Whether the Angel Was Produced by God from Eternity?
Objection 1: It would seem that the angel was produced by God from
eternity. For God is the cause of the angel by His being: for He does
not act through something besides His essence. But His being is
eternal. Therefore He produced the angels from eternity.
Obj. 2: Further, everything which exists at one period and not at
another, is subject to time. But the angel is above time, as is laid
down in the book _De Causis._ Therefore the angel is not at one time
existing and at another non-existing, but exists always.
Obj. 3: Further, Augustine (De Trin. xiii) proves the soul's
incorruptibility by the fact that the mind is capable of truth. But as
truth is incorruptible, so is it eternal. Therefore the intellectual
nature of the soul and of the angel is not only incorruptible, but
likewise eternal.
_On the contrary,_ It is said (Prov. 8:22), in the person of begotten
Wisdom: "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways, before He
made anything from the beginning." But, as was shown above (A. 1), the
angels were made by God. Therefore at one time the angels were not.
_I answer that,_ God alone, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, is from
eternity. Catholic Faith holds this without doubt; and everything to
the contrary must be rejected as heretical. For God so produced
creatures that He made them "from nothing"; that is, after they had
not been.
Reply Obj. 1: God's being is His will. So the fact that God produced
the angels and other creatures by His being does not exclude that He
made them also by His will. But, as was shown above (Q. 19, A. 3; Q.
46, A. 1), God's will does not act by necessity in producing
creatures. Therefore He produced such as He willed, and when He
willed.
Reply Obj. 2: An angel is above that time which is the measure of the
movement of the heavens; because he is above every movement of a
corporeal nature. Nevertheless he is not above time which is the
measure of the succession of his existence after his non-existence,
and which is also the measure of the succession which is in his
operations. Hence Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. viii, 20,21) that "God
moves the spiritual creature according to time."
Reply Obj. 3: Angels and intelligent souls are incorruptible by the
very fact of their having a nature whereby they are capable of truth.
But they did not possess this nature from eternity; it was bestowed
upon them when God Himself willed it. Consequently it does not follow
that the angels existed from eternity.
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