This was a question I answered today and felt it was such an interesting one that I reproduce it here. My answer was chosen as a Best Answer for this on Yahoo Answers but really the issue is such an interesting one that I hope you find the questions posed intriguing:
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In creation, did God create 'from nothing' or from something?
Reading Genesis, it's difficult to see which interpretation to put upon it: that God started with nothing (no space-time, no energy, no laws) and created from that; or that God started with those things and framed a universe from them.

Which should I understand, from nothing or from something?

And as a follow-up question (if I may), is God immanent then in that creation in the sense of sustaining it, in the sense of directing it, in the sense of observing it, or in some combination of these (or other) senses?

If you could, please, give me Bible references for these (but please, not a simple cut and paste job; with the references I can find and read the text for myself!)

Many thanks
12 hours ago
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@Melie - So, you did actually read the bit when I said please no cut and paste jobs? What was it? 'Please no' means something different in your language!?
11 hours ago

@CodyHas... LOL! There might just be a teensy-little flaw in your logic there! ;-)
11 hours ago

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by sol w Member since:
22 June 2007
Total points:
352 (Level 2) Best Answer - Chosen by Asker
I don't have the bible to hand but can answer from my understanding from having studied various aspects of your questions.
Firstly, let me state that Spiritism, in particular the works by Allan Kardec, even more specifically The Spirits' Book offers the most lucid answers (and ones I have yet to see bettered anywhere) to your questions and many many others.
According to The Spirits' Book (which follows the teachings of Christ yet states the Bible was a text for its time and that many parables of Christ were not ready to be understood then),God
created the world/universe and the spirits who incarnate in the bodies of humans.
The ancients believed that we came from a state of nothingness or a void too.
God created us in a similar way to that in which people decide to have children - for knowing Himself through them too.
Whilst he created us we are of course separate and the choices we make are our own. Where God's influence can be felt (and is felt by the millions or billions who notice it) is in the guides who routinely try and steer us away from danger and onto a good path Thse are frequently spirits who some call Guardian Angels and who were almost all just people who upon dying decided to be a guide and were permitted to be one. This is the still small voice we sometimes hear when a part of us wants to be cruel and spiteful - it is never insistent therefore and denying this is entirely fine - neither I nor anyone truly spiritual, and the same with the spirit-guides, is going to force people to believe anything, or even try.
Nevertheless, I attempt to answer the question from my understanding gleaned from my studies of your excellent and interesting questions. God gives us free will - this means we get the glory if we do good things - even if we've been slightly steered on that path (but if we listened, then we are owed the glory!) and conversely, if we make errors, then there are consequences. Some mention karma and that is one way of describing what happens when injustice is committed in the lifetime/incarnation of a spirit. The following incarnation, things will be balanced consequently, much of what God does is not noticed, but think about it and how else can the world be just unless God does systematically reward and punish? It is the obvious and intelligent answer to many inexplicable injustices, as it were. God is just and I believe does want His children to be happy, but He won't force them to do what He knows would make them happy - they have all the freedom to make their own lives as they see fit. What then happens if someone lives well their entire life? Well, that can lead to them going to a more spiritually developed planet where there is less misery or it might lead a spirit to choose to guide a family member still on earth. Some become angels or archangels and go close to God, apparently.
God loves each and every one of His children despite the vast number and has complete awareness of all things at the same time.
So God is immanent in the sense of observing it, but His direction/sustaining of life on earth is dependent upon each case individually, and in the case of the planet as a whole, in the sense of group karma. So, if someone suffers greatly, prayers to God may or may not relieve that suffering. That is God's decision. Ultimately, a parent wants the child to learn, to make moral progress. Sometimes, picking them up and making them feel better is best. At other times, leaving them to get up themselves and dust themselves off may be wiser, as they will learn something valuable about self-sufficiency or not being a cry-baby perhaps. Each case and each person will have different reactions from God. Many say, Why does God allow War, Suffering? Well, often the spirits involved are on a wheel, if you like, whereon they are one life the aggressor, the next life the victim. If we believe this, though we can still be kind and do our best to mitigate the pain of as many people we can. We are here to learn, to perfect ourselves morally/spiritually and to carry out our mission (our mission may be a very material simple one in many ways, though how we are as a person, how we behave, always has an impact and can be part of the mission).
Perhaps the sentence 'In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God..' bears testimony to how powerful words are and equally how powerful our thoughts are. May your words and questions lead you to a personal truth - what I appreciate most about Spiritism is that it recommends a questioning stance toward the big issues and the entire book, The Spirits' Book is in the form of questions and answers.
Source(s):
The Spirits' Book by Allan Kardec
Work as a researcher about Spiritism in Brazil