3c God the Creator

Biblical Theology continues...

Chapter 1
Introduction to Biblical Theology

Chapter 2: Revelation
2a From Text to Scripture
2b NT Understanding of Scripture
2c God's Speakings before Scripture
2d God's Speakings in the Old Testament
2e The New Testament Church

Chapter 3: Theology of God
3a God, the Basics
3b God Almighty

...Christians and Jews would eventually come to believe that God created the universe out of nothing. A majority would say this belief solidified in the second century after Christ, perhaps as Jews and Christians fought off Gnosticism. [1] Ever since, it has been common Christian belief that God created the world with no prior materials, and Christians have subsequently read the relevant biblical texts in that way.

You could argue that the idea of God creating everything out of nothing is the appropriate end point of the biblical trajectory on God as all powerful. If God created everything out of nothing, then God is responsible for everything that exists and certainly must have had as much power as what he created.  It would make perfect sense to think that nothing he created could truly present any real opposition or problem for him.

It is worth reflecting on this notion of God as creator in an age where we know that space, time, and matter are interrelated.  Space is not a static emptiness but it expands and contracts in correlation with speed and mass.  When we say that God created the universe out of nothing, we are thus implying something no one would have likely thought until the twentieth century.  We are implying that God not only created all the matter in the universe but the very emptiness in which that matter is situated as well.

God as creator is thus something fundamentally different from any human as a creator.  Indeed, it is to say something fundamentally different than someone who says the world evolved into its current state by chance.  In these instances, there are already existing ingredients and existing laws of nature to steer what we or nature might create.

But to say that God created the world from nothing is to say that he not only created the ingredients but the laws by which they interact and combine.  This has direct implications for God's power and knowledge, possibly even for his presence.  The most natural inference from creation out of nothing is that God has more power than what he created. After all, he generated all the power that exists.

God thus created the possibility of evil and the power it has.  Since he created it from nothing, there is no part of it he does not have power over.  There is no strength in the creation that can match his strength because all its strength was a product of his strength.  He is all powerful, omnipotent, in relation to the creation.

Similarly, God must know everything there is to know about the creation, from emotions to evil.  There is no part of the creation that he did not design from scratch. He made the ingredients from emptiness and formulated the laws for how those ingredients mix.

He created the very possibility of evil and suffering.  Therefore, God does not learn anything on the cross.  God knows how we feel.  God knows how Hitler felt to kill Jews. God knows everything and is "omniscient"...

[1] We will discuss a biblical theology of creation later in this series.