How was the world created according to Christian belief?

Answer 1

The word used in the Hebrew scriptures which is translated as 'day', yom , has indeed a variety of meanings according to context. Included in these is an indefinite period of time. When it is qualified by 'evening and morning' it can only mean a day of 24 hours as we know it today. This is even acknowledge by those who do not believe the account to be true, and re-interpret it due to their beliefs, to be the original and intended meaning. The days, in their intended meaning are not symbolic but literal, even though they are given a different meaning due to extra-Biblical beliefs about origins.

Christians believe that the world was created by the word of God. Since God is almighty He can use any means He wishes to bring something into being such as the forming of Adam from the earth, although Adam, like all other humans, was obviously much more than earth. Basically God spoke and it happened. Although obviously all the incredible detail such as in the DNA sequence, for example, was in the mind of God when He spoke, since, if He had to spell out every detail, the creation would not be finished yet and we would not be here. (this latter thought being the personal view of the poster of this answer - there probably being a number of different Christian views as to what 'the word of God' in relation to the creation actually means).

Hebrews 11:3

3Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

John 1:1-41In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2The same was in the beginning with God.

3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Heb 1:1-3 "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, Has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds; Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself made purification of our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;"

Heb 1:10-12 "And, You, Lord, in the beginning have laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the works of Your hands. They shall perish; but You remain: and they all shall become old as does a garment; And as a vesture will You fold them up, and they shall be changed; but You are the same, and Your years shall not fail."

GENESIS:

Heaven and Earth, formless and unfilled and dark and deep and watery, with the Spirit of God moving; to the left and right, to the top and bottom, to the front and back, and then residing in the centre; the Love In God's Harmonic Tones produced LIGHT; it was good, and with its division, then came night; and the evening and the morning were the first day ever, as intergalactic dimensional duration began with the first seven days of the space/time continuum.

1. Light, with Day and Night spoken into being
2. Sky spoken into being
3. Land, Sea, and Plants spoken into being
4. Sun, Moon, and Stars spoken into being
5. Animals of the sea and air spoken into being
6. Animals of the land, and Man in the image of God spoken into being
7. Rest taken by God at the end of a very creative week

How long is a day? For us, one complete rotation of our planet counts as a day.

How loudly did God speak? An immeasurable volume.

A Jehovah's Witness PerspectiveJehovah's Witnesses believe that the Almighty God, Jehovah, designed and brought into existence the universe, including other spirit persons and all the basic kinds of life upon the earth.

While The Bible uses the term "7 days" to explain the time period Jehovah used to create the earth, these are simply symbolic days. The Hebrew word translated 'day' has a variety of meanings, including 'a long time; the time covering an extraordinary event.' The term used allows for the thought that each 'day' could have been thousands of years in length.

*All information comes from a book called "Reasoning from the Scriptures," published in 1989 by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.

From a Mormon PerspectiveMatter has always existed, therefore it cannot be created neither can it be destroyed. It also has intelligence as does everything in this world. Because it has intelligence God is able to command all matter, whatever it size to do his bidding, for he has the power to do so.

As has already been stated we do not know just how long God took to gather all of the matter together, not that it matters. The fact that God was able to command the intelligence which matter had, to form the earth and the seas is in accord with gospel principles.

According to Genesis, the world was created by the Word of God. The words "And God said let there be..." are repeated throughout the general account in Genesis chapter 1. Thus, the God who can call things into existence merely by speaking them (obviously as an expression of His thought and intention of how they were to be, with all their incredibly complex constituent parts, DNA etc.) is indeed almighty and to be both feared and praised.

Genesis 1

God, who existed before all else, created the heavens and the earth and all that dwell therein. Here is the scripture for the creation story from the book of Genesis in the Bible: 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was [a] formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning-the first day. 6 And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning-the second day. 9 And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning-the third day. 14 And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. 16 God made two great lights-the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning-the fourth day. 20 And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." 23 And there was evening, and there was morning-the fifth day. 24 And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, [b] and over all the creatures that move along the ground." 27 So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." 29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground-everything that has the breath of life in it-I give every green plant for food." And it was so. 31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning-the sixth day.

Genesis 2

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested [a] from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

Answer 2

In the beginning was the formless void known as Chaos. And from Chaos sprang forth Gaea, Ouranos and Tartarus, the Earth, that which was above the Earth and that which was under the Earth. And then, in that stillness of Night, which was Nyx, and the shadows that surrounded everything, which was Erebus, from their union came Hemera and Aether, Daytime and Air, and for the first time, Erebus and Nyx had to withdraw from the power of their offspring. And because of Eros' presence, Gaea and Ouranos resolved to populate the universe with their offsprig. First came the Cyclopes, which Ouranos hated and had imprisoned in Tartarus. Then came the mighty Hekantokheires, with 50 heads and 100 arms, and again he imprisoned them in Tartarus. Finally came the most powerful of all, the Titans, and from their number, Lustful Kronos, who despised his father's wonton ways, sliced him into pieces and took his place in Heaven, along with his brothers and sisters. They ruled from the top of mighty Mt. Othrys in Thessaly.

in the beggining there was chaos and then born from chaos was gaea, tartarus,

eros, erebus, and nyx. they were teh first god, then out of tartarus and gaea came typhon. and out of erebus and nyx were aether and hemera.

Gaea- mountins, low lands, rivers, lakes, and seas

Tartarus- darkest part of the under world

Eros- love, most handsome (even more handsome that apollo) of all teh gods

erebus- Dark silence

nyx- night

Aether- atmostphere

hemera- day

typhoon- fire breathing dragon with hundreds of heads

these gods made up the world, and to teh greeks, how the world was created in teh first place

Answer 3

Theological Belief:

There are many Recorded Myths of Creation.

Scientific Conclusion:

In the Beginning there was Hydrogen.

And Hydrogen, formed from Quarks & Anti-quarks, became so Abundant that the Process of Fusion transformed some Molecules into Helium.

Hydrogen & Helium continued to interact through the Processes of Fusion and later, as Heavier Elements were Formed, through Fission to Birth the First Star.

The First Star Lived & Died, perhaps longer than any we've known, and then upon its Death collapsed into a disc-shaped Kerr Black Hole.

All of the Dead Star's Matter was forced by Extreme Gravity through the Black Hole, spewing it out into what we would recognize as a Universe.

Each Galaxy, being little more than Galactic Tide Pools, began living Its Own Life & Birthing New Stars.

Each Star Lives & Dies, but sometimes, it creates Planets in the process.

OUR Star died once, Birthing Earth & neighbors, then it Re-Ignited into what we now know as our Sun.

The Sun still keeps Earth Alive & a Multitude of Organisms, including Us, are fortunate enough to Thrive here.

Another myth I heard once:

There was once some random pre-existing matter somewhere that mindlessly kept growing and building upon itself until it violently exploded for some unknown reason. And it became an endless universe with ka-jillions of galaxies, planets and solar systems with orbits so orderly and precise that we are able to set our clocks by their impeccable movements today.

The earth was one of these accidental planets, upon which all sorts of cleverly designed life forms subsequently emerged from former randomness and probably more explosions.

The life forms developed from love-sick amoebas... decided, in order to survive, to grow intelligence. For sentimental reasons, perhaps, they eventually designed, developed and manufactured artificial devices to make explosions happen whenever and wherever they wanted them to.

One day, there was a violent explosion in a print shop. It's not known to this day if it was a random accident or purposely set -- but when the dust settled... they discovered the very first complete set of perfect hard bound Encyclopedias strewn about the blast site... evidently, almost in mimicry of origins of the universe itself, the orderly result of the print shop explosion.

Soon, the intelligent life forms thought the earth was getting too warm... and, believing themselves to be god, they decided to save it by controlling the weather. So, they began to pass laws, rules and regulations on how people should live and conduct themselves so that the world would cool back down again.

And so the earth continues to undergo its recreation by the intelligent life forms on it, who hope it doesn't explode before they get a chance to fix it.

Answer 4

According to Western scholars, the religious tradition that we know as Hinduism is the product of at least 5,000 years of development, with roots stretching back to the Indus Valley civilisation, which prospered some 4 - 5,000 years ago. However, the origins of this religion are shrouded in mystery and according to Hindu scriptures may be millions of years old. There are many Hindu creation stories but the one given here helps to explain one of the major Hindu beliefs - reincarnation.

This is not the first world, nor is it the first universe. There have been and will be many more worlds and universes than there are drops of water in the holy river Ganges. The universes are made by Lord Brahma the Creator, maintained by Lord Vishnu the Preserver and destroyed by Lord Shiva. Since the universes must be destroyed before they can be recreated, Lord Shiva is called the Destroyer and Re-creator. These three gods are all forms of Supreme One and part of the Supreme One. The Supreme One is behind and beyond all.

After each old universe is destroyed nothing is left but a vast ocean. Floating on this ocean, resting on the great snake Ananta, is Lord Vishnu. Some say that a lotus flower springs from his navel and from this comes Lord Brahma. And it is from Lord Brahma that all creation comes.

How dies Lord Brahma create? Some tell of how he grows lonely and splits himself in two to create male and female. Then he becomes one again and human beings are created. In the same way he creates all the other living things, from the great animals to the tiniest insects. Others say that everything comes from different parts of Lord Brahma's body. All the different animals and all the people come from his mouth, arms, thighs and feet. Everything comes from one - Lord Brahma, who is part of the Supreme One - so everything is part of the Supreme One. For this universe, this world and this Lord Brahma, like all those before and all those to come, will be destroyed by Lord Shiva.

How long is the life of a universe? Its length is beyond imagination. One day to Lord Brahma is longer than four thousand million of the years that we know. Every night when Lord Brahma sleeps the world is destroyed. Every morning when he awakes it is created again. When the Lord Brahma of this universe has lived a lifetime of such days the universe is completely destroyed by Lord Shiva.

Everything disappears into the Supreme One. For an unimaginable period of time chaos and water alone exist. Then once again Lord Vishnu appears, floating on the vast ocean. From Lord Vishnu comes forth Lord Brahma of the new universe and the cycle continues for ever.

This belief in reincarnation, in the cycle of life, strongly influences the lifestyle of may Hindus. It can best be explained by the terms 'dharma' and 'karma'. Dharma may be translated as 'duty' and for Hindus, part of that duty is to respect and care for all living things. The belief that after death we are reborn in another body, not necessarily human, leads to a great respect for all life and results in many cases of vegetarianism. Karma is the result or product of what we do. If we do our duty, then we create good karma, since the next life we may have is directly related to the actions of our present life. To the Hindu, everything is part of the Supreme One, and thus every living thing is equally important in the great cycle of life.

Answer 5

The genesis story relates that God created the words (and all else) in 7 days.