The creation of Nunavut.

JWs, what are the three different aspects of God’s relationship to His creation is mentioned in Rom 11:36?

• 1) In Revelation 4:8, it is quite clear that John’s careful use of three different verbs is for him to highlight three different aspects of God’s existence: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was [ο ην], and is [ο ων], and is to come [ο ερχομενος].” How about in Romans 11:36? Does Paul’s use of three different prepositions highlight three different aspects of God’s relationship to his creation? “For from [εξ] him and through [δια] him and to [εις] him are all things” (NIV) Commenting on Romans 11:36, Greek scholar A. T. Robinson said: “Indeed God himself may be regarded as source, mediate agent, and ultimate object or end, as Paul does in his noble doxology in Ro. 11:36” (GRAMMAR OF THE GREEK NEWTESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH, p. 583) #2) But isn’t it that in the NWT of Romans 11:36, this three different aspects of God’s relationship to creation was obscured? “Because from him [=God is the cause/source] and by him [=God is the cause/source] and for him are all things [=God is the ultimate object].” #3) If God is the mediate agent of creation, and in Col 1:15 where that role is attributed to Christ (“all things were created by [δια] him”), then Christ’s being the mediate agent of creation in Col 1:15 doesn’t prove that he is NOT God, but on the contrary, it proves that he IS God. A. God is the mediate agent of creation (Romans 11:36) B. Christ is the mediate agent of creation (Col 1:15) Therefore, C. Christ is God. Of course, in the NWT, this fact is conveniently hidden by rendering δια in Romans 11:36 (“BY him”= cause) and Col 1:15 (“BY MEANS OF him”= agent) differently. I think it is quite clear that δια in Romans 11:36 is used by Paul, not to express causation/source (for that is already covered by the preceeding εξ), but to express a different role, i.e. that of the mediate agent.

• Answer:

  "For Jesus to be given two of God’s functions in creating all things demonstrates beyond any reasonable doubt that Jesus is THE CREATOR in an active sense, which makes him Yahweh God! This identical use of language in relation to God’s role in creation emphatically affirms that the Lord Jesus is the Creator in a primary and active sense. As NT scholar Richard Bauckham states in relation to Paul’s claim that all things are from God and through Christ: “The description in its undivided, unmodified form is used elsewhere by Paul, specifically in Romans 11:36a: ‘from him and through him and to him [are] all things’. Here the statement simply refers to God, whereas in 1 Corinthians 8:6 Paul has divided it between God and Christ, applying to God two of the prepositions that describe God’s relationship as Creator to all things (‘from’ and ‘for’ or ‘to’) and the third of these prepositions (‘through’) to Christ. Although Paul’s formula in Romans 11:36 does not appear precisely in this form elsewhere, there are enough Jewish parallels to make it certain that Paul there simply quotes a Jewish formulation. That God is not only the agent or efficient cause of creation (‘from him are all things’) and the final cause or goal of all things (‘to him are all things’), but also the instrumental cause (‘through whom are all things’) well expresses the typical Jewish monotheistic concern that God used no one else to carry out his work of creation, but accomplished it alone, solely by means of his own Word and/or his own Wisdom. Paul’s reformulation in 1 Corinthians 8:6 includes Christ in this exclusively divine work of creation by giving to him the role of instrumental cause.” (Bauckham, p. 39 emphasis added). The Pseudepigrapha provides support for Bauckham’s claims: "O sovereign Lord, didst thou not speak at the beginning when thou didst form the earth -- AND THAT WITHOUT HELP-- and didst command the dust and it gave thee Adam, a lifeless body? Yet he was the workmanship of thy hands, and thou didst breathe into him the breath of life, and he was made alive in thy presence." 4 Ezra 3:4-5 RSV. "then I planned these things, and they were made THROUGH ME AND NOT THROUGH ANOTHER, just as the end shall come through me and not through another." 4 Ezra 6:6 RSV. "This name was very appropriately bestowed upon him by our first ancestors, in order to signify that He THROUGH whom all things are endowed with life and come into being, is necessarily the ruler and lord of the Universe. Set all mankind an example of magnanimity by releasing those who are held in bondage." Letter of Aristeas 16 RSV. Therefore, the role of Christ in creation persuasively shows that the Lord Jesus is indeed the Creator of all things 3.