Creation

a)God the Creator

Introduction:      The doctrine of creation is not set forth in Scripture as a philosophical solution of the problem of the world, but in its ethical and religious significance, as a revelation of the relation of man to his God.  The doctrine of creation stresses the fact that God is the origin of all things, and that all things belong to him and are subject to him.  The knowledge of it is derived from Scripture only and is accepted by faith (Heb.11:3).  We will study that creation is an act of the triune God and creation is a free act of God in brief.

1          God the creator:            Creation is an act of the triune God.  Scripture teaches us that the triune God is the author of creation (Gen.1:1; Isa.40:12; 44:24; 45:12) and this distinguishes him from idols (Ps.96:5; Isa.37:16; Jer.10:11-12).  Though the Father is in the foreground in the work of creation, it is also clearly recognized as a work of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor.8:6).  The Son’s participation in it is indicated in Jn.1:3; 1 Cor.8:6; Col.1:15-17, and the activity of the Spirit in it finds expression in Gen.1:2; Job 26:13; 33:4; Ps.104:30; Isa.40:12-13.  The second and the third persons are not dependent powers or mere intermediaries, but independent authors together with the Father.  The work was not divided among the three persons, but the whole work, though from different aspects, is ascribed to each one of the persons.  All things are at once out of the Father, through the Son, and in the Holy Spirit.  In general it may be said that being is out of the Father, thought or the idea out of the Son, and life out of the Holy Spirit.  Since the Father takes the initiative in the work of creation, it is often ascribed to him economically.

2          Creation a free act of God:        Creation is sometimes represented as a necessary act of God than as a free act determined by his sovereign will.  However, this is not a Scriptural position.  The Christian church from the very beginning taught the doctrine of creation as a free act God and ex nihilo ‘creation out of nothing.’  The Bible teaches us that God created all things, according to the counsel of his will (Eph.1:11; Rev.4:11), and that he is self-sufficient and is not dependent on his creatures in any way (Job 22:2-3; Acts 17:25).

Conclusion:       The faith of the church in the creation of the world is expressed in the very first article of the Apostolic Confession of Faith, “I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.”  This is an expression of the faith of the early church, that God by his almighty power brought forth the universe out of nothing.  The expression ‘Maker of heaven and earth’ was not contained in the original form of the creed, but represent a later addition.  It ascribes to the Father, that is, to the first person in the Trinity, the origination of all things.  This is in harmony with the representation of the New Testament that all things are of the Father, through the Son, and in the Holy Spirit.  The word ‘Maker’ is a rendering of the word poieten, found in the Greek form of the Apostolic Confession, while the Latin form has creatorem.  Evidently, it is to be understood as a synonymous term for ‘Creator.’  ‘To create’ was understood in the early church in the strict sense of ‘to bring forth something out of nothing.’ 

b).Creation out of nothing (Creatio ex nihilo)

Introduction:      The doctrine of creation is that the universe of space, time, energy, matter, life, and humanity is absolutely and solely dependent upon the free and sovereign will of God.  Creation is an act of the divine freedom.  It is not necessary for God to create in the sense of something external to God determining the divine action.  God wills or chooses to create.  The freedom of the divine creativity has traditionally been expressed in the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo, creation out of nothing.

1          Meaning of the term ‘creation out of nothing’:     The expression ‘to create or bring forth out of nothing’ is not found in the Scripture.  Although the freedom of the divine activity, which has been expressed in the doctrine of creation out of nothing, is the implication of the sovereign lordship in the developed doctrine of creation in the OT (Isa.45:7), it is stated explicitly only in the inter-testamental period (2 Macc.7:28) and in the NT (rom.4:17; Heb.11:3).  This doctrine of ‘creation out of nothing’ was formulated by the church to distinguish the Christian view of creation from other interpretations which endangered the fundamental meaning of the Christian view of creation.

2          Scriptural basis for the doctrine of ‘creation out of nothing’:        Gen.1:1 records the beginning of the work of creation, and it certainly does not represent God as bringing the world forth out of pre-existent material.  It was creation out of nothing, creation in the strict sense of the word, and therefore the only part of the work recorded in Gen.1 to which Calvin would apply the term.  But even in the remaining part of the chapter God is represented as calling forth all things by the word of his power, by a divine fiat.  The same truth is taught in such passages as Ps.33:6, 9; 148:5).  The strongest passage is Heb.11:3, “By faith we understand that the worlds have been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen hath not been made out of things which appear.”  Creation is here represented as a fact which we apprehend only by faith.  According to this passage, the world certainly was not made out of anything that is palpable to the senses.  The doctrine of creation out of nothing is liable to misunderstanding, and has often been misunderstood and misinterpreted as we shall see below.

3          Other interpretations of creation:  There have been other views of creation which endangered the fundamental meaning of the Christian view.  It was against such wrong views of creation that the church formulated the doctrine of ‘creation out of nothing.’  We will see some of them and the Church’s reaction to those wrong interpretations.

            (a)        Dualist view:     Dualism, which was very common in the Hellenistic world, asserts that there are primary   two primary, equal, and eternal principles or realities, namely, (i) the principle of structure or meaning usually called the forms or ideas, and (ii) the passive material principle which receives its form from the other principle.  Here creation is understood on the analogy of human creation or fashioning out of some given material.  This dualist view contradicted two of the Christian basic beliefs about the relation of God to the world, such as:

            (i)         First, the dualist view contradicted the biblical testimony to God as sovereign lord of all reality by asserting that God is only one of two primary and fundamental principles of reality, both of which are self-sufficient and eternal.  Thus, in a dualistic view God is always finite and limited by the other principle and therefore not sovereign lord.

(ii)         Second, a dualism in which one principle is ‘divine’ and ‘the other is not’ always tends to become a moral dualism in which all good comes from the divine principle and all evil from the other principle.  Thus in later Hellenistic thought the material principle came to be understood as the source of evil.

            The church’s assertions of ‘creation out of nothing’:        So, for the above two reasons the early Christians formulated the doctrine of creation in distinction primarily from dualism by asserting creation out of nothing.  By this they denied that there was any primary, eternal principle beside God out of which God created the world. In denying dualism the church also asserted something positive, such as:

                        (i)         First, God is the sole source of all existence or reality; every aspect of reality is dependent upon God.

                        (ii)         Second, nothing is essentially or intrinsically evil.  Nothing in the material, dynamic, or structural, aspects of reality is evil.  Therefore,, everything is essentially good although it may be existentially disrupted and evil.  Thus everything which is evil is redeemable.

                        (iii)        Thirdly, creation is not like human creation but is a completely unique act of absolute origination, in which there is no presupposed material, in which finite reality comes into being ‘out of nothing.’

            It was primarily against this dualistic view of creation that the church formulated the doctrine of ‘creation out of nothing.’  But there was also another view of creation which prompted the church to formulate this doctrine of creation out of nothing. It was the monist or pantheist view of creation.  We will see the monist or pantheist view of creation below:

            (b)        Monist or Pantheist view of creation:      Monism asserts that the creation is made neither out of pre-existent matter nor out of nothing but out of God.  Here creation is understood as generation on the analogy of reproduction in animals, or as water from fountain or the emission of light from a candle.  Again this view of creation contradicted certain basic Christian convictions about God and the world.  We will see such contradictions:

(i) First, it implied that humanity is essentially divine or contained a divine principle.  Thus a person cannot really be a sinner but only perhaps ignorant of the good and the true because of involvement in lower levels of being.

            (ii)         Secondly, this view tends toward the idea that all finite existence is illusory and evil.  This tendency follows from the idea in monism that the reality and value of individual finite things consists in the degree to which they are united with or identical with God.  What is not God is neither good nor real.  But the more things are considered in their finitude and individuality, the more they are distinct from God who is one and infinite. Thus finite things tend to be considered to be essentially fallen from perfection into evil and unreality, and salvation comes to be understood in terms of the loss of individuality and finitude. 

            Because of the above tendencies the church asserted against monism the doctrine of creation out of nothing and not out of God.  We will see what steps the church has taken against these tendencies:

            The church’s action against monism:      The church asserted against monism the doctrine of creation not ‘out of God,‘ but ‘out of nothing.’  This involved certain positive affirmations, such as:

            (i)         First, creatures are not essentially evil or illusory in their finite individuality.  Rather they are solidly real and essentially good as creatures to whom God has freely given a limited independence of existence.  In humanity this relative independence includes freedom over against God, which however is ultimately dependent upon God for its reality.

            (ii)         Second, finite individuality is not essentially evil and therefore can be redeemed from sin, and its salvation does not involve the loss of its individuality.

Conclusion:       In view of the fact that the expression ‘creation out of nothing’ is liable to misunderstanding, and has often been misunderstood, will it be preferable to speak of creation without the use of pre-existing material?  God is able to call into being what does not exist, and does so call it into being.