A Critique of the Mormon Doctrine of Creation

is true; the matter is not ambiguous. Or
consider this: “Either creatio ex nihilo is
true, or God is not all-powerful. But God
is truly all-powerful.” Again, God’s being
all-powerful strongly suggests creation
out of nothing. Though it is implicit in
Scripture, it is not ambiguous.
Fourth, even if the biblical evidence
were ambiguous and the biblical writers
took no position on this issue, the LDS
idea that God created from eternally
pre-existing matter does not win by
default. Rather, this position has its own
burden of proof to bear. Mormons give
the impression that an either-or situation
exists regarding creation: either the Bible
explicitly teaches creation out of nothing
or the creation ex materia view is true by
default. However, one must deal contextually
and exegetically with the biblical
texts, offering positive evidence for the
ex materia position. The idea of creation
from pre-existent matter would not automatically
be true, even if the Bible were
actually unclear on the matter.
Happily, we have no need of that
hypothesis.
ENDNOTES
1 “Creation, Creation Accounts,” in Encyclopedia
of Mormonism, ed. Daniel H.
Ludlow (New York: Macmillan, 1992),
1:340.
2 B. H. Roberts, The Truth, the Way, the Life,
ed. Stan Larson (San Francisco: Smith
Research Associates, 1994), 224.
3 See Stephen E. Robinson’s comments on
this in Stephen E. Robinson and Craig
L. Blomberg, How Wide the Divide? A
Mormon and an Evangelical in Conversation
(Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press,
1997), 138.
4 Stephen D. Ricks, “Ancient Views of
Creation and the Doctrine of Creation
ex Nihilo,” in Revelation, Reason, and Faith:
Essays in Honor of Truman G. Madsen, ed.
Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson,
and Stephen D. Ricks (Provo: FARMS,
2002), 332.
5 Ibid.
6 Coauthored with William Lane Craig
(Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004). See also our
coauthored essay, “Craftsman or Creator?”
in The New Mormon Challenge, ed.
Francis Beckwith, Carl Mosser, and Paul
Owen (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002),
95-152; and Paul Copan, “Is Creation ex
Nihilo a Post-biblical Invention?” Trinity
Journal NS 17 (1996): 77-93.
7 Incidentally, I have met and have had
very cordial interactions with Prof.
Ricks; I trust that Ricks will engage the
ideas of the book—and perhaps even
concede to overstatement!
8 For details regarding the biblical, extrabiblical,
philosophical, and scientific
support for creation ex nihilo, I refer readers
to the book mentioned above.
9 Joseph Smith, History of the Church of
Latter-day Saints, intro. and notes by B. H.
Roberts (7 vols; Salt Lake City: Deseret
Book, 1978), 6:308-309. The King Follett
Discourse is found in the Journal of Discourses
(JD), 6:1-11.
10 JD, 13:248.
11 “Creation, Creation Accounts,” Encyclopedia
of Mormonism, 340.
12 Lowell Bennion, “A Mormon View of
Life,” Dialogue 24, no. 3 (1991): 60.
13 In a personal correspondence (20 April
1998), Stephen Robinson writes, “I would
not be comfortable with saying that God
cannot bring eternal matter into being
nor destroy it.” Rather, “God creates
matter out of chaos and can return it to
chaos, and that chaos is not matter as
we know it, but a level of existence that
human beings cannot comprehend. For
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