The Nicene Creed Part 6 - The Creator

Gen 1:1
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Is 44:24
Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;

In the Creed, God is referred to as the "Maker of Heaven and Earth and of all things visible and invisible". The first thing we read about God in the scriptures is this, that "God created the heaven and the earth". The Psalms tell all of creation to "praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created" and praise God with the words "O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all". God is elsewhere referred to as "he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it".

St Basil wrote in his Hexaemeron...

It is right that any one beginning to narrate the formation of the world should begin with the good order which reigns in visible things. I am about to speak of the creation of heaven and earth, which was not spontaneous, as some have imagined, but drew its origin from God.... He first establishes a beginning, so that it might not be supposed that the world never had a beginning.  Then he adds “Created” to show that which was made was a very small part of the power of the Creator.... The Creator and Demiurge of the universe perfected His works in it, spiritual light for the happiness of all who love the Lord, intellectual and invisible natures, all the orderly arrangement of pure intelligences who are beyond the reach of our mind and of whom we cannot even discover the names. They fill the essence of this invisible world, as Paul teaches us. “For by him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers” or virtues or hosts of angels or the dignities of archangels.

St Irenaeus wrote in the second century...

It is proper, then, that I should begin with the first and most important head, that is, God the Creator, who made the heaven and the earth, and all things that are therein (whom these men blasphemously style the fruit of a defect), and to demonstrate that there is nothing either above Him or after Him; nor that, influenced by any one, but of His own free will, He created all things, since He is the only God, the only Lord, the only Creator, the only Father, alone containing all things, and Himself commanding all things into existence.

And we find "First of all, believe that there is one God who created and finished all things, and made all things out of nothing. He alone is able to contain the whole, but Himself cannot be contained." written in the Pastor of Hermas.

We find written in The Greek Orthodox Catechism by C.N. Calinicos...

19. With what other subject, besides the subject of the Trinity, does the first article deal?

The first Article, further down, deals with the world as created by the Almighty God. "For in Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible... all things have been created through Him and unto Him." (col. i. 16.) The blessed and Self-sufficient God, Who existed before time began without having need of anything, wished, moved only by goodness, to make other beings participators of existence. Therefore, He produced the universe during different periods, which Genesis called days, because a thousand years in the sight of God are as one day (Ps. xc. 4; 2Pet. iii. 8), using for this purpose, instead of any other instrument, His word, i.e., His omnipotent will; "for He commanded, and they were created; He hath established them for ever and ever." (Ps. cxlviii. 5-6.) God created the world from nothing and without pre-existing matter, thus differing from us, who, whatever we create, create it from pre-existing material. And for this reason, it is right to say that we are simply moulders and transformers, while God alone is the Creator in he full sense of the word.

20. Is the world created by God confined only to what appeals to the senses?

No: All that appeals to our senses constitutes only the visible world, or earth. but, besides this world and before it, God created another world also, much nobler than the earth. That is Heaven, the world of immaterial spirits, invisible, making no appeal to our senses. For, when we say "Heaven," we do not mean the starry firmament, which commonly is thought of as the earth's roof; but the world of the Angels, who are beings much more perfect and superior than man, although, in comparison with God, they are immeasurably inferior.

And in Peter Mohila's Orthodox Confession of Faith we find...

Q. 18. Is God the Creator of all things, since the same article calls him "Creator"?

R. Without any doubt, God is the Creator of all things, that is, of both visible and invisible creatures. But first he created from nothing all the powers of heaven by his own will, as they are the main extollers of his glory. Then he created that intelligible world, which recognized God through his bestowed grace and conforms completely to his will. Then he created from nothing this visible and material world; finally, God created man, composed of a rational and immaterial soul and a material body, so that God might be recognized as the creator of both the visible and invisible world through this composition of man. Man is called, therefore, a microcosm, since he contains in himself an examplar of the great world.

Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.