On One God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth

Q.What do we learn about God as creator from the revelation to Israel?
A.We learn that there is one God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.

Q. What does this mean?
A. This means that the universe is good, that it is the work of a single loving God who creates, sustains, and directs it.

We now enter into our second section of the Catechism, that dealing with God the Father. As described before, the Catechism is largely going to follow the witness of Scripture as interpreted through the Nicene Creed (as is evident from the language of “one God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen,” which is taken directly from the Nicene Creed). The first two questions in this section are really a question and a further elaboration, with the second offering greater clarity about the first. Two significant issues arise out of these two questions right now that need further explanation: Monotheism and the nature of creation.

First, it must be noted that Christianity affirms monotheism, the belief that there is only one God or ultimate principle of the universe. I say “of the universe” rather than “in the universe” because while Christians believe that God is involved in and some go so far as to say “permeates” the whole of creation, God is beyond, above, over, or otherwise also transcending creation. God is not simply one among other things in the universe. This notion of there being one single God is, as expressed in the first question and answer, the distinct contribution of the religion of Israel and the writings of this religion that would be inherited and codified first in Judaism and then in the offshoot of Judaism that is Christianity. It’s important here to note why I’m distinguishing Judaism from the “religion of Israel.” Certainly, there is an intimate relationship between these two religious communities, but they are not perfectly identical. Judaism is not simply the religion described in the Old Testament, with its focus on the monarchy and the temple cult, but rather was the result of exiles from Judah in Babylon to figure out how they would continue to worship the God of Israel and Judah in exile, without access to the temple. It was a religion that after returning to Judah led to a great flourishing of competing interpretations and schools of thought, including Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, among others, and which would eventually give rise to Christianity. It is important to distinguish the religion of Israel and Judaism so as not to make the mistake that far too many Christians make, namely, making contemporary Judaism(s) out to be some backward relic of our past. Judaism and its many contemporary forms is a living, breathing ongoing tradition just as robust and alive as Christianity, a tradition with much in common but also different interpretations of many of the same sacred texts.  

Judaism and Christianity both inherited from the religion of Israel, though, a firm and unwavering commitment to monotheism. From what can be reconstructed historically and archeologically, and even what is expressed in the Old Testament, Israel did not emerge as an entity fully monotheistic, but rather went through stages from possible polytheism (the belief in and worship of multiple gods) virtually indistinguishable from its Canaanite neighbors, to henotheism, or the belief that there may exist multiple gods but only one should be worshiped, to true monotheism, or the idea that all other gods claimed to exist are false idols. While even after the adoption of a full monotheism there is good evidence that unsanctioned polytheistic worship continued to occur in Israel and Judah, the religious traditions that would ultimately survive were firmly monotheistic.

This monotheism was novel in the ancient world. While there had been attempts, such as in Egypt, for the overthrow of polytheistic regimes, Israel’s was the only one that had staying power over generations. This monotheism imbued Israel with a strong sense of being set apart from the rest of the world, as well as with the ultimacy of God demanding full and undivided allegiance. Christianity inherited both emphases. This monotheism is also what set the stage for the distinctive doctrine of the Trinity in Christianity, a doctrine that was necessitated by monotheism but which complexifies it, and a doctrine that we will talk about later.

Significantly, the acceptance of radical monotheism also allowed for the development of the notion of creatio ex nihilo, meaning creation from nothing, or the idea that the world is not simply an emanation our outpouring of God’s being—it is something different, distinct, and having its own integrity, even if it is fully dependent on God for its existence. It also rules out the idea, one common in most of the ancient world including Greece and Mesopotamia, that God, in created, fashioned or worked on some preexisting matter in order to form the world. In fact, this was likely the view that undergirded the sources that were drawn upon for the development of the creation narrative in Genesis as seen in the Spirit hovering over chaos rather than nothingness, and ancient Israel at a point may even have accepted the notion of creation from some preexisting matter.

While there have been some attempts to revive this notion of God fashioning something already existing, such as in the thought of theologian Catherine Keller, the move to interpret creation as from nothing actually is very important to maintain and does a lot of God. As I spoke about a few posts ago, Christians hold that the whole of creation is good and takes its existence from God—evil has no positive existence as something that that can be over and against things that are good. This notion of evil as privation rather than independent existence actually underlies the possibility that God can redeem all of creation. If what is evil is just the deformity of original goodness, salvation means restoring things to what they were created to be. However, if there is some principle other than God from which created beings come into existence, that principle could be the source of evil. It allows for the possibility of claiming some things in creation are fully evil and beyond redemption, a notion that existed in various forms of Gnosticism and syncretic religions of antiquity, and one decidedly rejected by Christianity because it allowed humans to relegate other parts of creation or even other humans to the cosmic trash heap. The notion of there needing to be a “check” on the absolute nature of God that comes from such attempts to reject creation from nothing makes the mistake of making God out to be too much like us, as though God were in need of checks and balances to prevent God from erring or becoming tyrannical. However, understood rightly, with God being the source of all Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, there is no such threat of God becoming corrupt, and we can understand the oneness of God and God being the ultimate and only source of all existence as offering the hope for universal redemption.