People have understood the making of the world and the creation of all things in many different ways, each defining the matter as they wished. Some, such as the Epicureans, say that everything came into being spontaneously and by chance. They even argue against themselves by claiming that there is no providence over the universe, directly contradicting what is clear and evident.
For if, as they say, everything came into being spontaneously and without providence, there would be no reason for things to differ from one another; everything should have come into being alike. The universe would be all sun or all moon. And if we look at a single human body, the whole body would have to be a hand, an eye, or a foot. But that is not what we see. We see the sun, the moon, and the earth as distinct things, and in a human body we see a foot, a hand, and a head. This order shows that things did not come into being spontaneously, but that a cause preceded them. From this cause we can recognize God as the one who ordered and made all things.
Others, including Plato, who is highly regarded among the Greeks, say that God made the universe from pre-existing and uncreated matter. They argue that God could not have made anything unless matter already existed, just as wood must already be available for a carpenter to do his work.
But in saying this they do not realize that they are attributing weakness to God. For if He is not Himself the cause of matter, but makes existing things only from matter already present, He would be weak, since He could make nothing without matter—just as it is a weakness of a carpenter that he cannot make what is needed without wood. On their assumption, if matter had not existed, God would have made nothing. How, then, could He still be called Maker and Creator if His ability to make depended on something else, namely matter? If this is so, then according to them God would be only a craftsman, not a Creator who brings things into being, since He would merely work with existing matter without being its cause. Indeed, He could not be called Creator at all if He did not create the matter from which created things came into being.
The heretics invent for themselves another Creator of all things besides the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. They are deeply blind even to what they say.
For the Lord says to the Jews: “Have you not read that from the beginning the one who created them made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?” Then, indicating the Creator, He says, “Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.” How, then, can they say that creation is foreign to the Father? And if John leaves nothing out when he says, “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not one thing came into being,” how could the Creator be anyone other than the Father of Christ?