God, according to the Christian doctrine of creation, is the maker of heaven and earth. All that exists distinct from God is created by God. Certainly this includes the physical world—the contingent reality of electrons, mountains, and stars. If there is a distinct non-physical realm— a necessary abstract realm and/or further contingent immaterial beings (such as souls and angels)—then it is reasonable (say I, but not all) to think that God is the creator of that as well.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Well, that question doesn’t get any more basic than this: Which came first, God or God’s nature? In his excellent book Creation and the Sovereignty of God, Hugh McCann argues against a commonly held intuition that no being is, or can be, responsible for the nature it has. Instead, McCann suggests there are good reasons to think that in God’s case we find an exception to our intuition: God creates His own nature! What are McCann’s reasons for thinking such a view attractive? He offers two:

We are a culture that likes to keep our heads down. Focus on “the stream of experience”—the feast of video, food, sex, gaming, money, mindless entertainment . . .whatever . . . that is continuously carted before our noses, lest we take a breath and look up.