One Word I Am Careful Never To Use Unless It Is Biblically Correct

There is a biblical word I am careful never to use unless it is in reference to God. I learned a long time ago in my Hebrew class in seminary that anyone who uses that word is biblically incorrect. Once I learned that the word should be used only about God, I discovered that there are dozens of synonyms that can be used instead.

That particular word appears sparingly in the Bible only nine times. Every time it appears, it is about what God has done, NEVER about what man has done.

It is so important to God that it appears as the fifth word in the very first verse in the Bible.

"In the beginning, God CREATED the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1)

The word also appears three times in Genesis 1:27.

"So God CREATED man in his own image, in the image of God CREATED he him; male and female CREATED he them." (Genesis 1:27)

Only God Can Create

In Hebrew, the original language of the Old Testament, the word is bara. In English, the word is “create.” Only God can bara. Only God can create because He is the only Creator, and we are not.

• You can't create a cake. You bake one.
• You can't create a dress. You design it.
• You cannot create a house, but you can build one.
• I didn't create this article. I wrote it.

Instead of using the word “create” as a catchword for something you do, start using the correct verb. Here is a list of synonyms that might help you to be biblically correct.

• make
• develop
• design
• bake
• build
• construct
• invent
• discover
• renovate
• refurbish
• plan

If the truth is told, man can do a lot of things today that he could not have done during biblical times. Man can invent (not create) spacecrafts and walk on the moon. He can build (not create) driverless cars. He can produce (not create) drugs and medicines for pain and to cure some ailments. Yes, man can do all those things with the help of God, but God reserves the act of creating for Himself exclusively.

In Genesis 1:1 we read the words: “God created.” In Hebrew “created” is the word, bara that means “creating something out of nothing that has never existed before.” In six days, God created everything out of nothing. He had absolutely nothing to work with.

Jesus never used the word “create” in His humanity during any of His teachings. Abraham was the “Father of Many Nations,” but the Bible never said He created anything. Noah built the ark out of things that God made available to Him. Solomon built a magnificent temple out of items God instructed him to use.

David was “a man after God's own heart” who wrote 73 of the 150 Psalms, but he didn't create any of them. He knew God could create. After he committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband, Uriah, killed he prayed to God using the word about something only God could do.

"Create within me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." (Psalm 51:10)

Man Cannot Create

A man once believed he could create something out of nothing, just as God did when He formed the world. With pride in his heart, he set out to prove it.

On a sunny day, he walked to the beach, pail in hand, ready to “create” a sandcastle. As he scooped up the sand, a voice from heaven thundered: “Put that down! That’s My sand.”

Months later, when snow blanketed the ground, he tried again. He gathered snow to “create” a snowman. The voice returned: “Put that down! That’s My snow.”

Finally, the man understood that there is nothing he could fashion without first borrowing from what God had already made. Creation belongs to God alone.

You have probably never thought about the word “create” before. Hopefully, every time you are tempted to use the word “create” from now on, you will remember this article.

Know that only God can bara. Only God can create because He is the only Creator, and we are His creatures that He created in His own image. The Bible makes a major point of using the word “created” only when it refers to God.