1934
1. DEFINITION OF CREATION.
In contradistinction to pagan pantheism, which regards
the universe as an emanation from, or a manifestation of, God, so that God and
the universe are identical, and to pagan dualism, which assumes the eternal
existence of matter fashioned by a deity into this present world, Holy
Scripture teaches that the Triune God created all things that exist outside
Himself, i.e., the universe, out of nothing. By "nothing" we do not
mean any already existing matter (nihil positivum), but a state of
non-existence (nihil negativum). From Gen. 1:1, Heb. 11:3, and Rom. 4:17 we learn that before the creation of the
world nothing existed but God Himself. Calov writes (III, 899): "Creation
does not consist in emanation from the essence of God, nor in generation, nor
in motion, or natural change,… but in outward action,
by which through infinite power things are produced from nothing." (Doctr. Theol., p. 164 f.) Gerhard says (IV,7): "Away with the dreams of the Stoics, who devised
two eternal principles, mind, or God, and matter, which, they imagined, during
the ages of eternity was a confused chaos and at a certain time was at length
brought into form by 'mind.' " (Ibid.) Against pantheism,
both ancient and modern, Hollaz writes thus: "Creation is a free divine
action, because God framed the universe, not induced thereto by necessity, as
though He needed the services of creatures,… but freely, as He was able to
create or not, to create and to frame sooner or later, in this or in another
matter." (Ibid.) The question why God did
not create the world sooner Hafenreffer describes as a "question of madmen
curiously inquiring into such things as are of no profit." (Ibid.)
2. THE ORDER OF CREATION.
According to Holy Scripture, God did not create all
things "at once, but gradually, observing an admirable order" (ordo
creationis). As the first chapter of Genesis affirms, God, in creating all
things, proceeded from the lower to the higher, until He finally made man as
the crown of His creative work. In general, the work of creation comprises
three steps: a) the production, on the first day, of the crude material,
"which was the germinal source, as it were, of the entire universe"
(Quenstedt); Luther: moles coeli et terrae; b) the separation and
disposition of simple creatures during <page 180> the first three days
(light on the first day; the firmament on the second; the separation of the
earth from the waters on the third); c) the furnishing and completion of the
world, which was brought to perfection in three more days (the celestial bodies
on the fourth day; the fish and fowl on the fifth; the creation of land animals
and of man on the sixth).
We thus distinguish between immediate and mediate
creation, the former being the creation of the moles coeli et terrae out of nothing and the latter the arrangement
of the previously created material.
This order of creation must, however, not be
interpreted as an evolutionary process; for according to Scripture the world
was not developed by forces resident in matter itself, but by the creative power
of God. (Gen. 1:1: "God created"; v. 3: "God said.") The
creatures thus came into existence through the omnipotent command of the
personal, transmundane Creator. This truth our dogmaticians have expressed by
the statement : "The efficient cause of creation
is God, and He alone" (Calov). Nor can experimental science gainsay it,
since it can prove neither a development of organic things from inorganic (generatio
aequivoca) nor a development of higher forms from the lower (Deszendenztheorie;
Transmutationshypothese).
Evolution must be rejected as untenable even on
rational grounds, a) since it does not account for the existence of primeval
matter and b) since it rests upon a principle disproved by nature, namely, on
the supposed transmutation of the homogeneous into the heterogeneous
(transmutation of species). Scripture, on the other hand, accords with reason
in the following points: a) the creation of all things by an omnipotent God; b)
the orderly procedure in the work of creation; c) the propagation of creatures
after their kind, Gen. 1, 21. As all creatures came into existence through the
creative command of God, so they are preserved and propagated through the
divine omnipotent will, Acts 17, 28. The existence of the universe today with
all its manifold creatures is due to the blessing which God pronounced upon the
whole creation after the completion of His creative work, Gen. 1, 22 ; Col. 1,
17.
3. THE HEXAEMERON.
Holy Scripture teaches distinctly that the whole
universe was created within six days of twenty-four hours each (hexaemeron). To
change the six days into a mere moment (Athanasius, Angustine,
<page 181> Hilary) or to expand them into periods of
millions of years is equally contrary to Scripture. (Gen. 1:31
; 2:2 ; Ex. 20:9,11: "Six days shalt thou labor.… For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth.") Since
the Mosaic creation record is the only authentic report which we have of the
miracle of creation (no man was present at the creation, and no one can show
from the now existing world how it once sprang into existence), we must regard
every attempt to correct or supplement the record of Genesis as unscientific
pretense. Evolution proper is atheistic and immoral, while theistic evolution
is neither in accord with Scripture nor with the basic principles of evolution
proper. To deny the inspired character of the Book of Genesis means to
contradict the testimony of the divine, omniscient Christ, who accepted also
this book as canonical, Matt. 19:4-6; John 5:39.
4. THE SIX DAYS OF CREATION CONSIDERED IN DETAIL,
The First Day. — The expression "In the beginning" means
as much as "when this world began to be." "There was no material
of creation (materia ex qua) with respect to the things created on the
first day" (Quenstedt). Only since things outside God have begun to exist,
there is a beginning. Before that there was no "beginning," because
God has no beginning, Ps. 90:1,2, and outside Him
there was nothing. Time and space must therefore be traced to God's omnipotent
fiat of creation; they are creatures of the infinite God. The words "In
the beginning," Gen. 1:1, correspond to the same words in John 1:1; only
the Book of Genesis records what God then did, while the Gospel of John informs
us who existed in the beginning (the Father and the Son).
The expression "heaven and earth" is a
Scriptural designation of the universe (das Weltall), or the
"all", of which
The term heaven must not be taken in the sense of a
"highest heaven" (empyrean, coelum empyrium), a supposed
region of <page 182> pure fire, in which God dwells with the angels and
saints (papists, Calvinists). Quenstedt rightly calls this supposed empyrean a
merum figmentum. The expression heaven and earth in Gen. 1:1, as just
stated, simply denotes the Weltstoff, to borrow a term of modern dogmatics.
The term tohuvabohu, which our Authorized
Version translates "without form and void," in Jer.
The “light," which God created on the first day,
was the elemental light, to which He on the fourth day added the "two
great lights in the firmament" to govern day and night, summer and winter,
seed-time and harvest, Gen. 1:14. According to Scripture, light existed before
the celestial bodies. "By the word of His power God created light,
elemental light, brought it into being in the midst of the darkness, and
commanded it to shine out of darkness, 2 Cor. 4:6. Ever since the first day of
the world the regular recurrence of darkness and light marks the period of one
day, as we now divide it into twenty-four hours." (Kretzmann, Pop. Com., 1, 2.)
The Second Day. — On the second day, God created the expansion, or
the "firmament", by which is meant not the stratum of atmosphere above
the earth, but rather the visible vault of the sky (Luther). According to Gen.
1:6-8 the "firmament" divides the waters above and those below it, so
that we must conceive of waters beyond the visible vault of the sky. The
creation report everywhere exhibits God's omnipotent power and majesty, but
does not answer all questions which the ever-curious mind of man is inclined to
put.
The Third Day. — On the third day, God gathered the waters under the
heaven together unto one place, so that the dry land appeared. "God here
finished His creative work on inanimate matter, when His almighty command bade
the waters from below the heavens, below the firmament which He had
constructed, be gathered together into a single place, by themselves.
In chaos the mixture of solids and liquids had been so complete as to preclude
the designation 'dry land’ But now the solids and liquids were to <page
183> be separated, so that dry land as we know it was visible."
(Kretzmann, Pop. Com., 1:2.) As soon as God caused the dry land to appear, He
adorned it "with grass and herb yielding seed after his kind and the tree
yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind," Gen. 1:12 (the
law of propagation). According to Scripture the plants were before the seed, since
God created mature plants, "yielding seed."
The Fourth Day. — On the fourth day, God created the sun, moon, and
stars, Gen. 1, 14 if. The "matter out of which" (materia ex qua)
God made the celestial bodies is not stated; but the holy writer describes
their purpose (finis cuius) and the recipients (finis cui) of their
blessings, Gen. 1:14-18. While Holy Scripture does not teach an astronomical
system, nevertheless it stresses the following truths: a) The
earth was before the sun, just as also the light was before the sun. b) The
earth does not serve the sun, but, vice versa, the sun serves the earth, and
both the sun and the earth serve man, who has been created for the purpose of
serving God. Within the bounds of these basic truths all astronomical ideas of
the Christian theologian must be confined. All so-called astronomical systems
suggested by men rest upon hypotheses, which are beyond positive proof. Over
against the astronomical systems of scientists the Christian theologian must
therefore maintain: a) Scripture never errs, not even in matters of science,
John 10:35; 2Tim. 3:16.b) Scripture accommodates itself to human conceptions,
but never to human errors, since it is always truth, John
The Fifth Day. — On the fifth day, God created "the moving
creature that hath life" in the water and the "fowl that may fly
above the earth," Gen. 1:20-21. While the materia ex
qua of the first was water, that of the second is not stated directly.
Nevertheless the matter out of which these and other creatures were made
<page 184> was in no wise self-creative (evolution). Materia est principium passivum; non concurrit cum Deo ad aliquid
creandum.
The Sixth Day. — On the last day, God created both "the beasts
of the earth" and, as the crown of His creative work, man, Gen. 1, 24. 27.
The question whether animals and plants which after the Fall
have become injurious to man were created at this time may be answered as
follows: They were indeed created within the six creation days, but their
functions were in complete accord with man's well-being. Even to-day the
"harmful things" (poisonous plants and minerals) may be used by man
for his benefit. However, since before the Fall nature
was not yet under the curse and corruption of sin, even these creatures yielded
to man their willing service.
The supreme glory of man, as the crown of creation,
appears from the following facts: a) Man's creation was preceded by a divine
consultation in which the three Persons of the Godhead concurred, Gen. 1:26. b)
While all creatures came into existence through the almighty divine word, God
formed the body of man out of the dust of the ground, Gen. 2:7, and breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life, so that he became a living soul, Gen. 2:7b. c)
God made man an intelligent and rational being to rule in His stead over the
world, which was created for him by the beneficent Creator, Gen. 2:7b;
The question of dichotomy or trichotomy must be
decided on the basis of such passages as describe man according to his
essential parts, Matt. 10:28;
The Mosaic narrative of the creation of the world must
not be regarded as an allegory or myth, but must be taken as a true <page
185> historical account of actual happenings. Only a literal interpretation
is fair to the text.
According to Holy Scripture, creation was that free
act of the Triune God by which "in the beginning, for His own glory, He
made, without the use of preexisting materials, the whole visible and invisible
universe" (Strong). This doctrine stands in close relation to God's
holiness and benevolence, Rom.
5. THE
On the basis of Scripture we maintain that Adam,
created by God on the sixth day of the hexaemeron, was the first of all men and
the parent of the entire human race throughout the whole world, 1 Cor. 15:45,
47; Gen. 2:5; Acts
While Adam was created first and independently, Gen.
2:18, Eve was created dependency from Adam, a complete rational individual,
taken from man according to soul and body, Gen. 2:21-24. The rib from which God
built Eve, must not be understood as a mere rib, but as a living, vital
substance, including everything of which she consisted essentially, Gen. 2:23 ; Acts 17:26. (Cp. Luther's
explanation, St. L., I, 157.) While Eve was Adam's equal in the
enjoyment of the divine blessings, both temporal and spiritual, her social
status was one of subordination to Adam, for whose sake she was created, Gen.
2:18; 1Cor. 14:34-36; 1Tim. 2:11-15.
<page 186>
6. SPECIAL QUESTIONS REGARDING THE CREATION REPORT.
a. While Holy Scripture informs us exactly how and
when man was created, it gives us no account whatever concerning the creation
of the angels. Nevertheless they, too, were made within the hexaemeron, Gen.
2:1-2. Since Scripture reveals to us everything that is necessary for
salvation, we should not try to supplement the divine record by human
speculation.
b. Whether Moses received the facts recorded in his
narrative by immediate revelation or through oral tradition is immaterial.
Since the Book of Genesis is canonical, it is divinely inspired, 2 Tim.
c. The two creation narratives of Genesis (chaps. 1
and 2) are not contradictory records (Jean Astruc, 1766), but chap. 2 rather
supplements the account of chap. 1. In Gen. 1 we have a general description of
the work of creation, while Gen. 2 brings the fact of creation in relation to
the history of God's Church in the Old Testament. For this reason Gen. 2 is
both supplementary and explanatory. The history of the
d. As the soul of Eve was produced by propagation from
Adam, so, it is generally held among Lutheran dogmaticians, the souls of
children are produced by propagation rather than by direct creation
(traducianism, not creationism). "The soul of the first man was
immediately created by God; but the soul of Eve was produced by propagation,
and the souls of the rest of men are created not daily,…
but by virtue of the divine blessing are propagated, pertraducem, by their
parents." (Quenstedt.) Traducianism is inferred:
a) from the primeval blessing of God, Gen. 1:28; 9:1; b) from God's rest and
cessation from all work on the seventh day, Gen. 2:2; c) from the production of
the soul of Eve, Gen. 2:21.22; d) from the general description of generation,
Gen. 5:3; e) from Ps. 51:5, etc.
e. The act of creation must be regarded as a free act
of God (actio libera), so that God was not compelled to create the world
by any inner necessity of His divine essence, Ps. 115:3. To say that the act of
creation was a necessary divine act (actio necessaria) would be
tantamount to pantheism and nullify the very concept of a personal, sovereign
God. <page 187>
f . While Holy Scripture assures us that the universe as
it came forth from the creative hand of God was "very good" (Gen.
1:31), it would be folly to affirm that the world as created by God was the
very best that God could have made (the "optimism" of Leibniz). We
must judge this world by God's own standards, as these are presented to us in
His Word. For this reason we say that the world was very good in the sense that
it accorded perfectly with the divine will or that it was just as God desired
it to be.
7. CREATION AN EXTERNAL ACT OF GOD
(
Creation, as an opus ad extra, is the work of
the Triune God. Hence it is ascribed to the Father (1 Cor. 8:6), to the Son
(Heb.
Again, when Scripture occasionally declares that all
things were made by the Father through the Son or the Holy Ghost, Ps. 33:6,
this "must not be construed into any inequality of persons, as the Arians
blasphemously asserted that the Son was God's instrument in creation, just as
the workman uses an ax" (Chemnitz); but this mode of speaking rather
indicates the mystery of the Holy Trinity, according to which the Son has His
divine essence and divine power eternally from the Father and the Holy Ghost
has His divine essence and divine power eternally from the Father and Son.
8. THE
According to Holy Scripture the ultimate end of
creation is the glory of God; in other words, the world was created ultimately
for God's own sake, Prov. 16:4, or for His glory, Ps. 104:1ff. For this reason
not only men, but all creatures are exhorted to praise God, Ps. 148. By His
creation God manifested in particular: a) His goodness, Ps. 136; b) His power,
Ps. 115; c) His wisdom, Ps. 19:1ff.; 104:24; 136:5.
The objection offered here that it is an unworthy conception of God to regard
Him as having made all things for His own glory is a) anti-Scriptural, since
Holy Scripture teaches this very truth, Rom. 11:36; b) unreasonable, since it
measures God by human standards; c) atheistic, since it dethrones God and puts
man in His place; for if the world was not made primarily for God's sake, then
man himself must be the ultimate end of creation. However, while the ultimate
end of creation is the glory of God, the intermediate end of creation is the
benefit of man, Ps. 115:15,16. Quenstedt writes (I,
418) : "God made all things for the sake of man, but man He made for His
own sake, Ps. 115:16; 60:7, 8." Finis cuius creationis mundi gloria
Dei; finis cui homo. Macrocosmus in gratiam microcosmi conditus est.
[Note: From “Christian Dogmatics,” by John Theodore
Mueller TH. D., professor of
Systematic Theology, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Mo. Copyright 1934 by
Concordia publishing house.]
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