Ex Nihilo Creation Doctrine Explained
The doctrine of ex nihilo creation holds that God brought the universe into being from nothing—not from preexistent matter, not from his own substance, but by sheer divine command. Scripture grounds this teaching in passages like Romans 4:17, which speaks of God "who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist," and Hebrews 11:3, which declares that "by faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible" [1]. Genesis 1:1 opens with the stark declaration, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth," a statement the church has historically read as affirming creation from nothing rather than the shaping of eternal matter [1].
Patristic Articulation
Early Christian theologians defended ex nihilo creation against both pagan philosophy and Gnostic speculation. Athanasius insisted that creation occurred "not spontaneously, because forethought is not absent; nor of existing matter," rejecting the notion that God worked with preexisting materials [3]. Theophilus of Antioch taught that "God was in the beginning," and that "with Him were all things" only in potentiality through the Logos, not as coeternal matter [4]. Irenaeus argued against heretics who "do not believe in that which really exists" but instead posit eternal matter, calling such views a betrayal of the faith [5]. Augustine later emphasized that God alone is "the efficient cause" of all forms and substances, not merely a craftsman working with raw materials [6].
Theological Implications
The doctrine establishes God's absolute sovereignty and the contingency of all creation. Charles Hodge notes that if God creates the universe ex nihilo, then "all effects and changes are the product of his omnipotence," though he warns against collapsing this into a doctrine of continual creation that would eliminate secondary causation [2]. The teaching also distinguishes Christian cosmology from dualistic systems that posit eternal matter alongside God, affirming instead that matter itself owes its existence entirely to divine will [1, 3].
Some medieval Jewish commentators, like Abraham Ibn Ezra, questioned whether the Hebrew bara necessarily implies creation from nothing, noting that Genesis 1:21 uses the same verb for sea creatures formed "out of the water" [7]. Yet the Christian tradition has consistently read Genesis 1:1 in light of texts like Hebrews 11:3 to affirm that the initial creative act involved no preexisting substrate.
Sources
- Torrey's Topical Textbook “Torrey's Topical Textbook: Creation — The formation of things which had no previous existence -- Ro 4:17; Heb 11:3. Effected By God. -- Ge 1:1; 2:4,5; Pr 26:10. By Christ. -- Joh 1:3,10; Col 1:16. By the Holy Spirit. -- Job 26:13; Ps 104:30. By the command of God. -- Ps 33:9; Heb 11:3. In the beginning. -- Ge 1:1; Mt 24:21. In six normal days. -- Ex 20:11; 31:17. According to God's purpose. -- Ps 135:6. For God's pleasure. -- Pr 16:4; Re 4:11. For Christ. -- Col 1:16. By faith we believe, to be God's work -- Heb 11:3. Order of First day, making light and dividing it from darkness. -- Ge 1:3-5;”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 2, section 138: of occasional causes, and in the doctrine so popular at one time among theologians that preservation is a continual creation. If God creates the universe ex nihilo every successive moment, as even President Edwards strenuously asserts, then all effects and changes are the product of his omnipotence, and the efficiency or agency of second causes is of necessity excluded. According to this doctrine there can be no distinction between the operations of nature and those of grace. The same thing is obviously true in reference to the theory of”
- CCEL (Patristic) “Athanasius of Alexandria, Select Works and Letters, section 100: §3. The true doctrine. Creation out of nothing, of God’s lavish bounty of being. Man created above the rest, but incapable of independent perseverance. Hence the exceptional and supra-natural gift of being in God’s Image, with the promise of bliss conditionally upon his perseverance in grace. Thus do they vainly speculate. But the godly teaching and the faith according to Christ brands their foolish language as godlessness. For it knows that it was not spontaneously, because forethought is not absent; nor of existing matter, beca”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 2: Hermas, Tatian, Theophilus, Athenagoras, Clement of Alexandria — CHAP. v.--THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHRISTIANS AS TO THE CREATION OF THE WORLD.: God was in the beginning; but the beginning, we have been taught, is the power of the Logos. For the Lord of the universe, who is Himself the necessary ground (<greek>npostasis</greek>) of all being, inasmuch as no creature was yet in existence, was alone; but inasmuch as He was all power, Himself the necessary ground of things visible and invisible, with Him were all things; with Him, by Logos-power (<greek>dia</greek> <greek>lpgikhs</greek> <g”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 1: Clement, Polycarp, Ignatius, Barnabas, Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus — CHAP. X.--PERVERSE INTERPRETATIONS OF SCRIPTURE BY THE HERETICS: GOD CREATED ALL THINGS OUT OF NOTHING, AND NOT FROM PRE-EXISTENT MATTER. (part 2): that those things which now are should have an existence) out of what did not previously exist, they have collected [a multitute of] vain discourses. They thus truly reveal their infidelity; they do not believe in that which really exists, and they have fallen away into [the belief of] that which has, in fact, no existence. 3. For, when they tell us that all moist s”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 2: Augustine — City of God, Christian Doctrine — CHAP. 25.--THAT GOD ALONE IS THE CREATOR OF EVERY KIND OF CREATURE, WHATEVER ITS NATURE OR FORM. (part 1): For whereas there is one form which is given from without to every bodily substance,--such as the form which is constructed by potters and smiths, and that class of artists who paint and fashion forms like the body of animals,--but another and internal form which is not itself constructed, but, as the efficient cause, produces not only the natural bodily forms, but even the life itself of the living creatures, and which proceeds f”
- Sefaria (Jewish (Rationalist)) “Abraham Ibn Ezra on Genesis 1:1: CREATED. Most Biblical commentators explain that the word bara (created) indicates creation ex nihilo . But if the Lord make (yivra) a new thing (beri’ah) (Num. 16:30) is similar. However, they have overlooked And God created (va-yivra) the great sea monsters 14 God obviously did not create the sea monsters ex nihilo , for the verse concludes, and every living creature that creepeth, wherewith the waters swarmed , which shows that the sea monsters were created out of the water. Also, it is absurd to assume that on the fifth day of creation God would create sea ”