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Whatever necessity may be ascribed to God’s opera ad extra, is a necessity conditioned by the
divine decree and the resulting constitution of things. It is a necessity dependent on the
sovereign will of God, and therefore no necessity in the absolute sense of the word. 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.
3. CREATION IS A TEMPORAL ACT OF GOD.
a. The teaching of Scripture on this point.
The Bible begins with the very simple statement, “In
the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” Gen. 1:1. As addressed to all classes of
people, it employs the ordinary language of daily life, and not the technical language of
philosophy. The Hebrew term bereshith (lit. “in beginning”) is itself indefinite, and naturally
gives rise to the question, In the beginning of what? It would seem best to take the expression
in the absolute sense as an indication of the beginning of all temporal things and even of time
itself; but Keil is of the opinion that it refers to the beginning of the work of creation.
Technically speaking, it is not correct to assume that time was already in existence when God
created the world, and that He at some point in that existing time, called “the beginning”
brought forth the universe. Time is only one of the forms of all created existence, and therefore
could not exist before creation. For that reason Augustine thought it would be more correct to
say that the world was created cum tempore (with time) than to assert that it was created in
tempore (in time). The great significance of the opening statement of the Bible lies in its
teaching that the world had a beginning. Scripture speaks of this beginning also in other places,
Matt. 19:4,8; Mark 10;6; John 1:1,2; Heb. 1:10. That the world had a beginning is also clearly
implied in such passages as Ps. 90:2, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou
hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God”; and
Ps. 102:25, “Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of
thy hands.”
b. Difficulties which burden this doctrine.
Prior to the beginning mentioned in Gen. 1:1, we
must postulate a beginningless eternity, during which God only existed. How must we fill up
these blank ages in the eternal life of God? What did God do before the creation of the world?
It is so far from possible to think of Him as a Deus otiosus (a God who is not active), that He is
usually conceived of as actus purus (pure action). He is represented in Scripture as always
working, John 5:17. Can we then say that He passed from a state of inactivity to one of action?
Moreover, how is the transition from a non-creative to a creative state to be reconciled with His
immutability? And if He had the eternal purpose to create, why did He not carry it out at once?