It is well known that bârâ’ (create) is used, for say, God’s creation of the people of Israel (e.g., Isa 43:15) or his creation of a clean heart (Ps 51:12), but obviously this should not be understood as being ex nihilo. . . . However much one loads this word with theological significance, bârâ’ does not by itself entail creation out of nothing—or reorganization, for that matter. (Paul Copan and William Lane Craig, “Craftsman or Creator? An Examination of the Mormon Doctrine of Creation and a Defense of Creatio ex nihilo,” in The New Mormon Challenge: Responding to the Latest Defenses of a Fast-Growing Movement, ed. Francis J. Beckwith, Carl Mosser, and Paul Owen [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2002], 109, 111)
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