Systematic Theology, by Louis Berkhof - New Leaven

teaching that the world had a beginning. Scripture speaks of this beginning also in other
places, Matt. 19:4,8; Mark 10;6; John 1:1,2; Heb. 1:10. That the world had a beginning is
also clearly implied in such passages as Ps. 90:2, “Before the mountains were brought
forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to
everlasting thou art God”; and Ps. 102:25, “Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the
earth; and the heavens are the work of thy hands.”
b. Difficulties which burden this doctrine. Prior to the beginning mentioned in Gen. 1:1,
we must postulate a beginningless eternity, during which God only existed. How must
we fill up these blank ages in the eternal life of God? What did God do before the
creation of the world? It is so far from possible to think of Him as a Deus otiosus (a God
who is not active), that He is usually conceived of as actus purus (pure action). He is
represented in Scripture as always working, John 5:17. Can we then say that He passed
from a state of inactivity to one of action? Moreover, how is the transition from a noncreative
to a creative state to be reconciled with His immutability? And if He had the
eternal purpose to create, why did He not carry it out at once? Why did He allow a
whole eternity to elapse before His plan was put into execution? Moreover, why did He
select that particular moment for His creative work?
c. Suggested solutions of the problem. (1) The theory of eternal creation. According to
some, such as Origen, Scotus Erigina, Rothe, Dorner, and Pfleiderer, God has been
creating from all eternity, so that the world, though a creature and dependent, is yet just
as eternal as God Himself. This has been argued from the omnipotence, the
timelessness, the immutability, and the love of God; but neither one of these necessarily
imply or involve it. This theory is not only contradicted by Scripture, but is also
contrary to reason, for (a) creation from eternity is a contradiction in terms; and (b) the
idea of eternal creation, as applied to the present world, which is subject to the law of
time, is based on an identification of time and eternity, while these two are essentially
different. (2) The theory of the subjectivity of time and eternity. Some speculative
philosophers, such as Spinoza, Hegel, and Green, claim that the distinction of time and
eternity is purely subjective and due to our finite position. Hence they would have us
rise to a higher point of vantage and consider things sub specie aeternitatis (from the
point of view of eternity). What exists for our consciousness as a time development,
exists for the divine consciousness only as an eternally complete whole. But this theory
is contradicted by Scripture just as much as the preceding one, Gen. 1:1; Ps. 90:2; 102:25;
John 1:3. Moreover, it changes objective realities into subjective forms of consciousness,
and reduces all history to an illusion. After all, time-development is a reality; there is a
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