Chapter 11
Creation
316. How are the acts of God distinguished?
Into immanent and intrinsic, immanent-extrinsic, and transient-extrinsic. These last are
called His works and are distinguished in those of nature and those of grace.
317. What sort of an act is creation?
It is a transient-extrinsic act.
318. Is it a production out of nothing?
Yes, this is the proper signification of ברא [to create] and κτζειν [to create].
319. What is the difference between mediate and immediate creation?
Immediate creation is simple production ex nihilo [out of nothing]. Mediate creation is
the molding of matter already existing, but so crude as to be within the power of no
second cause to arrange it.
320. Can we conceive how something can be produced from nothing?
No.
321. Does not creation imply a change in God?
No. Because it is an external-transient act from God and not in God. It implies no new
will, nor perfection, but is merely the eternal will and determination of God going into
effect. The change is in the creature a non esse ad esse [from non-being to being].
322. Is the creating power communicable to any creature?
No.
First, because it is ascribed to God alone, Isaiah 44:7, 24, "I am Jehovah who
made all things, who stretched out the heavens alone, and spread abroad the earth
by Myself." And thus the name Creator is given to Him alone as an
incommunicable epithet.
Secondly, because it is made the characteristic [which distinguishes]
between the true God and idols (Jer. 10:11–12).
Thirdly, because creation is a work of infinite power.
Fourthly, because every creature must have a subject on which to act, or it
can do nothing.
323. Does the working of miracles require almighty power?
There are some that do, others do not. And if men are ever employed in performing those
of the first kind they are to be considered merely as moral instruments.
324. How can it be demonstrated that this world was not eternal?
It is proved first by those passages that expressly declare the world to have been created,
as "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," [Gen. 1:1] and those which
express the eternity of God by declaring [that] He existed before the foundation of the
world.
It is also proved from the late invention of useful acts, the short reach of history but to a
few thousand years past, from the world's being still far from completely inhabited, from
the heights that remain on the surface of the earth though they are continually washing
down by the rain, and so on. Besides, it is impossible that the world should be coeternal
with its maker; neither can any finite creature be eternal.
325. At what season of the year was the world created?
Some are of the opinion that it was in the spring, but most divines refer it to the fall:
1. Because the Israelites began their civil year in Egypt in the fall.
2. The deluge probably commenced in the fall, the season for rain: "but it was the
second month."
3. The sabbatical year commenced in the fall.
4. It would be most convenient for man and other animals that the earth should be
created with all its fruits.
326. Was the world created in a single moment or in six days?3
Augustine4 was of opinion that the world was created in a moment, and [that] the days
mentioned by Moses refer to the knowledge of angels, but this is opposed to the simple
3 [The gap theory, which posited a long and undefined gap of time between Gen. 1:1 and 1:2, became popularized a few years before these lectures by the Scottish minister Thomas Chalmers in his astronomical lectures in 1814, though this may not have been known to Alexander. The day-age theory of Gen. 1 (interpreting the days of creation week to be long ages) did not arise till after the publication of the foundational work of Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology (1830–1833), which advocated the principles of uniformitarianism, that natural principles acting slowly and uniformly over long spans of time could account for earth's natural history. Persons espousing and popularizing the day-age theory of creation on this foundation included the Swiss-American geologist Arnold Guyot (1807–1884), the Scottish geologist Hugh Miller (1802–1856), the Canadian geologist John William Dawson (1820–1899), and the American geologist James Dwight Dana (1813–1895).]
4 [Augustine of Hippo (AD 354–430) was the most significant church father in North Africa.]
narration of Moses, to the world's being without form and void and to the account of the
institution of the Sabbath. Notwithstanding this, the respective work of each day must
have been the effect of but a momentary exertion of omnipotence.
327. What was the order of creation in the six successive days?
In the first day were created heaven, earth, and light. By the first of these is meant
particularly the "third heavens" [2 Cor. 12:2]; by the "earth," chaotic matter; by light, a
lucid body collected in one part of the hemisphere to distinguish between the day and
night.
The work of the second day was the creation of the firmament or expanse, that is,
the atmosphere; and the division of the waters above from those below the expanse, that
is, the clouds from the waters mixed through the earth.
The work of the third day was the collection of the waters and the production of
the herbs and fruits of the earth.
[On] the fourth were created the sun, moon, and stars.
On the fifth the fowls and fish were produced.
And on the sixth, all terrestrial animals together with man, the lord of this lower
world, quoddam universitatis compendium [which was the capstone of the whole].
328. When was man created, and how?
He was created on the sixth day from the dust of the earth and in the image of God.
329. Is there any evidence that man existed before Adam?
None, and the whole current of Scripture is against the opinion: 1 Corinthians 15:45,
"The first man was made a living soul;" Eve is called the mother of all living (Gen. 3:20).
He must have been the first man by whom sin passed upon all men, and this was Adam.
All men are called the children of Adam (Ps. 49:2). If men existed before Adam, there
must be for them a new church and a new plan of salvation.
330. Was man created in puris naturalibus [pure nature], that is, without moral qualities?
No:
First, because man was made in the image of God and thus good and righteous
(Eccl. 7:29).
Secondly, because he was made for the glory and worship of God (Prov.
16:4; Rom. 11:36), for which both wisdom and holiness were requisite.
Thirdly, because where two qualities directly opposed to each [other] can
be predicated of the same subject, one or the other must belong to that subject.
And fourth, this state of pura naturae is a mere fancy supported by no evidence.
331. In what did the image of God in which man was created consist?
It consisted neither in any participation of the divine essence (which can be asserted only
of the Son), nor in any similitude in outward appearance, but in his nature, righteousness,
dominion, and immortality—
To the first of these pertains the substance of the human soul, being spiritual,
incorruptible, and immortal, endowed with intelligence and will.
The second: original righteousness, consisting in wisdom of mind,
holiness of will, and rectitude of affections, together with the most perfect
harmony among all his faculties. That man was possessed of this original
righteousness is proved:
First, Genesis 1:31, "God saw all this which He had made, that they were
very good," and from Ecclesiastes 7:29, "God made man upright."
Secondly, the image which is restored to us by grace and perfected
in heaven must be the same as that in which man was created, for it is
called a renovation.
Thirdly, because God made man perfect, and this perfection was
not merely voluntary, that is, arising from holy acts of the will, but
supposes a holy principle whence these actions flow.
And lastly, original righteousness was necessary to enable man to
serve God or exercise his dominion over creatures.
The third constituent of this image of God is the dominion given to man
over the creatures of this lower world, and also his immortality.
332. Was the first man immortal before the fall?
Yes, because
Man was made in the image of God, which supposes immortality.
Secondly, because if Adam was holy, he ought to be immortal, since God
has connected inseparably righteousness and life, sin and death; and from the
nature of things, moral good and physical good must be united, and vice versa.
Thirdly, Adam incurred death by sin (Gen. 2:17 and 3:19); hence, death is
said to have entered by sin and to be its wages (Rom. 5:12 and 6:23).
Fourthly, what is contrary to nature cannot be a consequent of nature.
Lastly, no cause of death existed before the fall.
333. Was original righteousness natural or supernatural?
Natural, that is, it was necessary to the perfection of his nature, and was one of the natural
gifts conferred on man in the state of integrity, but [it] did not belong essentially to
nature. There is a difference between constituent faculties and moral principles; a change
in the first implies a change of species, but not so of the other.
That it is natural appears because whatever is transmitted ad posteros [to
posterity] must be natural, and had Adam remained holy he would have propagated a
holy nature as he did a corrupt one after his fall. The remains of original righteousness
are natural. If original righteousness be supernatural, then the want [lack] of it must be
natural: natural ends require natural means. It was the natural end of man to honor God
and be happy, for which original righteousness is necessary.
334. Are human souls created immediately [by God] or propagated ex traduci [by being carried
over (from the parents to the child)]?5
Turretin and most other divines embrace the opinion of immediate creation and argue in
favor of it from first, the law of creation; second, the testimony of Scripture; third, from
reason.
In regard [to] the first, he says our souls ought to have the same origin as that of
Adam. The texts of sacred Scripture he produces are Ecclesiastes 12:7, "The dust returns
5 [The two views as to the origin of the soul are called creationism and traducianism.]
to the earth as it was but the spirit returned to God who gave it"; Zechariah 12:1, "The
word of the Lord which stretches out the heavens, and lays the foundations of the earth,
and forms the spirit of man within him"; Hebrews 12:9, "the Father of our spirits," and so
on. The reasons he urges against it are drawn from the difficulty of accounting for the
mode in which this propagation is effected.
Dr. Alexander unites the two opinions and considers human parents as much the
authors of the soul as of the body, that God creates them both, yet both produced by
means of parents, so that in common they partake of Adam's nature. The soul never had
an existence separate from the body, and from the first moment of its being belongs to the
guilty race of man.
335. Were human souls created all at once or successively as men are born?
As men are born.
336. Is the soul of man immortal in its own nature?
Yes: All Scripture is founded upon the immortality of the soul (Matt. 22:32; 10:28), and
those places in which eternal life is promised, or eternal death threatened; from the
providence of God; His truth and wisdom require it; the desire of immortality proves it;
spirituality; independence of the body; the consent of all nations.
337. Were all worlds created during the six days mentioned in Genesis?
We have no reason to think they were not.
338. When were angels created?
This is not a subject of revelation. Most divines suppose they were included [in] the
works of the six days, the principal argument in favor of which is that what was before
the foundation of the world is, in the language of sacred Scripture, from eternity (Ps.
90:2; Prov. 8:22). But this supposition allows too little time for the fall of those who kept
not their first estate, for the devil's determining on the destruction of man, and his
effecting his ruin.6
6 [Be it considered whether at least six days were sufficient for the fall of Satan, if, in its outward expression, Satan's temptation of Eve and Adam to disobey God (which would overthrow the human race, the special object of God's favor) was the first outward manifestation of his rebellion, a third of the angels (Rev. 12:4) following thereafter. This understanding is consistent with the account in Isa. 14:12–15, which likely refers to Satan's fall into sin by pride, desiring to be like the Most High. Isaiah's account is general and reveals the birth and growth of sin internally in Satan, though it does not necessarily detail the specific instances of how this pride manifested itself in specific outward actions; thus, it is consistent with Satan's temptation of Eve being the first outward manifestation of Satan's subtle and treacherous rebellion. It is also possible that Satan's open rebellion from God in heaven happened before his temptation of Eve, and yet within the space of at least six days. If man did not remain long in his first estate (as is possibly referred to in the Hebrew of Ps. 49:12), then it is no wonder if some of the angels did not either.]