Creator-creature distinction

Who denies creator-creature distinction?

• Pantheism
• Panentheism
• Anthropomorphites
• Mormonism
• ?

Anthropology

Need to explore the anthropology side of this too. What does Scripture say about man and how does that compare/contrast with what Scripture says about God?

Creation not self-existent but reliant totally on God

Rev 5:11–14

Rev 5:11–14 probably belongs on this page because it distinguishes Jesus from created beings. All creatures (created things) worship God and the Lamb, which implies that neither God nor the Lamb are creatures.

Creator-creature distinction a pastoral doctrine

Dane Ortlund in his book Gentle and Lowly, chapter 17, cites passages like Isa 55:8 (in context!) to compare and contrast God’s nature and human nature. It’s a good reminder: God is not only wholly different from us; he’s infinitely more good than we are.

Categorical Distinction

R. Scott Clark in his Heidelcast refers to this as the “Categorical Distinction”.

King Xerxes of Persia

Blake Ostler and Jacob Hansen discount all of God’s “there is no other God” statements with an appeal to an inscription by the Persian King Xerxes on a foundation stone at Persepolis. I’m having trouble chasing down the original because the few times I’ve heard them mention it they don’t cite their source.

Sam Baird helped me find two verses of Scripture: Isa 47:7; Zep 2:15. I’ve added them to the relevant pages.

A New Inscription of Xerxes from Persepolis by Ernst E. Herzfeld^[1] gives this translation:

§ 1. A great god (is) Ahuramazdâ, who created this earth, who created yonder heaven, who created man, who created peace for man, who made Xerxes king, one (as) king of many, one (as) lord of many.

§ 2. I, Xerxes the great king, king of kings, king of the lands with many kinds of people, king on this earth far and wide, son of Darius the king, the Achaemenid (had this made).

. . .

I found this in a commentary on Esther. I’m not sure if it’s a different translation from the same inscription, or could be a different inscription:

I am Xerxes, the great king. The only king, the king of (all) countries (which speak) all kinds of languages, the king of this (entire) big and far-reaching earth—the son of King Darius, the Achaemenian, a Persian, son of a Persian, an Aryan of Aryan descent.^[2]

I also found an article in Sunstone by Ostler where he talked about the way ancient kings would exaggerate their conquests and military might and he specifically mentioned Xerxes boasting about his army being 1.7 million people when it was likely closer to a hundred thousand, which seems related to the kind of hyperbole we’re talking about, but not the same thing.