The first chapter of Genesis, which gives the true version of creation, opens with the words, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." To St. John's clear perception the Word was God and constituted creation, for he says (John 1: 1-3): "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made."
"Word" is that which is spoken, uttered, expressed—God expressing Himself in the infinitude of creation, disclosing Himself as creator, cause, source, origin, containing all of His ideas within His allness. Creation was finished, was complete in the beginning. The Psalmist declared: "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. . . . For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast."
There are not two creations of the universe and man: a universe spiritual, eternal, beautiful, and another material, imperfect, decadent. God did not create two kinds of man: one in His image, after His likeness, and another out of dust, subject to evil, disease, and all forms of discord.
