Believe it or not, some people who claim to be Christians deny that God created everything. Perhaps they haven’t thought through what the term “creation” means. Perhaps they labor under the misconception that it means nothing more than to refashion already-existing matter.
Mormons claim that God at one time existed on another planet, named Kolob, and, after achieving a celestial power base, went on to fashion this world—but he himself was created. A similar error has found advocates in the Word Faith Movement, which is part of American Evangelicalism. Word Faith preacher Kenneth Copeland claims that heaven is just another planet and that God created this earth to be a copy of it. As the following quotations from the Church Fathers reveal, these ideas are alien to the historic Christian faith.
Hermas
“And as I prayed, the heavens were opened, and I saw the woman whom I had desired saluting me from the sky, and saying, ‘Hail, Hermas!’ And looking up to her, I said, ‘Lady, what are you doing here?’ And she answered me, ‘I have been taken up here to accuse you of your sins before the Lord.’ ‘Lady,’ said I, ‘are you to be the subject of my accusation?’ ‘No,’ said she, ‘but hear the words which I am going to speak to you. God, who dwells in the heavens, and made out of nothing the things that exist, and multiplied and increased them on account of his holy Church, is angry with you for having sinned against me’” ( The Shepherd 1:1:1 [A.D. 80]).
Hermas
“Believe first of all that God is one, that he created all things and set them in order and brought out of non-existence into existence everything that is, and that he contains all things while he himself is uncontained” (ibid., 2:1:1).
Aristides
“Let us proceed, then, O King, to the elements themselves, so that we may demonstrate concerning them that they are not gods, but corruptible and changeable things, produced out of the nonexistent by him that is truly God, who is incorruptible and unchangeable and invisible, but who sees all things and changes them and alters them as he wills” ( Apology 4 [A.D. 140]).
Theophilus
“Furthermore, inasmuch as God is uncreated, he is also unchangeable; so also, if matter were uncreated, it would be unchangeable and equal to God. That which is created is alterable and changeable, while that which is uncreated is unalterable and unchangeable. What great thing were it, if God made the world out of existing matter? Even a human artist, when he obtains material from someone, makes of it whatever he pleases. But the power of God is made evident in this, that he makes whatever he pleases out of what does not exist, and the giving of life and movement belongs to none other but to God alone” ( To Autolycus 2:4 [A.D. 181]).
Theophilus
“And first, they [the prophets of God] taught us with one consent that God made all things out of nothing; for nothing was coeval with God: but he being his own place, and wanting nothing, and existing before the ages, willed to make man by whom he might be known; for him, therefore, he prepared the world. He that is created is also needy, but he that is uncreated stands in need of nothing” (ibid., 2:10).
Irenaeus
“Men, indeed, are not able to make something from nothing, but only from existing material. God, however, is greater than men first of all in this: that when nothing existed beforehand, he called into existence the very material for his creation” ( Against Heresies 2:10:4 [A.D. 189]).
Tertullian
“The object of our worship is the one God, who, by the Word of his command, by the reason of his plan, and by the strength of his power, has brought forth from nothing for the glory of his majesty this whole construction of elements, bodies, and spirits; whence also the Greeks have bestowed upon the world the name Cosmos” ( Apology 17:1 [A.D. 197]).
Tertullian
“He is the unique God for this reason alone, that he is the sole God, and he is the sole God for this reason alone, that nothing existed along with him. So too he must be the first, because all else is after him. All else is after him because all else is from him and from him because they are created out of nothing. The account of Scripture, then, is correct: ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord? or who has been his counselor? or whom has he consulted? or who showed him the way of wisdom and knowledge?’” ( Against Hermogenes 17:1 [A.D. 203]).
Hippolytus
“Then shall the righteous answer, astonished at the mighty and wondrous fact that he, whom the hosts of angels cannot look upon openly, addresses them as friends, and shall cry out to him, Lord, when saw we you hungered, and fed you? Master, when saw we you thirsty, and gave you drink? You Terrible One, when saw we you naked, and clothed you? Immortal, when saw we you a stranger, and took you in? You Friend of man, when saw we you sick or in prison, and came unto you? You are the ever-living One. You are without beginning, like the Father, and co-eternal with the Spirit. You are he who made all things out of nothing” ( Discourse on the End of the World 43 [A.D. 217]).
Hippolytus
“On the first day God made what he made out of nothing. But on the other days he did not make out of nothing, but out of what he had made on the first day, by molding it according to his pleasure” (Fragment from The Six Days’ Work [A.D. 217]).
Origen
“The specific points which are clearly handed down through the apostolic preaching are these: First, that there is one God who created and arranged all things and who, when nothing existed, called all things into existence” ( The Fundamental Doctrines 1:0:4 [A.D. 225]).
Cyprian
“[The mother of the seven Maccabean martyrs said:] ‘O 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, O 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. Therefore, O son, do not fear that executioner; but being made worthy of your brethren, receive death, that in the same mercy I may receive you with your brethren’” ( Exhortation to Martyrdom 11 [A.D. 253]).
Methodius
“[I]n 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]).
Methodius
“[A]ll things are placed under you 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]).
Lactantius
“[One is foolish to think] the one God, who had power to create the universe, is also unable to govern that which he has created. But if he conceives in his mind how great is the immensity of that divine work, when before it was nothing, yet that by the power and wisdom of God it was made out of nothing—a work which could only be commenced and accomplished by one—he will now understand that that which has been established by one is much more easily governed by one” ( Divine Institutes 1:3 [A.D. 307]).
Lactantius
“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” (ibid., 2:8:8).
Alexander
“[T]he Word by which the Father formed all things out of nothing was begotten of the true Father himself” ( Letters on the Arian Heresy 1:11 [A.D. 326]).
Apostolic Constitutions
“For you [Father] are eternal knowledge, everlasting sight, unbegotten hearing, untaught wisdom, the first by nature, 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]).