I am certain that you are sincere, but you’re just as wrong and your posse is as ignorant as they come. They actually think to know - blind leading the blind and all that.
The Church Fathers didn’t say what you think they said. Read them yourself. I have, but more importantly read your Bible.
Genesis 1:1 - http://bible.cc/genesis/1-1.htm
Genesis 1:2 - http://bible.cc/genesis/1-2.htm
No mention of creation ex nihilo. That’s utter nonsense read into the text by godless men who thought to know the mind of God. The Near Eastern peoples considered a God who tamed chaos to be greater than a god who created something from nothing. Verse one tells you what will happen, verse two tells you the current state, and the action starts in verse three.
There is nothing in the creation story to indicate that the Earth is unique, solitary, the only one of its kind, nor does the text indicate what was there beforehand. For the most part the Bible is silent on any even prior to Gen. 1:1.
The writer is ignorant, apparently intentionally and she wants to drag you with her. Don’t go.
From your link, the very first sentence of the Holy Bible.
No “arranged, fixed, organized, rebuilt, repaired,” it says CREATED.”
So please explain to this ignorant godless posse member how created becomes tamed the chaos. And for bonus points where did the raw materials come from and who or what created that if God just waltz up and reorganized things.
Oh and the “Earth is not unique” it is actually, but that does not mean there are not similar worlds as science is showing us even now. God CREATED the HEAVENS and the Earth.
I await the non LDS LDS answer.
Your comprehension skills are very sorely lacking. “In the beginning God created heaven and earth” means that “before” God created,
“God was all that there was - there was no empty space or a dark void or non-existence, and he himself is both “pure and eternal existence and the source of all other existence, which is derived from and dependent on his existence.” (”Is Creatio Ex Nihilo A Post-Biblical Invention? An Examination Of Gerhard May’s Proposal,” Paul Copan, Trinity Journal 17.1; Spring 1996)
With Irenaeus, the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo was well established. He also argued that the world (matter) was not coeternal with God:
“But the things established are distinct from Him who has established them, and what [things] have been made from Him who has made them. For He is Himself uncreated, both without beginning and end, and lacking nothing. He is Himself sufficient for this very thing, existence; but the things which have been made by Him have received a beginning... He indeed who made all things can alone, together with His Word, properly be termed God and Lord; but the things which have been made cannot have this term applied to them, neither should they justly assume that appellation which belongs to the Creator.”
The Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 formally declared:
“We firmly believe and simply confess that there is only one true God ... the Creator of all things visible and invisible, spiritual and corporeal; who from the very beginning of time by His omnipotent power created out of nothing [de nihilo condidit] both the spiritual beings and the corporeal.” (ibid, Copan)
The Westminister Confession of Faith (1646) asserts that,
“It pleased God ... in the beginning, to create or make of nothing the world, and all things therein” (IV.I; ibid)
Whether you are sincere or not, in your presumptuous ignorance you are blindly leading however many souls you have influence over, right into the pit.
Yes: churches leaders SHOULD be listened to quite intently!
"Now if any of you will deny the plurality of wives, and continue to do so, I promise that you will be damned;
and I will go still further and say, take this revelation, or any other revelation that the Lord has given,
and deny it in your feelings, and I promise that you will be damned.
Brigham Young - JoD 3:266 (July 14, 1855)