Genesis
1:1-3 In
the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and
darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over
the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was
light. And God saw that the light was good.
In
the beginning it pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to create the world out of nothing in
order to reveal the glory of his eternal power, wisdom, and goodness. He made everything
in the world, visible and invisible, in the space of six days, and it was very
good.
Genesis
1:26-27 Then God said, “Let
us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion…over
all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God
created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and
female he created them.
After God had made all the other creatures, he
created man, male and female, with reasoning, immortal souls. He endowed them
with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness in his own image and wrote his
law in their hearts. God also gave them the ability to obey his law and the potential
to disobey it; i.e., he gave them freedom of their own will, which could change.
In addition to this law written in their hearts, they were commanded not to eat
from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. As long as they obeyed God’s
law and kept this commandment, they were happy in fellowship with God and had dominion
over the other creatures.
The Westminster Confession of Faith
