St. Gregory of Nyssa the source of the existence of the World

The Source of the Existence of the World.

God is the source of the world's existence and the ultimate goal of its striving and aspiration. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. This means that creation has its source in God and that its being has a beginning. Gregory writes: "The beginning of the world refers to that moment when God suddenly, in one instant, created the foundation for all causes and substances." The Creator alone knows what the foundation of creation is and it is impossible for us to understand it. All we know is that creation originates "through change." The beginning of created being is "a movement and change from non-existence into existence."

Change and Becoming as the Nature of Created Existence.

"The hypostases of created matter begin by change," and therefore creation is necessarily subject to change. By their very nature created things are constantly changing and becoming, and they will remain this way until they achieve fulfillment, completion, and perfection. God's will for creation to arise is the only support that creation has in its fluctuating state. The world exists and endures only because its order is maintained by "the Power of the Wisdom and artistry of God, which is realized in everything and penetrates all created natures," and which "by dissolving Itself in the universe maintains the existence of all being. God did not only create the world at some definite point in time, but He continues to preserve it, and as the Almighty He sustains it by His presence, which is everywhere." "Nothing can maintain its being unless it abides in the One Who truly is."

The Presence and Transcendence of God.

God abides in the world but does not merge with it, just as the soul does not dissolve and blend with the body in which it has life. Gregory's idea is similar to the Stoic conception of διοικησις, but with the difference that in Gregory's conception God, in spite of His presence in the world, maintains both His transcendence and His inaccessibility. The properties of created beings are entirely different from God's, and "created natures and the essence of the Divinity are different and are not connected by their attributes." This is in spite of the omnipresence of the "un qualified and indescribable Strength of the Divinity, which contains in Itself all the ages and all creation from all times." How is this possible? We do not know and we should not ask because this surpasses our understanding. What existed before creation? Why did creation arise? All we know is that the world was created by the power of the Word, for the beginning of the world was not mute αλογια.

Thanks to:
http://www.holytrinitymission.org/books/english/fathers_florovsky_1.htm#_Toc3723877