Topical Encyclopedia
The term "Creator" in the Bible refers to God as the originator and sustainer of all things. This concept is foundational to the Judeo-Christian understanding of God, emphasizing His omnipotence, wisdom, and intentionality in the formation of the universe and all life within it.
Biblical References:1.
Genesis 1:1 · "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." This opening verse of the Bible establishes God as the Creator, setting the stage for the entire biblical narrative. It underscores the belief that everything that exists is a result of God's creative act.
2.
Isaiah 40:28 · "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary; His understanding is beyond searching out." This passage highlights God's eternal nature and His role as Creator, emphasizing His inexhaustible power and wisdom.
3.
John 1:3 · "Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made." In the New Testament, this verse attributes the act of creation to the Word, identified as Jesus Christ, affirming the divine nature of Christ and His involvement in creation.
4.
Colossians 1:16 · "For in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through Him and for Him." This verse further elaborates on Christ's role in creation, indicating that all things were made through and for Him, thus affirming His preeminence.
5.
Revelation 4:11 · "Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and came to be." This verse is part of a heavenly worship scene, acknowledging God's worthiness to receive praise because of His role as Creator.
Theological Significance:The concept of God as Creator is central to understanding His relationship with the world. It affirms His sovereignty over all creation, His authority to govern it, and His ongoing involvement in its sustenance. The act of creation is not merely a past event but a continuous expression of God's will and purpose.
Creation and Humanity:Human beings hold a unique place in creation, being made in the image of God (
Genesis 1:27). This distinction confers dignity and responsibility, as humans are called to steward the earth and reflect God's character in their relationships and actions.
Creation and Redemption:The theme of creation is intricately linked with redemption. The fall of humanity brought corruption into the world, but the Creator's redemptive plan through Jesus Christ aims to restore creation to its intended glory.
Romans 8:19-21 speaks of creation's eager expectation for liberation from its bondage to decay, highlighting the hope of renewal.
Worship and the Creator:Acknowledging God as Creator is a fundamental aspect of worship. The Psalms frequently call believers to praise God for His creative works (e.g.,
Psalm 19:1,
Psalm 104). Recognizing God's handiwork in creation leads to awe and reverence, inspiring worship that honors His majesty and power.
In summary, the Creator is a title that encapsulates God's identity as the origin and sustainer of all that exists. It is a theme that permeates Scripture, inviting believers to recognize His authority, participate in His purposes, and anticipate the ultimate renewal of creation through Christ.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
CREATORkre-a'-ter (ktistes,1 Peter 4:19): The distinctive characteristic of Deity, as the Creator, is that He is the Cause of the existent universe-Cause of its being, not merely of its evolution or present arrangements.
1. God as Creator:
The doctrine of His being the Creator implies, that is to say, that He is the real and the exclusive Agent in the production of the world. For, as Herder remarked, the thought of the Creator is the most fruitful of all our ideas. As Creator, He is the Unconditioned, and the All-conditioning, Being. The universe is thus dependent upon Him, as its causative antecedent. He calls it, as Aquinas said, "according to its whole substance," into being, without any presupposed basis. His power, as Creator, is different in kind from finite power. But the creative process is not a case of sheer almightiness, creating something out of nothing, but an expression of God, as the Absolute Reason, under the forms of time and space, causality and finite personality. In all His work, as Creator, there is no incitement from without, but it rather remains an eternal activity of self-manifestation on the part of a God who is Love.
2. Purpose in Creation:
God's free creative action is destined to realize archetypal ends and ideals, which are peculiar to Himself. For thought cannot be content with the causal category under which He called the world into being, but must run on to the teleological category, wherein He is assumed to have created with a purpose, which His directive agency will see at last fulfilled. As Creator, He is distinct from the universe, which is the product of the free action of His will. This theistic postulation of His freedom, as Creator, rules out all theories of necessary emanation. His creative action was in no way necessarily eternal-not even necessary to His own blessedness or perfection, which must be held as already complete in Himself. To speak, as Professor James does, of "the stagnant felicity of the Absolute's own perfection" is to misconceive the infinite plenitude of His existence, and to place Him in a position of abject and unworthy dependence upon an eternal activity of world-making.
3. Relation to Time:
God's action, as Creator, does not lower our conception of His changelessness, for it is a gratuitous assumption to suppose either that the will to create was a sudden or accidental thing, or that He could not will a change, without, in any proper sense, changing His will. Again, grave difficulties cluster around the conception of His creative thought or purpose as externalized in time, the chief source of the trouble being, as is often imperfectly realized, that, in attempting to view things as they were when time began, we are really trying to get out of, and beyond, experience, to the thinking of which time is an indispensable condition. God's work as Creator must have taken place in time, since the world must be held as no necessary element in the Absolute Life.
4. Christ in Creation:
The self-determined action of the Divine Will, then, is to be taken as the ultimate principle of the cosmos. Not to any causal or meta-physical necessity, but to Divine or Absolute Personality, must the created world be referred. "Of him, and through him, and unto him, are all things" (Romans 11:36). This creative action of God is mediated by Christ-by whom "were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and unto him" (Colossians 1:16).
SeeCREATION.
James Lindsay
Greek
2939. ktistes -- acreator... a
creator. Part of Speech: Noun, Masculine Transliteration: ktistes Phonetic Spelling:
(ktis-tace') Short Definition: a founder,
creator, God Definition: (often
...1217. demiourgos -- builder, maker,creator
... builder, maker,creator. Part of Speech: Noun, Masculine Transliteration: demiourgos
Phonetic Spelling: (day-me-oor-gos') Short Definition: an artisan, builder...
2936. ktizo -- to build, create
... Josephus.]. Word Origin a prim. verb Definition to build, create NASB Word Usage
created (13),Creator (1), make (1). to create. Probably...
5079. technites -- a craftsman, artificer
... builder, craftsman. From techne; an artisan; figuratively, a founder (Creator) --
builder, craftsman. see GREEK techne. (technitai) -- 1 Occurrence....
2316. theos -- God, a god
... God, (b) a god, generally. 2316 (of unknown origin) -- properly,,Creator
and of all things (Jn 1:3; Gen 1 - 3). [Long before the NT...
2937. ktisis -- creation (the act or the product)
... out of nothing (Lat ). See 2936 () and 2939 ("theCreator") for lengthy discussion
on "creation-facts.". Word Origin from ktizo Definition...
935. basileus -- a king
... As King, Jesus Christ has unqualified jurisdiction over all creation --
also being God theCreator. (cf. Jn 1:1-3,49). See 932 ()....
Strong's Hebrew
1254. bara' -- to shape, create... to shape, create. Transliteration: bara' Phonetic Spelling: (baw-raw') Short Definition:
choose. choose, create
creator, cut down, dispatch, do, make fat
...1254a. bara -- to shape, create
... root Definition to shape, create NASB Word Usage brings about (1), clear (2), create
(6), created (32), creates (1), creating (3),Creator (4), cut them down (1...
3335. yatsar -- to form, fashion
... root Definition to form, fashion NASB Word UsageCreator (1), devises (1), earthenware*
(1), fashion (1), fashioned (1), fashioning (2), fashions (1), formed...
Library
October the FourthCreator and Creature
... OCTOBER The FourthCREATOR AND CREATURE. ISAIAH xl.9-28. Let me mark the range
of this teaching.... "TheCreator of the ends of the earth ......
God theCreator.
... ORIGINAL HYMNS HYMN III. God theCreator. 7.7.7.7 James Montgomery. God theCreator.
Praise the High, the Holy One! God o'er all, the first, the last:...
TheCreator was Known as the True God from the First by his...
... Chapter X."TheCreator Was Known as the True God from the First by His Creation
Acknowledged by the Soul and Conscience of Man Before He Was Revealed by Moses...
October the Third Watching theCreator
... OCTOBER The Third WATCHING THECREATOR. JEREMIAH x.10-16.... To many of us the
Creator is remote from His works. He is not immediately near....
God theCreator.
... CHARACTER, ATTRIBUTES AND PROVIDENCE OF GOD. 115. " God theCreator.
115. LM Fergus. God theCreator. 1 The Spirit moved upon...
TheCreator, God.
... RELIGION OF NATURE. 176. " TheCreator, God. 176. CM Zinzendorf. TheCreator,
God. 1 Lord, when thou said'st, "So let it be," The...
God theCreator.
... CHARACTER, ATTRIBUTES AND PROVIDENCE OF GOD. 123. " God theCreator.
123. CM Watts. God theCreator. 1 Eternal Wisdom, thee...
Jesus,Creator of the World
... No. 60 Jesus,Creator of the world. THE SACRED HEART Jesus,Creator of the
world (Auctor beate saeculi). Unison or two-part chorus...
VeniCreator Spiritus
... No. 199a VeniCreator Spiritus. VeniCreator Spiritus... Moderato. 1. VeniCreator Spiritus,
Mentes tuorum visita; Imple superna gratia Quae tu creasti, pectora....
Man the Image of theCreator, and Christ the Head of the Man...
... Paul's epistles... Chapter VIII."Man the Image of theCreator, and Christ the Head
of the Man Spiritual Gifts. The Sevenfold Spirit Described by Isaiah....
Thesaurus
Creator (19 Occurrences)... Int. Standard Bible Encyclopedia
CREATOR. kre-a'-ter (ktistes, 1 Peter
4:19): The distinctive characteristic of Deity, as the
Creator...Succoth-benoth (1 Occurrence)
... At present the only suggestion which can be made is that Benoth is for ban wath,
ie ban'(i) mati, "creator of the land." Both the Semitic and the bilingual...
Succothbenoth (1 Occurrence)
... At present the only suggestion which can be made is that Benoth is for ban wath,
ie ban'(i) mati, "creator of the land." Both the Semitic and the bilingual...
Father (11359 Occurrences)
... 9. (n.) The Supreme Being andCreator; God; in theology, the first person in the
Trinity. 10. (vt) To make one's self the father of; to beget. 11....
Persian (4 Occurrences)
... W. St. Clair Tisdall. PERSIAN RELIGION (ANCIENT). I. BEFORE ZOROASTER 1. Early
Aryan Religion 2. Avesta and Rig-Veda 3. TheCreator II....
Unreal (3 Occurrences)
... natures kindred to your own; and we bring you the Good News that you are to turn
from these unreal things, to worship the ever-living God, theCreator of earth...
Faithfulness (91 Occurrences)
... his readers that those who suffer as Christians and in accordance with God's will
should "commit their soul's in well-doing unto a faithfulCreator" (1 Peter 4...
Infinitude
... or as having a beginning, as the Babylonian and Greek gods had, but thought of Him
as the ever-existing One (Psalm 90:1, 2), and freeCreator and Disposer of...
Infinite (8 Occurrences)
... or as having a beginning, as the Babylonian and Greek gods had, but thought of Him
as the ever-existing One (Psalm 90:1, 2), and freeCreator and Disposer of...
Bless (174 Occurrences)
... (2) In the foregoing instances theCreator is regarded as the source of blessing
and the creature the recipient, but the order is sometimes reversed, and the...
Resources
What does it mean that God is the Creator? | GotQuestions.orgIs Jesus the Creator? | GotQuestions.orgIs there a conclusive argument for the existence of God? | GotQuestions.orgCreator: Dictionary and Thesaurus | Clyx.comBible Concordance •
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