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Pillars of Creation (NIRCam and MIRI Composite Image)

The Doctrine of Creation Ex Nihilo: Why Does It Matter?

The doctrine of creation is one of the most important doctrines of Christian faith because it so foundational to so many other crucial doctrines. For example, if we have no doctrine of creation, we will have a truncated doctrine of sin and a distorted eschatology. Then again, without a clear doctrine of creation we do not have a clear anthropology.

Thinking Theologically

If we begin to think theologically about a subject like, let us say as an example, sin and salvation, we can see how one doctrine supports another. To assess whether we ought to preach that people are guilty of sin before God (which is a necessary part of preaching the Gospel), we need to think about theological anthropology, which is the doctrine of the human person. But foundational to a doctrine of theological anthropology is the doctrine of creation.

If a good God creates a good world, then human beings must be fundamentally good. This doctrine rules out many false ideas about the nature of sin and guilt. For example, it rules out the idea that matter itself is evil, which is taught in certain heretical sects and false religions such as Manicheanism. If we were to accept the idea that matter itself is evil and that it exists eternally, then our personal sense of responsibility for sin would be lessened greatly, since we would be made up of soul (which is good) and matter (which is evil). The idea of salvation would probably be some sort of scheme to escape matter and get to a purely spiritual state. So, resurrection of the body would be a non-starter!In a sense, all doctrine is interconnected. Click To Tweet

So, to review, our concept of salvation depends on our doctrine of sin (what we are saved from) and our concept of sin depends on our doctrine of humanity, which is part of the doctrine of creation. In a sense, all doctrine is interconnected. But in biblical theology there is an historical order of God, creation, fall, reconciliation, and redemption and in systematic theology there is a logical order in which theologians often reason from later to earlier doctrines, which are foundational to later ones.

However, I have not yet talked about creation ex nihilo yet. That is because I wanted to establish the idea that later doctrines depend on earlier ones and to show how far back in the chain creation ex nihilo goes. It is the doctrine that has one foot in the doctrine of God and the other foot in the doctrine of creation. Creation ex nihilo is a doctrine that tells us something about the nature of God as well as something about the nature of creation.

God and Creation

John Webster calls creation ex nihilo a “hinge doctrine” because it functions as a link between the doctrine of the being of God and the doctrine of the work of God, that is to say, between what we confess to be true about God and what is true about the works of God in creation, reconciliation and redemption. Just as a hinge swings both ways, this key doctrine allows us to gain insight into both what is true of the God who creates and also the nature of the created works of such a God.

Creation ex nihilo tells us three things about God. First, it tells us that God’s power is completely unlimited. All that exists can be viewed as belonging to one of two classes: there is God himself and there is that which God creates. There is no third category! This means that the only thing that is eternal, self-existent, and uncreated is God. Everything else has a beginning in time, is contingent on something else, and created. God is not like a human builder whose ability to make something beautiful or long-lasting is limited by what material he has to work with. God is not limited by anything.It is the doctrine that has one foot in the doctrine of God and the other foot in the doctrine of creation. Click To Tweet

Second, creation ex nihilo tells us that God has intellect and will. This means that God is something other than blind chance or fate. The major alternative to the doctrine of creation ex nihilo is pantheism, which sees the cosmos as God, or which sees God as an aspect of the cosmos. If God is just another name for the universe, then God is reduced to being nothing more than what the pagans thought of as Fate or what moderns think of as Chance. If this is the nature of ultimate reality than the world has no intrinsic meaning. Life has no meaning. If we want meaning, we have to invent it for ourselves and we are only deluding ourselves if we think that such meaning is anything more than an emotional crutch for those who refuse to face the meaninglessness of existence.

But if, on the other hand, creation ex nihilo is true then an all-good, all-wise, perfect God is the Creator of all creaturely reality. That would mean that purpose and meaning is built into the creation waiting to be discerned. And if we are God’s creatures created in his image with reason and will, then it is not going to be shocking if we are able to discern the purpose built into the world including our own bodies.

Third, creation ex nihilo tells us that God is capable of raising the dead. From the beginning of the contemplation of Scripture, even as seen by biblical writers themselves contemplating the doctrine of creation in the Book of Genesis, this implication has been seen. Job, who had a very high view of God, expresses this idea when he says:

            For I know that my Redeemer lives

            and that at the last he shall stand upon the earth

            And after my skin has been destroyed,

            yet in my flesh shall I see God. (Job 19:25-26)

In his eschatological vision, Isaiah says that one day the LORD God will “swallow up death forever.” The power to overcome death requires a creative power not found anywhere within the created order. So, if God can wield such a power God must stand outside – that is, must transcend – the created order. This is exactly what the doctrine of creation ex nihilo teaches is the case.

Transcendent Creator and Sovereign Lord

An explicit connection is drawn by Paul in Romans 4. Speaking of the faith of Abraham by which Abraham believed God’s promise to make him the father of many nations Paul says he did so “in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.” (Rom 4:17 ESV) Here Paul draws a connection between raising the dead and calling into existence things that do not exist. One is comparable to the other. Neither is possible for something that works within the limitations of the cosmos itself. Only a God who truly transcends the cosmos could do such a thing.The power to overcome death requires a creative power not found anywhere within the created order. Click To Tweet

Creation ex nihilo is a doctrine that signifies the nature of God as the transcendent Creator and sovereign Lord of history who alone is worthy of worship. Creation ex nihilo signifies God’s unlimited power, God’s personal nature as one who has intellect and will, and God’s ability to bring into existence that which is genuinely new – as we see in the resurrection of the dead. Creation ex nihilo names that crucial distance between Creator and creature, which serves to distinguish them and keep them in their proper relation.

Without this key doctrine, the hinge between Creator and creation breaks and either the Creator is collapsed into the creation (pantheism) or the creation becomes all that exists (atheism). As the doctrine of creation has been increasingly rejected in late modernity, it is little wonder that pantheism and atheism have gained ground. The doctrine of creation ex nihilo is not an optional but a foundational and crucial doctrine. Without it there can be no historic Christian orthodoxy.

Craig A. Carter

Craig A. Carter is the author of Interpreting Scripture with the Great Tradition: Recovering the Genius of Premodern Exegesis (Baker Academic, 2018) and Contemplating God with the Great Tradition: Recovering Trinitarian Classical Theism (Baker Academic, 2021). He is currently writing a third volume in the Great Tradition trilogy on the recovery of Nicene metaphysics. Other upcoming projects include an introduction to Theology in the Great Tradition and a theological commentary on Isaiah. He serves as Research Professor of Theology at Tyndale University in Toronto and as Theologian in Residence at Westney Heights Baptist Church. His personal website is craigcarter.ca and you can follow him on Twitter.

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