“…creator of heaven and earth…”
In our Catechesis for the Church slot in the morning service, I did a series of short talks working through the Apostles’ Creed. Here’s an outline of the sixth talk on the words, “…creator of heaven and earth…”. These have since been repurposed for an assembly in a junior school.
Can anyone tell me:
How many people there are in the world today? [Put picture of crowd of people on the screen]. It is just over 8 billion people.
What about stars in our galaxy? [Put picture of stars in galaxy on the screen]. There are 200-400 million stars.
What about the number of trees on the earth? [Put pictures of trees on the screen]. There are around 1 trillion trees.
Any idea how many cows? [Put picture of cows on the screen]. They reckon there are about 1.5 billion cows.
Pigeons? [Put picture of pigeons on the screen]. There are 400 million pigeons.
Whether it’s people, stars, trees, cows, pigeons, or anything else, Christians believe that the Lord God made them all.
In the Apostles’ Creed, this summary of what the Bible teaches and the key truths that Christians are to believe, the opening sentence ends by affirming that God is the Creator of everything and everyone.
“I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.”
The God that Christians believe in, who is three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is all-powerful, and has shown that He is by creating heaven and earth.
Why do Christian believe that God has created all things?
Because that is what the Bible teaches.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)
God shows that He is almighty by making the heavens - from the sky above where birds and planes fly to the great expanse filled with the sun, moon, and stars.
God also shows that He is almighty by making the earth - where we find the mountains, trees, seas, animals, and people.
And because God made everything:
“The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the LORD.” (Psalm 24:1)
When we say I believe in God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, we are saying that everything we have is from God and belongs to God, so we must answer to Him for how we live, for how we treat His world, and for how we treat other people.
God is the maker of heaven and earth. Is this what you believe?