1. God’s Plan for Creation 1. “THEOS” = “GOD” “THEO – LOGY” = “The Study of God” 2. From the Catholic Catechism: “God is the Supreme Being who made all things”.

2. 3. “Supreme Being” = The highest of all things which exist and… a PERFECT Being. 4. Five Perfections of God: a. Eternal: always existed, always will b. Infinite: absolutely without limit c. Omniscient: all-knowing d. Omnipotent: all-powerful e. Omni-Beneficent: all-good

3. 5. God is Eternal: He has ALWAYS existed and He ALWAYS will exist. - think of a timeline from negative infinity to positive infinity

4. 6. St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274): Summa Theologica. Unique and most noteworthy contribution to Philosophy and Natural Theology: God’s Essence IS identical with God’s Existence.

5. 7. This means that God’s very Essence is: “To Exist”, “To Be”. Existing/Being is “what God does”. Recall God’s response to Moses on Mount Sinai: “I AM WHO AM”. I am that greatest of all beings who has always existed and who always will exist.

6. 8. In addition to being Eternal, God is also All-Knowing and All-Powerful. He knows absolutely everything [past, present, and future]. And He is capable of doing ANYthing [which is ‘possible’].

7. 9. At a certain moment, God decided to use His power to CREATE something which would be “other” than Himself. At first there was only God. Then God decided to CREATE the universe and everything in it. And that is what He did: from nothing [ex nihilo] God created the universe and everything in it.

8. 10. God creates. And God, from the very beginning, had a PLAN for His creation. This is because God is also All-Knowing and All-Good. He has a perfect knowledge of all future events and He wants His creation to be perfect…in the END.

9. 11. God, as a Loving Father, always had and still has a PLAN for His creation: that this creation would be Good and that it would accomplish what He wanted for it.

10. 12. In general, what is the Plan of God for His creation? Why did God create the universe and everything in it? God created the universe to Give Glory to Himself. The “purpose” of the universe is: to give glory to God.

11. 13. God had a plan for His creation. But His “original” plan had to be “changed” because of something that happened in the course of time. What is this world- altering event?

12. 14. This event was…Original Sin. The first two Human Persons (Adam and Eve) committed a very grave sin against the Lord God. Out of pride, Adam and Eve disobeyed the clear command of God, which was: NOT TO EAT from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

13. 15. [But STOP and THINK for a moment] If God is all-knowing, didn’t He know Original Sin would happen? Of course He did. And if God is all-powerful, couldn’t he have stopped Original Sin from happening? Of course He could have. So what does this mean?

14. 16. It means that God ALWAYS had in His plan whatever “changes” or “adjustments” He would need to make (to his plan) in order to make up for the sins of mankind. God foresaw and foreknew (obviously) every single action of every single person who would ever live [bc He is All-knowing].

15. 17. God had already taken into account ALL the actions of every person who would ever live…BEFORE He ever created His plan for the universe. Then He chose to create THIS universe with ITS particular history and ITS particular ending.

16. 18. Of ALL the possible universes God could have created…He freely chose to create THIS universe (our universe) with ITS whole history from the creation until the end of the world.

17. 19. But…since the whole purpose of the created universe is to give glory to God. And since God [being perfect] always does what is BEST…what can we conclude about this [our] universe and its history? That is the supreme question…

18. 20. Answer: we can conclude that God foresaw that THIS universe, with ITS history, our universe, is THE universe that would… GIVE HIM THE MOST GLORY!!! Follow the logic: God [being perfect] always does what is best. And what is best is: to create the universe that would give God the most glory.

19. 21. So we can conclude that OUR universe, with all its particular history (good and evil) is the “best of all possible universes” and that it is the universe that God foresaw would give Him the most glory and honor. [Otherwise, we are second-guessing God].

20. 22. And how do we know this? Because God actually DID create this universe. The fact that God created THIS universe (given that God always acts for His greater glory) proves that our universe is the “best possible universe” for giving God glory. …Or else God would not have created it. He would have created another universe that would have given Him more glory.