Int. Standard Bible Encyclopedia CREATOR kre-a'-ter (ktistes, 1 Peter 4:19): The distinctive characteristic of Deity, as the Creator, is that He is the Cause of the existent universe-Cause of its being, not merely of its evolution or present arrangements. 1. God as Creator: The doctrine of His being the Creator implies, that is to say, that He is the real and the exclusive Agent in the production of the world. For, as Herder remarked, the thought of the Creator is the most fruitful of all our ideas. As Creator, He is the Unconditioned, and the All-conditioning, Being. The universe is thus dependent upon Him, as its causative antecedent. He calls it, as Aquinas said, "according to its whole substance," into being, without any presupposed basis. His power, as Creator, is different in kind from finite power. But the creative process is not a case of sheer almightiness, creating something out of nothing, but an expression of God, as the Absolute Reason, under the forms of time and space, causality and finite personality. In all His work, as Creator, there is no incitement from without, but it rather remains an eternal activity of self-manifestation on the part of a God who is Love. 2. Purpose in Creation: God's free creative action is destined to realize archetypal ends and ideals, which are peculiar to Himself. For thought cannot be content with the causal category under which He called the world into being, but must run on to the teleological category, wherein He is assumed to have created with a purpose, which His directive agency will see at last fulfilled. As Creator, He is distinct from the universe, which is the product of the free action of His will. This theistic postulation of His freedom, as Creator, rules out all theories of necessary emanation. His creative action was in no way necessarily eternal-not even necessary to His own blessedness or perfection, which must be held as already complete in Himself. To speak, as Professor James does, of "the stagnant felicity of the Absolute's own perfection" is to misconceive the infinite plenitude of His existence, and to place Him in a position of abject and unworthy dependence upon an eternal activity of world-making. 3. Relation to Time: God's action, as Creator, does not lower our conception of His changelessness, for it is a gratuitous assumption to suppose either that the will to create was a sudden or accidental thing, or that He could not will a change, without, in any proper sense, changing His will. Again, grave difficulties cluster around the conception of His creative thought or purpose as externalized in time, the chief source of the trouble being, as is often imperfectly realized, that, in attempting to view things as they were when time began, we are really trying to get out of, and beyond, experience, to the thinking of which time is an indispensable condition. God's work as Creator must have taken place in time, since the world must be held as no necessary element in the Absolute Life. 4. Christ in Creation: The self-determined action of the Divine Will, then, is to be taken as the ultimate principle of the cosmos. Not to any causal or meta-physical necessity, but to Divine or Absolute Personality, must the created world be referred. "Of him, and through him, and unto him, are all things" (Romans 11:36). This creative action of God is mediated by Christ-by whom "were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and unto him" (Colossians 1:16). See CREATION. James Lindsay

Multi-Version Concordance Creator (19 Occurrences) Matthew 19:4 He answered, "Haven't you read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, (See NIV) Acts 14:15 We also are but men, with natures kindred to your own; and we bring you the Good News that you are to turn from these unreal things, to worship the ever-living God, the Creator of earth and sky and sea and of everything that is in them. (WEY) Romans 1:25 who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. (WEB KJV WEY ASV WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Ephesians 3:9 and to show all men in a clear light what my stewardship is. It is the stewardship of the truth which from all the Ages lay concealed in the mind of God, the Creator of all things-- (WEY) Colossians 3:10 and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator, (WEB RSV NIV) 1 Peter 4:19 Therefore let them also who suffer according to the will of God in doing good entrust their souls to him, as to a faithful Creator. (WEB KJV WEY ASV DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Revelation 10:6 And in the name of Him who lives until the Ages of the Ages, the Creator of Heaven and all that is in it, of the earth and all that is in it, and of the sea and all that is in it, he solemnly declared, (WEY) Genesis 14:19 He blessed him, and said, "Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth: (See NIV) Genesis 14:22 Abram said to the king of Sodom, "I have lifted up my hand to Yahweh, God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, (See NIV) Deuteronomy 32:6 Do you thus requite Yahweh, foolish people and unwise? Isn't he your father who has bought you? He has made you, and established you. (See NIV) Job 36:3 I will fetch my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Creator. (DBY) Ecclesiastes 12:1 Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw near, when you will say, "I have no pleasure in them;" (WEB KJV JPS ASV DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Isaiah 27:11 When its branches are dry they will be broken off; the women will come and put fire to them: for it is a foolish people; for this cause he who made them will have no mercy on them, and he whose work they are will not have pity on them. (See NAS NIV) Isaiah 40:28 Haven't you known? Haven't you heard? The everlasting God, Yahweh, The Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn't faint. He isn't weary. His understanding is unsearchable. (WEB KJV JPS ASV DBY WBS NAS RSV NIV) Isaiah 43:1 And now, thus said Jehovah, Thy Creator, O Jacob, and thy Fashioner, O Israel, Be not afraid, for I have redeemed thee, I have called on thy name -- thou 'art' Mine. (YLT NAS) Isaiah 43:15 I am Yahweh, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King." (WEB KJV JPS ASV DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Isaiah 45:18 For thus said Jehovah, Creator of heaven, He is God, Former of earth, and its Maker, He established it -- not empty He prepared it, For inhabiting He formed it: 'I 'am' Jehovah, and there is none else. (YLT) Isaiah 65:18 But joy ye, and rejoice for ever, that I 'am' Creator, For, lo, I am creating Jerusalem a rejoicing, And her people a joy. (YLT) Amos 4:13 For, lo, the former of mountains, and creator of wind, And the declarer to man what 'is' His thought, He is making dawn obscurity, And is treading on high places of earth, Jehovah, God of Hosts, 'is' His name! (YLT)