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Objection 1: It would seem that God cannot annihilate anything.
For Augustine says (Questions. 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.
Objection 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.
Objection 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 (Question 19, Article 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 to Objection 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 to Objection 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 to Objection 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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