Why did the Church employ the term “Creator of heaven and earth”?

The all-powerful and the all-good God, who created heaven and earth and all that is in them, is good. The Gnostics were incapable of comprehending that everything created by God is good. Thus, they considered the body, matter, sex, marriage, and having children as the creations of an evil god, or of a god inferior to the sublime God; and that salvation is only achieved through escaping the material world by secret wisdom. This is why the Church was impelled to include this article in the Creed; so that the faithful might see all the creation as good. This is clearly apparent in the Evangelist’s words: “All things where made through Him” (John 1:3). The Gnostics ask: why is there much evil in the world? And their reply is: it is the work of an evil god! Thus, the Gnostics see the world as a demonic prison, and in their view, the whole physical world is evil, including the human body, and they seek to be saved from it.

Instead of considering the origin of evil to be the unsanctified evil will, they seek to destroy all that is material, for it is evil. They fail to understand that darkness is the absence of light and that evil is the fruit of the will that deviates from the straight path to misuse material things. St. Gregory of Nyssa says, “But if, when the light shines very brightly in a clear sky, a man of his own accord shuts his eyelids to shade his sight, the sun is clear of blame on the part of him who does not see.”³⁰²

300 St. Cyril of Alexandria, Letter 55:13 (FOTC 77:20).

301 St. Basil of Caesarea, Hexamaeron 1:11 (NPNF II/8:58).

302 St. Gregory of Nyssa, The Great Catechism 7 (NPNF II/5:480) amended.

If a man strikes another with a lit lamp, neither the lamp nor the power of the striker’s hands are evil. The evil resides in the will of the man who misused both the lamp and the abilities of his hands, which are gifts from God. The abundance of evil in the world is not a shortcoming in the good Creator but arises from the deviation of humans and their need of healing. That is the difference between Christianity and Gnosticism.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem says, “But some one will say, If the Divine substance is incomprehensible, why then do you speak of these things? So then, because I cannot drink up all the river, am I not even to take in moderation what is expedient for me? Because with eyes so constituted as mine I cannot take in all the sun, am I not even to look upon him enough to satisfy my wants? Or again, because I have entered into a great garden, and cannot eat all the supply of fruits, would you have me go away altogether hungry? I praise and glorify Him that made us; for it is a divine command which says, ‘Let every breath praise the Lord’ (Ps. 150:6). I am attempting now to glorify the Lord, but not to describe Him, knowing nevertheless that I shall fall short of glorifying Him worthily, yet deeming it a work of piety even to attempt it at all. For the Lord Jesus encourages my weakness, by saying, ‘No one has seen God at any time’ (John 1:18).”³⁰³

The Third Article: “We believe in One Lord, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages. Light of Light, true God of true God; begotten not created; of one essence with the Father; by whom all things were made.”

Second: God the Son