How did God create the world?

Short answer

The Bible says God created everything by His word, out of nothing, through His Son and by His Spirit, and made people in His own image. It tells us who made the world and why, and Christians agree on this. They differ on how long the six days of Genesis lasted.

The Bible opens with the answer to this question, and the answer is a short sentence about who stood at the beginning. Genesis 1 does not read like a lecture on how nature works. As the New Geneva Study Bible puts it, the account is less about creation than about the Creator, who by His word and will calls the world into being.

God made everything from nothing

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Gen 1:1 · King James Version (1769)

The New Geneva Study Bible notes that the Hebrew verb used here, bara, is used in the Pentateuch only of God’s action, and means to create out of nothing. John MacArthur agrees that the context speaks of creation without any pre-existing material, and points to other places that say the same, such as Isaiah 40:28 and Acts 17:24. He also notes that Moses does not try to prove that God exists, since it is taken for granted.

The rest of the chapter shows how He did it: by speaking. “God said” comes again and again, and the world answers. The psalmist sums it up (Psalm 33:6), and according to the New Geneva Study Bible the Psalm treats creation as happening by the word of God alone. Matthew Henry exclaims over this: “Oh, the power of the word of God!”

Through the Son and by the Spirit

John’s Gospel adds to the picture of who was involved.

All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
John 1:3 · King James Version (1769)

William MacDonald writes that this leaves no exception: whatever was created, was created through Christ, from people and animals to stars and angels. He adds that all three Persons of God took part in creation, and points to the Spirit of God mentioned in Genesis (Genesis 1:2). Matthew Henry reads Genesis 1:1 in the same way: the Son of God, one with the Father, was with Him when He made the world.

We know it by faith

No human being was there to watch. The writer of Hebrews says what that means for us.

Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
Heb 11:3 · King James Version (1769)

The New Geneva Study Bible explains that no person witnessed creation, but Scripture, which we accept by faith, tells us that God made the world by His word. William MacDonald says that faith gives us the only factual account of creation: God was the only One present, and He tells us what happened. MacArthur, commenting on Genesis 1:1, adds that both God’s existence and His work as Creator are accepted by faith. Faith here means trusting the testimony of the One who was there.

People in God’s image

The creation account builds toward its climax.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Gen 1:27 · King James Version (1769)

MacArthur observes that man and woman equally bore the image of God and together were given rule over creation, yet they were made different in body so that they could fulfil the command to fill the earth. The place of people among creatures is unique: they stand as God’s representatives over everything else.

How long did it take?

Here Christians have different views, and it is best to say so plainly. MacArthur understands the days of Genesis 1 as six consecutive 24-hour days and dates creation thousands of years ago rather than millions. He notes that the word “day” with a number in Hebrew always means an ordinary day, which he links to the week in Exodus 20:11. The New Geneva Study Bible, on the other hand, says that the Hebrew word for day can also mean a period of time, comparing 2 Peter 3:8.

These readings differ, yet they all hold what Genesis itself stresses: God created everything, by His word, out of nothing, in order and goodness, and made people in His image. If you want to read more about the One who did it, see Who is Jesus Christ?, and if you are asking where God Himself came from, read Who created God?.