1 In the beginning God created heaven, and earth.
2 And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters.
This opening verse of Genesis establishes God as the creator of all things. The Catholic Church teaches that this affirms God's omnipotence and the goodness of creation (CCC 296-298). The "beginning" refers not to a temporal start but to the origin of creation from nothing (creatio ex nihilo).