Lesson 9 Flashcards
How does the doctrine of creation bring understanding to the relationship between the Creator and the creature?
- The blessed Trinity did not need to create us. The blessed Trinity created us because he loves his own goodness and desires to share his supreme goodness with us.
“The fact of saying that God made all things by his Word excludes the error of those who say that God produced things by necessity. When we say that in him there is a procession of love, we show that God produced creatures not because he needed them, nor because of any other extrinsic reason, but on account of the love of his own goodness.” - While the blessed Trinity does not need to create us, the production of creatures out of nothing is nevertheless a fitting act of the God who is eternally rich and productive in and of himself as the blessed Trinity.
- Not to make the blessed Trinity happy. The blessed Trinity created all things to manifest the riches of his glory and to make us happy in him.
What attributes of God are displayed in his act of creation?
- Father created through the Son (Word) in the Spirit (Breath)
* The trune God inseparately created.
* Even as the Father appropriated - Impulsive cause, from His goodness.
* All things in creation or good when used according to the will and commandments of God. - Directive cause, according to His wisdom.
* Ps 8. Creation is meaningful because it is a product of wisdom. - Executive cause, by His power. Jer 10:12.
* Creation is a work of divine ominipotense without effort.
* He creates, not through conquest but by command.
* He gives power (empowers) His creatures. - Final cause, for His glory
* Rom 11:36
* Ultimate reason for creation is for His glory.
* Chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
What does it mean that creation in its original state was “very good?”
- Complete, sinless, glorifying to God, reflective of God’s goodness & facundity, all that God inteneded.
How do the various views of the days of creation relate and differ?
- Augustineian: Happened instantaneously all at once
- Calender Days: 24- hour days
- Day-Age: Ages of time, “concordism”
- Framework: literary, plight from void to fullness
- Analogical: no 1-to-1 correspondence between our days and God’s days in creation.
The Framework view is also compatible with Augustinean, 24 hour days, Day-age, and Aanlogical views.
While this views differ in specifics, they are all compatible with Chrstian Theism. Non contridict creation out of nothing.
What are the common characteristics of creatures?
- Contingent: exists only because of God
Creatures exist and continue to exist only because of God, and apart from God they are nothing: Pss 90:4-6 - marked by movement
- characterized by place
a. God made creatures in and with time.
b. Creatures inhabit particular spaces.
c. Creatures are defined by specific natures
How does the theory of evolution threaten the biblical doctrine of creation?
- Causality: God vs. Naturalism. In it’s truest sense, evolution is strictly naturalist and does not recognize God as existings much less having anything to do with creation.
- Ex Nihilo: big bang presupposes natural law and materials
- Mediate act of creation
- Age of creation
- Permeability vs. Fixity of creaturely kinds.
- Adam/Eve vs. Genetics - did all mankind come from one couple?
- Evollution, Fall, Sin, Suffering/Death - How did death enter the world and how is sin atoned for.
What does it mean that God Created from Nothing
- Creation from Nothing Heb 11:3
a. Anselm suggests three possible meanings
* “made from nothing” might mean that it was “not made at all”
* “made from nothing” might mean that “nothing” is the “stuff” from which something was made.
* that while something has indeed been made, there is not something from which it was made.”
b. The doctrine of creation from nothing was a scandal to ancient Greek thought
* “Nothing comes from nothing”! i.e. ii. All change in things presupposes the existence of things.
* External matter in some way limits the deity’s creative options
*
c. Aquinas
* Creation from nothing is “the introduction of being entirely”
* God alone is the impulsive, directive, executive, and final cause of creation. Creation has no material cause
“The confession ‘God made the world from nothing’ is intended to affirm that God is the only antecedent condition of the world’s existence. In this way the doctrine of creation from nothing posits a profound disanalogy between God’s creation of the world and all creaturely acts of making: creaturely making always requires some factor in addition to the agent who does the making, but God’s creating excludes any such additional factor.”
D. McFarland
- Nothing but God: To say that God creates from nothing is in the first instance to say that the existence of the world is to be ascribed to nothing but God. Is 44:24, Jn 1:3
- Nothing apart from God: Just as the confession that the Word of God is the basis for affirming that nothing but God conditions creation, so the claim that all things came into being through the Word grounds the claim that in creation there is nothing apart from God.”
- Nothing limits God: The natural limits of God’s creatures (potentia ordinata) do not limit God’s capacity to act (potentia absoluta): Gen 50:20
* The incarnation is “the definitive exemplification of the principle that nothing limits God”
