In dealing with every obscure and weighty question it is well to call upon God, because He is good, because He is the Creator, and possessed as He is of absolutely exact knowledge of all things nothing is obscure to Him. But it is particularly necessary when the subject in question is the indestructibility of the world. For nothing in the realm of the sensible is more complete in every way than the world, nothing in the intelligible realm more perfect than God, and intelligence always takes command of sense and the intelligible of the sensible. And those in whom the love of truth is implanted in greater measure observe the law that knowledge about the subjects must be sought from the Commander and Ruler. Now, if schooled in the doctrines of wisdom and temperance and every virtue we had scoured away the stains of the passions and soul-distempers, perhaps God would not have refused to impart the knowledge of things heavenly through dreams or oracles or signs or wonders to souls thoroughly purged and bright and radiant. But since we bear upon us deep ingrained the imprints of injustice and folly and the other vices we must be content if through a study of probabilities and by our own efforts we may discover some semblance of the truth. Now the words “world” and “destruction” are both such as are used in many senses and therefore it will be well to open the discussion whether the world is indestructible by examining these terms in order to distinguish under what signification they stand in this case. Still we need not make a complete list of all the meanings they bear but only such as are instructive for our present purpose.
On the Eternity of the World 1
Tap any verse to see what it echoes — and start a chain or echo from it.