What are the implications of the biblical doctrine of creatio ex nihilo? Does it really matter whether or not God created out of nothing?

If God had merely organized an eternally preexisting chaos, the matter constituting this chaos would have had its own properties, that is, it would have been in itself immutable. It follows that God would have been limited in his creative work by the properties already existing in the matter, and, therefore, would not have had ultimate control over how it would behave. He could not have forced the matter beyond its already preexisting “will.” This scenario has potentially far-reaching consequences, particularly when we consider the existence of moral laws and the problem of evil.¹

Regarding morality, if God does not have full authority over his creation, then he is limited as to the ethical order he can infuse into it. The properties of the preexisting matter already obtain necessarily and must play themselves out, perhaps even in a manner resistant to the will of the craftsman God. This implies that whatever is “ethical” in the physical creation could not fully reflect the will of a personal creator and would be conditioned upon properties inherent within eternal matter. Yet our intuitive sense of morality resists this narrative because we experience a “rightness” about ethical claims and a sense of obligation to obey them at penalty of serious feelings of guilt and shame.

This universal human experience cannot be explained in terms of necessary matter. Matter is impersonal and cannot be the source of such a phenomenon as moral law. An impersonal source would render incomprehensible the guilt and shame that accompany violating these laws. Personal guilt implies a person offended. Therefore, a morally ordered universe must be fully infused with the intentionality of a personal being who claims legitimate moral authority over his creation, a being whose moral authority is not limited by coeternal entities of any kind.

Furthermore, a universe crafted ex materia (out of preexisting matter) would leave its craftsman limited in his ability to address the problem of evil. As already discussed, a god who is only organizing coeternal matter is limited by matter’s inherent and immutable properties. This implies that evil is arguably a natural constituent of the world, since God did not actually create the matter and is limited in his power to bend it against its “will.” Yet, we do not intuitively experience evil as a natural phenomenon. We rage when evil is done and demand justice for wrongs. But if evil were natural, such a response would be irrational. Surely then evil is a parasite upon the world, not a natural component of it. Things are not the way they are supposed to be.

In addition, a god who does not have complete control over the matter with which he "crafted" the universe would have limited power to determine its ultimate outcome. If evil is a natural constituent of the created order, then evil is as necessary as the eternal matter it infects, and there can be no promise that it will ever be eradicated. Our future hope would be in serious question, because God could not predict nor control the ultimate outcome of the created order given the inherent and immutable potentialities of eternal matter. This is why it is critical that the biblical doctrine of creation from nothing be robustly affirmed and confidently communicated. We must agree with the biblical writers that

there is no precondition to God’s activity, whether it concerns creation, resurrection, or granting a child to an elderly infertile couple. Where there is death, God brings life; where there is barrenness, God makes fruitful; in the case of creation, where there is nothing, God brings something into existence. Everything that exists is wholly dependent upon God for its being and continued existence.²

In conclusion, we have a creator God who has intentionally infused his creation with his values and his design, from the physical to the spiritual. This is truly our Father’s world. As such, we can move within it in the confidence of his providence and common grace. “In him we live and move and have our being.” We can know that we live in an ordered universe with meaning and purpose. We can trust our good creator God to allow the sun to rise each day and to sustain us while we sleep. At the same time, we can know that the laws of nature that explain the normal workings or our world do not ultimately control these workings. God may set them aside in order to enter the world directly in a supernatural way, as he did when he sent his Son in the form of a man and by means of a virgin birth to suffer and die for our sins.³ 

We can trust that we are not the random result of time-plus-chance, but beings created in God’s image with a future and a hope. We can trust our awareness of our otherness as human beings in relation to the rest of the creation and pursue that awareness to understand our amazing mental capacities and the ability these give us to subdue the earth responsibly to God’s glory. And most importantly, each of us can trust the awareness of his or her own soul’s longing for God and follow this passion to his doorstep, where we pause in joyful awe and wonder, and worship.

¹The ideas contained in the discussion that follows regarding morality and evil come largely from an article by Stephen Parrish and Carl Mosser entitled "A Tale of Two Theisms" in The New Mormon Challenge, Zondervan, 2002, pp. 211-218.

²Paul Copan and William Lane Craig, Creation our of Nothing: A Biblical, Philosophical, and Scientific Exploration, Baker Academic, 2002, p. 76.

³See Paul Copan, When God Goes to Starbucks, Baker Books, 2008, pp. 55-56.

Blessings,

Arnie Gentile