Whether God Can Annihilate Anything?
Objection 1: It would seem that God cannot annihilate anything. For
Augustine says (QQ. 83, qu. 21) that "God is not the cause of anything
tending to non-existence." But He would be such a cause if He were to
annihilate anything. Therefore He cannot annihilate anything.
Obj. 2: Further, by His goodness God is the cause why things exist,
since, as Augustine says (De Doctr. Christ. i, 32): "Because God is
good, we exist." But God cannot cease to be good. Therefore He cannot
cause things to cease to exist; which would be the case were He to
annihilate anything.
Obj. 3: Further, if God were to annihilate anything it would be by
His action. But this cannot be; because the term of every action is
existence. Hence even the action of a corrupting cause has its term
in something generated; for when one thing is generated another
undergoes corruption. Therefore God cannot annihilate anything.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Jer. 10:24): "Correct me, O Lord,
but yet with judgment; and not in Thy fury, lest Thou bring me to
nothing."
_I answer that,_ Some have held that God, in giving existence to
creatures, acted from natural necessity. Were this true, God could
not annihilate anything, since His nature cannot change. But, as we
have said above (Q. 19, A. 4), such an opinion is entirely false, and
absolutely contrary to the Catholic faith, which confesses that God
created things of His own free-will, according to Ps. 134:6:
"Whatsoever the Lord pleased, He hath done." Therefore that God gives
existence to a creature depends on His will; nor does He preserve
things in existence otherwise than by continually pouring out
existence into them, as we have said. Therefore, just as before
things existed, God was free not to give them existence, and not to
make them; so after they are made, He is free not to continue their
existence; and thus they would cease to exist; and this would be to
annihilate them.
Reply Obj. 1: Non-existence has no direct cause; for nothing is a
cause except inasmuch as it has existence, and a being essentially as
such is a cause of something existing. Therefore God cannot cause a
thing to tend to non-existence, whereas a creature has this tendency
of itself, since it is produced from nothing. But indirectly God can
be the cause of things being reduced to non-existence, by withdrawing
His action therefrom.
Reply Obj. 2: God's goodness is the cause of things, not as though by
natural necessity, because the Divine goodness does not depend on
creatures; but by His free-will. Wherefore, as without prejudice to
His goodness, He might not have produced things into existence, so,
without prejudice to His goodness, He might not preserve things in
existence.
Reply Obj. 3: If God were to annihilate anything, this would not
imply an action on God's part; but a mere cessation of His action.
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