Understand the doctrine of divine preservation, where God continually upholds and sustains the universe.
Quick Summary
Continuous creation (creatio continua) is the theological doctrine that the universe does not possess self-sustaining existence, but relies at every moment upon the active power of God to endure. It asserts that God's work of preservation is an ongoing, continuous act of sustaining what He originally created ex nihilo, ensuring that reality remains ordered and existent rather than reverting to nothingness (Colossians 1:17, Hebrews 1:3).
Continuous creation, traditionally called creatio continua, is the doctrine that creation continues to exist only because God continually wills, sustains, and upholds it. The doctrine does not mean that God is repeatedly creating the universe anew in a series of fresh acts. Rather, it means the existence of all created things depends at every moment upon the active power of God.
This distinction matters. Christian theology has long confessed that creation was brought into being ex nihilo, out of nothing, but it has also insisted that created reality does not possess self-sustaining existence. Creation does not continue by independent momentum. It endures because its Creator does not cease to uphold it.
In this sense, continuous creation describes ongoing ontological dependence. The world remains real, ordered, and existing because God continuously gives it being.
Biblical Foundation
Scripture grounds this doctrine in God’s present activity, not merely His past work.
Paul writes of Christ, “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). The point is not only that Christ created all things, but that their continued coherence depends on Him.
Hebrews makes the same claim when it says the Son is “upholding all things by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3). The universe is not pictured as a mechanism running on its own after creation, but as something presently sustained by divine action.
Acts 17:28 presses the doctrine even further: “In him we live and move and have our being.” Human existence itself is derivative and dependent.
Psalm 104 gives perhaps the most vivid expression of this truth. When God withdraws breath, creatures die and return to dust; when He sends forth His Spirit, life is renewed (Psalm 104:29–30). Existence itself is portrayed as contingent upon God’s continued willing.
These texts do not present God as a distant architect, but as the present ground of all created being.
Continuous Creation and Preservation
This is where continuous creation intersects with the doctrine of preservation.
Creation refers to God’s bringing all things into existence. Preservation refers to His sustaining what He has made. Creatio continua emphasizes that these are not disconnected realities. Preservation is not a lesser activity than creation itself. The God who called the world into being is the same God who continuously maintains it.
Classical theology therefore often treats continuous creation as the ongoing dimension of preservation. The universe is not self-subsisting. If divine sustaining ceased, creation would not merely malfunction; it would cease to be.
That is why Christian theologians have sometimes said preservation is, in effect, continued creation.
Continuous Creation and Providence
The doctrine also belongs to the larger framework of providence.
Providence includes more than sustaining existence. It includes God’s directing, governing, and ordering all things toward His purposes. Scripture presents no divide between preservation and providence. The One who upholds the world also rules it.
This is reflected in Ephesians 1:11, where God “works all things according to the counsel of his will.” It is reflected as well in Acts 17:25–26, where the God who gives life and breath is also the One who appoints times and boundaries for nations.
The historic Reformed tradition summarized this by saying God upholds, directs, disposes, and governs all creatures and all actions.
Continuous creation therefore belongs within providence, not outside it. God sustains what He governs and governs what He sustains.
Against Deism and Materialism
The doctrine of continuous creation rejects deism.
Deism imagines a creator who designed the universe and then withdrew, allowing it to function independently. Creatio continua denies such withdrawal. Scripture presents no absentee Creator.
It also challenges materialism. Materialistic thought often treats the universe as self-explanatory, operating through autonomous mechanisms. The Christian doctrine denies that natural processes possess independent ultimate explanation.
The issue is not whether gravity, motion, or physical processes exist. It is whether those realities possess self-sustaining existence. According to continuous creation, they do not.
The world is intelligible and ordered because God continuously upholds it.
Secondary Causes and Natural Law
This doctrine does not eliminate natural causes. It explains them.
Classical Christian thought distinguishes between primary and secondary causes. God is the primary cause of all that exists. Created means and processes are secondary causes through which He ordinarily works.
What people call “laws of nature” are not autonomous powers existing apart from God. They are stable patterns in the created order upheld by divine willing. Their regularity reflects God’s faithfulness.
This is why Christian theology can affirm both providence and ordinary causation without contradiction.
The seed grows, rain falls, stars move, and gravity operates through created means. Yet beneath all secondary causes stands the sustaining will of God.
Why Continuous Creation Matters
This doctrine is not abstract speculation.
It cultivates humility, because existence itself is received, not self-generated.
It produces trust, because the God who sustains galaxies also sustains His people.
It strengthens assurance, because providence is not random but personal.
And it deepens worship, because every breath, every moment, every continued act of existence bears witness to divine generosity.
To say “God sustains all things” is not simply to make a philosophical claim. It is to confess dependence.
The Ongoing Work of the Creator
God is not only the One who created in the beginning. He is the One in whom creation continues.
The stars endure because He upholds them. Life persists because He gives it. History unfolds because He governs it.
Continuous creation, or creatio continua, teaches that the universe is not a reality existing alongside God, but a reality existing through Him.
The Creator has not stepped away from His world. He sustains it, governs it, and holds all things together even now.
