What does it mean that the worlds were framed by the word of God (Hebrews 11:3)?

"By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God." (v. 3.) This is not a mere belief that this present universe was created by God - of course, we believe that - but it is said, "by the word of God." The word is the expression of the mind and thoughts of God, and by faith we understand, not merely believe the fact, that the worlds were made by the word of God - that the thoughts and purpose of a divine Person were expressed in creation, and not merely that all was the effect of divine power. Thus we read in Genesis 1 again and again, "And God said." We find ourselves, so to speak, in the presence of God, and the soul realises that the living God was there speaking; "He spake, and it was done." We cannot separate the word of God from what He is; His word is the expression of His mind, and we understand by faith that the worlds were framed according to the plan and purpose of the divine thoughts. Chapter 1 of this epistle shows us that all were created by the Son, and that He is the appointed Heir of all things. This gives us the unfolding of the divine mind, that God had in view a sphere in which He was going to display His glory in Christ the anointed Man, and the Church is to be associated with Him in it.

Before presenting the bright array of believers, the great truth of creation is set out as a question for faith. And so it truly is. Among the heathen all was as confused as the chaos they generally made co-eternal with deity. Yet the fact was once known but got corrupted and lost, notwithstanding the testimony to God's invisible power and divinity in the things that were made. It might seem a necessary inference that there must be an Almighty Creator; yet who drew it plainly? Nothing but Scripture reveals it simply, suitably, and solemnly; and faith received it of old as now. And it becomes all the more needful to heed it, when the course of this evil age runs strongly toward the darkness of heathen thought, and men find their Bible in science which knows not a single truth of God, being too self-satisfied to sit at Jesus' feet and hear His word. Yet even the proudest and most hostile of these modern philosophers is constrained to confess, that they can only investigate phenomena, and are absolutely ignorant of the originating power which gave birth to them. Only the mind cannot but own that such there must have been. It is an "unknown God" still, though they are hardly as candid as the Athenians in erecting an altar and inscribing their ignorance. Yet there is no excuse now, where not only the Scripture is read, but the Son of God come has given the amplest proof of the truth.

The inspired statement will reward the closest scrutiny. By faith we apprehend that the worlds have been framed by God's word, and that what is seen has not been originated out of things apparent. This leaves ample room for whatever changes can be adequately shown to have followed the original creation of the earth; while it also maintains that what is seen did not derive its being from what appears. That all was made out of nothing is what no Christian would say; but that, where nothing existed, God created all things out of His own will and word is just the truth alike simple and profound; and all other hypotheses are as unwise as they are uncalled for and untrue. Evolution may not openly deny God, but at best it robs Him of His personal action and concern in the wisdom, power, and goodness of His will in every part; and its tendency is manifest to exclude Him altogether in contradiction of His word which attests His deep and direct interest in the whole.

Before, however, the series of personal instances begins, we have in verse 3 a general assertion on behalf of all believers of the power and Godhead of the alone Creator. Man, in his progressive, practical deterioration, from the first corruption of his nature, soon renounced this truth. Things visible, instead of being the interpreters of Him who had produced them, became themselves the objects of men's homage. Creation was to their unbelief a screen that hid the Maker from their view (Rom. 1). On the contrary, faith understands the creature in the light of the Creator. While philosophy would fain seek for some creative phenomena amid the multitudinous diversity of experimental facts, which forms the subject of its contemplation, a simple testimony of the Holy Ghost connects at once, for the believer, the manifest existence which surrounds him with the eternal Framer of the worlds. As a thing visible to the eye and appreciable by the senses, creation, in all its varied beauty, is but an unmeaning wonder, oppressive from its very vastness, and evermore incomprehensible in its details, if contemplated as a self-existent thing. But God stands behind the wonders that He shows to men. Faith knows His hiding-place, and in its enjoyment of the Word which has declared to it yet richer blessings, sees in the visible creation but a mediate disclosure of the wisdom and power of the invisible God. It should be remarked that not only original creation, but also the formative adaptation of its parts, are here ascribed to the agency of the word of God. Existence, as well as order, is an echo of Divine command. The believer in Jesus knows to whom the riches of creative glory are to be ascribed.*

"Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God." It is possible that the word "worlds," which is a Hebraistic word, belonging to the Alexandrian Jews particularly, may embrace dispensations; but undoubtedly the material world is included in it. It may mean the worlds governed by dispensations; but still that the idea of the whole universe is in it cannot be fairly contested by competent minds. "The worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen" — which would not be the case if it was only a dispensation — "were not made of things which do appear."

"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." It is no problem to the believer to understand creation. Faith, crediting God, sees nothing too hard for Him. Some socalled scientists, who admittedly find no other alternative but evolution, will reject creation on the ground of its seeming to be "incredible," and with amazing credulity follow the theory that the universe has by the merest chance gradually taken shape out of some original, undefined, hazy nothingness! And thus, life, order, growth, instinct, feeling, sound, hearing, sight, odor, smelling, taste, memory, intellect, reason, energy, movement, personality, conscience, motives, spiritual conceptions, besides an infinite variety of material forms, and also of immaterial characteristics, seen in great variety even within one material species, - all this is claimed to proceed out of a nebulous mass of lifeless nonentity! Where in the universe, have they observed one sample of such a principle in operation? Such reasoning is of course grossly unreasonable.

But in the Word of God is majestic power, and this has framed the universe. The details of this God has not told us, nor does Scripture indicate at what time the original creation came into being. The six days of Genesis 1, in which the remodeling of the earth for man is described, reveal what is comparatively recent in earth's history. God has made visible things from things invisible. The atom, from which all matter is formed, (and which He created, Col. 1:16,) is invisible; and the atom itself is formed of smaller, invisible parts. Scientists wonder if even these are again formed by infinitesimal particles, and are dubious if they will ever discover the smallest basic building blocks of matter. At least, the lesson is inescapable, that what is unseen and spiritual is the basis of what is material, and therefore far more important. Faith apprehends this with not the least difficulty.

It is by faith we know that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. God called all things into existence. Matter is not eternal; the universe is not a producing cause. God has created all things by Him and for Him, who is the eternal Word (Heb. 1:2; John 1:1). Man is unable by searching to solve the mystery of creation. How ridiculous have been the cosmogonies of ancient nations. The evolution theories are equally absurd.

This word is principally applied to the act of bringing things into existence that did not exist before. This is expressed in Heb. 11:3: "things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." It is also applied to making new things out of material already in existence, thus, though man was 'made' of the dust of the ground, Gen. 2:7, he is also said to have been created, the same Hebrew word, bara, being used in Gen. 1:1 for the creation of the world, that is used in Gen. 5:1-2, for the creation of man. The passage in Heb. 11 is important, because as men have no idea how anything can be brought into existence from nothing, they have talked of 'the eternity of matter;' the passage says it is 'by faith we understand' that the worlds were made by the word of God, so that seen things were not made of what is apparent.

When God first created the world, He did not use stones or water or any thing. Yet, through faith, we know that the world was created by the Word of God, (Heb. 11:3) and the heavens too. (Ps. 33:6). None but God could do this.

And first as to creation. We are reminded that through faith it is "we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which do appear" (11:3). Theories had been conceived by men to account for the origin of creation. But all were astray. We know nothing, and can know nothing, about the origin of creation save what Divine revelation discloses. "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth." "He spake, and it was done." So wrote the psalmist (Ps. 33:6, 9). "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). So wrote the lawgiver. With these witnesses our writer of the Hebrews agrees. God spake, and brought things into existence. By the fiat of the Almighty created things appeared, but not evolved out of things which existed. Matter is not eternal. For it is of the origin of the universe the sacred writer here treats, and not of the earth emerging subsequently out of chaos, prepared for man's abode. We are to believe what God has told us. Surely this is rational. What creature witnessed the act of creating? What could we know, what could we conceive of the origin of created things, if left to the light of mere human reason, or were dependent on philosophic deduction? The devout mind believes that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Philosophic or scientific research could tell us nothing better, and nothing certain. At best with philosophy, or science, it could be but a "may be," a "perhaps." On revelation we must therefore rest as to the distant past. There is that then which we must take wholly on the Divine record. Will it be irrational to take God's word about the future? At this point we are reminded of the faith of those of old. In them it is seen how it was in exercise all along the line.

All the activities of God are by His Word. As to creation, “He spake, and it was done” (Ps. 33:9); “The worlds were framed by the Word of God” (Heb. 11:3); and, “Upholding all things by the Word of His power” (Heb. 1:3). By that Word, the creation subsists, and without it, it would have no existence. Hence He who is the living Word is ever said to be the Creator, “All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3, 10; Col. 1:16-17).