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The Early Church Fathers on Creation out of Nothing.

 

  • Early Church Fathers
  • From the Scriptures

 

 

  1. St. Cyprian of Carthage, (A.D. 200-258)
    Lactantius, (A.D. 240-c.330)
    St. Methodius of Olympus, (A.D. 250-311)
    The Apostolic Constitutions (or Constitutions of the Holy Apostles), (A.D. c.270)
St. Cyprian of Carthage, (A.D. 200-258), North African; bishop; biblical scholar, martyr.

[The mother of the seven Maccabean martyrs said:] '0 son, pity me that bore you [nine] months in the womb, and gave you milk for three years, and nourished you and brought you up to this age; I pray you, 0 son, look upon the Heaven and the earth; and having considered all the things which are in them, understand that out of nothing God made these things and the human race.

Exhortation to Martyrdom 11 [A.D. 253]

Lactantius, (A.D. 240-c.330), was an early Christian author, the goal of his writings was to present Christianity in a form that would be attractive to philosophical pagans.

Let no one inquire of what materials God made those so great and wonderful works, for he made all things out of nothing. Without wood a carpenter will build nothing, because the wood itself he is not able to make. Not to be able is a quality of weak humanity. But: God himself makes his own material, because he is able. To be able is a quality of God, and, were he not able, neither would he be God. Man makes things out of what already exists, because he is... of limited and moderate power. God makes things from what does not exist, because he is strong; because of his strength, his power is immeasurable, having neither end nor limitation, like the life itself of the maker.

Divine Institutes 2:8:8 [A.D. 307]

St. Methodius of Olympus, (A.D. 250-311), Asia Minor; bishop, ecclesiastical writer, martyr.

In fact out of nothing, man is brought into being, [so] how much rather shall man spring again into being out of a previously existing man? For it: is not so difficult to make anything anew after it has once existed and fallen into decay, as to produce out of nothing that which has never existed".

Discourse on the Resurrection 1:14 [A.D.300]

All things are placed under you [God] as their cause and author, as he who brought all things into being out of nothing, and gave to what was unstable a firm coherence; as the connecting band and preserver of that which has been brought into being; as the framer of things by nature different; as he who, with wise and steady hand, holds the helm of the universe: as the very principle of all good order; as the unchallengeable bond of concord and peace.

Oration on Simeon and Anna 6 [A.D. 305]

The Apostolic Constitutions (or Constitutions of the Holy Apostles), dated A.D.c 270, is a Christian collection of eight treatises which belongs to genre of the Church Orders.

For you [Father] are eternal knowledge, everlasting sight, unbegotten hearing, untaught wisdom, the first by nature, and the measure of being, and beyond all number; who brought all things out of nothing into being by your only begotten Son, but begot him before all ages by your will, your power, and your goodness, without any instrument, the only begotten Son, God the Word.

Apostolic Constitutions 8:2:12 [A.D. 400]

 

 

The Early Fathers also taught that God created everything out of nothing. They believed that our complex universe was the creation of an intelligent being and not the result of a series of random accidents.

 


The Church's Scriptures that support Creation out of Nothing:

 

A mother speaking to her seven sons says the following.

22 "I do not know how you came into being in my womb. It was not I who gave you life and breath, nor I who set in order the elements within each of you. 23 Therefore the Creator of the world, who shaped the beginning of man and devised the origin of all things, will in his mercy give life and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws." . . . . 28 I beseech you, my child, to look at the Heaven and the earth and see everything that is in them, and recognize that God did not make them out of things that existed. Thus also mankind comes into being.

2 Maccabees 7:22-23, 28

God's Promise realized through Faith

17 As it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations" — 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.


Romans 4:17

From out of the darkness in our heart we give glory to God.

6 For it is the God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," [Genesis 1:3] who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.


2 Corinthians 4:6

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