Genesis 1:1

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth
(Genesis 1:1 ESV)

Genesis 1:1 is the foundational verse of the entire Bible. It sets the a priori assumptions necessary to read and understand everything that follows. To deny Genesis 1:1 is to deny necessary foundational assumptions about God and the world in which we live. On the flip side, to accept Genesis 1:1 is to deny the foundational assumptions of the atheistic, evolutionary, and materialistic worldviews of today. In other words, Genesis 1:1 not only sets the foundation for all our beliefs, it immediately challenges our false assumptions.

“In the beginning, God…”
As with other books in the Pentateuch, Genesis is named for the first Hebrew word of the book, which means “in the beginning.” The English title Genesis is a transliteration of the Greek title meaning origin, source, creation. It is also used in the Greek translation of the original Hebrew term for “generations” found repeatedly throughout the book at the beginning of each of its many genealogies (Gen. 2:4; 5:1; 6:9; 10:1; 11:10, 27; 25:12, 19; 36:1; 37:2). Taken in this sense, Genesis is not only a book about origins in Creation, but about the origins of the main characters in the Bible as seen in their genealogical record.

Many commentators believe Moses edited source material recorded by each of the genealogical record holders. So for example, when Genesis 5:1 states: “This is the book of the generations of Adam…” (Gen 5:1) it is entirely possible that this is the section recorded by Adam himself which was eventually passed on to Moses. Taking this into account makes Genesis a book of history taught by eyewitnesses.

The first and only eyewitness of Creation is of course, God Himself, who was already existing before the beginning. In Exodus, God met Moses and revealed to him His name as “I AM WHO I AM.” This is significant as only God can be an I AM for only God can be eternally unchanging and ever-present without beginning or end. We might speak of ourselves in the present tense, but it is always theoretical for in reality we are always changing from moment to moment, a “was” or a “will be,” but never truly an “am.”

It is precisely this present tense reality of this state of being verb that reveals Jesus Himself as deity. John 1:1 begins with reference to Genesis 1:1, speaking of Jesus the divine Logos as eternally present in the Godhead at creation. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). The key implication relating to both texts is the idea that in the beginning God already was. Another way to say it would be “in the beginning the Word already was, and the Word already was with God, and the Word already was God.” Jesus refers to Himself using this designation seven times in John referring to Himself as the I AM of Genesis, of the same essence yet a distinct person in the Godhead. John records Jesus making this explicit when He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am”(John 8:58). Also, in His high priestly prayer Jesus prays and says, “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed” (John 17:5). Finally, the risen Christ says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Rev 22:13). The reality of Genesis 1:1 is thus woven throughout the entire Bible and even our own cosmology which is at odds with a prevailing atheistic worldview.

The Bible makes it plain from the first clause of Genesis that God existed before the beginning. It is thus properly basic to believe that God is the uncaused cause of everything, the necessary being of which every other created thing is contingent. In other words, if Genesis 1:1 is true, then atheism is false.

“…created…”
The word “created” (Gen 1:1) needs to be distinguished from the word “fashioned” (Gen 1:7). These are two different Hebrew words which bring up an important implication in reference to the creation of the world. Man can form and fashion, but only God can truly create from nothing.

Paul makes this very point to the Romans about the God “who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist” (Rom 4:17). John in the book of Revelation records the 24 elders in Heaven worshipping God saying, “worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created” (Rev 4:11). God literally spoke the world into existence out of nothing. Further, Genesis tells us that the kind of world He spoke into existence was a mature world. It was a mature and maturing ecosystem with teeming organic life. Psalm 19 tells us that “the heavens declare…the sky proclaims…night to night reveals” God’s handiwork, glory, and organizational creative genius (Ps 19:1-3).

Paul reminded the Romans that mankind’s problem is not that it cannot see this glorious handiwork for it is “plain to them, because God has shown it to them” (Rom 1:19). His work has been “clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made” (Rom 1:20), but it suppresses the truth about it. Paul says that in order to suppress the truth mankind had to create an alternative narrative exchanging the “glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” (Rom 1:23).

Genesis 1:1 makes it clear that God created everything and that it is obvious to all of us. It is thus properly basic to believe that the world looks designed because it is. In other words, if Genesis 1:1 is true, then evolution is false.

“…the heavens and the earth.”
The phrase “the heavens and the earth” is known as a merism, a poetic expression meaning, in this case, everything. The author of Hebrews says that “He upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Heb 1:3). Clearly the universe is in view, but is that all? Paul speaks of Christ as the One who created “all things…in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible” (Col 1:16). He goes on to make the case of Genesis 1:1 even more explicit stating that “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col 1:17). The all things here encompasses more than the material world. Specifically Jesus speaks of heaven and earth passing away but His Word never passing away (Mark 13:31). His Word is an immaterial thing coming from the immaterial God of truth (2 Pet 3:5-7).

Genesis 1:1 shows that mind came before matter. The immaterial God spoke His immaterial Word and the material universe came to exist. It is thus properly basic to believe that more than material things exist. In other words, if Genesis 1:1 is true, then materialism is false.

In sum, Genesis 1:1 sets up the presuppositions of the biblical worldview even as it undercuts the false presuppositions of false worldviews. Put more specifically, if Genesis 1:1 is true, the worldviews of atheism, evolution, and materialism are false.

Genesis 1:1 demands a choice from the reader. Did the universe come from nothing or from God? Is design an illusion or does everything look designed because it is? Is matter all there is or is there an immaterial reality to life? Genesis 1:1 demands a decision.