Did God really create everything?

In Genesis 1, the Bible opens with five world-shaping words: “In the beginning, God created.” In this study, Dr. Toby Holt shows why how we understand creation shapes everything else we believe.

Genesis declares that God made the heavens and the earth out of nothing, by His word, and made human beings in His own image. Dr. Holt explains that this is the foundation of all right thinking about God and ourselves — “there is a God, and you are not Him.” Because God is the Creator, He sets the purpose of everything and has authority over every life. And because people are made in His image, every human life carries dignity and worth.

Questions this study answers:

1. Why do people prefer theories like evolution or the Big Bang? Because they remove a Creator to whom we are accountable. Genesis insists that a personal God made everything on purpose.

2. What does it mean that we are made “in God’s image”? That every person carries God-given dignity and worth. This grounds the sanctity of human life.

3. Why does the doctrine of creation matter so much? Because it establishes who God is and who we are. If God is Creator, He has authority over our lives and gives them meaning.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” — Genesis 1:1 (NKJV)

Speaker: Dr. Toby Holt is the President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, a Reformed seminary in Colorado Springs. He is known for clear, down-to-earth Bible teaching, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio.

Listen and go deeper: This sermon is part of the Genesis Explained study from New Geneva Theological Seminary. Find more verse-by-verse teaching across the Bible at newgeneva.org. To support this teaching ministry, visit newgeneva.org/give.