence (that would be, a self-existing, self-sustaining universe). But this begs the question, “How can that be?” Of course, there is no logical answer to the question; it must be taken by faith. Another viewpoint, or theory, is that the universe did have a beginning, but it came into being spontaneously. As a “big bang,” it was self-created. Somehow the conditions existed for something to come into existence, whose prior cause cannot be known if it even existed. Some contemporary scientists assert that we cannot possibly know what came before the big bang, so therefore it is unknowable. One such adherent says, “That doesn’t concern me.” Yet, inherent to that viewpoint is faith, namely in the existence of an unknowable cause for the beginning. It cannot be proved.

The Deist perspective is that the first cause of everything is God, or a deity who began everything, but about which we know very little, and who is unconcerned with the universe now. Some might call this deity, “the Force” or “The Absolute Truth” or various other deific names. But, again, faith is inherent.

So we come to the Judeo-Christian worldview, namely, that the God of the Hebrews, Yahweh of Israel, created the universe “in the beginning.” He is the first cause, the Originator, the Creator. Specifically, “by the word of God” it all came into being. According to Genesis 1, God spoke it all into existence. We cannot prove this in a scientific sense, since we were not there when it happened nor can we test the theory in a scientific, observable, reproducible way. It is a matter of faith, as our verse states.

Yet, this begs a similar question as the other world-views, how does God exist? Where did He come from? We believe, as Christians, that He always exists, He is self-sustaining. How can that be? There are myriads of questions that we simply cannot answer, they are beyond us. And this is true of any worldview perspective on the origins of the universe. Some things we simply cannot know. We don’t need to apologize for not being able to answer all the questions associated with our faith. Neither can anyone else, no matter the theory they hold. We believe these things as revealed to us by God in His word.

Lord, I do believe that You personally created the universe, all that we observe. You spoke into existence human beings and breathed Your spirit of life into us.