Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Excerpts from Paul M. Edwards (RLDS), "Preface to Faith"

The following excerpts are taken from Paul M. Edwards, Preface to Faith: A Philosophical Inquiry into RLDS Beliefs (Midvale, Utah: Signature Books, 1984), showing the then-RLDS (now COC) belief in creation ex nihilo not ex materia, as well as how they depart from a material conception of “spirit” and an embodied God:

 

Creation also impinges on the question of change: what was the material stuff of creation? Our answer is that God created “out of nothing.” Nothing here simply means not-god. If something existed prior to creation and in the beginning (that is, eternal with God), then obviously God is not the only independent existence. That something is coeternal with God. (p. 28)

 

For the RLDS, God is clearly the creator. In the beginning nothing existed other than the will of God which, we suppose, included the elements. That is, the will of God—or perhaps God—included what the scriptures call elements and term “eternal.” All things were created in a moment of time—a moment at which the creation occurred. (p. 38)

 

The RLDS position acknowledges that the immaterial substance called God is personal. (p. 45)

 

Further Reading


Blake T. Ostler, Out of Nothing: A History of Creation ex Nihilo in Early Christian Thought

Daniel O. McClellan, James Patrick Holding refuted on Creation Ex Nihilo

Lynn Wilder vs. Latter-day Saint (and Biblical) Theology on Divine Embodiment