As Christians we believe that the world was created by God, as it says in the Creed “I believe in one God… the maker of all things visible and invisible.” This idea of creation is not held by atheists who believe that the world, with its complexity and beauty, just came into being by chance, or by believers of some Eastern religions in which the world “emanates” from God, the world flows out of God and then flows back, in a process of eternal return.As Orthodox we believe that the entire Holy Trinity took part in creation. Although the Old Testament does not teach about the Trinity very clearly, when we Christians read it we see hints of the Holy Trinity. In the creation account in the book of Genesis we read:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.” (Gen 1:1-3)
The first verses mentions the spirit or breath of God and the following verse begins with “And God said…” Of course when a person says something, he says a word. And we believe this world to be Jesus Christ. Or in psalm 33:6-9 we see another reference to the world being created by the Word of the Lord (i.e., Jesus Christ) and by the breath or spirit of God.
“By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth. He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle; he put the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood forth. (Ps 33:6-9)
In the Book of Genesis the world is said to have been created in six days and many people take this to mean six 24-hour days as we experience now. However, even in the patristic period some Fathers believed the six days could be six long periods of time. The idea is that God started the process and guides its development.
The Bible also tells us that the created world is “very good” (Gen 1:31). Of course we know that the world is not perfect. In addition to human sin there are diseases, natural disasters and so on. This is because the material world somehow fell together with Adam and Eve. However, because the world is fundamentally good, Christianity does not see salvation as a flight from the material world, but rather will be transformed at the end of time together with the resurrection of humanity.
Although Christianity does not accept pantheism (that God and the world are one) it believes that God is present in every place for the created world. For example, the prayer:
O Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, who art everywhere present and fillest all things, Treasury of blessing and Giver of Life, come and abide in us and cleanse us from every impurity, and save our souls, O Good One.
It says that God is “everywhere present and fillest all things.” This same omnipresence of God is expressed in Psalm 139:7-12 and Acts 17:27-28.
“Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend to heaven, thou art there! If I make my bed in Sheol, thou art there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there thy hand shall lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Let only darkness cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to thee, the night is bright as the day; for darkness is as light with thee.”
“….. Yet he is not far from each one of us, for `In him we live and move and have our being’;
as even some of your poets have said, `For we are indeed his offspring.’ (Acts 17:27-28)
Another part of the created world is that of the bodiless powers (angels). It is somewhat incorrect to call all the bodiless powers angels, because angels are only one rank of the nine categories of bodiless powers. There are Angels Archangels, Principalities, Powers, Virtues, Dominions, Thrones, Cherubim and Seraphim. The word angel means messenger and in the Bible we see the bodiless powers conveying messages from God to humanity and, in general, mediating between God and the world. The demons or the devil are also bodiless powers created by God who rebelled against God and were cast into hell.
So we see that the created world, i.e., the world of angels, the world of inanimate and animate things, and the world of human beings comes from the hand of God and is guided, sustained and loved by Him.
Fr. John