I read your entire response and the verses you mentioned so far do not
(a) Necessitate a creation ex nihilo only view nor do they
(b) Exclude creation ex nihilo
However, it is a more important point that we understand
(a) That we are created and
(b) God is not created but the Creator
I am not playing words with this. God wasn't as man now is in any form, in any universe, in any dimension whether inside or outside of time. God has always been God over all possible forms of existence. Not just our existence, but any kind of existence. He alone is God over all possible forms of existence and existing things. This is the point of Colossians chapter one. He isn't "our God but not another universe's God," he's the God of everything that has existence regardless of its space, time, or dimensional relationship. His existence is other than the LDS doctrine of existence in every possible way. This is precisely why Paul picks an all encompassing term "the all" in Colossians chapter one. Paul writes
For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Colossians 1:16-17
In Greek it reads "the all" in a neuter plural form. If you can believe it, even the word all is plural in its form. Paul writes "for in him ta panta were created." All is often found in a neuter plural form when it is referring to everything. Plural neuter case in Greek is the case used when the antecedent is plural. It's the all encompassing case with the meaning of "everything" or "everything mentioned." In this sentence the antecedent isn't mentioned. Paul isn't using the word as a pronoun to an antecedent, he is using it as the subject itself (substentivally)--it is the subject, pronoun and topic all wrapped into one. If you were asking what Paul is talking about, he would respond, "Everything". That's the literally meaning of ta panta used both substantively and absolutely here. To paraphrase so that the meaning of the verse came out more completely, the verse would read
For by him every possible thing that exists was created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; Every possible thing was created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him every possible thing holds together.
And just so the reader understands that he's talking about every possible thing, Paul elaborates on what he means by "all". By all he means
"...things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities..."
Paul is not saying, "If it's not in heaven, on earth, visible, invisible, a throne, a power, rulers or authorities then it exists in some other parallel universe for some other God." Paul is giving us the list of all possible forms of existence. If it doesn't exist in the list, it doesn't exist at all, not even in some parallel universe.
Colossians 1:16-17 also tells us something about all things and that is that all things were created--"...all things were created..." In grammar, this is called predication. Predication tells you something about the subject, in this case that "all things" are (or "were" to use Paul's past tense) "created" things. And contrary to your response where you said that the word "create" (ktidzo) "presupposes the presence of already existing material," what it does presuppose is that there was a Creator and that "created things" (ktisma) wouldn't exist apart from their "Creator" (Ktistes). The idea of what ktisma is created "from" is not even addressed by the word. If I wanted to imply that something was created out of something, I would have introduced one of the Greek words for "from" (e.g., ex, ek, etc.). Paul does say where all things come from in another passage
...yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
1 Corinthians 8:6
Here also the Greek expression for everything is used--ta panta. If all things (which are created things; cf. Col. 1:16-17) come from anything, they come ultimately from (ex) God. Everything is completely dependent on God because as created things they owe their entire existence to their Creator. And let us not forget that man is one of God's creations. Here are some of the things God says about the creation of man. First of all, the existence of a man begins with a physical existence and then the spiritual comes after. 1 Corinthians 15:46 explains that we will eventually take on a spiritual nature, but our physical nature must come first
The location of man's creation was on the earth1 Corinthians 15:46
The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual.
Genesis 6:7
...mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth...
Deuteronomy 4:32
...God created man on the earth...
Isaiah 45:12
It is I who made the earth and created mankind upon it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts.
Our spirit (inmost being) was created not in heaven but in the womb
Psalm 139:13
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. God created the spirit of a man, the spirit of a man is not uncreated.
Isaiah 57:16
I will not accuse forever, nor will I always be angry, for then the spirit of man would grow faint before me—the breath of man that I have created.
We are warned about people who worship created things
Romans 1:25
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
We were created with a purpose--to do good works
Ephesians 2:10
For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Apart from the will of God, nothing would exists. Here John uses the expression ta panta
Revelation 4:11
"You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."
John ellaborates on the scope of what God created
Revelation 10:6
And he swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, "There will be no more delay!
So having read the Bible, you wouldn't derive at a preexistence of the soul prior to its incarnation doctrine as you see in the Book of Abraham. And I will continue to refer to the book I have given you on the topic of the BOA because the LDS doctrine of preexistence is to a great extent dependent on whether or not that book can be proven to be credible.
GT
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