Westminster Four: Of Creation

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1. It pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (Heb. 1:2; John 1:2–3; Gen. 1:2; Job 26:13; 33:4), for the manifestation of the glory of His eternal power, wisdom, and goodness (Rom. 1:20; Jer. 10:12; Ps. 104:24; 33:5–6), in the beginning, to create, or make of nothing, the world, and all things therein whether visible or invisible, in the space of six days; and all very good (Gen. 1; Heb. 11:3; Col. 1:16; Acts 17:24).

What did God make? He made everything. When did He do this? He did it in the beginning, over the course of six days. These should be understood, naturally, as six ordinary days. Where did God create? The answer to this is everywhere. The reason He did this was to manifest His eternal power, wisdom, and goodness. How was it all accomplished? We do not know. Beats us. How would we know something like that? Who is the Creator God? The triune God has made all things.

2. After God had made all other creatures, He created man, male and female (Gen 1:27), with reasonable and immortal souls (Gen. 2:7; Eccl. 12:7; Lk. 23:43; Matt. 10:28), endued with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, after His own image (Gen. 1:26; Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24); having the law of God written in their hearts (Rom. 2:14–15), and power to fulfill it (Eccl. 7:29): and yet under a possibility of transgressing, being left to the liberty of their own will, which was subject unto change (Gen. 3:6; Eccl. 7:29). Beside this law written in their hearts, they received a command, not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17; 3:8–11, 23); which while they kept, they were happy in their communion with God, and had dominion over the creatures (Gen. 1:26, 28).

Mankind is created in two kinds, male and female. Men alone do not constitute mankind. Without women, mankind does not exist. Male and female created He them. We were created with reasonable souls, destined for life beyond this life. We have a contingent immortality, not an essential immortality—it is the gift of God. By this we mean that God gives us the gift of life, and our immortal souls have this life ordinary by possession of a physical body. Christians do not hold to a doctrine of the “immortality of the soul,” but rather to the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead.

The Bible tells us in the Old Testament that we bear the

imago Dei, but the New Testament gives us a description of this image—knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. The Bible does not define the image of God as “reason.” Angels are reasonable creatures, and do not bear the image of God. Handicapped humans might not be able to reason well, and yet they do bear the image of God. What is the image? We have a true sense of right and wrong built in, God having written His law on the heart—it is knowledge, righteousness and true holiness. Because is sin, this image has been marred, and so we have to grow back into that image as we grow up into Jesus Christ. Our ability to be in union with Jesus is the image of God.

When we were created, we had the true possibility of obedience, meaning that nothing in our nature hindered us in obeying. At the same time, being in a state of probationary innocence, we had the possibility of disobeying. In addition to an innate sense of right and wrong, God had also commanded us to refrain from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Until we disobeyed Him in this, we were content in fellowship with God, and we had dominion over the beasts of the earth.