Process Theism and Ex Nihilo Creation

Christians and Jews generally affirm that God is independent, the maker of all things, and needs nothing. It should be obvious. Although these facts are made clear throughout Scripture, there is a view known as process theism that rejects biblical truth in this area.

Everything depends on God for its existence (Heb. 1:3), but process theism rejects this. Somehow, God depends on some other entity, and he is evolving with creation. With this comes a rejection of creation out of nothing — creatio ex nihilo.

Dwarf Starburst Galaxy Henize 2-10 credit: NASA, ESA et. al. (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents)

I'll allow that ex nihilo creation is not stated explicitly in the Bible, but it is clearly found by reasoning from Scripture. The denial of creatio ex nihilo is tied in with greater problems in process theism. (Adding to the confusion is that there is no specific creed for process theism, so one may encounter those who believe in certain aspects but not others. Some may not even realize the name of the brand for which they're riding.) Process theists say that God must be in a relationship, and needs it, outside of himself. Like other unusual beliefs, there is a grain of truth to this that is twisted.

Process theism (often called ‘process theology’) is the idea that both God and the world are ‘in the process’ of growing in relationship with each other, such that they both need each other to grow through time. As such, it generally limits God’s power and knowledge of the future, and rejects God’s independence, and creatio ex nihilo, the idea that God made the world without any pre-existing materials. Today’s correspondent asked how to provide a biblically based answer to this idea. Emilia W. from the United States writes:

This gets a mite deep, but is interesting and can be useful when encountering people with these views. To read the rest, ride over to "Process theism — Compatible with the Bible?"