Why did God choose to speak creation into existence rather than making it some other way?
Is there a particular reason or purpose for Him using words rather than some other means to create everything?
Genesis 1:3
NLT - 3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
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Asked November 26 2015
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Kyle Gillette
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Tim Maas
John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," and also that "[a]ll things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made." (John 1:3) In my opinion, words were how God chose to create the universe because He in His foreknowledge knew that it would also be through words that He would communicate with humanity, and that it would be through the incarnation of the Word who was God that He would provide the fullest revelation of Himself and make humanity's salvation possible. God speaking the universe into existence (rather than actively constructing it) also serves to indicate that it would not be through works of man or actions/signs from God that humanity was to be saved, but by the faith that would come through the words of preaching. As the Bible says, "faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17), not by any act or work that we can or must do in order to be saved.
Kenneth Heck
Since God is called the king of the earth (Psalm 47.7), he needs only to speak the word to accomplish any of his objectives. This is the prerogative of any true king. Actually, any major project, especially of man, will always have a verbal description, or written document, so that no confusion need occur about the nature of the project. The spoken word of God thus satisfies the need for true clarity about the nature of his creation. The bible does not describe the activities occurring immediately after the word is spoken by God, but no verse states that an instantaneous reaction or response happens, so that creation issues forth fully developed in a manner of seconds or minutes. The subsequent activities may include angelic participation (Job 38:7), and God's participation as well, such as in the fourth, fifth, and sixth days of creation.
Don Quinn
It's hard for me to now sound a bit on the flippant side and just say that GOD did what only GOD can do and if he wanted to create the world in that manner so be it. If you look at Genesis 1 the entire chapter you can see that GOD showed us that he could do what man will never do. Yes its simple to say GOD can do what he wants because he is GOD, but you have to look at the entire creation process. Understand that HE did all this from nothing by just speaking it it was. No man could do that or even begin to think about doing this. That is what makes GOD - GOD. All that we do is done through the power of Christ and the Holy Spirit. All of the things that man has invented or made were all from something. But only GOD could just speak and make it so. Not to take anything from Jesus when on many occasion he was told to just speak the words and the people knew it would be done. Yes I know he is GOD in the Flesh and that is the difference. He was in the flesh and did restrain from giving the appearance that men could do what he could. If you think about it when miracles did happen Jesus often said your faith has made you whole or to the effect that it all was made possible by HE who created it all. Yes GOD did what only he could do and and in doing this we have a lesson to understand. We should always be humble and give praises to GOD for allowing us to share in his CREATION.
Jack Gutknecht
Simply by giving his royal command, God created everything (Ps 33:6, 9; 148:5; Heb 11:3). "The Lord merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born." (Psalm 33:6 NLT) Psalm 33:9 "For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm." Psalm 33:9 New Living Translation "For when he spoke, the world began! It appeared at his command." Psalm 148:5 New Living Translation "Let every created thing give praise to the Lord, for he issued his command, and they came into being." Hebrews 11:3 "By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible." (ESV)
brenden koob
In the 1930s scientists accidentally discovered through a failed experiment that when you pass high intense sound through water, the water molecules reverberate so vigorously and violently that when they break down, they emit tiny flashes of light. This phenomenon is now known as sonoluminescence. So why did God speak light into existence? Because sound creates light. And it was the awesome power and might of the sound of HIS voice rather, the frequency and/or vibration that generated everything into existence. What about the water? Well, water is Life. Water has memory. 100% oxygen is poison. 100% hydrogen is explosive. Yet the perfect amounts of each creates life giving water. Maybe there was water present? The takeaway.... GOD is real and HE showed us right at the very beginning of the book. Sound creates light. And that.... is a "breadcrumb." I BELIEVE THAT I NEVER WOULD HAVE REALIZED THAT IF I DID NOT READ IT BECAUSE I DID NOT QUESTION MY GOD. I STILL DONT. God bless you, brothers and sisters. Amen.
Carl Frederick
God created the universe: God created the universe from things that we do not see per scripture (See Hebrews 11:3). That means the universe was not created from nothing. Hebrews 11:3 (ESV - English Standard Version): By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. God designed many self-sustaining attributes in the universe, as evidenced by "program codes" like DNA, that even contain ability for great variety & diversity. Think about how people create "artificial worlds" using computers. At a level of abstraction, God conceptually created "our world" similarly. That's why God can speak & creation obeys... That underlies why God's miracles are consistent with reality. That underpins how God can know our thoughts in real time. That underscores how God can "port" us into the "afterlife", just like programs can get ported to "new" platforms. The types of "machinery" that power our world likely share some conceptual similarities to advanced firmware / hardware, even though there are limits to what we can know. Observing nature at a physical level can infer capabilities of underlying infrastructure powering our world God created, though implementation details can vary a lot, just like different technology architectures can power different games / computer platforms. From scriptures, definitely know our world contained a beginning and that God's word was critical to create it. For those who work in fields with programming languages, there no surprise that language is a key ingredient underlying virtual worlds. Likewise, see from scriptures underlying our world's creation. The extra understanding definitely also adds to how God can 100% keep us accountable for our thoughts, actions, words, and the state of our heart (not the biological heart). This is also consistent with how God can bring “books” on Judgment Day that recorded what people did. Our world was created, so our world did not exist before God created It. The building blocks God used clearly are not fully understood, though they exist outside our world and predate our world's beginning. A programming language sits upon an infrastructure. I expect God leveraged what existed to create infrastructure, specifically to support our world. Depending on the context of scripture, "The Word" can refer to Jesus/God himself as in "The Word became flesh", or a command, such as "Let there be light.” That's the polymorphic nature of our own language. Psalm 33:6 (ESV - English Standard Version): By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. I expect at some level "programming languages" were involved to create our world's content. Clearly we can see "programming language" of sorts in DNA & RNA inside our world. The deeper question involves to what level "programming languages" were used in powering our world's ongoing time-slices / interactions. Borrowing from electronic architecture (GPU's, CPU's, ASICs, PLCs, FPGA's,...) know various design decisions on what specifically in "hardware switches" versus "firmware" versus what level up to a software layer. Many technical designs can work, likely decisions much beyond our awareness / comprehension at this stage. Physical observations like "action at a distance" & "quantum calculations" (etc.) hint at an infrastructure powering what is observable. God's Word is the final authority. Improving our nuanced understanding of God's Word does lead from time to time to different conclusions than past respected scholars proposed. That's fine because the past scholars were also investigators rather than the inspired Word of God themselves.
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