Sufficient Evidence Archive

Several months ago, I wrote an article entitled, “Could God Create (Ex Nihilo) On The First Day?”

It appeared in Warren Christian Apologetics Center’s periodical, Sufficient Evidence (Fall, 2020). I did not know that anyone ever later attempted to respond to my article. But on January 25, 2022, a preacher friend of mine informed me that he had come across an article entitled, “God Was Not ‘Within Time’ When He Began Creation?” by a writer who works with Apologetics Press. The writer’s article was published on October 22, 2021. I am glad to know of the article to which I will now make a response.

In Genesis 1:1 we find these words, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the Earth.” Now we know that the Hebrew word used for created is bara and can entail ex nihilo creation. According to the Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible, it is not always used that way, but the word itself does entail that possible use which, no doubt, it must have in Genesis 1:1. In Genesis 1:27 bara is used for the creation of man whose existence clearly came from already existing dust (Genesis 2:7) and rib (Genesis 2:21-22) and from Holy Spirit (Malachi 2:15; Hebrews 12:9). Now notice that in Genesis 2:3 the same word (bara) is used for something other than, or in addition to, what we face in Genesis 1:1. Consider