Thursday, March 31, 2022

Zacharias Ursinus (Reformed Protestant) and Robert Roberts (Christadelphian) on Creation Ex Nihilo and "Out of Nothing is Nothing" Argument

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