Answer: Hebrews 11: 3 reads, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”

The above passage has been highly misunderstood, mainly because the translators of the King James Version believed that all things were created out of nothing; hence, they proceeded to translate this verse by putting their idea into it. We consider the following rendering, with some bracketed comments better: “By faith we understand that the Ages were adjusted to God's Word [Plan], so that the thing perceived [in our Age] has become from things not manifest [in a preceding Age]” (Improved Version). For example, the mystery of God that the Christ is not one, but many members (Colossians 1: 26) (1 Corinthians 12: 12-14) (Galatians 3: 16, 29) was not clear in the Ages before, but is clear now in the Gospel Age.

The word translated “framed” in the above passage as a verb comes from the Greek word ktizo (its Hebrew equivalent as a verb is bara). There are some passages in the Bible in which these words occur as to shed no light on their definition, but those that do shed light indicate that the meaning is to make something new out of previously existing things. Although Hebrews 11: 3 has no reference at all to creation, the same principle would seem to indicate that God did not create the universe out of nothing, but out of previously existing substances.  

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