Hebrews chapter 11:1-3

Hebrews chapter 11    

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1-3) The biblical definition of faith begins this deep and highly theological three verse prologue.

 Faith = the hupostais – the firm conviction; that which has actual existence, (1:3).

 (The opposite of hypothesis or speculative theory) – Assurance;

the substance of; the foundation of; the assurance of the substantial and foundational existence of the unseen realm of reality from which all of the things that exist in the seen realm; that is to say, the material realm, come from.

This amounts to a strong affirmation of the Judeo/ Christian world view; i.e.

Theistic dualism; simply stated: reality consists of the immaterial spiritual realm and the material physical realm.

Furthermore, and more to the point; God exists independently from the material realm.

He transcends it, precedes it, created it and although He enters into it, He is not restricted by it nor is He confined to it.

Things not seen would include; God; the act of creation; and the source of matter, time and space.

The faith in view here is very specific; it means “to believe God”,

This of course presupposes belief in God. (Heb.11:6).

It is an affirmation of the validity of and inspiration of the word of God, the Bible.

2. This faith is commendable in the sight of God, as is demonstrated by the approval of the men of old; which will be elaborated upon in the rest of the chapter.

3. “By faith we understand.” Credo ut intelligam. – 

I believe in order to understand.

Both Augustine (the Christian philosopher and Church father); and Maimonides (the Jewish sage and codifier of the thirteen principles of Rabbinic Judaism) taught and held to this axiomatic principle; which is clearly contained within this verse of scripture.

“The worlds (ages) were prepared by the (a rhema) word of God”:

Gen.1:1-3 – And God said... (Divine fiat; the power of creation through divine command).

Jn. 1:1 – The Logos (Word of God, is God) all things came into being by Him.

Col.1:16 – By Him (Jesus) all things, visible and invisible, were created.

“What is seen was not made out of things which are visible.”

So, here we arrive at a crucial aspect of the evidence of our faith.

We believe in the Biblical account of creation.

⇨ I am going to pause here from analysis of the text to examine the various views taken concerning the origin of the universe. We have considered some aspects of the various worldviews regarding the nature of reality (materialism, naturalism, dualism, theism, deism, atheism, etc.); and the origins of time, space and matter over the course of our studies together in the past (self creation, self existence, illusionism; and creation by a pre-existent transcendent, uncaused causal agent);

However, I do not want to pass over this opportunity to address the specific concept contained within this particular portion.

It is very important and it should help us to understand more clearly the other aspects of creation and reality that we have already discussed.

The question before us is; what is the universe made of and where did it come from?

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Where did it all come from?

Concerning the origin of the stuff of creation there are three basic views.

They are: Ex Materia, Ex Deo and Ex Nihilo (from the Latin).

I. Creation from pre-existent material: “Creatio ex Materia”.

The materialistic view of creation holds to the belief that matter (physical energy) is eternal;

It can neither be created nor can it go out of existence, it merely changes form.

This, they contend is a basic and unbreakable law of the physical universe known as

The First Law of Thermodynamics. (This is actually not a correct understanding of the law which states

that the amount of energy in the universe remains constant; without comment as to how it got there).

There are two basic categories within this view:

1) Theistic creation out of pre-existent matter: God uses pre-existent matter to bring the universe into existence; (Platonism); both God and matter are eternal.

In this schema, God is the eternal Former (Demiurgos). He organizes chaotic eternal matter (chaos) into organized forms (cosmos) based upon eternal ideas (eidos) that exist within the eternal realm of forms.

God is seen as the organizer or the Former of all things, not the producer of them.

God is not sovereign over creation; matter exists outside of God.

He can shape and form it but it exists without Him and places limits on what He can do with it by its own nature.

2) Atheistic materialism: only matter and energy exist, and they are eternal. (A view shared by some agnostics).

The so called “God Hypothesis” is not necessary to explain the origin of the universe.

Matter has always existed. If you say that something has to exist without a cause, then it might just as well be the universe as God. (John Stewart Mills, Bertrand Russell, Carl Sagan, Richard Dawkins).

Even consciousness can be explained through natural material causes (it is argued).

Once you grant the eternal existence of matter, then everything else can be explained in terms of natural evolution.

The formula for creation in this system is; “Time plus matter plus chance equals everything.”

< I will reserve rebuttal for creatio ex materia until after all other views are presented. >

II. Creation out of the being and essence of God: “Creatio ex Deo”.

Whereas the materialist view holds that all is matter; this view holds that all is spirit or divine mind.

God is all an all is one with God. This concept is better known as Pantheism.

Again, there are two basic categories within this view:

1) Absolute Pantheism: Only mind / spirit exists; matter is not real.

The western view holds that all is one, or more specifically, The One. (Parmenides).

Everything is one being. There can not be two or more beings because they would have to be different, but the only way in which they could be different is for one or the other to not be; the difference between being and non -being is the only real difference possible (according to Parmenides).

So everything that participates in being is one; all is one and One is all.

The eastern view holds that only God (Brahman) is real and that the universe is all illusion (maya).

Man lives in illusion, ignorant of the fact that he is God, until he looks within himself and he discovers that the depth of his soul is the depth of the universe and that he is in fact God. All comes from God and all is God.

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2) Non-Absolute Pantheism: All things spring forth and flow out of the One, but not all things are the One. The many are in the One, but the one is not in the many.

All creatures are part of the Creator by way of emanation; like the rays of the sun bring the light of the sun, but they are not the sun.

The universe is made out of God. All things come out of Him, are a part of Him and return back to Him in the end.

This view was held by Plotinus and the Neo-Platonists. Augustine held this opinion for the early part of his philosophical career.

Modern manifestations of Pantheism have much in common with the ancient thinkers.

God and creation are eternal.

Man is God.

The world is made out of God.

New age thinkers like Shirley MacLain and Marilyn Ferguson promote this kind of thinking today.

III. Creation from out of nothing: “Creatio ex Nihilo”.

A word of explanation and clarification will be very helpful here at the beginning by way of silencing the critics and contrarians who would immediately cry foul at the concept of something coming out of nothing.

Let me say, without any shadow of a doubt that it is impossible for something to come from nothing in the sense of something coming into existence with no cause (this is the myth of spontaneous generation and is absurd);

All that hold to this belief in creatio ex nihilo would agree that if it ever was the case that there was nothing in existence; then there would be nothing now. The existence of something now proves the existence of the eternal nature of the Creator. 

The fundamental law of reality is “From Nothing, Nothing Comes” –  Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit.

It is now, and will always remain the case, that is impossible for nothing to give rise to something.

And if that is what we were saying then it would be nonsense.

But that is not what we are saying, despite the accusations of the zealots with opposing views.

However, to say and agree that something cannot be caused by nothing is not to say or to even imply that something cannot come after nothing. In fact, this is and must be the case.

Once there was no universe; no space, no time and no matter; then there was. Something came after the nothing,

Not from it, in the sense of being caused by nothing; the something that began to exist had a different cause.

The cause of something coming out of nothing is not nothing, it is God, and God is something, not nothing.

There was no preexistent material or space time fabric; there was nothing but God and He exists outside of the confines of material space/ time reality.

All things that begin to exist must have a cause (the law of causality); in other words, whatever comes into being must have an antecedent (preexisting) cause.

This is not the same as saying that all things must have a cause; only that, “whatever begins to exist must have a cause” (technically; every effect must have a cause).

We know from scientific observation and through philosophical reasoning that the universe had a beginning.

God is eternal and had no cause; God is not an effect; He is the cause of all that exists outside of Himself.

He is the necessary cause that must precede all effects, otherwise, there could be no effects; no uncaused effects. This in no way violates the law of noncontradiction. 

Thomas Aquinas addressed this question with helpful clarity:

“Creation must be out of nothing, which is the same as non-being; which is absolutely nothing”;

Not some kind of invisible immaterial something (that would be ex materia).

Neither is creation out of the essence or substance of God, it cannot be; for God is infinite and indivisible.

God is eternal and is necessary; the universe is temporal, finite and contingent.

There is a vast and irreconcilable difference between the Creator and the creation regarding essence and being.

Only the Judeo/ Christian doctrine of creation ex nihilo is consistent with reality as we observe it; with logic as we are forced to adhere to it; and with revelation as we have received it.

Heb.11:3 – “The worlds were prepared by God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.”