"...And 'nothing' does not mean a materia ex qua, a nihil positivum (Plato's me on, chaos), but it means absolutely nothing, nihil negativum, materiam excludens; for as Gen. 1:1 tells us, before the creation of the world nothing at all was in existence except God. 'In the beginning' means that then the things outside God had their beginning. According to Scripture, God alone, in distinction from all things outside Himself, had no beginning. That is the emphatic declaration of Ps. 90:2 and of Col. 1:17. Men are bound by the rule: De nihilo nihil fit {'From nothing, nothing is made' - Scaer}, but not so God. God follows the rule given {in?} Rom. 4:17: 'God calleth those things which be not as though they were.' Accordingly, only he knows God who knows that he created the world from nothing.'" (p. 468)

"These six days are neither to be shortened, for pious reasons (to set forth God's omnipotence), to a moment (Athanasius, Augustine, Hilary), nor are they to be extended, for impious reasons (to bring Scripture into agreement with the 'assured results' of science), to six periods of indefinite length (thus almost all modern theologians). Scripture forbids us to interpret the days as periods, for it divides these days into evening and morning. That forces us to accept the days as days of twenty-four hours.⁴" (p. 468)

Footnote 4, pages 468-469: "Luther: 'Hilary and Augustine, two great lights in the Church, believed that the world was made of a sudden and all at once (subito et simul), not successively during the space of six days. Augustine plays with these six days in a marvelous manner. He considers them to be mystical days of knowledge in the angels (mysticos dies cognitionis in angelis) and not six natural days.... As Moses is not instructing us concerning allegorical creatures or an allegorical world, but concerning natural creatures and a world visible and capable of being apprehended by the senses, he calls, as we say in the proverb, 'a post a post,' he calls the thing by the right name, day and evening: his meaning is the same as ours when we use those terms, without any allegory whatever.' (St. L. I:6.) Vilmar, too, admits: 'The manner in which these "six days" in Gen. 2:2-3 and later in the Law are used shows that days of twenty-four hours are meant, and the wording used (evening and morning, the first day, the second day, etc.) seems to speak in favor of it). But later he adds: 'On the other hand, the description of God given in Ps. 90:4 and 2 Pet. 3:8, according to which a thousand years are as one day and one day as a thousand years with the Lord, favors the assumption of periods in the creation.' But it is utterly impossible to parallel Ps. 90:4 and 2 Pet 3:8 with the record of the creation. These passages state that in God and with God there is no time. But the record of the creation announces by its very first words: 'In the beginning,' that it deals with time, that is, a historical report. Both Luther and the dogmaticians stress this point. Quenstedt, I, 613"

"God first created the rudiments of heaven and earth, matter in a chaotic condition (Weltstoff; Luther moles coeli et terrae {'the "heap" of heaven and earth: ref. to primeval condition of the creation.' - Scaer}). Then He created, one after the other:

1. 1) the light (vv. 3-5);
2. 2) the visible firmament (vv. 6-8);
3. 3) the sea and the dry land, together with the plant life on the earth (vv. 9-13);
4. 4) the sun, the moon and the stars in the heavens (vv. 14-19);
5. 5) fish and fowl (vv. 20-23);
6. 6) land animals and, finally, man (vv. 24-28)."

(p. 469, format modified)

"This order observed by God cannot be interpreted as a self-development of the creature (evolution), for in various stages of the order recorded everything depends on the divine monoergism. The earth, for instance, does not produce grass and herbs (v. 11) and living creatures (v. 24) by way of self-development, but by the word of the Almighty: 'Let the earth bring forth,' the earth causes plant life and animal life to spring forth.... The earth is merely, as the dogmaticians say, the materia ex qua {'Something from which' - Scaer}. God alone creates the plant and the animal." (pp. 469-470)

The First Day: The phrase 'In the beginning' refers to things outside God. When they came into existence, time and space began.—'Heaven and earth' is usually employed in Scripture to denote all created things, the universe.... But since the following verses describe heaven and earth as we know them today, as being formed out of the original substance, we rightly understand this original substance, 'heaven and earth' of Gen. 1:1, to be the 'rudis moles coeli et terrae' (St. L. I:9), or, in modern phraseology, the 'Weltstoff.'—The water was created with the crude material, since it was present on the first day (Gen. 1:2) and surrounded the earth (v. 9).—The {Hebrew} term tohu wa-bohu {'without form, and void' KJV} is used Jer. 4:23 to describe a devastated country, but in Gen. 1:2 it designates a chaotic condition in which things are still a formless mass.

"The theory, held by Kurtz, Delitzsch, Rudelbach, and Guericke, that this tohu wa-bohu denotes the remains of an earlier world which perished when a part of the angels fell and that the creation described in Genesis 1 is merely the restitution of a prior creation that has no foundation whatever in the text.—Nor does anything in the text indicate that 'heaven' refers to the empyrean (coelum empyrium), a supposed region of pure fire in which God dwells with the angels and the saints, as was held by Scholastics, Romanists, Calvinists, and Arminians. {Footnote 7: 'Quenstedt, I, 623: "A sweet daydream and a mere figment."'} The heaven of angels and saints is not a created locality, but the condition of the blessed vision of God. Matt. 18:10 teaches that the angels, while attending the 'little ones' on earth, at the same time always behold the face of God in heaven."

"The light which God created on the first day was the 'elemental light,' which, on the fourth day, was concentrated in the celestial bodies. According to the clear statement of Scripture there was light before sun, moon, and stars existed. Nobody will object to this as long as he believes in an omnipotent God." (pp. 470-471)

"The Second Day: The expanse, or 'firmament' (raqiya), is not the atmosphere surrounding the globe (as Baier and others have thought), but the visible vault of the sky (Luther and others); v. 8: 'God called the raqiya heaven,' v. 14: 'the raqiya of heaven.'" (pp. 471-472)

"The Third Day: God gathered the waters under the heavens together at one place and let dry land appear. At God's command the land then brought forth the plant life. The plants appeared before the seed: God created the plants, which 'yielded seed.' This fact answers the famous question: Which was first, the oak or the acorn?" (p. 472)

"The Fourth Day: God created the celestial bodies, sun, moon, and stars. We are not told of what (materia ex qua) they were created, but it is stated for what purpose (finis cuius) and for whose good (finis cui) they were made. They are to serve as the dispensers of light and the indicators of the times and seasons (Gen. 1:14-18)." (p. 472)

"...The earth does not serve the sun, but the sun was made to serve the earth. The existence and activity of the sun, moon, earth, and stars are dependent on the existence of the earth. When the earth has run its course, having fulfilled its purpose, which is to provide a habitation for men to hear the Gospel of the crucified Savior of sinners, then the sun, moon, and stars will disappear with this present earth. Matt. 24:14 speaks plain language: 'And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." With the end of this world the end of all things, of the universe, panton to telos (1 Pet. 4:7), is come. Not matter what size, compared with the earth, men may ascribe to sun, moon, and stars, these celestial bodies have no independent meaning and function, but their history and significance or function are dependent upon the earth." (pp. 472-473)

"The Fifth Day: God created the aquatic animals and the birds (vv. 20-22)." (p. 474)

"Sixth Day: God created the land animals out of the ground (Gen. 1:24; 2:19). If it be asked whether the scavengers, maggots, and the like, and the predatory animals, which are now at war with man, were also created by God on this day, we should answer that (a) these animals also are a part of creation, but (b) they had a different sphere of activity. Before the Fall there was no phthora (decay) in nature, nor had the animals risen against man. The poisonous plants either had a different nature before the Fall, or they were not harmful to man in his uncorrupted state. Thus Luther and the dogmaticians."

"Finally, on the sixth day, God created man. The fact that man is the crown of creation, superior to the other creatures, is indicated by the following circumstances:

1. 1) Before He made man, the Triune God held a consultation: 'Let us make man' (Gen. 1:26).
2. 2) God did something special when He created man. He did not simply speak, as He did when He created animals: 'Let the earth bring forth,' but He molded the body of man out of the clay and by a special act breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (Gen. 2:7).
3. 3) The fact that God breathed into man the breath of life indicates that man was given a life principle different from that of the animals, namely, a rational and immortal soul. However, the human soul is not an efflux of God's essence or a part of God (pantheism).
4. 4) Of special importance is the creation of man in God's own image (tselem and demuwth, Gen 1:26). Man was endowed with the knowledge of God and perfect righteousness and holiness. (This matter will be more thoroughly presented in the chapter 'Man Before the Fall' {I, A, p. 515}).
5. 5) The installation of man as ruler over the earth and it inhabitants (Gen. 1:26-28).

(pp. 474-475, format modified)

"The assumption that man consists of three essentially different parts: of the soma (body) as the material part; the psuche (soul) as the lower, or animal, principle of life, which man has in common with animals; and the pneuma (spirit) as the higher, or spiritual, principle of life, which distinguishes man from the animals, is not sufficiently supported in Luke 1:46-47 and 1 Thess. 5:23.... Dichotomy is favored decidedly by passages like Matt. 10:28.... Man is here described according to his entire essence (his 'totality'), and still only 'body' and 'soul' are mentioned. Matt. 16:25-26 is also conclusive...The 'soul' and 'spirit' are essentially the same and are interchangeable terms is also evidenced by the fact that the departed, after having laid aside the body, are called both 'spirits' (pneumata) and 'souls' (psuchai) (1 Pet. 3:19 and Rev. 6:9)." (pp. 476-477)

There were no pre-Adamites, nor were there co-Adamites (contemporaries of Adam), but all men are Adamites, i.e., Adam is the first man and the progenitor of all mankind. This is no theological problem, but a doctrine clearly revealed in Scripture. Gen. 1:26-28: one set of parents; Acts 17:26; Rom. 5:12." (p. 477)

"1. Did Moses receive the account of creation by direct divine revelation, or was it handed down to him by oral transmission from our first parents, who received it from the Lord? (See Luther on Gen. 25:5-6, St. L. I:1758). That is immaterial, for in either case the Biblical report is God's own report, since all Scripture is given by inspiration of God." (p. 478)

"2. Genesis 1 and 2 are not two essentially different stories of the creation, but Genesis 2 is plainly seen to be a fuller report of the creation and of the first dwelling place of man. The reason why 'Elohim' of Genesis 1 is changed to 'Jehovah Elohim' of Genesis 2 is that from here on God's activity pertaining to man is the subject of the story. Hence we have in Genesis 2 the beginning of the history of mankind." (p. 479)

"3. The controversy as to the best world. We know that the world as created by God was good. Gen. 1:31. Could God not have created a better world? This is a foolish question, since God's will the standard of all things, therefore also of goodness and beauty. The creatures were good because they were exactly as God desired them to be. Axiom: Causam exemplarem (pattern) creationis ideae divinae rerum creandarum constituunt. {'God's thoughts about the creatures served as the pattern for creation.' - Scaer} (Baier-Walther, II, 96.)" (p. 479)

"God made all things for His own sake (Prov. 16:4) or His glory (Psalm 104: The work of creation shows how 'very great' He is, 'clothed with honor and majesty'). Therefore not only men (Ps. 104:1 ff.), but also the irrational creatures are called on to praise God (Psalm 148). Scripture mentions particularly the glory of His power (Ps. 115:3); of his wisdom (Ps. 104:24 and Ps. 136:5); and of His goodness (Psalm 136, with the refrain: 'for His mercy endureth forever')." (p. 479)

"Creation as an opus Dei ad extra {'a work which God performs towards the created world' - Scaer} is the work of the Triune God; that has been demonstrated in the doctrine of God. To speak of three Creators, or a 'division' of the work of creation among the three Persons, is contrary to Scripture and offends Christian thought. As each Person possesses the whole divine essence, which is one in number (una numero essentia), so all opera ad extra, including the creation, are wholly and entirely the work of each Person. They are eaedem numero actiones {'single actions'}. Even Philippi slipped up when he said: "We see here [in the creation] the activity quite equally divided among all three Persons." The Lutheran theologians emphatically reject the idea as though there were a 'creation corporation,' causae sociae creationis {'a collection of the causes of creation' - Scaer}. Luther emphatically refuses to speak of three Creators (see Vol. I, page 424).

"Creation is a free act of God, not necessary on His part (Ps. 115:3). Declaring the creation to be a necessary act of God would amount to pantheism and nullify the concept of a personal God. As God was a causa libera {'free cause' - Scaer} in the redemption through the incarnation of the Son of God, so also He was a causa libera in the creation." (pp. 479-480)

From Luther (St. L. I:91 f.) on Gen. 2:2: "...Concerning the manner of creation, Moses has given us the fullest information in the preceding chapter, where he says that God created all things by the Word: 'Let the sea bring forth fishes; let the earth bring forth the green herb, the beasts, etc.' Now all these words of God remain unto the present day in their full force. We see that creatures multiply without cessation or end. If the world were to last untold years, the power and efficacy of this Word would not cease, but there would still continue to be a perpetual increase, by virtue of the power and efficacy of this Word, or, if I may so express it, of the first creation. The solution of the question is thus plain: 'God rested from all His works' means that God was content with the earh and the heaven which He had created by the Word. He did not create a new heaven or a new earth or new stars and new trees; but God nevertheless still works, since He has not deserted the creatures, which He made in the beginning, but governs and sustains them by the power of His Word. He ceased from the work of creation. He does not cease from preserving and governing." (pp. 483-484)

"Hence Luther also says explicitly: 'We Christians know that creating and preserving is one and the same with God (idem est creare et conservare)' (St. L. I:1539)." (p. 484)

"Our reason can and should be aware of the fact of divine providence. Nature proclaims it (Acts 14:17...), and history tells of it (Acts 17:26-28...). But because of the blindness and perversity of the human heart divine providence is also taught in many places of the Holy Scriptures. Christ teaches it at length...Matt. 6:25-32...Matt. 5:45...Acts 14:17...Acts 17:28. Scripture teaches furthermore that the preservation and government of the world, as an opus ad extra, is a work of the Triune God. In speaking of the preservation of the world, the Son of God says (John 5:17): 'My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.' And Scripture particularly emphasizes, for the comfort of Christians, that the incarnate Son of God rules and keeps all things according to His human nature, as our Brother. Eph. 1:22: 'And hath put all things under His feet.' Eph. 4:10: 'He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.'...

"According to Scripture the objects of divine providend are both ta panta (Col. 1:17) and the individual things that constitute the universe: the plants (Matt. 6:28-30), the animals (Matt. 6:26), and men (Acts 17:25-28). Divine providence centers in the Church. Scripture teaches expressly that all things and all occurences in heaven and on earth must serve the Church. According to Rom. 8:28 'all things work together for good to them that love God.' According to Matt. 24:14 the world exists solely for the Church. And according to Heb. 1:14 the angels are ministers in the service of the Church." (pp. 484-485)

From Gerhard (Loci, locus "De Provid.," § 62.63): "[In] Deut. 8:3 and Matt. 4:4 we are told that 'man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord.' This not only tells us that God may nourish and sustain man without means, but it also informs us that the power to nourish does not so inhere in the bread that it could nourish man if the Word, by which it was originally created and was given the power to nourish, were retracted. The continuous influence of the Word, which creates, as it were, and sustains life, is needed if the bread is to exert the nourishing power given to it. The same obtains in the sphere of medicine. Man is not healed through the herbs, but through the Word of God which originally gave the herbs their healing property and day by day maintains their power." (pp. 487-488)

"...our Lutheran teaches say that the operations of God and the operation fo the second causes are not 'duae' actiones {two actions}, but 'una' numero actio {just one action}. This one operation must not be divided in extent, as though God performed one half of the action and the secondary cause the other half; nor separated in time, as though God first exerted His influence, and then afterwards and later the means or the creature wrought by means of a power which was given them. [Footnote 5: 'It was so held by Durandus (d. 1334), Taurellus (d. 1606), and by some Arminians. See Quenstedt, I, 782.] To ward off the conception of operations separated by time, the dogmaticians explicitly say that the operation of the causae secundae is not the result of an actio Dei praevia (a preceding action of God), but the result of a continuus Dei in creaturas influxus (of an uninterrupted operation of God on the creatures and through the creatures). (Quenstedt I, 780.) If we know this, we shall say with Job (ch. 10:8): 'Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about' and confess with Luther in the Small Catechism: 'I believe that God has made me [not only Adam] and all creatures, has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still preserves them.' We received our sould and body with all their members from our parents as the causae secundae, and at the same time we know that God is our Creator and Father." (p. 488)

"...to guard against the thought as though God, working through means, is by these means separated from the world, Luther says: 'God does not send out bailiffs or angels when He creates or preserves a thing, but all that is the direct work of His divine power. But if He is to crate and sustain it, He Himself must be present and must form and sustain His creature both in its most inward and its most external parts.' (St. L. XX:804)

"Quenstedt expresses the same truth when he writes against the deists, who separate God from the operation of the means through the interposition of the 'laws of nature': 'It is wrong to say that the second cause [the means through which God works] separates the first cause [God] from the effect, since the effect is the immediate result both of the first cause and of the second cause' (Systema, I, 781). The so-called 'laws of nature' are not something which differs from God's will and operation, but are God's will and operation itself in its relation to the existence and operation of the creatures.⁶" (pp. 488-489)

Footnote 6, p. 489: "Baier, II, 169: 'God makes it manifest that He is not bound to the workings of nature and the order freely established by Him.' He refers to the following examples: 'Secondary causes, the operation of which is not yet fixed by nature, are made to operate by divine command; see 1 Kings 18:44, on the accelerated rain. At times God confers on the secondary causes either plainly supernatural power or He restores or augments the natural power which was either lost or debilitated; see Judges 16:28-29 on the restored and augmented strength of Samson; Gen. 17:16-17, 19 on the reproductive power conferred on the centenarian Abraham and the nonagenarian and sterile Sarah. Finally, God impedes the secondary causes which are set by nature to perform their operations so that the effect does not follow, as when He threatens (Deut. 28:23) that He will withdraw the rain from the disobedient people.'"

"Concerning the concurrence of God in the actions of moral beings (men and angels) we must distinguish between good and evil actions. As to evil actions, Scripture, in the first place, tells us 1) that God is unalterably opposed to them: 'Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.' 'Thou shalt not kill,' etc.; 2) that God often prevents their occurence, as in the case of Abimelech of Gerar (Gen. 20:1 ff.); and 3) that when they occur, they must serve his good purposes, as when Joseph was sold into Egypt (Gen 50:20).

"But now, in the second place, the question arises: How far does God concur in the performance of sinful actions? The Scriptural teaching on this point may be thus summarized: God concurs in evil actions in so far as they are acts (quoad materiale), for Scripture says that men live and move and have their being in God (Acts 17:28). But God deos not concur in the evil actions in so far as they are evil (quoad formale), for Scripture says of God: 'Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing; the Lord wil abhor the bloody and deceitful man (Ps. 5:6-7).—We are well aware that this distinction between the materiale and the formale peccati does not remove the difficulty our mind finds in this co-operation of God. But we also know that for the present, during our life here on earth, we human beings must confine our thinking to the limits set by this distinction. All explanations that go beyond these limits are based either on self-deception or on a denial of the two factors that enter in here. We shall have to deny either the concurrence of God in the evil acts, as far as they are acts..., or we shall have to deny that there is anything evil in the human action; we make God responsible for it and deny human responsibility. Both are against Scripture and against human experience....Acts 17:28 clearly teaches the thief or the murderer cannot perform his acts without God's concurrence...All pantheistic phrases which say that man is not responsible for his acts since God is responsible for his existence and movements are refuted by the fact of the evil conscience. Rom. 2:15...Rom. 1:32; Ps. 14:1-5." (pp. 489-490)

"[Scripture] describes God's relation to sin also as a sufferance of sin, a permissio." Cited: Ps. 81:12; Acts 14:16. (pp. 490-491)

"But this does not fully describe God's activity in connection with the sins of men. According to Scripture, God in His righteous judgment punishes sin with sin." Cited: Rom. 1:24-28; 2 Thess. 2:11-12. (p. 491)

"Scripture teaches 1) that God works the good acts unbelievers do as citizens (iustitia civilis), according to His general government of the world, through their conscience. Rom. 2:14: The Gentiles, who do not have God's [written] Law, do by nature the things contained in the Law. This civil righteousness is of great value in the kingdoms of this world; it is the foundation of the well-being of the community and the State (1 Tim. 2:1-2; Rom. 13:1-4). (See the section 'The Good Works of the Heathen,' under 'Sanctification,' vol. III.) 2) The spiritually good actions (iustitia spiritualis) God works in the Kingdom of Grace, that is, by the special operation of the Holy Ghost in the Word. This concurrence of God is found only in the believers, and in them God creates not only the ability to perform the good (potentiam agendi), but also the act itself (ipsum agendi actum). Philip. 2:13: 'It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do.' According to 2 Cor. 3:5 God produces also the logizesthai [the thinking] needed for the proper performance of the ministry. We learn from Rom. 8:13 that the actual moritification of the deeds of the body takes place through the Spirit of God." (p. 491)

"The fact that men live, move, and have their being in God does not make them automata; they remain moral beings, free from coercion... That is the teaching 1) of Scripture... [Cited: Acts 17:31.]... It is also the teaching of experience, of the conscience of man... [Cited: Rom. 2:15; Rom. 1:32]." (pp. 491-492)

"In this connection the special question comes up for consideration: Must all events in the world occur just as they do occur (necessitas immutabilitatis), or could they happen otherwise (contingentia rerum)? Scripture compels us to maintain both the necessity and the contingency. From the viewpoint of the divine providence the necessity obtains, from the human viewpoint the contingency." (p. 492)

Pieper uses the betrayal of Christ by Judas and His crucifixion by the Jews and Gentiles as an example. The events were necessary from the divine viewpoint (Acts 4:27-28; Matt. 26:54) but contingent (didn't need to happen) from the human viewpoint (Matt. 26:24; John 19:11-12).

"So those old theologians who carefully weigh their words say: According to the law of divine providence, which rules all things, it is correctly said that all things happen of necessity; from the standpoint of man everything in human affairs is done freely and contingently.

"It is necessary to teach both of these Scriptural truths, the necessity and the contingency, in order to safeguard the Christian religion against Epicureanism and atheism (things happen without God, by chance) on the one hand, and fatalism and Stoicism (disregard of the divinely ordained means) on the other. The following rule of life must be observed: We should in all our ways, in the Kingdom of Power and of Grace, diligently make use of the means which God supplies. In sickness, for example, we call in the doctor and the nurse; and in seeking salvation we make use of the means of grace, through which God creates and sustains faith." (pp. 492-493)

"Apply this to another special question: Is the terminus vitae ["end of life"] subject to change or unchangeable? Scripture teaches on the one hand, that the end of our days is immovably fixed. Job 14:5... On the other hand, Scripture teaches just as clearly that human life may be prolonged or shortened. [Cited: Is. 38:1 ff.; 2 Kings 20:1 ff.; Ps. 55:23.] Both of these truths...must be maintained as divine truths. The former is true as viewed from God's stanpoint, the latter is true as viewed from our human standpoint. And when God condescends to speak from our human standpoint, He directs us to use the means which sustain our earthly life.

"...it is God's will and order that we use the means which He has appointed for sustaining and prolonging our lives (the exceptions, i. e., that God can also sustain our lives without means, we leave to Him, Ex. 34:28). As God-appointed means Scripture mentions: work (Ps. 128:2; 2 Thess. 3:10); food (Acts 27:33-36); if need be, a little wine (1 Tim. 5:23); especially a pious life (Eph. 6:2-3); prayer (Hezekiah, Is. 38:1 ff.); also flight from danger (Acts 9:23-25); etc. Since these means are appointed by God, they have been made part of the divine providence. That is emphasized Acts 27:31: 'Except these [seamen] abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved'—God has made the saving of your lives dependent upon the use of these means. Through the use or the refusal of these means we reach the terminus vitae which God has immovably fixed." (pp. 493-494)