§54"God, who creates and conserves all things by his Word, provides men with constant evidence of himself in created realities. and furthermore, wishing to open up the way to heavenly salvation - he manifested himself to our first parents from the very beginning."6 He invited them to intimate communion with himself and clothed them with resplendent grace and justice.

§268of all the divine attributes, only God's omnipotence is named in the Creed: to confess this power has great bearing on our lives. We believe that his might is universal, for God who created everything also rules everything and can do everything. God's power is loving, for he is our Father, and mysterious, for only faith can discern it when it "is made perfect in weakness".103 "…

§291"In the beginning was the Word. . . and the Word was God. . . all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made."129 The New Testament reveals that God created everything by the eternal Word, his beloved Son. In him "all things were created, in heaven and on earth.. . all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, a…

How the Valentinians pervert the Scriptures to support their own pious opinions. 1. Such, then, is their system, which neither the prophets announced, nor the Lord taught, nor the apostles delivered, but of which they boast that beyond all others they have a perfect knowledge. They gather their views from other sources than the Scriptures; and, to use a common proverb, they str…

Deviations of heretics from the truth. 1. The rule of truth which we hold, is, that there is one God Almighty, who made all things by His Word, and fashioned and formed, out of that which had no existence, all things which exist. Thus says the Scripture, to that effect By the Word of the Lord were the heavens established, and all the might of them, by the spirit of His mouth. A…

The world was not formed by angels, or by any other being, contrary to the will of the most high God, but was made by the Father through the Word. 1. Those, moreover, who say that the world was formed by angels, or by any other maker of it, contrary to the will of Him who is the Supreme Father, err first of all in this very point, that they maintain that angels formed such and …

2. Now when, as you see, He had demonstrated the greatness of God's providential care, and they were in what follows to be rebuked also, even in this He was sparing, laying to their charge not want, but poverty, of faith. Thus, if God, says He, so clothe the grass of the field, much more you, O you of little faith. Matthew 6:30 And yet surely all these things He Himself works. …

1. Moses in the beginning of the history and writings of the Old Testament speaks to us of the objects of sense, and enumerates them to us at length. For, In the beginning, he says, God made the heaven and the earth, and then he adds, that light was created, and a second heaven and the stars, the various kinds of living creatures, and, that we may not delay by going through par…

1. A fearful thing is sin, fearful, and the ruin of the soul, and the mischief oftentimes through its excess has overflowed and attacked men's bodies also. For since for the most part when the soul is diseased we feel no pain, but if the body receive though but a little hurt, we use every exertion to free it from its infirmity, because we are sensible of the infirmity, therefor…

Source. Translated by J. Walker, J. Sheppard and H. Browne, and revised by George B. Stevens. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 11. Edited by Philip Schaff. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1889.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/210227.htm>. Contact information. The editor of New Adven…

1. Everywhere indeed a reverential mind is requisite, but especially when we say or hear anything of God: Since neither can tongue speak nor thought hear anything suitable to our God. And why speak I of tongue or thought? For not even the understanding which far excels these, will be able to comprehend anything accurately, when we desire to utter anything concerning God. For if…

There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the Maker and Preserver of all things both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there be three Persons, of one substance, power, and eternity; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Calvin expounds the eternal divinity of the Word with great care. The Word was not created in time but existed from all eternity with the Father. "The Word was God" — here is a clear declaration of the deity of Christ. The Word was made flesh — this is the mystery of the incarnation, the union of th…

Preface. 1. All who believe and are assured that grace and truth were obtained through Jesus Christ, and who know Christ to be the truth, agreeably to His own declaration, I am the truth, derive the knowledge which incites men to a good and happy life from no other source than from the very words and teaching of Christ. And by the words of Christ we do not mean those only which…

Chapter 1. On God. 1. I know that some will attempt to say that, even according to the declarations of our own Scriptures, God is a body, because in the writings of Moses they find it said, that our God is a consuming fire; and in the Gospel according to John, that God is a Spirit, and they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Fire and spirit, according to t…

Chapter 1 It is not, my reverend Ambrosius, because we seek after many words — a thing which is forbidden, and in the indulgence of which it is impossible to avoid sin — that we now begin the fifth book of our reply to the treatise of Celsus, but with the endeavour, so far as may be within our power, to leave none of his statements without examination, and especially those in w…

1. How Christians are the Spiritual Israel. That people which was called of old the people of God was divided into twelve tribes, and over and above the other tribes it had the levitical order, which itself again carried on the service of God in various priestly and levitical suborders. In the same manner, it appears to me that the whole people of Christ, when we regard it in t…

6. For whereas the Lord says to the Jews : Have you not read that from the beginning He which created them made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall become one flesh? and then, referring to the Creator, says, What, therefore, God has joined together let not man put asunder: how c…

13. It is plain then from the above that the Scriptures declare the Son's eternity; it is equally plain from what follows that the Arian phrases 'He was not,' and 'before' and 'when,' are in the same Scriptures predicated of creatures. Moses, for instance, in his account of the generation of our system, says, 'And every plant of the field, before it was in the earth, and every …

56. Scripture, in speaking thus, implies, O Arians, not that the Son is originate, but rather other than things originate, and proper to the Father, being in His bosom. (4.) Nor does even the expression 'become,' which here occurs, show that the Son is originate, as you suppose. If indeed it were simply 'become' and no more, a case might stand for the Arians; but, whereas they …

24. But He had not been thus worshipped, nor been thus spoken of, were He a creature merely. But now since He is not a creature, but the proper offspring of the Essence of that God who is worshipped, and His Son by nature, therefore He is worshipped and is believed to be God, and is Lord of armies, and in authority, and Almighty, as the Father is; for He has said Himself, 'All …

13. Therefore let them tell us, from what teacher or by what tradition they derived these notions concerning the Saviour? We have read, they will say, in the Proverbs, 'The Lord created me a beginning of His ways unto His works ;' this Eusebius and his fellows used to insist on , and you write me word, that the present men also, though overthrown and confuted by an abundance of…

He describes the twenty-ninth year of his age, in which, having discovered the fallacies of the Manichæans, he professed rhetoric at Rome and Milan. Having heard Ambrose, he begins to come to himself. Chapter 1. That It Becomes the Soul to Praise God, and to Confess Unto Him. 1. Accept the sacrifice of my confessions by the agency of my tongue, which You have formed and quicken…

The design of his confessions being declared, he seeks from God the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, and begins to expound the words of Genesis 1:1, concerning the creation of the world. The questions of rash disputers being refuted, What did God before he created the world? That he might the better overcome his opponents, he adds a copious disquisition concerning time. Chapte…

What is creation? Can God create anything? Is creation anything in the very nature of things? To what things does it belong to be created? Does it belong to God alone to create? Is creation common to the whole Trinity, or proper to any one Person? Is any trace of the Trinity to be found in created things? Is the work of creation mingled with the works of nature and of the will?…

We believe that Jesus Christ, according to his divine nature, is the only Son of God—eternally begotten, not made or created, for then he would be a creature. He is one in essence with the Father; coeternal; the exact image of the person of the Father, and the "reflection of his glory," being in all things like him. He is the Son of God not only from the time he assumed our nat…

We believe that the Father, when it seemed good to him, created heaven and earth and all other creatures from nothing, by the Word—that is to say, by the Son. God has given all creatures their being, form, and appearance and their various functions for serving their Creator. Even now God also sustains and governs them all, according to his eternal providence and by his infinite…

We believe the most good God to be infinite in essence, incomprehensible, omnipotent, merciful, free, the Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible; and that the All-Holy Trinity comprehendeth in Three Persons — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit — one in essence, and undivided. The Father is unbegotten, the Son begotten, and the Spirit proceedeth…

1. Since in Christ there is a twofold nature, and the one — in so far as he is thought of as God — resembles the head of the body, while the other may be compared with the feet — in so far as he, for the sake of our salvation, put on human nature with the same passions as our own — the following work will be complete only if we begin with the chief and lordliest events of all h…

Tertullian contends that before all things, God was not alone — He had within Himself His own Reason (Logos). This Reason is the Son, through whom all things were made. When God said "Let there be light," the Word went forth as a perfect birth, not a division of the divine substance.

Before creating the material world, God first conceived the intelligible world as an archetype — a pattern existing in the divine mind, just as an architect conceives a city plan before laying stones. This intelligible cosmos is none other than the Logos of God in the act of creating. The visible world is a copy of the invisible, eternal model.

God did not create the world directly but through His Logos, the divine Word or Reason, which served as the instrument of creation. The Logos is the bond that holds all things together, the eldest and most universal of all created things, standing between the Creator and the creation as a mediator. This conception profoundly influenced later Christian theology of the Word made …

God spoke and the world came into being from nothing — "Let there be light, and there was light." If the word of God can create from nothing, it can certainly change bread into the body of Christ. Ambrose draws a direct line from the creative power of God's word in Genesis to the transforming power of Christ's word at the Last Supper. The same Logos that made all things now mak…