Johannes Marck’s Marrow of Christian Theology, Didactic-Elenctic VIII

CHAPTER VIII

Of Creation

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I. The external works are either of grace or of nature; and these latter are again two: creation and providence.

II. Creation is perhaps named from the Hebrew ברא  [to create / call forth]. To it corresponds not only the verb ברא, or κτίζειν [to create], but also עשה, or ποιεῖν [to make / do], although this in itself is broader, as appears from very frequent usage: Ps. 33:6, “by the Word of Jehovah were the heavens made”; Ps. 121:2, “my help cometh from Jehovah, which made heaven and earth,” etc. We note this against the Socinians, who, in John 1:3, πάντα δι᾽ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο [all things were made by Him], etc., are unwilling to have creation denoted because of the use of the verb “to make”; though the passage treats of the first beginning and of all things made, even of the world which did not know Christ, and of the Incarnation which followed much later.

III. The name creation is also transferred to providence: Isa. 45:7, “forming light and creating darkness, making peace and creating evil”; Ps. 104:30, “Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created,” etc.; and to the gracious reformation of the world and of the elect: Isa. 65:17, “behold, I create new heavens and a new earth”; 2 Cor. 5:17, “if any man be in Christ,” etc. But here it denotes the first framing of the world. The word, taken in its full signification, may rightly be said to denote production—

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—from nothing, or, what is the same, production by an internal act alone.

IV. Creation is taught generally not only by Scripture, but also by nature: through the dependence of things, perpetual change, and the novelty of histories and arts. Some object that Paul refers creation to things believed: Heb. 11:3, πίστει νοοῦμεν κατηρτίσθαι τοὺς αἰῶνας ῥήματι Θεοῦ [through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God], etc. But we answer that the same apostle elsewhere also writes that God’s virtues are known from the creatures: Rom. 1:20, τὰ γὰρ ἀόρατα αὐτοῦ... καθορᾶται [for His invisible things... are clearly seen], etc.; and that the same thing can be known both naturally and supernaturally.

V. It is defined as the external action of God, whereby, by the command of His will alone, He made the whole universe in the beginning of time, in the space of six days, out of nothing, unto the praise of His glory to be demonstrated therein, and unto the salvation of the elect.

VI. Creation is the work of God: Isa. 40:26, 28, “Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number; He calleth them all by names,” etc.; “hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not,” etc.; Neh. 9:6, “Thou, even Thou, art Jehovah alone; Thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth,” etc.; Rev. 4:11, ἄξιος εἶ, Κύριε, λαβεῖν τὴν δόξαν καὶ τὴν τιμὴν καὶ τὴν δύναμιν, ὅτι σὺ ἔκτισας τὰ πάντα [Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for Thou hast created all things], etc. This is also taught by the infinite power required here, and by the highest elegance of the work.

Therefore all idols must be far removed from this: Jer. 10:11–12, “thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens,” etc.; likewise the fortuitous concourse of atoms, and finally nature, which wholly flows from God, or else denotes God Himself.

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VII. It is also the work of God alone: Job 9:8, “which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea”; Isa. 44:24, “I am Jehovah that maketh all things, that stretcheth forth the heavens alone, that spreadeth abroad the earth by Myself,” etc. Nor does any instrument have place here, since an instrument always presupposes fit matter. This must be held against various men who formerly asserted that things were produced by angels; and against the Arians, who regarded the Son as the Father’s instrument in creation.

VIII. Indeed, the power of creating, because it is omnipotent, is incommunicable. Certain Scholastics cannot overturn this by the example of miracles, since here creatures are instruments, not physical but moral, at whose presence and declaration God works. Hence it follows that angels do not operate outwardly by bare will; otherwise, because of the approval of the divine work, actual creation would have to be attributed to them.

IX. Creation is common to the Trinity: Ps. 33:6, “by the Word of Jehovah were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the Spirit of His mouth,” etc.; so that when all things are said to have been made by the Son, only the order of operation is indicated. Economically, however, this first work of creation is especially attributed to the Father: 1 Cor. 8:6, “but to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things,” etc.

X. Creation must not be conceived after the manner of generation, or of the transfusion of divine perfections, or of fatiguing labor, but of the most powerful command of the will: Rev. 4:11, διὰ τὸ θέλημά σου εἰσι καὶ ἐκτίσθησαν [for Thy will they are and were created]; Gen. 1:3, “and God said, Let there be light”; Ps. 33:9, “for He spake”—

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—“and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast”; Rom. 4:17, καλοῦντος τὰ μὴ ὄντα ὡς ὄντα [calling those things which be not as though they were]; Heb. 11:3, “by faith we understand,” κατηρτίσθαι τοὺς αἰῶνας ῥήματι Θεοῦ [that the worlds were framed by the word of God], etc. Other things contained in those expressions must be explained as anthropopathic.

XI. Hence it follows that in creation God did not pass from rest to labor, since it was the same eternal will of God; but that things then, by God’s will, passed from non-being to being.

XII. Creation is also an action of God so free that it was not necessary for God to will it; for otherwise we would have future things eternal, necessary, and consequently independent and eternal. Objection: God, as the supreme good, is most communicative of Himself.

Reply: This communication can partly be observed among the divine Persons, and partly presupposes the existence of the creature.

XIII. Considered passively, creation denotes the fitting production of things by the bare command of the will. Thus creation was made out of nothing, as is clear from Heb. 11:3, εἰς τὸ μὴ ἐκ φαινομένων τὰ βλεπόμενα γεγονέναι [so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear]; Rom. 4:17, καλοῦντος τὰ μὴ ὄντα ὡς ὄντα [calling those things which be not as though they were]; and from the universal beginning mentioned by Moses in Gen. 1:1; and from the impossible conception of eternal matter besides God. The philosophers object, “from nothing, nothing is made”; but this canon must be understood of natural generation and of secondary causes.

XIV. The second creation was also made out of nothing in a certain respect, or out of unfit matter, namely that formless mass, which existed not before the beginning, but was produced in the beginning of creation—

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—Gen. 1:1. From this came the expanse, the upper and lower waters, plants, animals, and the human body. This is wrongly rejected by some as Semi-Hermogenian; for although God, had He willed, could immediately have created all things out of nothing in the most perfect state, there is no doubt of that.

XV. The production of all things was most fitting. Hence on each day the approval of the work is read, except on the second day, because the work of separating the waters was then begun, but not yet perfected. This should rather be said than that we should translate the first approval of the third day, verse 9, in the pluperfect, contrary to Moses’ usage in this chapter, “and God had said,” etc., and refer it to the second day. But the question whether God could have made all things better is empty and curious.

XVI. The best order was observed in production, so that God declared His wisdom and goodness in progress from the less perfect to the more perfect, and no less His power in giving light before the stars, and in other things.

XVII. God proposed to Himself as the ultimate end His own glory: Prov. 16:4, “Jehovah hath made all things for Himself”; Rom. 11:36, εἰς αὐτὸν τὰ πάντα [to Him are all things], etc.; for His many virtues shine forth from this. Yet man is rightly considered as a subordinate end. Paul teaches this, 1 Cor. 3:21–22, τὰ πάντα γὰρ ὑμῶν ἐστιν, εἴτε Παῦλος [for all things are yours, whether Paul], etc.; εἴτε κόσμος, εἴτε ζωή, εἴτε θάνατος, εἴτε ἐνεστῶτα, εἴτε μέλλοντα, πάντα ὑμῶν ἐστιν [whether the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours], etc. This can also be easily shown from the excellence of man among corporeal things, as furnished with reason; and especially concerning heaven, both supreme and starry—

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—and aerial, angels, lights, earth, etc. Yet when some understand individual men, or that these are the only end, or that only their bodily advantage is regarded—

Objection 1. Many things, because of distance, furnish no use to man.

Reply: They certainly do furnish it, mediately or immediately.

Objection 2. Many things lie hidden from man.

Reply: Notwithstanding this, they can be made for him; and ignorance can be removed.

Objection 3. Man thus thinks too proudly of himself.

Reply: It is not pride if man, from the Scriptures, acknowledges his excellency with humble gratitude toward God.

XVIII. Furthermore, it is lawful and fitting to search out particular ends in Scripture and nature, provided excessive curiosity and immodest or insufficiently considered assertion are absent.

XIX. God made all things in the beginning of time, which began to flow from this point. And although He could have made the world so that it would already have existed longer, nevertheless it could not have been created from eternity; because an eternal being is necessary and independent, and creation denotes transition from non-being to being. This must be held against various Scholastics.

XX. Although the number of years from the creation of the world cannot be precisely determined, it is nevertheless clear that there were only about four thousand years unto Christ. Those who calculate far more years among the Gentiles either speak fabulously, or ought to recognize that those were formerly smaller years.

XXI. It is most probable that the world was created around the autumnal equinox; because this was the beginning of the civil year among the Jews, Exod. 23:16, and among other Orientals; and the fruits then—

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—are mature. Indeed, the following season is most suitable for rains, which began in the flood in the second month, Gen. 7:11.

Many object in favor of spring:

1. That God Himself then began the beginning of the year.

Reply: Of the sacred year only, and in memory not of creation, but of deliverance from Egypt.

2. That then all things sprout.

Reply: Germination in the first creation was extraordinary, and the fruits were immediately advanced to their maturity.

3. That this time was restored by the death and resurrection of Christ.

Reply: It is not necessary that this restoration in the time of the year agree with the first creation.

XXII. Night preceded day: Gen. 1:2, “and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” Hence among the Jews and those Orientals the νυχθήμερον [night-day, full day] begins from evening.

Objection: Darkness, as the privation of light, cannot be placed before light.
Reply: Scripture nevertheless plainly does this also in 2 Cor. 4:6, ὁ Θεὸς ὁ εἰπών ἐκ σκότους φῶς λάμψαι [God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness]. Nor does privation always presuppose a contrary positive act already present.

XXIII. Although God could have perfected all things in one moment, He nevertheless willed the space of six days, which must not be changed either, with various fathers, into one moment, nor, with the Scholastics, into six moments, as if all the works of the individual days were perfected in an indivisible moment. For Moses names a day continuously, and rest is only attributed to the seventh day; and the motion in the separation and adorning of bodies could not have been momentary. Indeed, Scripture says no such thing. Thus it is better to acknowledge that the first creation was indeed made in an instant, the corporeal mass—

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—and spirits, namely; but that the individual bodies, by the second creation, were produced successively from the unformed mass through six νυχθήμερα [day-night periods], and indeed very swiftly at God’s nod, if we consider the multitude and magnitude of the works.

Objection 1. Things exist at God’s command: Gen. 1:3; Ps. 33:9.

Reply: There only the swiftness and sufficiency of the divine will alone are noted. Hence the same phrase is used concerning successive works of providence: Ps. 147:15–16, “He sendeth forth His commandment upon earth: His word runneth very swiftly. He giveth snow like wool: He scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes,” etc.

Objection 2. Elsewhere we read of a point of time, στιγμῇ χρόνου [in a moment of time], and of the twinkling of an eye: Luke 4:5; 1 Cor. 15:51.

Reply: There the subject is not creation; nor is an altogether indivisible moment meant.

Objection 3. God’s power must be acknowledged, and it would thus be more manifest.

Reply: An argument from God’s power alone is not valid; and God sufficiently displayed His power in the successive and very swift adorning of all things.

XXIV. On the first day God created heaven and earth; that is, this whole lower globe, from which the expanse, light, earth, and water could proceed; and His supreme throne. Against the Ubiquitarians, we hold that this is a bodily and created place, from Ps. 113:5–6: “Who is like unto Jehovah our God, who dwelleth on high, who humbleth Himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth?” 1 Thess. 4:16, ὅτι αὐτὸς ὁ Κύριος ἐν κελεύσματι, ἐν φωνῇ ἀρχαγγέλου... καταβήσεται ἀπ᾽ οὐρανοῦ [for the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel]; Neh. 9:6, “Thou, even Thou, art Jehovah alone; Thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens,” etc.; Heb. 11:10, 14—

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—“for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God,” etc.; “for they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country,” etc.

Objection 1. Angels ministering on earth are established in heaven: Matt. 18:10.

Reply: Not at the same time, but this is their ordinary place of habitation.

Objection 2. This heaven is ἀχειροποίητον [not made with hands], 2 Cor. 5:1, and the σκηνὴν ἀληθινήν [true tabernacle], Heb. 9:11, 24.

Reply: Human dwellings are said not to be made with hands; nor does this pertain to the structure of the old tabernacle.

2. God created light: which does not denote angels, nor some accident without a subject, as the Papists wish in favor of transubstantiation; but true light diffused from luminous bodies scattered through the hemisphere, opposed to darkness, and constituting day as distinct from night.

XXV. On the second day God made the רקיע  [expanse], or firmament; which is the space between the earthly globe and the highest heaven, in which are both the stars and meteors. By this the lower waters were immediately distinguished from the upper; by which we understand the clouds, which are called waters: Job 26:8, “He bindeth up the waters in His thick clouds”; Prov. 30:4, “who hath bound the waters in a garment?” etc. And they are distinguished from others in such a way that, with respect to situation, they are above them.

Objection 1. These are not above the expanse, but in it.

Reply: Not above the whole of it, but still above a part of it.

Objection 2. Waters are placed above the heavens: Ps. 148:4.

Reply: Not above the starry or highest heaven, but above the aerial heaven, which we most nearly enjoy, with respect to its part.

Objection 3. There the waters are distinguished from meteors.

Reply: A genus may rightly be named alongside its various species.

XXVI. On the third day God first separated the waters—

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—from the earth, so that the bare earth was visible, and founded immovably above the waters: Ps. 24:2, “for He hath founded it upon the seas”; 2 Pet. 3:5, γῆ ἐξ ὕδατος καὶ δι᾽ ὕδατος συνεστῶσα [the earth standing out of the water and in the water]. Then He adorned the earth with various herbs and trees; nor should one doubt that thorns and poisonous herbs were also then produced.

XXVII. On the fourth day God made the heavenly lights, greater and lesser. These are by no means animate and rational, even though in Job 38:7 angels are understood by “morning stars.” Their use is to distinguish day from night, to mark appointed seasons, and to produce light and heat.

Hence judicial astrology is censured, by which future free and contingent things are predicted from the position of the stars: because God forbade this, Lev. 19:31, “regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards”; Jer. 10:2, “learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them,” etc. And He vindicates to Himself the knowledge of future things: Isa. 41:22, “let them bring them forth, and show us what shall happen,” etc.; “show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods,” etc. Indeed, the far-removed position of the stars, along with other things, does not allow their connection with such events.

Objection 1. Christ approved this prediction: Luke 12:54–55, “when ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower,” etc.

Reply: There the subject is only the constitution of the clouds and an immediately impending storm.

Objection 2. The Magi understood the nativity of Christ from a star: Matt. 2:2.

Reply: Rather from divine revelation; and the phenomenon was something in the air—

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—which served them as a guide on the way.

Objection 3. Many examples are given by which this astrology is confirmed.

Reply: Many are doubtful; and there could also have been collusion with the demon in astrologers.

XXVIII. On the fifth day God produced fish from the waters, even the greatest; and birds from the earth. Among these, the existence of the phoenix, rare and long-lived, seems to be confirmed from Job 29:18: “I shall die in my nest, and multiply my days as the the וכחול [sand],” etc.

XXIX. On the sixth day God created the remaining living creatures: cattle, wild beasts, reptiles, and finally man. But it is foolish to wish to place all these things also on the moon or on other planets, as on the earth; since Moses recognizes them only on earth, and from one blood of Adam the whole human race arose: Acts 17:26, ἐποίησέν τε ἐξ ἑνὸς αἵματος πᾶν ἔθνος ἀνθρώπων [and hath made of one blood all nations of men]. General observations through telescopes are doubtful; nor may anything be concluded from God’s power apart from His revealed will.

XXX. After the works were completed, God rested on the seventh day, so that He produced no further new species or additional bodies, and acquiesced in His works: Gen. 2:2. With this rest is immediately joined the blessing of the seventh day above the others, and indeed by its special sanctification unto the worship of God. Here a prolepsis is rashly imagined in one word rather than another, especially since the Decalogue itself afterward mentions the sanctification of this day as something done formerly.

XXXI. All the works, especially corporeal ones, are called by the name of universe and world; among the Hebrews, heaven and earth. The world is defined as—

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—the ordered frame of all bodies, depending upon one principle and tending toward one end.

XXXII. This is the first world which exists, since Moses says universally that it was created in the beginning, while Peter by “the old world” understands the earth before the flood: 2 Pet. 2:5. And it is also the last world, although in its qualities it is one day to be changed.

XXXIII. There is only one world, since neither Scripture nor reason teaches that there are many. Thus the many worlds and intermundia of the Epicureans must be rejected, whether they understood by these the frames of heaven and earth, or only earthly globes.

XXXIV. The world truly has bounds to its extension, although we cannot determine its magnitude, according to 1 Kings 8:27: “behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee”; Isa. 48:13, “My right hand hath spanned the heavens,” etc.; and according to the nature of body, which consists of finite parts and has quantity.

Objection 1. The heavens cannot be measured: Isa. 40:12; Jer. 31:37.

Reply: Not by men, but certainly by God; and the same is there said of the earth and waters, which assuredly have their own limits.

Objection 2. In us there is the idea of a world extended into infinity.

Reply: This is false, although we imagine nothing in the manner of real space beyond it; nor are our thoughts the measures of things.

XXXV. Therefore God, by His absolute omnipotence, can add to the created mass, and thus make more worlds, such as this one now is.

Objection 1. Several universes cannot be conceived.

Reply: New bodies could still be added to the universe already created; this is sufficient.

Objection 2. Two worlds cannot be joined or disjoined by—

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—any space, without always being one.

Reply: Whether they are joined or disjoined, they are always distinct from one another; and therefore they are two, not one.

XXXVI. One intelligent soul does not belong to the world, since many parts are inanimate, and the world is one by aggregation.

Objection 1. The Spirit of God brooding over the waters is mentioned: Gen. 1:2.

Reply: This is the third Person of the Deity, creating and fostering all things.

Objection 2. All things cannot be most wisely directed except by a common soul.

Reply: This is done by the power of divine providence.

Objection 3. The perfection of the world requires a soul.

Reply: Rather the contrary: its elegance is increased by the diversity of animate and inanimate parts.

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