Worlds Before and After

One of the church’s settled definitions — one we hold chiefly because we believe our sacred history is true — is that this world was made and had its beginning at a certain time, and that, in keeping with the completion of the age appointed for all things, it is to be destroyed because of its corruption. So there is nothing out of place in going back over a few points connected with this subject. As far as the trustworthiness of Scripture goes, the statements on such a matter seem easy to prove. Even the heretics, though they are far apart on much else, appear to be at one here, giving way to the authority of Scripture. [a]

As for the creation of the world, what part of Scripture can tell us more about it than the account Moses has handed down of its origin? It holds matters of deeper meaning than the plain historical narrative seems to show, and it contains a great many things that are to be understood spiritually, using the letter as a kind of veil while it treats of deep and hidden subjects. Even so, the narrator’s own language shows that everything visible was made at a certain time.

But as for the world’s coming to its end, Jacob is the first to give us any information, when he speaks to his children: “Gather yourselves to me, sons of Jacob, so that I may tell you what will be in the last days.” The words can also be read “after the last days.” If, then, there are “last days,” or a stretch of time following the last days, the days that had a beginning must necessarily come to an end. David, too, declares: “The heavens will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment; you will change them like a robe, and they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.” And our Lord and Savior bears witness that the world was made, in the words, “He who made them at the beginning made them male and female”; and again, when he says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will not pass away,” he points out that they are perishable and must come to an end.

The apostle, moreover, plainly announces the end of the world when he declares that “the creation was made subject to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope, because the creation itself will also be set free from its slavery to corruption into the glorious freedom of the children of God”; and he does the same when he says again, “The form of this world is passing away.” Now by the expression he uses, “the creation was made subject to futility,” he shows that this world had a beginning. For if the creation was made subject to futility on account of some hope, it was certainly made subject from a cause; and since it was from a cause, it must have had a beginning. Without some beginning the creation could not be subject to futility, nor could a creation that had not begun to serve hope to be freed from its slavery to corruption. But anyone who cares to search at his leisure will find many other passages in holy Scripture where the world is said both to have a beginning and to hope for an end.

Now if there is anyone here who would set himself against the authority or the trustworthiness of our Scriptures, we would ask him this: does he say that God can, or cannot, take in all things? To say that he cannot would plainly be an act of irreverence. If, then, he answers as he must, that God takes in all things, it follows from the very fact that they can be taken in that they are understood to have a beginning and an end; for what is altogether without any beginning cannot be taken in at all. However far understanding may reach, just so far is the power of taking a thing in withdrawn and removed beyond all limit, once it is held that there is no beginning. [g]

But here is the objection they generally raise. They say: “If the world had its beginning in time, what was God doing before the world began? It is at once irreverent and absurd to say that the nature of God is idle and unmoving, or to suppose that goodness at one time did no good, and that almighty power at one time did not exercise its power.” That is the objection they are used to making against our statement that this world had its beginning at a certain time, and that, in keeping with our belief in Scripture, we can count up the years of its past duration. [h]

To these claims I do not think any of the heretics can easily give an answer that will fit the nature of their own opinions. But we can give a reasoned answer that keeps to the rule of godliness, when we say that God did not then begin to work for the first time when he made this visible world. Rather, just as there will be another world after this one is destroyed, so we believe that others existed before this one came into being. Both of these positions are confirmed by the authority of holy Scripture. That there will be another world after this one is taught by Isaiah, who says, “There will be new heavens and a new earth, which I will make to stand in my sight, says the Lord”; and that other worlds existed before this one is shown by Ecclesiastes, in the words: “What is it that has been? The very thing that will be. And what is it that has been created? The very thing that is to be created. And there is nothing at all new under the sun. Who will speak and say, ‘Look, this is new’? It has already been in the ages that were before us.” These testimonies establish both that there were ages before our own and that there will be others after it. It is not, however, to be supposed that several worlds existed at once, but that after the end of this present world others will take their beginning. There is no need to repeat each point about that, since we have already done so in the pages before this.

This point is not to be idly passed over: that the holy Scriptures have called the creation of the world by a new and particular name, terming it katabolē, which has been very badly rendered into Latin by constitutio. For in Greek katabolē means rather to throw down — a word that has been, as we have already remarked, wrongly translated into Latin by the phrase constitutio mundi, as in the Gospel according to John, where the Savior says, “And there will be distress in those days, such as there has not been since the beginning of the world”; in that passage katabolē is rendered by “beginning” (constitutio), which is to be understood as explained above. The apostle also, in the letter to the Ephesians, has employed the same language, saying, “who chose us before the foundation of the world”; and this foundation he calls katabolē, to be understood in the same sense as before. [k]

It seems worth asking, then, what is meant by this new term. My own opinion is this. The end and completion of the saints will be in those ages that are not seen and are eternal; and from a contemplation of that very end we must conclude — as has often been pointed out in the pages before this — that reasoning creatures had a similar beginning. And if they had a beginning like the end for which they hope, then beyond doubt they existed from the very beginning in those ages that are not seen and are eternal.

And if this is so, then there has been a descent from a higher condition to a lower one, on the part not only of those souls who deserved the change by the variety of their movements, but also of those who, in order to serve the whole world, were brought down from those higher and invisible regions to these lower and visible ones, although against their will — “because the creation was made subject to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope” — so that both sun and moon and stars and angels might discharge their duty to the world, and to those souls which, on account of their great defects of mind, stood in need of bodies of a coarser and more solid kind; and for the sake of those for whom this arrangement was necessary, this visible world was also called into being.

From this it follows that the word seems to point out a descent from a higher condition to a lower one, shared by all alike. The hope of freedom is held by the whole of creation — the hope of being set free from the corruption of slavery — for the time when the sons of God, who either fell away or were scattered abroad, will be gathered together into one, or when they will have fulfilled their other duties in this world, which are known to God alone, who arranges all things. We are indeed to suppose that the world was created of such quality and capacity as to hold not only all those souls which it was determined should be trained in this world, but also all those powers which were made ready to attend and serve and assist them. For it is established by many statements that all reasoning creatures are of one nature; and only on that ground could the justice of God in all his dealings with them be defended, since every one has in himself the reason why he was placed in this or that rank of life.

This arrangement of things, then, which God appointed afterwards — for from the very origin of the world he had clearly perceived the reasons and causes affecting those who, owing to defects of mind, deserved to enter into bodies, and those who were carried away by their desire for visible things, and those also who, willingly or unwillingly, were compelled by him who subjected them in hope to perform certain services for such as had fallen into that condition — this arrangement was not understood by some. They failed to perceive that it was owing to preceding causes, arising out of free will, that God had instituted this variety of arrangement. And so they concluded that everything in this world is directed either by chance movements or by a necessary fate, and that nothing lies within the power of our own will. That is also why they were unable to show that the providence of God is beyond the reach of blame.

But as we have said that all the souls who lived in this world stood in need of many servants, or rulers, or helpers, so in the last times, when the end of the world is already close at hand and near, and the whole human race is verging upon the last destruction — when not only those who were governed by others had been reduced to weakness, but those also to whom the cares of government had been committed — it was no longer that kind of help or those kinds of defenders that were needed, but the help of the Author and Creator himself was required, to restore to the one the discipline of obedience, which had been corrupted and profaned, and to the other the discipline of rule. [o]

And so the only Son of God, who was the Word and the Wisdom of the Father, while he was in possession of that glory with the Father which he had before the world was, emptied himself of it, and, taking the form of a servant, was made obedient to death, so that he might teach obedience to those who could obtain salvation in no other way than by obedience. He also restored the laws of ruling and reigning, which had been corrupted, by subduing all enemies under his feet — for it was necessary that he should reign until he had put all enemies under his feet and had destroyed the last enemy, death — so that by this means he might teach rulers themselves moderation in their government.

Since he had come, then, to restore the discipline not only of government but of obedience, as we have said, accomplishing first in himself what he wanted accomplished by others, he became obedient to the Father not only to the death of the cross, but also, at the end of the world, embracing in himself all whom he subjects to the Father and who come through him to salvation. He himself, along with them and in them, is said to be subject to the Father as well; for all things hold together in him, and he himself is the Head of all things, and in him is the salvation and the fullness of those who obtain salvation. And this, accordingly, is what the apostle says of him: “And when all things have been subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subject to him who put all things under him, so that God may be all in all.”

I do not know how the heretics, failing to understand the apostle’s meaning in these words, consider the term “subjection” degrading when it is applied to the Son. For if the fitness of the title is called into question, it can easily be settled by supposing the opposite. If it is not good to be in subjection, it follows that the opposite will be good — namely, not to be in subjection. Now on their view the apostle’s language in these words, “And when all things have been subdued to him, then the Son himself will also be subject to him who put all things under him,” appears to indicate that he who is not now in subjection to the Father will become subject to him once the Father has first subdued all things to him. [q]

But I am astonished that anyone can conceive the meaning to be this: that he who, while all things are not yet subdued to him, is not himself in subjection, should — at a time when all things have been subdued to him, and when he has become King of all men and holds sway over all things — then be supposed to be made subject, seeing that he was not in subjection before. Such people do not understand that the subjection of Christ to the Father indicates that our happiness has attained its perfection, and that the work he undertook has been brought to a victorious close. For he has not only purified the power of supreme government over the whole of creation; he also presents to the Father the settled ways of obedience and subjection of the human race, corrected and restored.

If, then, that subjection is held to be good and healthy by which the Son is said to be subject to the Father, it is an entirely reasonable and logical inference to conclude that the subjection of enemies, which is said to be made to the Son of God, should be understood as being healthy and useful too. Just as, when the Son is said to be subject to the Father, the perfect restoration of the whole of creation is signified, so also, when enemies are said to be subjected to the Son of God, what is understood by it is the salvation of the conquered and the restoration of the lost.

This subjection, however, will be accomplished in certain ways, and after certain training, and at certain times. It is not to be imagined that the subjection is to be brought about by the pressure of necessity — otherwise the whole world would then appear to be subdued to God by force — but by word, reason, and teaching: by a call to a better course of things, by the best kinds of training, and by the use also of suitable and fitting threats, which will justly hang over those who despise all care and attention to their own salvation and usefulness. In short, we human beings also, in training either our slaves or our children, hold them in check by threats and fear while they are still too young to use their reason; but when they have begun to understand what is good and useful and honorable, the fear of the lash is over, and they consent, through the persuasion of words and reason, to everything that is good. [r]

But how, while freedom of will is preserved in all reasoning creatures, each one ought to be regulated — that is, who they are whom the word of God finds and trains as though they were already prepared and capable of it; who they are whom it puts off to a later time; who those are from whom it is altogether hidden, and who are so placed as to be far from hearing it; who those are, again, who despise the word of God when it is made known and preached to them, and who are driven toward salvation by a kind of correction and punishment, so that their turning is in a certain degree demanded and forced out of them; who those are to whom certain opportunities of salvation are afforded, so that sometimes, their faith being proved by an answer alone, they have unquestionably obtained salvation — from what causes or on what occasions these results take place, or what the divine wisdom sees within them, or what movements of their will lead God so to arrange all these things, is known to him alone, and to his only Son, through whom all things were created and restored, and to the Holy Spirit, through whom all things are made holy, who proceeds from the Father; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.