§299Because God creates through wisdom, his creation is ordered: "You have arranged all things by measure and number and weight."151 The universe, created in and by the eternal Word, the "image of the invisible God", is destined for and addressed to man, himself created in the "image of God" and called to a personal relationship with God.152 Our human understanding, which shares in…

§1604God who created man out of love also calls him to love the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being. For man is created in the image and likeness of God who is himself love.90 Since God created him man and woman, their mutual love becomes an image of the absolute and unfailing love with which God loves man. It is good, very good, in the Creator's eyes. and this love…

§2002God's free initiative demands man's free response, for God has created man in his image by conferring on him, along with freedom, the power to know him and love him. the soul only enters freely into the communion of love. God immediately touches and directly moves the heart of man. He has placed in man a longing for truth and goodness that only he can satisfy. the promises of "…

Chapter 23.—Of the Error in Which the Doctrine of Origen is Involved. But it is much more surprising that some even of those who, with ourselves, believe that there is one only source of all things, and that no nature which is not divine can exist unless originated by that Creator, have yet refused to accept with a good and simple faith this so good and simple a reason of the w…

Analysis of the Biblical Account of Creation Last Wednesday we began this series of reflections on the reply Christ gave to his questioners on the subject of the unity and indissolubility of marriage. As we recall, the Pharisees who questioned him appealed to the Mosaic Law. However, Christ went back to the "beginning," quoting the words of Genesis. The "beginning" in this ca…

By the Communion of Persons Man Becomes the Image of God Following the narrative of Genesis, we have seen that the "definitive" creation of man consists in the creation of the unity of two beings. Their unity denotes above all the identity of human nature; their duality, on the other hand, manifests what, on the basis of this identity, constitutes the masculinity and femininit…

Creation As a Fundamental and Original Gift Let us return to analyzing the text of Genesis 2:25: "And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed" (Gn 2:25). According to this passage, the man and the woman saw themselves, as it were, through the mystery of creation. They saw themselves in this way, before knowing that they were naked. This seeing each other is n…

In the beginning God created. To expound the term "beginning" of Christ is altogether frivolous. For Moses simply intends to assert that the world was not perfected at its very commencement, in the manner in which it is now seen, but that it was created an empty chaos of heaven and earth. His authority as a prophet is so great that to overthrow it, we must first subvert the who…

75. Nor let the words 'before the world' and 'before He made the earth' and 'before the mountains were settled' disturb any one; for they very well accord with 'founded' and 'created;' for here again allusion is made to the Economy according to the flesh. For though the grace which came to us from the Saviour appeared, as the Apostle says, just now, and has come when He sojourn…

Having manifested what he was and what he is, he shows the great fruit of his confession; and being about to examine by what method God and the happy life may be found, he enlarges on the nature and power of memory. Then he examines his own acts, thoughts and affections, viewed under the threefold division of temptation; and commemorates the Lord, the one mediator of God and me…

Of the goodness of God explained in the creation of things, and of the Trinity as found in the first words of Genesis. The story concerning the origin of the world (Genesis 1) is allegorically explained, and he applies it to those things which God works for sanctified and blessed man. Finally, he makes an end of this work, having implored eternal rest from God. Chapter 1. He Ca…

Is the image of God in man? Is the image of God in irrational creatures? Is the image of God in the angels more than in man? Is the image of God in every man? Is the image of God in man by comparison with the Essence, or with all the Divine Persons, or with one of them? Is the image of God in man, as to his mind only? Is the image of God in man's power or in his habits and acts…

Is the will moved by the intellect? Is it moved by the sensitive appetite? Does the will move itself? Is it moved by an extrinsic principle? Is it moved by a heavenly body? Is the will moved by God alone as by an extrinsic principle? Article 1. Whether the will is moved by the intellect? Objection 1. It would seem that the will is not moved by the intellect. For Augustine says …

Q. Did God create people so wicked and perverse? A. No. God created them good and in his own image, that is, in true righteousness and holiness, so that they might truly know God their creator, love him with all their heart, and live with him in eternal happiness for his praise and glory.

Q. But doesn't God do us an injustice by requiring in his law what we are unable to do? A. No, God created human beings with the ability to keep the law. They, however, tempted by the devil, in reckless disobedience, robbed themselves and all their descendants of these gifts.

The Synod rejects the errors of those who teach that the spiritual gifts or the good dispositions and virtues such as goodness, holiness, and righteousness could not have resided in the human will when it was first created, and therefore could not have been separated from the will at the fall.

This good and almighty God created all things, both visible and invisible, by his co-eternal Word, and preserves them by his co-eternal Spirit, as David testified when he said: "By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth." All things which God created were very good, and created for the benefit of man. Now we say that all those …

He who from among these angelic powers was set over the earthly realm, and into whose hands God committed the guardianship of the earth, was not made wicked in nature but was good, and made for good ends, and received from his Creator no trace whatever of evil in himself. But he did not sustain the brightness and the honour which the Creator had bestowed on him, and of his free…

We hold, further, that there are two energies in our Lord Jesus Christ. For He possesses on the one hand, as God and being of like essence with the Father, the divine energy, and, likewise, since He became man and of like essence to us, the energy proper to human nature. But observe that energy and capacity for energy, and the product of energy, and the agent of energy, are all…

That there are not two kingdoms , one good and one bad, we shall see from this. For good and evil are opposed to one another and mutually destructive, and cannot exist in one another or with one another. Each of them, therefore, in its own division will belong to the whole, and first they will be circumscribed, not by the whole alone but also each of them by part of the whole. …

We believe in one God, true, almighty, and infinite, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; the Father unbegotten; the Son begotten of the Father before the ages, and consubstantial with Him; and the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father, and consubstantial with the Father and the Son. These three Persons in one essence we call the All-Holy Trinity, by all creation to be ev…

We believe all things, both visible and invisible, to be governed by the Providence of God; though God is not the author of evil. But evil cometh to pass by reason of the malice of men or of demons, that is, when rational creatures, having received free-will from God, voluntarily turn aside from good. For it is the doctrine of the Church that God, who is the creator of all thin…

We believe that man was created in holiness, under the law of his Maker; but by voluntary transgression fell from that holy and happy state; in consequence of which all mankind are now sinners, not by constraint but choice; being by nature utterly void of that holiness required by the law of God, positively inclined to evil, and therefore under just condemnation to eternal ruin…

The six days of creation are not literal time-periods but express the perfection of the number six, which is both the product and sum of its factors. God, who needs no time, uses the number six to indicate the order and beauty of creation. Each day represents a stage in the logical unfolding of the cosmos from formlessness to completion.

There is one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. Against the Manichaeans who posit two gods (one good, one evil), Cyril argues that the one God created all things good and that evil is the result of free will, not a rival divine principle. Against polytheism he declares that the God of Israel alone is God, and there is no other.