"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" -Genesis 1:1 KJV Why is this verse so important? It shows three things: 1. God was there. He was there outside of time, before the world began. No one created God. He existed without being created. 2. He created the world. It did not explode out of a tiny molecule that somehow had so much pressure built up that it spontaneously combusted and made the universe. God made it out of nothing. There was no building materials, not even atoms, to work with. Nothing. And out of the nothing God made something. 3. Although not specifically addressed in this verse, the rest of the chapter deals with the creation story. God made the world in six days. There is no reason from the Hebrew text to believe that the days were not literal, 24-hour days. The word used for day, yom, means /day/ in every other passage in which it it used. If you have any questions, I would be happy to answer them!