Why don't creationists believe God created using pre-existing material?

It's not really a theistic belief so much as a rhetorical strategy made necessary by the materialist argument: "If the world is made of stuff that was just lying around...then who made the stuff in the first place? Some sort of uber-God!? Then maybe God is made of that stuff too!"

Ignore that nonsense. The argument is not religious in nature. The faithful should never have got into it with rationalists. It cheapens religious faith.

What do you mean by quoting Genesis 1:1-2 and then saying that St Augustine confirms this interpretation?

He may have interpreted it to not mean creation ex-nihilo, but he didn't 'confirm' the Biblical text.

In fact, I don't believe any Hebrew scholar would seriously argue that Genesis (and the whole Bible) is anything but quite clear that God created ex-nihilo. He created time, space, matter, energy - the whole lot.

Genesis does not state that God created out of pre-existing material.

In fact:

Genesis 1:2 begins with the Hebrew waw which can mean ‘and’, ‘now’, ‘but’, ‘then’, etc. Wherever waw precedes a noun (as in v.2 waw ‘and’ + erets ‘the earth’) it has the meaning of an explanation (called a waw disjunctive or waw explicativum, i.e. explanatory waw). It is not a sequence of events such as ‘then the earth became’ (which would require a waw consecutive, where waw precedes a verb). It compares with the old English expression ‘to wit’; it could be translated by 'Now' or even with the use of parentheses as follows: 'In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth (the earth was without form and empty …).' Moses used the two waw constructions very deliberately in Genesis 1. Verse 2 has the only waw disjunctive. All 28 other verses beginning with ‘And’ have the waw consecutive.

http://creation.com/morning-has-broken-but-when

Because as I read it is says the earth was void and did not even have a form. Too, St. Augustine was not God, and if you believe St. Augustine what is so hard about believing God.

God also confirmed it in Gen. 1:1.

Since neither one who wrote it was alive when I was born, I will believe the one who literally did the creating.

Newlybor: Boy, the Atheist talk about Christian's writing so much Bible scripture, for I just answered a question yesterday that wanted to know why Christian's quoted so much Bible scripture. I think you just broke the record. Just keep doing it and you will one day see the truth.

Well, the part science can't explain is where the matter came from in the first place. Why can't scientists accept that God created matter and put in place and governs the physical laws that drive natural processes? There are actually multiple words used in the Hebrew texts for "create". One means to create from nothing and one means to form out of existing material. So maybe God both created the material and then formed things out of those materials. Just out of curiosity, where would you theorize the pre-existing material came from?

The great error is that Genesis one is NOT about creating the universe. Chapter two is.

Chapter one is the life of Jesus Christ, his apostles, his new kingdom.

So see,

You and the ones you quote had no idea of God's truth.

How could anything pre-exist before God created it? Do some serious thinking for a change.

God never 'created' any earth without form and void. He is too great for that.

Earth represents the human body/life. It is about Jesus Christ. Like it or not, go study and ask God for some true revelation. He is the one who has it, not the man you mentioned.

Pre-existing implying what material??? Oxygen, green plants, molecules of unknown origin ...

I enjoy the aspect of a "romantic" God , that this planet was originally created with Love and Admiration of E. Pluribus Enum (A Plural Unit).

Your quote isn't augustine it's directly form the bible and it doesn't mean there was preexisting material at all.

the problem with preexisting material is that was it always preexisting in such as it is as eternal as God? Since matter is in a nearly constant state of flux this would be a problem in relation to entropy.

it says nothing about preexisting materials anywhere in Genesis. Just because some Saint thought it up does not make it true.

in fact none of Genesis is accurate if you use common sense and actual science.

ok...it says God created the heavens and the earth....meaning he also made the material lol...he put the material there, then made the heaven and the earth.

Christians want to believe their god is the most super-duperest thing imaginable, and if he can be just that much cooler by creating all matter, then so be it.

And it's hugely ironic that One Brave Mouse argues against you based on his knowledge of entropy... the Bible knows nothing of entropy, it is full of physical impossibilities. To say that entropy is a case for Christianity is like saying "God knows everything, so he obviously knows he's imaginary."