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Most traditional Christians believe that God created the universe out of nothing, or, ‘creatio ex nihilo’. Latter-day Saints, on the other hand, believe that chaotic matter already existed, and God brought order to the chaos, giving it form and purpose. On what grounds do Latter-day Saints believe this (and vice versa)? That’s the question David explores in this video.
Video transcript: https://saintsunscripted.com/faith-and-beliefs/the-gospel-of-jesus-christ/why-dont-latter-day-saints-believe-creatio-ex-nihilo/
— For a compilation of 40 quotes from 40 different scholars (both Christian and non-Christian) about creation ex nihilo in Genesis and the Bible as a whole, please check out this post from Jaxon Washburn: http://bit.ly/3Wn866d
Some non-LDS sources:
— “Creatio ex Nihilo: Matter, Creation, and the Body in Classical Christian Philosophy Through Aquinas,” by James N. Hubler: https://bit.ly/3H56DwW
— “Creatio ex Nihilo theology in Genesis Rabbah in Light of Christian Exegesis,” by Maren R. Niehoff, The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 99, No. 1 (Jan. 2006), pp. 37-64: https://bit.ly/3XfER66
— “Creatio ex Nihilo: The Doctrine of ‘Creation out of Nothing’ in Early Christian Thought,” by May Gerhard (German theologian): https://bit.ly/3jTmIwi
— “’Creatio ex Nihilo’: A Context for the Emergence of the Christian Doctrine of Creation,” by Frances Young, Scottish Journal of Theology, Volume 44, Issue 2, May 1991, pp. 139 – 152: https://bit.ly/3CAZHVy
Some LDS sources:
— “Ancient Views of Creation and the Doctrine of Creation ex Nihilo,” by Stephen D. Ricks (BYU Studies): https://bit.ly/3W1KL9I
— “Out of Nothing: A History of Creation ex Nihilo in Early Christian Thought,” by Blake Ostler (BYU Studies): https://bit.ly/3IB0lGh
— “Creation Ex Nihilo in the Bible?” by Dan McClellan (is LDS): https://bit.ly/3GrJgMf
— “Examining Six Key Concepts in Joseph Smith’s Understanding of Genesis 1:1,” by Kevin Barney (BYU Studies): https://bit.ly/3CyqVfi
Notes:
Non-Latter-day Saint scholars:
— Some Christians worry that this notion of pre-existent matter undermines God’s sovereignty. After all, if God didn’t create everything from nothing, then how can he really be Lord over all? Scholar Pete Enns countered this idea, writing that “the ancient Israelites would also have affirmed God is ‘Lord of all’ BECAUSE he ordered chaos.”
— Regarding the use of Hebrews 11:3 & Romans 4:17 as evidence of creatio ex nihilo in the Bible, Gerhard May argued, “The passages repeatedly quoted as New Testament witnesses for the idea of creatio ex nihilo are Romans 4:17, where Paul says that God ‘calls into being the things that are not,’ and Hebrews 11:3, where it says that ‘the visible came forth from the invisible.’ But these formulations fit in with the statements of Hellenistic Judaism . . . about the creation of non-being, or out of non-being, and mean, no more than those, to give expression to creation out of nothing, in the strict sense, as a contradiction in principle of the doctrine of world-formation.” Source: Garhard May, “Creatio ex Nihilo: The Doctrine of ‘Creation Out of Nothing’ in Early Christian Thought,” pg. 27.
— Regarding the use of 2 Maccabees 7:28 as evidence of creatio ex nihilo in the Bible, Gerhard May argued, “The best known text, constantly brought forward as the earliest evidence of the conceptual formulation of the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo, is 2 Maccabees 7:28. The need for caution in evaluating this is apparent from the context in which there is talk of creation ‘out of nothing.’ There is here no theoretical disquisition on the nature of the creation process, but a parenthetic reference to God’s creative power: . . . A position on the problem of matter is clearly not to be expected in this context. The text implies no more than the conception that the world came into existence through the sovereign creative act of God, and that it previously was not there.” Source: Garhard May, “Creatio ex Nihilo: The Doctrine of ‘Creation Out of Nothing’ in Early Christian Thought,” pg. 6, 7.
— Regarding 2 Maccabees 7:28, James Hubler argued that “Non-being refers to the non-existence of the heavens and earth before God’s creative act. It does not express absolute non-existence, only the prior non-existence of the heavens and earth.” Source: James N. Hubler, “Creatio ex Nihilo: Matter, Creation, and the Body in Classical Christian Philosophy Through Aquinas,” pg. 90.
— “While creation does entail ‘making something that was not there before,’ such an understanding does not necessarily entail creating ‘out of nothing.’ God’s creating in Genesis 1, for example, includes ordering that which already exists.” Source: “God and World in the Old Testament: A Relational Theology of Creation,” by Terence E. Fretheim, pg. 5.
— Check our website (SaintsUnscripted.com) for additional content on this.
