Ex nihilo? Really?

  • Thread starter Thread starter zemi
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Z

zemi

Guest
It may look like a silly question from me but how do we know God created the world ex nihilo?

There are some scholars devoted to the study of book of Genesis that say that there was already something pre-existent (I may get to it later).

If I am not wrong on this, the Church does not teach the ex nihilo creation.

According to Pope Pius’ Encyclica Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907)we have to believe in the following:
  1. The creation by God of all things at the beginning of time
  2. The special creation by God of man
  3. The formation of woman from man
  4. The unity of the human race
  5. The original happiness of our first parents in a state of justice
  6. The divine command laid upon man by God to prove obedience
  7. The transgression of that command at the instigation of the devil in the form of a serpent
  8. The fall of our original parents from their primitive state of innocence.
  9. the promise of a future redeemer
(summary of this taken from agapebiblestudy.com/SalvationHistory/_L02_CREATION%20AND%20HISTORY%20OF%20THE%20EARLY%20WORLD%20PT%20I.htm)

But no ex nihilo creation.

Any comments? :cool:
 
It would seem to me that number 1 on the list you provided implies or even presupposes an *ex nihilo *creation. If God created ALL things at the beginning of time and no pre-existent material is mentioned, it stands to reason that he also created the material that he created “all things” out of.
 
When we say “ex nihilo”, from nothing, we have to be certain what we mean by ‘nothing’. Surely we cannot mean ‘nothing’ in the common use of it, i.e. meaning the complete lack of all things that exist. If you think about that for a second you will see we cannot mean this because it would also exclude God. In a more philosophical/ theological sense we would say ‘nothing’, with respect to “creavit ex nihilo”, means something like there existed no matter, and no immaterial things except God. In other words, as Genesis says, the universe was without form and void. God IS. So He created things by His will, through Himself. So there was ‘nothing’…except God. Then there was something, where there was once nothing, i.e. the formless recieved form, and the universe went from void to what it is.
 
Dogmas of the Catholic Church


  1. *] All that exists outside God was, in its whole substance, produced out of nothing by God. (De fide.)
    *] The world is the work of the Divine Wisdom. (Sent. certa.)
    *] God was moved by His Goodness to create the world. (De fide.)
    *] The world created for the Glorification of God. (De fide.)
    *] The Three Divine Persons are one single, common Principle of the Creation. (De fide.)
    *] God created the world free from exterior compulsion and inner necessity. (De fide.)
    *] God was free to create this world or any other. (Sent. Certa.)
    *] God has created a good world. (De fide.)
    *] The world had a beginning in time. (De fide.)
    *] God alone created the World. (De fide.)
    *] No Creature can, as Principal Cause (causa principalis) that is, from its own power, create something out of nothing. (Sent. communis.)
 
Hebrews 11:3 (King James Version)

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.

2 Maccabees 7:28 says “out of nothing”

2 Maccabees 7:28 I beseech thee, my son, look upon the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, and consider that God made them of things that were not;

2 Enoch 16:18-19

And there is nothing outside of the Lord,
because he was before anything came to be.
And the worlds are by his word,
And by the thought of his heart.

Romans 4:17 (King James Version)

(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

Colossians 1:15-20 (King James Version)

15Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

16For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

17And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

18And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

19For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;

20And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

1 Corinthians 8:6

yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
 
buffalo said:
Dogmas of the Catholic Church


  1. *] All that exists outside God was, in its whole substance, produced out of nothing by God. (De fide.)
    *] The world is the work of the Divine Wisdom. (Sent. certa.)
    *] God was moved by His Goodness to create the world. (De fide.)
    *] The world created for the Glorification of God. (De fide.)
    *] The Three Divine Persons are one single, common Principle of the Creation. (De fide.)
    *] God created the world free from exterior compulsion and inner necessity. (De fide.)
    *] God was free to create this world or any other. (Sent. Certa.)
    *] God has created a good world. (De fide.)
    *] The world had a beginning in time. (De fide.)
    *] God alone created the World. (De fide.)
    *] No Creature can, as Principal Cause (causa principalis) that is, from its own power, create something out of nothing. (Sent. communis.)
Click to expand...

  1. Source of the point 1? 😉
 
SumEns said:
When we say “ex nihilo”, from nothing, we have to be certain what we mean by ‘nothing’. Surely we cannot mean ‘nothing’ in the common use of it, i.e. meaning the complete lack of all things that exist. If you think about that for a second you will see we cannot mean this because it would also exclude God.
Click to expand...
Catholics of course believe that God is eternally existent, and further, that he is not composed of matter or energy.

Creation ex nihilo means that God did not use any pre-existent material to make his creation. He also did not make things out of himself. (Because he is spirit, and spirit is immaterial and indivisible.)
 
Fidelis said:
zemi -
One source is “Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, Creation section, Ludwig Ott” as cited here:
catholicmeditations.org/index.php?root=apologetics&sub=creation_evolution
Click to expand...
Thanks, I’ll look at that.

I’ll then transcribe here what I’ve listened to in one lecture from Gary. A. Rendsburg. It’s from a course on the book of Genesis. This really struck me what he said. But it’s an amazing course I must say.

Professor Gary A. Rendsburg is the Blanche and Irving Laurie Chair of Jewish History at Rutgers University, where he has an appointment in the Department of History. Dr. Rendsburg received his B.A. in English and Journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and went on to earn his Ph.D. in Hebrew Studies from New York University. Before taking his position at Rutgers, Professor Rendsburg taught for 18 years at Cornell University.

(more info about him HERE)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top