Ex Nihilo

Pauline Baynes illustration of Aslan

Theologians talk about God creating the world "ex nihilo" which means "out of nothing". Hebrews 11:3 says, "By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible." Psalm 33:6 says, "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth."

Stuart Briscoe has written, "The alternative to God creating something out of nothing is nothing creating something out of nothing." Which creed seems more logical?

Of course, when we say that God created "out of nothing" we mean that God created out of nothing outside of himself. God had no pre-existing material to start with, as do human artists. In other words, God made up everything that exists out of his own head. God imagined and it came to be.

C. S. Lewis describes this point of doctrine in this way in Mere Christianity....

Pantheists usually believe that God, so to speak, animates the universe as you animate your body: that the universe almost is God, so that if it did not exist He would not exist either, and anything you find in the universe is a part of God. The Christian idea is quite different. They think God invented and made the universe--like a man making a picture or composing a tune. A painter is not a picture, and he does not die if his picture is destroyed. You may say, "He's put a lot of himself into it," but you only mean that all its beauty and interest has come out of his head. His skill is not in the picture in the same way that it is in his head, or even in his hands.

Lewis illustrates this idea beautifully in The Magician's Nephew where the great lion Aslan sings Narnia into existence....

All this time the Lion's song, and his stately prowl, to and fro, backwards and forwards, was going on. What was rather alarming was that at each turn he came a little nearer. Polly was finding the song more and more interesting because she thought she was beginning to see the connection between the music and the things that were happening. When a line of dark firs sprang up on a ridge about a hundred yards away she felt that they were connected with a series of deep, prolonged notes which the Lion had sung a second before. And when he burst into a rapid series of lighter notes she was not surprised to see primroses suddenly appearing in every direction. Thus, with an unspeakable thrill, she felt quite certain that all the things were coming (as she said) "out of the Lion's head." When you listened to his song you heard the things he was making up: when you looked round you, you saw them. This was so exciting that she had no time to be afraid.

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Will Vaus

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