The origin of all things in the universe is rooted in one, unified source—a single fountain of power from which all emanates. This is the doctrine of **creation *ex Deo***: the understanding that all things proceed *from* the Deity, not *out of nothing*. The Deity is the ultimate source, and from Him all things are derived, sustained, and held together—not through arbitrary fiat, nor by conjuration from nonexistence, but by structured emanation of substance.
This stands in stark contrast to two false doctrines promoted by the **Old Self of the Flesh**—that is, human thinking in its unenlightened, animal condition. On one side is the view that **God is immaterial**, a formless and incorporeal entity without substance, essence, or body. On the other side is the opposing error of **pantheism**, which collapses the distinction between the Creator and creation by asserting that all things are God simply because they exist.
Both errors are rooted in the same failure: they do not recognize the Deity as a **corporeal being**, composed of refined, living atoms—not as a mere idea, nor as an impersonal force, but as a structured, substantive, and living power. Scripture affirms this clearly in John 4:24, where the Greek reads, *πνεῦμα ὁ Θεός ἐστιν*—*Spirit is the Theos*. This is not a denial of substance, but an affirmation that the Deity is **spirit-substance**—not immaterial, but of a different order of corporeality than the bodies of the Natural World.
### The Distinction Between Source and Product
The teaching of *emanation ex Deo* means that all things were brought forth *from* the Deity, not made from nothing. As Romans 11:36 declares, *“For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.”* The apostle does not say “out of nothing,” but **ex autou**—out of Him. The Deity is the **source-substance**, the primal reality from which all other things flow. But this does not mean that what is derived is identical to the One from whom it came.
This is where **pantheism errs**. It confuses the **derivative** with the **originating**. Pantheism says: “All is God,” simply because all things came from God. But this is logically and spiritually incoherent. A child may come from its parents, but it is not identical to them. The beam of light may proceed from the sun, but it is not the sun itself. Likewise, the Aeons and the Natural World proceed from the Deity, but they are **not** the Deity Himself.
Creation is therefore **ex Deo**, but not **identical** with the Deity. To say otherwise is to destroy the meaningfulness of divine order, will, and authority. Pantheism leads to confusion of categories and undermines all distinctions between holy and profane, Creator and creation, higher and lower. It abolishes any notion of *telos*, or final purpose, because if all is God, then there is no movement, no estrangement, and therefore no redemption. In such a view, evil, decay, and death must be called “God,” a blasphemous conclusion that Valentinian theology rightly rejects.
### Emanation vs. Pantheism
The Valentinian understanding of **emanation** is not pantheistic. It teaches that the Aeons—divine powers and attributes—emanated in ordered pairs from the ultimate Source, *Bythos*, who is also called the Father or Depth. These Aeons are **corporeal**, composed of atomic structures, yet of a higher, incorruptible kind. They form the **Pleroma**, the fullness of divine life and substance. The Natural World, by contrast, is composed of atoms in a coarser, corruptible state. Both are material, but not equal.
Emanation does not imply dilution, nor does it imply that each subsequent being is divine in the same sense as the Source. Just as light diffuses from its origin, becoming fainter the farther it travels, so too do the emanated beings bear **less intensity** of divine likeness the further they are from the Source. The lowest realms are marked by fragmentation, ignorance (*agnosis*), and death—not because they are God, but because they are **distanced** from Him in structure and function.
### The Rejection of *Creatio ex Nihilo*
The doctrine of *creatio ex nihilo*—that the universe was made from nothing—is a later theological imposition foreign to both Scripture and apostolic teaching. It originates in metaphysical speculation rather than revealed truth. The Scriptures testify not to nothingness, but to **formlessness**: “And the earth was without form and void” (Genesis 1:2). There was **chaos**, not non-being. The Deity brought order, not existence out of vacuum.
Isaiah 45:18 affirms, *“\[Yahweh] did not create it \[the earth] to be a waste, but formed it to be inhabited.”* The implication is that the Deity shaped substance—atoms—into purpose, not into existence itself from nothing. All things were made *from* the Deity’s substance, not by summoning them from non-being. The early Valentinian view preserves this insight: that the Deity is the ground of all being, and all things proceed from Him in degrees of substance and form.
### Spirit Is Material, Not Immaterial
A major flaw of both pantheism and orthodox theology is their mishandling of the term **spirit**. Pantheism tends to spiritualize matter; orthodoxy tends to dematerialize spirit. But in the Scriptures and in the Valentinian tradition, spirit (*pneuma*) is a kind of **material**—not visible or corruptible like flesh, but composed of refined atoms. The Deity is not an immaterial idea, but a living power, with body and form, though not of flesh and blood.
To say that “Spirit is the Deity” is not to deny that the Deity has substance—it is to affirm that His **substance is spirit**, and His emanations—whether Aeons, Spirit, or Logos—are also **material** in nature, though invisible to the five senses.
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### Conclusion
Creation is *ex Deo*—not from nothing, and not identical with God. Pantheism, by collapsing all things into one undifferentiated divine essence, destroys the order of creation and the meaning of divine will. The truth revealed in Scripture and preserved in Valentinian teaching is that all things proceed from the Deity as from a fountain, by **emanation**, not conjuring, and not identity. There is one Source, and from Him proceed all things, each in its own order, each with purpose. The cosmos is therefore not God, but **of God**—and the Spirit that bridges the Natural World with the Pleroma is a living, atomic presence configured to restore what has fallen back to the fullness from which it came.
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