<p>11:3 <i>By faith we understand that the ages have been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which appear</i>- This is no reference to the world being created <i>ex nihilo,</i> out of nothing. The <i>ages</i> (<i>aion</i>) were prepared according to God's word, the Gospel; but we only perceive history from that perspective &quot;by faith&quot;. Revelation puts this truth in a different way by saying that the Lamb opened the seals of future history through His sacrifice. The structure of all history revolves around His work as explained in the Gospel, &quot;the word of God&quot;. The things which are now seen are not the things of faith, which cannot be seen (:1). In the context of this chapter and its position within the letter, the things which are seen referred to the temple system (see on :1). Those things were not created out of the reality of Christ which had now appeared. Understood properly, this is actually a strong case against the personal pre-existence of the Lord Jesus. They were not made out of Him, He who appeared or was manifest in His life and death, but pointed forward to Him, as a shadow, rather than being the very reality from which He came and would have therefore been subservient to.</p>