Contributed by Craig Paardekooper: Published 07/04/2002

Frequency of References to Creation in the Books of the Bible.

In carrying out this study, I have chosen the words below as references to creation. Firstly, all the different tenses of the verb "to create" were searched for.  Secondly,  references to the creator / maker  were searched for. Thirdly, references to the thing created - heaven, earth - were searched for.

create, created, creating, formed

creator, maker

heaven, earth

I made a careful search for the occurrence of each of these words in each of the books of the Old and New Testament. I searched in the NIV Version using the Gateway Bible Search tool.

I discovered that the maximum number of references to creation occur in the 23rd book of the Bible - Isaiah.

I then made a careful search of the chapters of Isaiah to find out which chapters contained the references to creation. The chapter with the maximum number of references to  creation  is chapter 45.

Thus, the maximum number of references to  creation  occurs in Book 23,Chapter 45 - that is in a Spoke 1 chapter of a Spoke 1 book.

Coincidentally, when I searched for the word CREATION itself, in each of the books of the Bible, the maximum frequency occurred in Book 45 - Romans. It is a great coincidence is it not that Romans is a Spoke 1 book. Secondly, I had expected the 66 chapters of Isaiah to parallel the 66 books of the Bible, and I had already found that the 45th chapter of Isaiah contained the highest frequency of references to creation of all the chapters of Isaiah.

I also searched for COMBINATIONS of the words occurring in the same verse.

The first verse of Genesis says "IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH" It is with this phrase that the Bible begins the creation account. Similarly, the creation account ends with the phrase "THIS IS THE ACCOUNT OF THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH WHEN THEY WERE CREATED. WHEN THE LORD GOD MADE THE EARTH AND THE HEAVENS...   "

So I searched for verses containing all the words -  GOD, CREATED, HEAVENS and EARTH. Once again I found that the maximum frequency occurred in Genesis and Isaiah.  I also looked for the combination - GOD, MADE, HEAVENS, EARTH. Finally I looked for the combination GOD, CREATED, MADE, HEAVENS, EARTH. Only 2 verses in the whole Bible contain all five words. One is in Genesis, the other is Isaiah chapter 45. [Ed. This set therefore forms a Spoke 1 KeyLink.]

CHANCE or DESIGN?

It is worth clarifying that this phenomena defies chance probability. It is clearly the product of deliberation.

The probability of a spoke 1 book - ISAIAH - containing the maximum number of references to creation = 1 in 22
The probability of a spoke 1 chapter - ISAIAH 45 - containing the maximum number of references to creation = 1 in 22
The probability of Romans containing the maximum number of occurrences of the word CREATION itself = 1 in 22
The total probability is therefore 1 in 22 x 22 x 22 = 1 in 10,648 = 0.00932%

If we take a 5% probability as level as the threshold between chance and design, then the frequency word patterns are definitely the product of design.

WHO's DESIGN?

It seems that it was either the intention of  the writer Isaiah himself or the intention of God that the Scripture should contain this pattern, albeit a hidden pattern, kept secret until now. It's occurrence depends on the placing of the Book of Isaiah as the 23rd book of the Bible. Isaiah had no control over this, since the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther precede Isaiah's book in the Bible, yet they were written after Isaiah in the post exile period. Secondly, Isaiah had no control over the writing of the book of Romans 700 years later. Thirdly Isaiah had no control over the remaining 43 books of the Bible  any of which could have decided to include copious references to creation. So if Isaiah is not responsible for this pattern, who is?

To answer this question we have to look a bit deeper. Looking at the frequencies found in the chapters of Isaiah, we see that chapter 45 is CLOSELY followed by chapter 43 with the second highest frequency. Surely, if Isaiah was wanting to make a conscious point he would have made chapter 45 stand out without any competing chapters.

A similar observation may be made concerning the first graph above. Book 45 has a distinctive peak  yet is dwarfed by Psalms and Jeremiah. If the writer of Romans was consciously creating this pattern, he would surely have increased the number of references to creation.

These observations lead me to believe that though the patterns ARE the product of deliberation, this deliberation is not conscious. Rather the deliberation is unconscious. What this means is that though the writers were unconscious of what they were doing, they were in fact following a definite pattern. It is a bit like a person who paints a picture blindfold. He cannot see what he is doing, but at the end he comes out with a master-piece. It would therefore seem that his hand was guided, and the result to some extent was kept hidden even from himself. Could this be a glimpse of what it means when it is said that all scripture is God breathed and inspired?

A DEMONSTRATION OF CREATION

Isaiah 45 contains an amazing prophecy. It says that it is God who forms us in the womb, and then the chapter goes on to give the name of Cyrus as the person who will set the captives free and rebuild the Temple. In other words it accurately prophecies the coming of Cyrus by name about 150 years before Cyrus was even born - hence demonstrating that God did indeed form Cyrus in the womb. This is quite incredible in itself, and more so considering the pre-eminent position of Isaiah 45 as the creation chapter. This proof of God's creative activity, found in the main creation chapter, is the crowning touch...in the words of Isaiah, "so that from the rising of the sun to the place of it's setting men may know that there is none besides me".