“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

Any reporter knows that to cover an event well he has to answer these six questions. When it comes to the greatest story of all, the Bible also answers these questions. In fact, four of them are answered in the first verse of the first chapter of the first book!

Who? God, the one, the only true God. “Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD” (Deuteronomy 6:4).

What? God created. What did He create? He created the heavens and the earth.

Where? Right here.

When? He created “in the beginning,” apparently also creating time itself.

How? By forces beyond human capacity.

Since there is so much packed into this one verse, it is no exaggeration to say that in many ways it could be the most important verse in the Bible. It has been said that if one can believe Genesis 1:1, he can believe anything in Scripture. It provides the foundation for all other Biblical teaching. Certainly, if it is not literally, absolutely true, the rest of the Bible cannot be true either. It should be no surprise, then, that our opponents direct some of their most vicious attacks at this fundamental verse. A few of the current ways materialists have mocked it in support of their own godless scenarios of origins are, “In the beginning, hydrogen,” or “In the beginning, quantum physics. . . .” God cannot be pleased with such travesties of His word.

Why did He create? “Thou art worthy, O Lord, . . . for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Revelation 4:11).

The Word says, “In the beginning, God created . . .” and there is every reason to believe it. DER