On Wed, 13 Mar 1996 13:06:43 -0400 you wrote:
[...]
TG>One of the implications is that it is possible that God normally
>interacts with the world via this providential means (even in his
>creative acts [yes, Steve, I do blur the distinction as have nearly
>all theologians who recognize the possibility of some kinds of
>mediate creation, including Hodge and Calvin]).
I don't regard "mediate creation" as blurring the distinction between
creation and providence. Hodge indeed recognises mediate creation
(as of course I do):
"But while it has ever been the doctrine of the Church that God
created the universe out of nothing by the word of his power, which
creation was instantaneous and immediate, i. e., without the
intervention of any second causes; yet it has generally been admitted
that this is to be understood only of the original call of matter into
existence. Theologians have, therefore, distinguished between a first
and second, or immediate and mediate creation. The one was
instantaneous, the other gradual; the one precludes the idea of any
preexisting substance, and of cooperation, the other admits and
implies both. There is evident ground for this distinction in the
Mosaic account of the creation. God, we are told, " created the
heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and
darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved
upon the face of the waters." Here it is clearly intimated that the
universe, when first created, was in a state of chaos, and that by the
life-giving, organizing power of the Spirit of God, it was gradually
moulded into the wonderful cosmos which we now behold. The whole of
the first chapter of Genesis, after the first verse, is an account of
the progress of creation; the production of light; the formation of an
atmosphere; the separation of land and water; the vegetable
productions of the earth the animals of the sea and air; then the
living creatures of the earth; and, last of all, man. In Gen. i. 27,
it is said that God created man male and female; in chapter ii 7, it
is said, that " the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground."
It thus appears that forming out of preexisting material comes within
the Scriptural idea of creating." (Hodge C., "Systematic Theology",
Vol. I, 1892, James Clark & Co: London, 1960 reprint, pp556-557)
Yet Hodge recognises a clear distinction between Creation and
Providence (which he calls "Preservation"). He rejects the idea that
Preservation is continued Creation because it confounds Creation and
Preservation (Providence):
"A second view of the nature of preservation goes to the opposite
extreme of confounding creation and preservation." (Hodge, p577).
He begins his "Objections to the Doctrine of a Continuous Creation"
with:
"All these modes of representation, however, are objectionable.
Creation, preservation, and government are in fact different, and to
identify them leads not only to confusion but to error. Creation and
preservation differ, first, as the former is the calling into
existence what before did not exist; and the latter is continuing, or
causing to continue what already has a being; and secondly, in
creation there is and can be no cooperation, but in preservation there
is a concursus of the first, with second causes. In the Bible,
therefore, the two things are never confounded. God created all
things, and by Him all things consist." (Hodge, p578)
Hodge freely acknowledges that both Creation and Providence rely on
the immediate power of God, but that does not mean they are not
distinct:
"It is true that the preservation of the world is as much due to the
immediate power of God as its creation, but this does not prove that
preservation is creation. Creation is the production of something out
of nothing. Preservation is the upholding in existence what already
is. " (Hodge, p579).
What I did find interesting in looking up Hodge is that he
apparently believed in Progressive Creation! :-)
"There is, therefore, according to the Scriptures, not only an
immediate, instantaneous creation ex nihilo by the simple word of
God, but a mediate, progressive creation; the power of God working
in union with second causes." (Hodge, p557)
God bless.
Steve
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