Doesn’t the Bible say God created everything from nothing? Don’t Latter-day Saints deny that — and shrink God into a mere organizer?
They quote this
They hear ‘from nothing.’ The Greek is ‘what is seen was not made from what appears’ — unseen, not non-being.
King James Version
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
NRSVUE
By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.
How we read it
The Greek is that what is seen was not made from what appears — unseen, not non-being. Genesis 1:2 already has a formless deep when God begins to create. 2 Peter 3:5 has earth formed out of water. Creatio ex nihilo is a later philosophical claim. Organizing eternal matter does not shrink God. It is how Genesis actually reads.
The Bible answers
The earth is tohu and bohu — unformed. God orders a chaos that is already there.
King James Version
In the beginning God 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.
NRSVUE
When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.
Earth formed out of water. That is organization, not a magic pop from zero.
King James Version
For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water.
NRSVUE
They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed long ago and an earth was formed out of water and by means of water.
Also restored
Abraham 3:24
We will take of these materials and make an earth. Abraham is not shy.
We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell.
Doctrine and Covenants 93:29
Intelligence was not created or made.
Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.
Doctrine and Covenants 131:7
There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes.
Dead Sea Scrolls and related extra-biblical texts that illuminate the same pattern the Restoration restores.
Wisdom of Solomon 11:17
For your all-powerful hand, which created the world out of formless matter, did not lack the means to send upon them a multitude of bears, or bold lions.
This Jewish work — in the Catholic and Orthodox Bible — says God created the world out of formless matter. That is the older grammar: ordering chaos, not conjuring atoms from a blank. Latter-day Saints did not invent it in Nauvoo.
2 Maccabees 7:28
I beg you, my child, to look at the heaven and the earth and see everything that is in them, and recognize that God did not make them out of things that existed.
This is the verse later theologians lean on for creatio ex nihilo. It is not in the Hebrew Bible or the Protestant canon. Even here, ‘not from things that existed’ can mean ‘not from a finished cosmos like this one,’ not a physics paper about zero. The Restoration reads Genesis, Wisdom, Abraham, and D&C 93 together: God is Creator. Matter and intelligence are not His rivals. They are what He commands.
FAIR
FAIR Latter-day Saints
Creatio ex nihilo is not a Bible verse. It is a second- and third-century philosophical move meant to protect God’s uniqueness. The Hebrew of Genesis starts with God acting on a formless, watery deep. Hebrews 11:3 says the seen was made from things that do not appear — unseen, not non-being. Latter-day Saints confess a real Creator who organizes eternal materials. That is a high view of God, not a demotion.
The doctrine of creation from nothing is not required by the Bible. It developed later as Christians used Greek philosophy to describe God. Restoration scripture returns to a biblical picture: God frames worlds by His word from materials that do not yet appear as a finished cosmos.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church’s essay on becoming like God states the Restoration’s creation teaching without apology: God organized the world from existing, unorganized matter. He is still God. We are still His children. Nothing in that claim puts a second uncreated rival on His throne.
Latter-day Saints believe that God created the universe by organizing existing, unorganized matter. This belief comes from Restoration scripture, including the Book of Abraham, and from the teachings of Joseph Smith.
Faithful voices only. Most of these are independent — not official Church productions unless marked as such.
Saints Unscripted
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