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Part IV: Dogma and Ritual Questions · 11

Did God Need Christ in Order to Create and to Save Mankind?

Faith Q&A › Many Years with People's Questions › Part IV

The question

I heard a critic suggesting that, when He was creating the world, God needed Christ, so that the creation could take place, and that it says: "Through Him (ie. Jesus Christ, being the Word) All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made." (John 1:3). Did God need Jesus Christ when it came to saving the world? And if this is so, does it not mean that God is not omnipotent?

The answer

If God had needed anyone else to do these things, He could hardly be considered Almighty!!

But He is far beyond needing anyone else.

In the creation, everything was created at God's word, through the Word or Logos, who is God's mental power speaking for Him, or the speech of God expressing His Wisdom. All this

was so, long before the incarnation, and before the creation of Adam and Eve and the entire world.

Since God was able to create everything through His own intellect or wisdom, or by His, word, He could not have needed to create anyone else in order to help Him.

The phrase 'God created the world' or 'the intellect of God created the world' or 'God created the world through His intellect', all point to one and the same meaning. God and His mind are one being, and the same goes for salvation.

It is God who has saved the world, without needing anyone else's help to do so.

If someone other than God had saved the world, salvation would not be boundless enough to redeem all people in every age from all their sins.

The real problem, though, for the person who makes this criticism is the incarnation.

The incarnation is a long subject, which we don't have time for here. In any case, it is not a matter for criticism.

That critic whom you mentioned, is trying to make out that God needed someone else to help in His plans, and that needing someone else would suggest that God was not Almighty. The answer to this, however, is that God never needed anyone else, either when it came to the creation, or the salvation of mankind. It is God who created everything, and He who redeemed all. ((( ((

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Thrice-Blessed Pope Shenouda III of Blessed Memory

Thrice-Blessed Pope Shenouda III of Blessed Memory, Many Years with People's Questions, Part IV: Dogma and Ritual Questions. Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate. Translated by Mrs. Glynis Younan, London. Revised by Mrs. Wedad Abbas. First edition, August 1992. Revised COEPA 1997. ISBN 977-5319-0-2-1.