Does the God of the Bible Exist? – Question 23
People continue to ask age-old questions about the origin of God. If God made everything, then who made God? Indeed, who created God? That is, assuming that He does exist. Where did He come from? How did He get to be God? Did He have a beginning? Did He have parents?
The Bible has the following to say about this important question.
The Biblical answer is that nobody created God. He is by nature the eternal God. He was not created at all. He has always existed and always will exist. In the Book of Revelation, John describes Him this way.
From John to the seven churches in Asia. I pray that you will be blessed with kindness and peace from God, who is and was and is coming. (Revelation 1:4a CEV).
God is the One who is, who was, and is coming. He is the eternal God, the everlasting God. Consequently, He did not work Himself up into a position to be God neither did He inherit the position from His parents, for He had no parents. God had no mother, no father. He had no beginning and will have no end. The fact that God is eternal is stressed in the Bible.
The psalmist wrote,
Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. (Psalm 90:2 NIV)
He has been God from the beginning.
Moses records the Lord saying that He is the eternal God, the One who has lived forever.
For I raise My hand to heaven, And say, “As I live forever...” (Deuteronomy 32:40 NKJV).
God has existed forever and will exist forever. This is the testimony of Scripture.
Therefore God is uncaused. This means that nothing brought Him into existence. He has always existed. This, of course, is a problem, because we think that every effect has a cause. Therefore, we assume God must also have a cause.
Yet this is not the case. As a starting point, one must assume a first cause, or else no cause whatsoever. If it is denied that the God of the Bible has always existed, then one must assume that something material has existed from all eternity. This material would have come about without a cause. Therefore our choice is between an intelligent being who is self-existent, and lifeless matter that just popped into existence.
Therefore, if a person makes the statement, “God had to have been made by somebody” then the question must arise, “Who made this somebody who made God?” Then we need to know who it is that made that somebody who made the particular somebody that made God. It becomes obvious that this question will have to be continually repeated. There is no logical stopping point.
However, if the universe had a beginning, as laws of science clearly tell us that it did, then something had to be there at the beginning. The Bible says that it was God.
Some might argue that these statements “beg the question.” This means someone is already assuming as true what they should be proving. They conveniently start with God, but do not explain the how, or why, of His existence.
But ultimately we must admit that there had to have been something in the beginning; whether it is God or something else. The starting point, according to the Bible is God. God was in the beginning, and everything stems from Him. This is not inconsistent with what He has revealed about Himself in Scripture, nor is it inconsistent with our understanding about the origin of the universe. Yet, of course, it is something that our limited minds cannot comprehend. This is where faith comes in. In faith, we believe what God says about Himself and His eternal existence; we do not have to have everything about God figured out
Therefore, we conclude that something, or someone, had to exist in the beginning. The Bible tells us that someone did exist, and has always existed. This Person is the God of the Bible.
Once children hear about the idea of God their first question usually is “who made God?”this is natural. We assume if God exists then somebody or something had to make Him. This is how our minds think. However, the Bible says that God has been God from all of eternity. Nothing caused Him to exist. He had no beginning, and He will have no end. He had no mother, no father, and no creator. He has always existed and always will exist.
Although we are used to thinking that everything must have a beginning, there had to be something that has existed eternally. The Bible states that it is an infinite, personal God. The only other choice is to argue that some sort of material has existed eternally. But then the question becomes where did this lifeless matter come from? How did it get here?
Consequently, one must choice between an infinite personal God who has always existed, or lifeless, impersonal matter. The God of Scripture tells us that He has always existed as well as providing irrefutable evidence of His existence.
The Blue Letter Bible ministry and the BLB Institute hold to the historical, conservative Christian faith, which includes a firm belief in the inerrancy of Scripture. Since the text and audio content provided by BLB represent a range of evangelical traditions, all of the ideas and principles conveyed in the resource materials are not necessarily affirmed, in total, by this ministry.
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