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... The following article was posted to another forum by my friend and missionary to Guatemala, Jeff Mills. Since I am constantly asked this very question I have posted it here for your information.
It is easy to make an argument for Gods existence from a cosmological standpoint. As the years have gone by, a growing amount of scientific data has accumulated which negates atheistic assumptions about how matter and the cosmos came into existence and how it has arrived at its present condition. As a science teacher and public lecturer on the compatibility of belief in God and science, I have been impressed with an increasing awareness on the part of many scientists and theologians that science and religion are symbiotic disciplines.
One question which inevitably comes up in a discussion of this nature is what the origin of God is? If God created matter/energy and designed the systems that have propelled matter into its present arrangement, who or what accomplished that for God? Why is it any more reasonable to believe that God has always been than it is to say that matter has always been? As Carl Sagan has said, If we say that God has always been, why not save a step and conclude that the universe has always been? (Carl Sagan, Cosmos, [New York: Random House, Inc., 1980], p. 257).
From a purely scientific standpoint, it is easy to demonstrate that matter cannot be eternal in nature. The universe is expanding from what appears to be a beginning point in space/time, which appears to be a one time event. Hydrogen is the basic fuel of the cosmos, powering all stars and other energy sources in space. If the fuel of the universe has been used eternally, that fuel will eventually be depleted; but the evidence is that the cosmological gas gauge, while moving toward empty, is yet a long way from being therea condition incompatible with an eternal universe. The second law of thermodynamics insists that the cosmos is moving toward a condition of disorder, sometimes referred to as heat death. Even in an oscillating universe, things ultimately run out of energy and die. All of these evidences, and several others we have not made reference to, show that matter cannot be eternal, as Dr. Sagan and his associates would like to believe. However, this does not mean that we automatically accept the hypothesis that God is the Creator. Why is it not equally invalid to suggest that God has always been?
The problem here is that many people have a mistaken concept of God. If we conceive of God as physical, anthropomorphic (like man) being, the question of Gods origin is valid. However, such a concept of God is alien to the Bible and to common sense. Consider the following descriptions of God from the Bible:
John 4: 24
God is a Spirit: ...
Matthew 16:17
... for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my father which is in heaven.
Numbers 23:19
God is not a man, that he should ... ;
Obviously, the descriptions and concepts of God given in these passages are that God is a spiritual entity. He exists outside of the three-dimensional physical world in which we live. The Bible further supports this concept of God in the following passages:
Jeremiah 23:23-24
Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? ... Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.
2 Chronicles 2:6
But who is able to build a house, seeing the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain him? ...
Acts 17:28
For in Him we live, and move, and have our being; ...
Not only is God described as being outside space, but He is also described as being outside of time. Consider the following:
2 Peter 3:8
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
Psalm 90:4
For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
Psalm 102:27
But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.
Acts 1:7
...It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his power.
If God is a being that is unlimited in time, and if He has access to every piece of time as if it were now, the question of who created God is an invalid question. The problem is like asking a student to draw a four-sided triangle. The terminology is self-contradictory.
When asked Who or what created God? we are making the assumption that God was created. If God exists outside of time and space, and if He is the Creator of time and space, He obviously was not created! God began the beginning! This is why He says, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last (Revelation 22:13).
God created time. The statement of Genesis, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, is making reference to the creation of time. The reason that things like heat death, the expansion of the universe, and the depletion of hydrogen do not apply to God is because He is outside of time. God has always been. He did things before time began (see 1 Corinthians 2:7). He not only began time; He will also end it. When time ends, all matter and all mankind will enter eternitya timeless condition free of the negative things that time brings upon us now.
2 Peter 3:10-11
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness.
Revelation 21:4
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
The agnostic position that there is nothing that can be said to support Gods existence that cannot be said against that existence cannot, in the opinion of the author, stand in the face of this evidence.
It is easy to make an argument for Gods existence from a cosmological standpoint. As the years have gone by, a growing amount of scientific data has accumulated which negates atheistic assumptions about how matter and the cosmos came into existence and how it has arrived at its present condition. As a science teacher and public lecturer on the compatibility of belief in God and science, I have been impressed with an increasing awareness on the part of many scientists and theologians that science and religion are symbiotic disciplines.
One question which inevitably comes up in a discussion of this nature is what the origin of God is? If God created matter/energy and designed the systems that have propelled matter into its present arrangement, who or what accomplished that for God? Why is it any more reasonable to believe that God has always been than it is to say that matter has always been? As Carl Sagan has said, If we say that God has always been, why not save a step and conclude that the universe has always been? (Carl Sagan, Cosmos, [New York: Random House, Inc., 1980], p. 257).
From a purely scientific standpoint, it is easy to demonstrate that matter cannot be eternal in nature. The universe is expanding from what appears to be a beginning point in space/time, which appears to be a one time event. Hydrogen is the basic fuel of the cosmos, powering all stars and other energy sources in space. If the fuel of the universe has been used eternally, that fuel will eventually be depleted; but the evidence is that the cosmological gas gauge, while moving toward empty, is yet a long way from being therea condition incompatible with an eternal universe. The second law of thermodynamics insists that the cosmos is moving toward a condition of disorder, sometimes referred to as heat death. Even in an oscillating universe, things ultimately run out of energy and die. All of these evidences, and several others we have not made reference to, show that matter cannot be eternal, as Dr. Sagan and his associates would like to believe. However, this does not mean that we automatically accept the hypothesis that God is the Creator. Why is it not equally invalid to suggest that God has always been?
The problem here is that many people have a mistaken concept of God. If we conceive of God as physical, anthropomorphic (like man) being, the question of Gods origin is valid. However, such a concept of God is alien to the Bible and to common sense. Consider the following descriptions of God from the Bible:
John 4: 24
God is a Spirit: ...
Matthew 16:17
... for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my father which is in heaven.
Numbers 23:19
God is not a man, that he should ... ;
Obviously, the descriptions and concepts of God given in these passages are that God is a spiritual entity. He exists outside of the three-dimensional physical world in which we live. The Bible further supports this concept of God in the following passages:
Jeremiah 23:23-24
Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? ... Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.
2 Chronicles 2:6
But who is able to build a house, seeing the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain him? ...
Acts 17:28
For in Him we live, and move, and have our being; ...
Not only is God described as being outside space, but He is also described as being outside of time. Consider the following:
2 Peter 3:8
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
Psalm 90:4
For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
Psalm 102:27
But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.
Acts 1:7
...It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his power.
If God is a being that is unlimited in time, and if He has access to every piece of time as if it were now, the question of who created God is an invalid question. The problem is like asking a student to draw a four-sided triangle. The terminology is self-contradictory.
When asked Who or what created God? we are making the assumption that God was created. If God exists outside of time and space, and if He is the Creator of time and space, He obviously was not created! God began the beginning! This is why He says, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last (Revelation 22:13).
God created time. The statement of Genesis, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, is making reference to the creation of time. The reason that things like heat death, the expansion of the universe, and the depletion of hydrogen do not apply to God is because He is outside of time. God has always been. He did things before time began (see 1 Corinthians 2:7). He not only began time; He will also end it. When time ends, all matter and all mankind will enter eternitya timeless condition free of the negative things that time brings upon us now.
2 Peter 3:10-11
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness.
Revelation 21:4
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
The agnostic position that there is nothing that can be said to support Gods existence that cannot be said against that existence cannot, in the opinion of the author, stand in the face of this evidence.
