Allen C. Paul | Founder, God and Gigs (00:00)
It seems everyone wants to be a creator these days. You hear about the creator economy. Countless YouTubers, podcasters, musicians, and authors add the term to their bios. Big brands are constantly using the term to attract creative people.
And even myself, I post content, I make music, I write, and sometimes the label just feels right.
But what if the term creator actually carries a weight that most of us have quietly decided to ignore? Is it truly a name for just someone that makes something? Especially when you consider that the ultimate creator, God, has the exact same name? Maybe that signals that we should look more closely at what God means by the word creator before we go around using it. That's what I did recently, and you'd be surprised at what I found,
Not because you can't call yourself a creator, but because it carries a far greater responsibility than you probably realized.
In fact, I found a particular passage in the Bible that I never would have guessed has anything to do with creative work. And we're going to dig into that in this episode about what it says about us, about AI, and what it actually costs to be a creator. Now, if you're new to the podcast, welcome. My name is Alan C. Paul. I'm the host and founder of the God and Gig Show. And this is where we help you to become the creator that you were created to be. And by the end of this episode, you'll have a biblical framework.
For what it means to wear the title of creator. And it's probably going to challenge the way that you're approaching your craft right now.
Allen C. Paul | Founder, God and Gigs (01:36)
This has been the number one kind of central debate around creativity for like I'd say since, yeah, since about 2012, 2013. And the reason why I feel like this is so important is because answering this question, what is a creator? What defines a creator? It's more than just should I be paid for my work.
Should I
Am I a TikTok creator? Am I a YouTube creator? What like what's the term even mean? All this points back to what does it mean to pursue our creative gifts and God's opinion on what is defines a creator? That's where we're coming from. Not just, hey, how do I make a million dollars as a creator? Hey, how, what do creators, you know, once I put this label on, can I start?
You know, getting followers, like that's also it's just not what we really should be thinking about. It's not the most important thing. The most important thing is what God thinks. So
To ask the question what defines a creator, we have to look back at the original creator. We have to look at God. Because without looking at God and being really clear that God is the one who gets to decide
whether or not we are creators, is because we have to first really, really, really focus on who is he as a creator.
So in this particular section, we're gonna go into the Bible a little bit. I'm gonna be making sure to give you scriptures.
I think it's important that we that we really get into the meat of what God really says about the word creator before we define it.
So from the very beginning of the Bible, God already positions Himself as the ultimate and the first creator. The one that created everything that we do, everything that we are, everything that we have around us, the existence of life itself was built on the very important capital
T H E Capital C Creator. However,
It is also clear from the scripture, as far as I can tell, and again, I'm not a theologian, but God doesn't necessarily call himself the creator in that sentence. He says, God creates head, and then over and over in Genesis, God creates head.
So I want to make sure that I go through this slowly and carefully, but you can also check out some of our devotionals on U version if you'd like to get deeper into this specific subject of the Creator's craft. That's our three-day devotional on Genesis. So you can find that on U version. But it says in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the word for created, again, if I pronounce it wrong, is barral. And I know there's a little roll there, baral.
Baral. So bar means verb to create, to cut, and I'll read some of these as well, to shape, to fashion. Right? Now, again, God is equating this to himself as an action. He doesn't say I am the creator in this verse. He says, I create head. So the fact that we equate God to being a creator.
Doesn't start with him giving himself the title. It starts with the action. I think this is key, and why I'm digging into this point. God doesn't say I'm a creator and then starts creating. God starts creating and then says, later, I'm a creator. It does not start with you labeling yourself if we're going to take it to ourselves.
It starts with the activity defining the definition. Here's why I think this is super important, and I'm going to go right to the harsh reality of AI and creative work. If creativity starts with the action before you can then call yourself the thing, then your types of actions then are important in determining whether you are the thing that you call yourself. So to start.
Calling yourself a creator, you have to be creating. And then as I said, the point of this, in the terms of the God aspect, is to shape or fashion or create. God is the one doing that. So for us to do that, or us to consider ourselves creators in any way, shape, or form, means we have to be shaping, fashioning, or creating something before we can give ourselves a title. And why did I bring up AI? Because
AI in itself has to use materials before that we created in order to create new things. AI itself is a creation. So let's talk about that a little later in terms of whether or not a creator is creating and therefore deserves the title of a creator.
And I know again, I'm gonna probably ruffle some feathers with those who feel like, hey, this is my my outlet. This is the way I create, I use this particular tool, and it makes things that I wanted to make. So it's just like a to paintbrush, or we're gonna get into that. Okay. I know this is gonna get slippery slope really fast. But my point again is God did not label himself before doing the thing that he eventually accepted or allowed the label to come in as the creator.
Now later on, God calls himself the creator for the first time in Ecclesiastes. I know, right? I thought the same thing. You mean it doesn't appear as a verb kind of attached to a noun in the translation until Ecclesiastes? But yes, God never actually refers to himself as the creator until Ecclesiastes. And where is the framework in terms of the context of that? Well, he says.
Remember thy creator in the days of your youth. So it's in the context of God saying, Hey, I've done some things, I've built things, I've created the entire universe. Now it's your job to remember who I am, to remember my actual my actual identity now, right? The creator's identity is now settled.
But not until Ecclesiastes. As a matter of fact, it's not even technically God speaking here, it's Solomon. And Solomon says, remember your creator. And he uses that term to mean God Himself. Why is this important? Well, again, because if you look at it really, if we're referring to God as the creator, we can't adopt that term unless we know what it means to him, what he does.
How he forms things, how he makes things. In his image is the way we were created. So if we are not looking at the way he creates, how can we possibly use the term appropriately if he's the originator of it? And the creator is the one that set everything in motion, the one that set all things in motion. And if we think we can even come to the smallest atom of that, we have to follow.
In his footsteps, in terms of the way we consider the term and what the term actually means. Okay, here's where it gets really interesting. And I'm going to try to go through this pretty quick. I know it goes fast. By the way, I will stop for a second. If you do have comments or thoughts about this, I would love to see it in the chat. Just because I realize I can't respond doesn't mean that I want to go without your responses inside of the chat or inside of the
comment section. I'm just gonna make sure I finish this section, but I wanted to pause and make sure you didn't think I was just going on and on. So we establish God does stuff before he calls himself that. Number two, we established that God should be the one that determines what a creator is, since he's the original one. Finally, here's the place where I think it comes down to us. Can we call ourselves creators? Well, there's only one place I could find where
That same word that was used for God, Baral, was used for ⁓ person does. And it's very interesting. It is in Joshua, it's chapter 17, verse 15. And so I got to give a little biblical context. Again, we're going deeper than we normally do. But Joshua is already on the other side of the Jordan. He is taking the children of Israel, past where Moses could take them, because Moses wouldn't pass.
Into the promised land, and Joshua is the one that actually did the crossing of the Jordan and over into the the Israelites' new place of of residence, Canaan, as they still had these giants and things to take over Jericho and win all these battles, right? So all that's being divvied up now. And two tribes, really half-tribes of Joseph, they're called Manasseh at Ephraim, right? Those are the sons of Joseph. Both of them, those tribes, come to
Joshua wonder like, hey, we want this area of land over here in the area of Canaan, but, you know, it's overrun with giants. It's a lot of people there. But we still want more. It's interesting when you read the scripture, how they're like, we need more space, but that's a little bit too hard. But we need more space. And then Joshua says this to them. If Joshua says, if thou be, let me do this in another version. Because I'll do it in the King James version. Let's do a little bit easier version to read. Okay, let's find it.
Here we are. This is very interesting. Joshua says to these tribes, If you are so numerous, that means if you've got so much going for you, and if the hill country of Ephraim is too small for you, go up into the forest and clear land for yourselves there in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephalites. I think I said that right.
Now here's the interesting thing. I know you might say, okay, what does that have to do with creative work? The word that is used for cut down clear land for yourselves is the same word that is used for God, creating in Genesis 1. It's the first time I could find that God uses the word for create for us, but he uses it in the context of
You need to make some space. You need to clear out this land and you need to stop making excuses. What an incredible place for God to say, hey, you want to do what I do? Do you want to create the way I create? It's not going to be this flowery, ⁓ go make it wasn't even in Exodus where he says to create the things for the temple. He doesn't use this word. He only uses this word when it comes down to conquest.
Conquering something, overcoming something, building something that didn't exist before, or breaking down something and redoing it in the way you want it. That is the context that God then used this word to apply to people. This is why I think we have to look at biblically speaking and in speaking in terms of the way that we look at creators at 2026 a little differently.
Because we are making creative things about, ⁓ I feel like making this, I feel like making that. I have this creative bent on the inside. And then when it comes to AI, well, the AI did most of the work, but I just had this thing I wanted to see it come into pass. So I typed it in and it popped out. And this is my creation. In biblical, as far as I can tell, language, the word that God uses for create always involves breaking down something.
Cutting down something, making something new that takes work and sacrifice and a little bit of opposition, if not a lot of opposition. So if there's no opposition to your creativity, can you call yourself a creator? That is my question to you. Can we say that this creative bent that everyone's taking on has become too easy? And we think, I'm creative because.
I just feel like doing it. When actually gosh like, no, if you're gonna call yourself a creator, you have to do things like I do, which is overcome, build, break down, build up, find a opposition or find something that needs to be overcome and use that attitude to determine that's right. I'm also a creator. Cause I don't take no for an answer in this area. I don't allow my circumstances to determine how big my space will be.
I will be a creator in every sense of the word.
So that's my challenge that I read in the book, and I'm still working on this. This will probably be part of one of my devotionals. But my question to you is: are you truly embodying what a creator is in 2026 by tackling challenges, by overcoming obstacles, by being willing to be risky, by being willing to take risks, and actually
Walk out the same kind of creative spirit that God put on the inside of us. Because this could not happen if God didn't want them to do that. He would not have put them in a position to be creators and have to build and break down things and build in a new place and over overcome enemies if he didn't know that they had it in them to do that. So this is why I think it's so powerful. Creators nowadays don't.
Get into this idea that it should be easy. Don't get into this idea that YouTube or Facebook or TikTok should do all the work. That it's so hard to be a creator now. It has always been hard to be a creator because God didn't do anything easy when he built the world. We think it's easy because he's all powerful, but he actually, as you read the Bible, had opposition as well. The spirit moved upon the face of the waters, but the earth was without form. We know that there was
Conflict in heaven because the devil was already kicked out. So there is no conflict, creativity without conflict. There's no creativity without having to overcome something. So I think that's important to say that as a creator, God sees creative work as a building and a breaking down of old systems and a building up of new systems and
Creating something that was not there beforehand and not taking no for an answer if there are oppositional forces in that area. So I hope that's blessed you. I hope that helped you kind of rethink what you think of being a creator. But I would love to know your comments and your questions in terms of later on in the podcast through fan mail. and share what you think about this whole concept of.
Not just being a creative that's fun, fun, fun, but realizing the seriousness of taking that definition, taking that title. Cause it's not just something to be played with. It's something that requires a lot out of God. It required the most out of God, and it will require the most out of us.
once again, thank you for joining me. Thank you, everybody that's joining on replay.
And until next time, continue to become the creator that you were created to be.
