Gregg Allison, Ph.D.: Historical Theology: Ch.12-Creation, 269ff.

1.     Creation, 254-276. The historic view—God created everything out of nothing, ex nihilo, in 6 literal, 24-hour days. Views: naturalistic evolution, theistic evolution, old earth creationism, young earth creationism and fully gifted creationism. The views of the early church are as per the index.[i] Shepherd of Hermas, Origen, Justin Martyr, Tatian, Minucius, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Theophilus of Antioch, Tertullian, Lanctantius, Basil the Great, and Ampilochius affirm the historic view. Augustine adopts a view of “progressive knowledge of divine creation by God’s angel creature, but it did not refer to actual days of creation,” a more allegorical approach that tried to fit in the time of the creation of the angels” (259). Aquinas and Anselm reiterated the standard history (cf. Aquinas’s Summa Theologica, pt.1, q.45, art.6; Anselm’s Monologion, 7, in Anselm, 18-20). In the Reformation and Post-Reformation periods, Luther, Calvin, Turretin, James Ussher, and the Lutheran John Gerhard all defended the literal 6-day view of church history, although they were conscious of Augustine’s more allegorical and fluid view.[ii] In the modern period, catastrophism, uniformitarianism and evolution was evident, variously with different themes, through LePayrere, Georges Cuvier, William Buckland, William Conybeare, Alan Sedgwick, James Hutton, Charles Lyell and Charles Darwin. Various 19^th century defenders arose: Thomas Chalmers, George Stanley Faber, John Fleming, Charles Hodge, B.B. Warfield, Alexander MacClaren, James Orr, A.H. Strong, Henri Blocher, Hermann Ridderbos, Bernard Ramm, Meredith Kline, Ronald Youngblood, G.H. Pember, Arthur Custance, and Henry Morris. Several views are on offer and are hotly contested today: the framework hypothesis, gap theology, day-age theory, the intermittent-day theory, the fully gifted creation theory and the literal approach.

---

[i] Divine Creation in the Early Church

 

Shepherd of Hermas: “The God of hosts…by his invisible and mighty power and by his great wisdom created the world, and by his glorious purpose clothed his creatin with beauty, and by his mighty word fixed the haven and set the earth’s foundation upon the water.” ANF, 2;20.

 

Tatian: “Matter is not, like God, without beginning, nor, as having no beginning, is of equal power with God; rather, it is begotten, and not produced by any other being, but brought into existence by the Framer of all things alone.” Address to the Greeks, 5, ANF, 2:67.

 

Theophilus of Antioch (Θεόφιλος ὁ Ἀντιοχεύς): “If God is uncreated and matter is uncreated, God is no longer, according to the Platonists’ own thinking, the Creator of all things, nor, so far as their opinions hold, is the monarchy [the idea of God as the one and only first principle] established. And what great thing it is if God made the world out of existing materials? For even a human artist, when he gets material from someone, makes of it whatever he please. But, the power of God is manifested in this, that out of things that are not, he makes whatever he pleases.” 2.4, ANF, 2:95.

 

Origen: “The immediate Creator, and, as it were, very maker of the world was the Word, the Son of God; while the Father of the Word, by commanding his own Son—the Word—to create the world, is the primary Creator.” Against Celsus, 6.60, in ANF, 4:601.

 

Justin Martyr: “…created and arranged all things by him…” Second Apology, 6, ANF, 1:190.

 

Irenaeus: “…the Creator, who made those things by himself, that is, through His Word and His Wisdom.” Against Heresies, 2.30.9, ANF, 1.406.

 

Irenaeus: “That there is nothing either above him or after him, and that he created all things not influenced by anyone but according to his own free will. He is the only God, the only Lord, the only Creator, the only Father. He alone contains all things, and he himself commanded all things into existence.” 2.1.1, ANF, 1:359.

 

Irenaeus re: emanations the Demiurge: “Not one of them [emanations] is God. For every one will be defective, because each possesses only a small part when compared with the rest. Thus the title Omnipotent will be reduced to nothing.” Against Heresies, 2.1.5, ANF, 1:360.

 

Irenaeus: God “himself called into being the substance of creation, when previously it had no existence.” Against Heresies, 2.10.4, ANF, 1:370.

 

Irenaeus: “God made heaven and earth, and the things which are in them, in six days…in so many thousand years it shall be concluded…For the day of the Lord is as a thousand years; and in six days created things were completed. It is evident, therefore, tha they will come to an end at the sixth thousand year [mark].” Against Heresies, 5.28.3l ANF, 1:557.

 

Clement of Alexandria: creation was the “sheer exercise of free will…” Exhortation to the Heathen, 4, ANF, 2:189-190.

 

Tertullian: “…even if the Scripture has not expressly declared that all things were made out of nothing—just as it abstains from saying that they were formed out of matter—there was no such pressing [urgent] need for expressly indicating the creation of all things out of nothing, as there was o their creation out of matter, if that had been their origin.” Against Hermogenes, 21, ANF, 3:489.

 

Lanctantius: “It cannot even be said that God made the world or his own sake, since he can exist without the world, as he did before it was made. And God made himself does not make us of all those things that are contained in it, and which are produced. It is evident, therefore, that the world was constructed for the sake of living being, since living beings enjoy those things of which it consists.” The Divine Institutes, 7.4, ANF, 7:198.

 

Amphilochius, Christology, soteriology and creation: “A man is altogether irreligious and a stranger to the truth if he does not say that Christ the Savior is also the Maker of all things.” Fragment 16, in Pelikan, 1:204-5.

 

Basil the Great: “Scripture means the space of a day and a night. Why does Scripture say “one day” and not “the first day”? Before speaking to us of the second, the third, and the fourth days, would it not have been more natural to call that one “the first” that began the series? But if it says “one day,” it is due to a wish to determine the measure of day and night and to combine the time that they contain. Now twenty-four hours fill up the space of one day—we mean, of a day and a night. It is as though it said: twenty-four hours measure the space of a day, or that, in reality a day is the time that the heavens starting from one point take to return there.” The Hexaemeron, Homily 2.8, in NPNF, 8:64.

 

Augustine’s interpretation of days in Genesis 1: “Morning returns when the creature [angel] returns to the praise and love of the Creator. When it does so in the knowledge of itself, that is the fist day. When the knowledge of the firmament, which is the name given to the sky between the waters above and those beneath, that is the second day. When in the knowledge of the earth, and the sea, and all things that grow out of the earth, that is the third day. When in the knowledge of the greater and less luminaries [lights] and all the stars, that is the fourth day. When in the knowledge of all animals that swim in the waters and that fly I the air, that is the fifth day. When in the knowledge of all animals that live on the earth, and of man himself, that is the sixth day.” City of God, 11.7, in NPNF, 2:209.

 

 

 

[ii] Creation in the Reformation and Post-Reformation Period

 

Luther: “We assert that Moses spoke in the literal sense, not allegorically or figuratively—i.e., that the world, with all its creatures, was created within six day, as the words read” (Lectures on Genesis, Chapters 1-5, in LW, 1:3).

 

Luther: “The Father creates heaven and earth out of nothing through the Son, whom Moses calls the Word. Over these the Holy Spirit broods. As a hen broods her eggs, keeping them warm in order to hatch her chicks, and, as it were, to bring them to life through heat, so Scripture says which the Holy Spirit brooded, as it were, on the waters to bring to life those substances that were to be quickened and adorned. For it is the office of the Holy Spirit to make alive” (Lectures on Genesis, Chapters 1-5, in LW, 1:9).

 

Luther on the Nicene Creed’s Affirmation of Divine Creation: “What is the force of this, or what do you mean by these words: I believe in God, the Father almighty, maker o heaven and earth? Answer: This is what I mean and believe—that I am a creature of God. That is, he has given me and constantly preserves my body, soul, and life; member great and small; all my senses, reason, and understanding, and so on; food and drink, clothing and support, wife, and children, housekeepers, house and home, etc. In addition, he causes all creatures to serve for the uses and necessities of life. These include the sun, moon, and stars I the firmament; day and night; air, fire, water, earth, and whatever it bears and produces; birds and fishes, beasts, grain, and all kinds of produce, and whatever else there is of bodily and temporal goods; and good government, peace and security. Thus, we learn from this article that none of us has life in himself, no can he preserve his life or anything that is listed here or can be listed, however small and unimportant a thing it might be. For everything is included in the word Creator” The Large Catechism, LCMS.

 

Calvin, believing the historic position, on Gen.1.14: “God had before created the light, but he now institutes a new order in nature, that the sun should be the dispenser of diurnal light and the moon and the stars should shine by night. And he assigns them to this office to teach us that all creatures are subject to his will and execute what he enjoins on them. For Moses relates nothing else than that God ordained certain instruments to diffuse through the earth, by reciprocal changes, the light that had been previously created. The only difference is that the light was before dispersed, but now proceeds from lucid bodies that, in serving this purpose, obey the commands of God” Commentaries on Genesis, 1:83.

 

Calvin and appreciation of creation: “…Scripture…duly informs us what is the right use of earthly benefits—a matter not to be neglected in the ordering of our life. For if we are to live, we have also to use those helps necessary for living. And we also cannot avoid those things that seem to serve delight more than necessity. Therefore, we must hold to a measure so as to use them with a clear conscience, whether for necessity or for delight…If we must simply pass through this world, there is no doubt we should use its good things in so far as they help rather than hinder our course” Institutes, 3.10.1.

 

Calvin and delight in created beauty: “Has the Lord clothed the flowers with the great beauty that greets our eyes, the sweetness of smell that is wafted upon our nostrils, and yet will it be unlawful for our eyes to be affected by that beauty, or our sense of smell by the sweetness of that odor? What? Did he not so distinguish colors as to make some more lovely than others? What? Did he not endow gold and silvery, ivory and marble, with a loveliness that renders them more precious than other metals or stones? Did he not, in short, render many things attractive to us, apart from the necessary use” (Institutes, 1: 721)