would become powerful until the other made him powerful, (1 nor would this one become powerful until the other made him powerful 1) (1). Under these circumstances, therefore, it is impossible for either of them to become powerful. This has been explained at length elsewhere.

This makes clear that none but He brings temporal events into being. Accordingly, if they arose from Him without a temporal cause, a temporal event would have to arise without a cause that had come into being. If this were possible, it would also be possible for the entire world to come into being without a temporal cause (2).

Moreover:

It would follow that the world had been eternal and beginningless, entirely devoid of temporal events, and that temporal events subsequently arose within it without a temporal cause. By consensus and rational demonstration, this is impossible for many reasons (3). One is that it entails the nonexistence of that which is eternal (4) and necessary in itself or through another. For if an eternal, beginningless effect is posited as existing in a particular state, and temporal events then arise (5) within it, it must change from one attribute to another (6): what had existed ceases to exist, and what had not existed comes into existence. Yet the cessation of what had existed is impossible, for something is eternal only if it is necessary in itself or through another. (* For (7) whatever is necessary in itself or through another cannot fail to exist, (8 and whatever is eternal likewise cannot fail to exist 8) (8). Rather, something can be eternal only if it is necessary in itself