How did the world come into being?

Creation: How the World Came into Being

The world did not come into being by accident, natural processes, or evolutionary development. It was created directly and supernaturally by Almighty God. Genesis begins with the plain declaration:

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” — Genesis 1:1

God created the world and all that is in it during six literal, consecutive, twenty-four-hour days. The repeated expression, “the evening and the morning,” defines each day as an ordinary day consisting of darkness and light.

“And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” — Genesis 1:5

The six days of creation were:

Day One: God created the heaven and the earth and divided the light from the darkness.
Day Two: God made the firmament and divided the waters.
Day Three: God gathered the waters together, caused the dry land to appear, and created grass, herbs, and fruit trees.
Day Four: God made the sun, moon, and stars to give light and to mark days, seasons, and years.
Day Five: God created the creatures of the sea and every winged fowl.
Day Six: God created the land animals and then created man in His own image.
Day Seven: God rested from His completed work, not because He was weary, but because creation was finished.

The meaning of these days is confirmed in the law given to Israel:

“For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day.” — Exodus 20:11

Man was not descended from animals. God formed Adam directly from the dust of the ground and breathed into him the breath of life.

“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” — Genesis 2:7

God then made Eve from Adam’s rib. Adam and Eve were real, historical people and were the first man and woman. They were created mature, distinct, and fully human. Marriage was established by God as the union of one man and one woman.

“And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.” — Genesis 2:22

The original creation was perfect and without death, suffering, disease, or corruption. Six times in Genesis 1 God pronounced His work “good,” and after creating man He declared the entire creation “very good.”

“And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” — Genesis 1:31

Death entered the world through Adam’s sin, not through millions of years of evolutionary struggle. Genesis 3 records the historical fall of man, when Adam knowingly disobeyed God. Sin brought death, suffering, and the curse upon creation.

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” — Romans 5:12

Evolution cannot be reconciled with Scripture. Evolution requires death, struggle, mutation, and the survival of living creatures over immense periods before man appeared. The Bible teaches the opposite: God created all things in six days, man was created separately in God’s image, and death entered the world after Adam sinned.

Attempts to combine evolution with Genesis deny the plain meaning of the biblical text. The “days” of Genesis cannot represent long geological ages, because each day is identified by an evening and a morning, plants were created before the sun, and Exodus 20:11 treats the creation week as the pattern for an ordinary seven-day week.

Jesus Christ affirmed the historical truth of creation and taught that mankind was made male and female “from the beginning of the creation”:

“But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.” — Mark 10:6

All things were created by the Lord Jesus Christ and exist for His glory.

“All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” — John 1:3

“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible… all things were created by him, and for him.” — Colossians 1:16

We therefore believe that Genesis 1–3 is a literal and historical account of creation, the origin of mankind, marriage, sin, death, and the need for redemption. God created the heaven, the earth, and every living thing according to His perfect wisdom and sovereign power. Creation reveals His glory, establishes His authority over mankind, and confirms that every person is accountable to Him.