Many christians rather unthoughtfully hold the tenet that God created out of nothing. This goes back to a mediaeval idea of 'creatio ex nihilo', or 'creation out of nothing'. It would have been better if they had used the phrase 'creatio in nihilum', or 'creation into the nothing'. But even that is incorrect. For it is pejorative to state that in eternity past only God existed and that everything else was nothing. One could argue theologically that even nothing did not exist. Here language fails. The word of God puts it this way: 'In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God'. Here the word 'beginning' points to eternity, the timeless now God lives in and when He had not yet created anything.

Why do I say this? Because the bible at various occasions states that 'all things are out of Him, through Him and for Him'. (Read e.g. Rom. 11.36; 1 Cor.8.6; Col. 1.16, 17; Hebr.2.10). All these scriptures talk of creation being out of God rather than out of nothing. And indeed out of absolutely nothing comes absolutely nothing.

In passing I mention that the Hebrew word for creating is used only in Gen. 1.1, in the case of the sea animals and in the case of the human being. All the other things are said to have been made. The first man, Adam, is also traced back to God as far as our origin is concerned. Is it not wonderful that all things come out of God! He will not abandon His handiwork to let it become nothing.

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