In the beginning, BANG! That is how it all began, or so they tell us! A book firmly committed to the theory of evolution gives the following explanation of how the Universe began. ‘We live in a Universe far removed from its violent beginnings. Time, space and matter all began about 12 to 15 billion years ago in an explosive event called the Big Bang, Cosmologists (cosmology is the scientific study of the origins, structure and development of the Universe) believe this because the Universe is still expanding: run time backwards, reversing this expansion, and both logic and the theory of relativity suggest that at the beginning all matter was concentrated into a single point of infinite density. To the question “What happened before the Big Bang?” the answer is simple. Time, like matter, began at the Big Bang, so there was no “before”.’ This article goes on to tell how ‘for a brief instant, expansion accelerated and the size of the Universe increased a trillion, trillion times in a fraction of a second’ and then over millions and millions of years things began to settle down! Brilliant! Or is it ‘infinite density’? O atheist, great is your faith! A well-known commentator discussing (and rejecting) this theory recently asked, “I wonder who struck the match?” Good question!

In Psalm 104:30 we read, ‘You send forth your Spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the earth’. In Hebrew, as in Greek, the same word is used for ‘breath’ and ‘Spirit’. In the context of this psalm, and of the Scriptures as a whole, we may see this as a reference to the role of the Holy Spirit in creation. As our ears recover from the Big Bang theory, we turn to Genesis 1, ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth ... And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters...

The Biblical Evidence

It is clear from Scripture that the Holy Spirit is the universal agent of creation and of renovation – for in the last clause of Psalm 104:30 there is an apparent allusion to the renovation of the earth after the Flood. The biblical evidence for the work of the Holy Spirit in creation is impressive. ‘By His Spirit He adorned the heavens...’ (Job 26:13). ‘By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath (Spirit) of His mouth’ (Psalm 33:6). We have noted that the same word is used for ‘breath’ and ‘Spirit’, and we must not make a distinction between ‘the breath of God’ and ‘the Spirit of God’. It is interesting to note the wording of John 20:22, ‘He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”’ Again, we read in a passage dealing with creation, ‘Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or as His counsellor has taught Him?’ (Isaiah 40:13). Commenting on that verse, Edward J. Young wrote, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is the Spirit of intelligence and understanding who hovered above the waters at the creation.’

The Spirit’s Distinctive Role

All three Persons of the Godhead were involved in creation. This becomes clear when we compare passages like Genesis 1:1, John 1:1 and Psalm 104:30. In a sense we may say that the Father brings forth, the Son provides and the Spirit perfects. There is one God and Father from whom all things came, and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom all things came (1 Corinthians 8:6) and there is a special work for the Holy Spirit. We must be careful not to see creation performed in three successive stages. There is, to quote Abraham Kuyper, ‘distribution, no division in the divine activities’. In other words, from the outset all three Persons of the Godhead were active in creation - yet, in a sense, each had a distinctive role. So, what does Scripture say about the special work the Holy Spirit did in creation and is still doing?

Initially the earth was waste and void. ‘Darkness was on the face of the deep.’ When the Spirit of God hovered in creative power over the earth, order emerged. He drew out the potentialities already there. That is the thought in Job 26:13, ‘By his Spirit He adorned the heavens...’ The Holy Spirit was the universal agent in creation. That truth is emphasised: God by His Spirit adorned or embellished the heavens. There is wondrous beauty in creation, a beauty that came and still comes from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of order and He perfected the world that had been created. The Holy Spirit must never be associated with disorder and confusion. He still maintains order and bestows beauty in God’s Universe. So, what do we say of tornadoes, floods, earthquakes and the like? When God created this earth, it was all ‘very good’, but when man sinned, God ‘cursed the ground’ (Genesis 3:17) and that curse still rests on creation which still ‘groans and labours with birth pangs’ waiting to be ‘delivered from the bondage of corruption’ (Romans 8: 19-22). In the ‘new heavens’ and the ‘new earth’ (2 Peter 3:13) by God’s Spirit creation will once again display the glory of God untarnished by sin and undiminished. In the meantime, the ‘thorns and thistles’ are everywhere

The Holy Spirit and the Climax of Creation

The climax of creation came when the triune God said, ‘Let us make man in Our image...’ (Genesis 1:26). Then we read, ‘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 being’ (Genesis 2:7). That creative breathing involved the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. From Job 33:4 we learn that the Holy Spirit gave life to man. ‘The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.’ The Holy Spirit gave and gives life to man. Man was made good, upright and holy. He appeared on earth a complete and perfect man - perfect in body and mind - fresh from the hand of God. According to the theory of evolution, man has moved upwards over many millions of years, the oceans providing the cradle from which life emerged. According to Scripture man moved – in fact, fell – downwards from a state of perfection to one of corruption. The biblical account of how man came to be and the theory of evolutionists are incompatible.

Man is not a highly developed ape, but a living soul made in God‘s image and the Holy Spirit gave to man his mental faculties and moral consciousness. Although that image has been marred and distorted by sin, it has not been destroyed. Man is still man - not an intelligent animal - with the capacity for fellowship with God. He can be redeemed, renewed and restored to fellowship with his Maker. As we shall see later, D.V., the Holy Spirit has a crucial role in that restoration.

The Holy Spirit and Nature

Psalm 104 indicates that all life, animal and vegetable, receives its energy from the Holy Spirit. ‘You send forth Your Spirit and they are created ...’ (v.30). It is the Spirit who renews ‘the face of the earth’. By the constant creative activity of the Holy Spirit, the life of birds, fish and beasts is sustained, as is vegetational life. This psalm shows that God is the Lord of Nature and that by his Spirit and in Providence he constantly enlivens every living thing both small and great. Psalm 104 is no ‘nature hymn’, seeing nature as an independent entity. Rather, it sees God’s hand in all those processes that we call natural. It is clear from this psalm that what we term ‘natural processes’ do not go on endlessly in their own strength. All is dependent on God’s life-giving Spirit. ‘The earth is the Lord’s and all its fullness’ (Psalm 24:1). ‘The world is Mine and all its fullness’ (Psalm 50:12). ‘The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours; the world and all its fullness...’ (Psalm 89:11).

This earth is unique. There is nothing remotely like it in our solar system. God created it as a dwelling-place for man (Psalm 115:16). When he sees how sinful man contaminates it so that air and water are poisoned, insects, birds and animals become extinct and the earth’s resources are ruthlessly exploited, is He not angry? Adam was given a constructive role in Eden. He was to develop the earth’s potential. He was a trustee of God’s creation. He was to treat it with respect and use it to the glory of God. How utterly different is the conduct of his descendants. Should not Christians be concerned about the preservation of this earth? Why should this be left to ‘Green’ parties, ‘Friends of the Earth’ and New Age groups? It is not enough to believe that this earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it; there should be action in the form of a clear, strong witness to the world, placing conservation in a biblical context, and action in the individual’s handling of earth’s bounty that is consistent with one’s belief. Scientists, farmers, foresters, fishermen, in fact, all of us, who make a Christian profession, should see all of nature in terms of God’s ownership. This includes our attitude to the human body. It is a sin to abuse the body in any way. It is a sin to destroy the human body by evil. practices, including abortion. The psalmist saw himself as a person while still unborn. ‘You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made’ (Psalm 139:13-14). The Christian should be ever conscious of the fact that his or her body is ‘the temple of the Holy Spirit’ and that God is to be glorified in body and in spirit (I Corinthians 6:19-20). Any sinful use of the body is dishonouring to the Holy Spirit

We have seen the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in all of creation - every fibre, cell or atom. His mighty presence permeates the whole. While the evolutionists meditate on those mysterious molecules said to have had the ability to copy themselves, the alleged forerunners of bacteria and algae, and while they yearn to find water on Mars, and cling to the Big Bang theory, which they may yet discover to be a damp squib, we praise God for all His wonderful works. What a wonderful world He has given us. And we pray for those who try to understand reality apart from God, which means that they know nothing aright, ‘having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart’ (Ephesians 4:18). Yes, we should pray for them.

‘The heavens declare the glory of God; and the
firmament shows His handiwork.’ 

Psalm 19 v 1 

Hallelujah!