Quiz: On God, the Creator and Provider

The cause of the world’s creation is God. Those who consider matter co-eternal with God essentially deify it, attributing to it perfections inherent only to God: self-existence, eternity, etc.

Even more absurd are thinkers who claim the world arose from a random confluence of circumstances — from blind chance. Try, for example, to imagine an explosion in an art studio causing brushes and paints to randomly arrange on scattered canvases, forming a gallery illustrating the world’s formation. No one would believe such an outcome possible by chance. Yet the actual creation of the world is infinitely more complex – yet some still believe it happened randomly. This is nonsense. Only God could have ordered the world as it is. Scripture clearly states:

–  „In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth “(Gen. 1:1).

–  „This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens “(Gen. 2:4).

The world was created ex nihilo (from nothing). Before creation, only God existed. The dualistic teaching — that chaotic, unformed matter coexisted eternally with God, which He later shaped into the world — is false. Equally false is the pantheistic theory that the world emanated from God’s essence. If the world were made of God’s essence, we (and even animals, bugs, swamps, and dirt) could claim divinity. But only God possesses the Divine Essence.

The Second Book of Maccabees recounts a martyred mother’s words to her son:

–  „I beg you, my child, look at the heavens and the earth; see all that is in them and know that God made them out of nothing “(2 Macc. 7:28).

Explanation:

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not three Gods but one God in three Persons. The Church Fathers cite Psalm 33:6 as evidence:

–  „By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host. “

Here, „the word of the Lord “refers to the Son, and „the breath of His mouth “to the Holy Spirit. The source of both is God the Father.

According to the interpretation of the Church Fathers, before the visible world was created, the invisible world was brought into being. The basis for this interpretation is found in the phrase: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1), where the word "heavens" refers not to empty space or what we commonly call the sky, but to the realm of invisible spirits—the angels. In this understanding, the verse could be paraphrased: “In the beginning, God created the invisible world and the visible world.” The visible heavens (what we ordinarily call the sky) were created later, specifically on the second day of creation, as Scripture attests: “Then God said, 'Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.' Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.” (Gen. 1:6-8).

Angels are incorporeal rational beings. They were created before the visible world was brought into existence. However, interpreters differ in their opinions concerning the angels' incorporeality. Some insist on their absolute bodilessness, while others maintain that only God possesses absolute immateriality. In this understanding, angels are called incorporeal only in comparison to our coarse physical bodies. Since angels have no material form, they cannot be seen by our physical eyes. According to Church teaching, there are nine hierarchical orders of angels: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, Powers, Virtues, Archangels, Angels. The complete assembly of these ranks is called the "Angelic Council". The very word "angel" means "messenger" or "herald", which reflects their primary activity: to proclaim God's commands on earth. In heaven, angels sing praises and glorify God. Unlike humans, angels do not vacillate between good and evil - much less do they sin. They voluntarily submitted their will to God's will, and now it remains firmly established in good through grace. According to the teaching of the Fathers, there exist guardian angels for nations, countries, churches, individual persons. Every Christian has his own guardian angel.

Demons are fallen spirits. They hate goodness, oppose God, tempt and destroy people. It is believed that demons possess their own hierarchy - structured by degrees. Evidence for this can be found in Christ's words: “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man... and when he comes, he finds it (the man who serves as a house for the demon) swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself” (Lk. 11:24-26). This passage demonstrates that demons differ in degrees of wickedness. This cabal is headed by the devil - also known as Beelzebub, Lucifer, Satan. Scripture refers to demons variously as spirits of wickedness, unclean spirits, evil spirits. The Apostle Paul further differentiates them into: principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this age (Col. 2:15; Eph. 6:12). Again, this entire mob is led by the architect of sin - the devil. This is unequivocally confirmed by numerous testimonies in both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. For example, the Evangelist Luke records Christ's slanderers saying: “Some said, He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons” (Lk. 11:15). Demons possess extraordinary cunning and deceitfulness. If God doesn’t restrain their malice, mankind would suffer grievously. We know that through the Savior's victory the devil's dominion has been crushed and his kingdom overthrown. We are no longer his slaves and by God's grace we can now resist his schemes. As the Lord declared: “This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting” (Mt. 17:21).

Satan and the demons were cast out of heaven due to their opposition to God. One of the finest among the once-radiant angels, Lucifer (the Morning Star), grew proud of his perfections. This pride became the driving force behind his apostasy from God. He subsequently led astray a multitude of other luminous angels. While Genesis, in its account of creation, remains silent regarding the fall of these spirits, the Book of Isaiah contains a passage that the Church Fathers universally applied to this event. In this text, the prophet addresses his proclamation ostensibly to the King of Babylon, yet simultaneously—and more profoundly—to the one who stands behind that king: the devil. Here is the passage: “Your pomp has been brought down to Sheol, along with the noise of your harps. Maggots are spread out beneath you, and worms cover you. How you have fallen from heaven, O Morning Star [Lucifer], son of the dawn!” (Is. 14:11-12). This passage substantiates the patristic consensus that the devil’s fall resulted from pride.

The world was created and ordered by God over the course of six creative days. Scripture explicitly states this: “And by the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had accomplished” (Gen. 2:2). However, no unanimous consensus exists regarding the duration of a "creative day." Some scholars (such as St. Ephrem the Syrian) maintained that each creative day corresponded to an ordinary 24-hour day. Others argued that "day" (Hebrew: yom) signifies an extended period. Among later theologians, Professor A.P. Lopukhin notably emphasized that the Hebrew term yom — rendered as "day" in the Synodal translation — can also denote an epoch or age. The Church has not dogmatized this teaching; the matter remains within the realm of theological opinion.

Man was created by God upon the completion of creation. In the sequence of the visible world's formation, the Fathers often discerned a progression from the lower to the higher. In this sense, man is called the crown of God's creation. God blesses man with dominion over the visible world (Gen. 1:28). He places him not in chaos, but in a world already prepared for his habitation — a world gifted to man by God. This clarifies why man was created on the sixth and final day of creation, rather than the first. The Bible recounts man's creation in the first chapter of Genesis.

The image of God is reflected in man through the numerous attributes and faculties of his nature. The principal features of the divine image in man include: reason, free will, the capacity to love, creative ability, moral consciousness, royal dignity, the immortality of the soul, and others. Likeness to God, however, is what man may attain through spiritual growth in communion with God.

In other words, the image of God in man is a given — bestowed by God at creation — while theosis (divinization) is the path and goal to which man is called. Indeed, man was originally summoned to this likeness, but by transgressing the command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he fell. In doing so, he ruptured the divine-human union and severed himself from the Creator. Outside of communion with God, man is capable only of spiritual degeneration, not growth. The God-human union, broken by Adam, was restored by Christ. Through His ministry, suffering, and death, the Lord redeemed the world. He established the Church, within whose embrace — by living according to Christ, in Christ — man is transformed, deified, conformed to God, christified, and brought into trinitarian harmony; he becomes god (not in essence, of course, but by grace).

Cast out from Heaven, the devil grew envious of the glory with which primordial man had been clothed. Possessing experiential knowledge of what results from apostasy from God, the architect of sin deceitfully incited man to rebel against his Creator. Through this act, he stripped our first parents of the exalted state and dignity they had possessed before the Fall. By heeding the cunning counsel of Beelzebub, man transgressed God’s command, thereby subjecting himself and all his descendants to misery and calamity in place of joy and blessedness. The divine-human covenant was shattered by man’s own hand.

Disobedience, contrary to expectation, plunged our first parents into a state of discord — with the Sovereign Lord, with one another, and within their own selves. Their minds became darkened, their passions inflamed. The "approach" of the Lord, which once would have brought them delight, now evoked sheer terror. Hearing the voice of the Creator — “walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Gen. 3:8) — and forgetting God's omnipresence, omniscience, and omnivoyance, the primal humans could conceive of nothing better than to “hide themselves.” When the Creator asked Adam, "Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" (Gen. 3:11), the latter — far from repenting — instead accused God Himself: “The woman whom You gave me — she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate” (Gen. 3:12). Eve behaved no differently: refusing contrition, she shifted blame to the serpent. The outcome was tragic: spiritual death (separation from God), corruption (inherited mortality), expulsion from Paradise. The outcome is grievous: spiritual death, susceptibility to corruption, the inevitability of physical death, and expulsion from Paradise. Yet the tragedy of the Fall does not end here, for the consequences of original sin extend not only to our hapless first parents but to all mankind. Moreover, the whole of nature contracts a mortal illness. The earth no longer yields its fruit as before, and beasts, instead of submission, now display distrust and ferocity toward man. Man himself — once a caring sovereign — transforms into a cruel tyrant: wretched and feeble, yet a tyrant nonetheless. Human life becomes "devoid of meaning," for "what profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?" (Eccl. 1:3) when the end is death?

According to the teaching of the Church, every descendant of Adam without exception is born bearing the consequences of our first parents’ disobedience. In theological literature, these consequences are typically designated not by the full phrase “the consequences of original sin,” but by its abbreviated form — “original sin” or “ancestral sin.” This concept must be distinguished from the term denoting the actual transgression committed by our first parents. Context determines the distinction. What constitutes the essence of “original sin”? By turning away from the Creator, man turned away from the Source of his existence — he severed himself from Him. In departing from the Fountain of Life, and thus from the Fountain of Wholeness, man inflicted corruption upon his own nature. All Adam’s descendants, without exception, are now born damaged in both soul and body, with an inclination toward evil rather than good. Before the Fall the flesh was subordinate to the soul, the soul was governed by the spirit, the spirit was directed toward God. After the Fall the flesh rebelled against the soul, even dominating it. The human spirit, instead of ascending upward, became fixated on worldly, sinful pleasures Again: this inherited corruption, this sinful predisposition, this root of sin, is what Orthodox theology terms "original sin."

Only God possesses self-existent being. The world, by contrast, is not self-existent. It exists by participation in the uncreated divine energies. God is not only the Creator but also the Governor and Provider of the world. As the Fathers asked: how could He who in His infinite goodness created the world fail to care for His creatures? As Providence, God manifests care for His creation. This care consists in preserving creatures and guiding their existence. Divine Providence, according to Church teaching, is divided into general Providence (over the whole world) and particular Providence (over each individual creature). Without God’s Providence, no harmonious order could exist in the world. Were the Lord to withdraw His almighty hand from governance even for a moment, the world would instantly cease to exist. Though God’s Providence encompasses all creation, the freedom of rational beings remains intact. While God directs such beings toward good, He does not revoke their freedom — hence the possibility of its abuse and the emergence of evil. Some people may have a question how the doctrine of Providence aligns with Scripture’s words: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works which He had done” (Gen. 2:2). We answer in the words of Blessed Augustine: “… the statement that God rested from all His works means He ceased creating new kinds of creatures — not that He ceased to sustain and govern those already made. Thus, it is equally true that He rested on the seventh day and that He ‘works until now’ (Jn. 5:17).” Ba the way, Scripture itself confirms this, specifying that God rested from "all His works which He had created and made" (Gen. 2:3) — implying ongoing governance of what exists.

God's Providence extends to all creation without exception. Having turned away from God, the devil and demons became spawns of evil. However, this does not mean that the connection between them and God was completely severed. If God were to completely cease His providence over the devil's horde, it would simply cease to exist. Moreover, even personal interactions between God and the devil have been preserved. This is particularly evidenced in the Book of Job, which recounts how the devil appeared before God among the "sons of God," and the Lord asked him: "Have you considered My servant Job?" (Job 1:8). And Satan replied to the Almighty: "Does Job fear God for nothing?" (Job 1:9). That is, the chief demon wanted to suggest to the Lord that Job was righteous only because God had created comfortable conditions for him, and that if these conditions were changed to uncomfortable or even harsh ones, he would fall like other sinful apostates. In response, God said to the devil: "Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on him" (Job 1:12). From this account, it is clearly seen that the devil is dependent on God, that he does not possess complete freedom in his actions, and that he can act only within the limits permitted by the Lord.

Throughout the entire history of mankind, God prepared people for the Coming of the Savior. The first promise of Christ's coming mentioned in Holy Scripture was proclaimed immediately after the expulsion of our first parents from Paradise. Addressing to the serpent-tempter, God spoke words that many theologians call nothing less than the Protoevangelium (First Gospel). These are the words: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Gen. 3:15). In this prophecy, God promises humanity not submission to evil, but struggle against evil — a struggle fraught with many trials, yet one that will ultimately end in evil's defeat. For a strike to the head is fatal to a serpent. Here God promises (albeit veiledly) to send His Only Begotten Son into the world, who would be incarnate of the pure blood of the "woman" — the Virgin Mary. In order this Coming to bear meaning, it needed to become the object of mankind's longing and aspirations, the focus of its striving and prayers. Humanity had to mature and rise to meet it. Only then people would willingly accept God's great gif t— Salvation. To make humanity aware of the depth of its fall into the abyss of evil, God allowed it to endure many sorrows. Thus God did both things – educated fallen man and cultivated within him a yearning for swift restoration of communion with the Divine. God reinforced and multiplied this holy desire through numerous prophecies and promises about Christ's coming. History shows that by the time of the Savior's advent, the intensity of expectation had grown exceedingly great. And so, when the human race had been prepared to meet the Incarnated God, when from among mankind appeared That Unique One, worthy to become the Mother of God Himself (according to His human nature), when finally She voluntarily consented to this momentous step — the Lord did not delay to come.