Zacharias Ursinus (1534-1583), in his commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism (1563) which he himself composed, wrote the following against the “out of nothing is nothing” objection to creatio ex nihilo:
5.
Obj. Out of nothing is nothing. Ans. According to the order of nature as it is
now constituted, it is true, that one thing is generated or produced from
another. It is also true that nothing can be produced out of nothing by men;
but what is impossible to man is possible with God. Hence, this proposition,
out of nothing is nothing, is not true when applied to God. Nor is it true of
the first creation, or of the extraordinary working of God. Nor is it true of
the first creation, or of the extraordinary working of God, but only of the
order of nature as it is now established. That God created all things out of
nothing, should contribute to our comfort; for if he has created all things out
of nothing, he is also able to preserve us, and to restrain, yea, to bring to
naught the counsels and devices of the wicked. (The Commentary of Zacharias
Ursinus: On the Heidelberg Catechism—The Protestant Christian Doctrines, Dating
to 1563 [trans. G. W. Williard; Pantianos Classics, 1888], 160)
This reminded me of what the second pioneer of the Christadelphianmovement, Robert Roberts (1839-1898) wrote against the concept of
creation out of nothing (note: Roberts did not believe in creation ex
materia):
Popular theology teaches that God
made all things "Out of nothing." This is evidently one of many
errors that have long passed current as truth. It has proved an unfortunate
error; for it has brought physical science into needless collision with the
Bible. Physical science has compelled men to accept it as an axiomatic truth
that "out of nothing, nothing can come," and having been eld to
believe that the Bible teaches that all things have been made out of nothing,
they have dismissed the Bible as out of the question on that ground alone. They
have taken refute by preference in various theories that have recognised the
eternity of material force in some form or other. The Bible teaches that all
things have been made out of God—not out of nothing. It teaches . . . that God,
as the antecedent, eternal power of the universe, has elaborate all things out
of himself. (Robert Roberts, Christendom Astray, Or, Popular Theology (Both
in Faith and Practice) Shewn to be Unscriptural; And The True Nature of the
Ancient Apostolic Faith Exhibited in Eighteen Lectures [Birmingham: R.
Roberts, 1884], 121-22
On creatio ex nihilo itself, see:
Blake T. Ostler, Out of Nothing: A History of Creation ex Nihilo in Early Christian
