3. Creation

​We believe the Bible teaches that God purposely created and personally sustains everything that exists – visible and invisible, animate and inanimate, material and spiritual – by the power of His Word.1 God created everything good, whole, mature, and without the presence of sin.2 Sinfulness, evil, and death came into the world through the willful choices of God’s creatures.3 Some angels, God’s specially created servants, including and led by Satan, became rebellious against God and malign toward the rest of His creation.4 Satan deceived and deceives humanity into sin.5 God subjected all creation to frustration, disorder, and death because of humanity's sin.6 Yet, God continues to rule and reign over all things, and He uses the frustration and disorder of this world to serve His good and holy purposes.7 God is making a new creation through the work of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.8 Ultimately, God will set all creation free from these conditions of frustration, disorder, and death, as He completes His redeeming work through the rule and reign of our Lord Jesus Christ who rose again as the first-fruits of God’s new creation – the new heavens and new earth – in which righteousness will dwell forever.9
 
1 Gen. 1:1 and 2:1 and 4; Ps. 104:14-15; Isa. 40:26; John 1:2; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2-3.
2 Gen. 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31, and 2:1-3 and 25.
3 Gen. 3:1-7; Rom. 5:12-14.                 
4 Gen. 3:1-5; Isa. 14:12-14; Ezek. 28:11-19; Matt. 4:1-11 and 13:37-39; Luke 8:12; Eph. 4:27 and 6:11-12; 1 Tim. 3:6-7; 2 Tim. 2:26; James 4:7; 1 Pet. 5:8-9; 1 John 3:8; Rev. 12:7-12.
5 Gen. 3:4-5; John 8:44; 2 Cor. 11:3.
6 Gen. 3:14-19; Rom. 5:12-14 and 8:20.  
7 Ex. 4:11; Isa. 45:7; Amos 3:6; Rom. 8:20-21 and 11:36; Eph. 1:11.
8 Isa. 43:25; Micah 7:18-20; Matt. 26:26-29; 2 Cor. 5:17-21; Heb. 7:27; 1 John 2:2; Rev. 5:9-10.
9 Isa. 65:17-25 and 66:22-23; Acts 3:18-21; Rom. 8:21; 1 Cor. 15:19-23; 2 Cor. 5:17; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1-4.