Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
2 Timothy 3:7
".....creation ex nihilo was obviously in harmony with Irenaeus’ concept.
(1) the Gnostic view that the world emanated from God,
(2) another Gnostic idea that the world is wicked per se and was not created by God himself, and
(3) the Platonic idea that God used already existing matter.
Irenaeus countered the first two views by emphasizing that God created the world ex nihilo and the third view by underscoring that God had invented matter."
DenisKaiser