Quiz: On God, the Creator and Provider

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).