it comes into existence be accompanied by everything through which it is produced. Accordingly, if it is called an “effect,” the complete cause must be present when the effect is present. Now, if that cause is eternal while its efficacy is conditioned on certain prerequisites, those prerequisites must obtain at the very moment the effect occurs; the mere prior existence of the cause, as they allege, is insufficient. A complete cause must coincide with its effect, and its effect must coincide with it; hence the effect cannot exist unless the complete cause, with all its components, exists alongside it. Were any of those conditions absent—occurring only before the effect—then the cause would precede the effect and the effect would follow it, which is impossible for a complete cause.

Similarly, in the case of an omnipotent agent, his power, will, and every other factor required for his action must be present at the instant the originated act occurs. These are the two lines of reasoning.

As for the argument they advance to prove the eternity of the world, it may be refuted in several ways. First, we say: the perpetual succession of events is either impossible or possible. If it is impossible, their claim collapses and it becomes clear that events have a beginning. If it is possible, then these celestial spheres could themselves be originated, preceded by other events, exactly as the messengers have affirmed. God Most High has informed us that He created the heavens and the earth in six days while His Throne was upon the water. On either assumption, the eternity of the world does not follow. Know, therefore, that they possess no sound proof whatsoever for the world’s eternality.