Return to AOCI  |
Who Is God? Who Created God?
by Dr. Steven Brown, D.D.
Dr. Linda Smallwood, BBS, M.Min., D.Min.
|
|
Introduction | A Discussion about Time God's "Time" and Our "Time" | God Created Time! | Summing It Up
Introduction As stated earlier, the Bible does not try to prove God's existence; rather, it assumes His existence from the very beginning — not His beginning, but ours.  A Discussion about Time Our concepts of time — whether believer or unbeliever, evolutionist or creationist — for the most part, differ greatly from the reality of the "time" in which our God dwells and over which He has ultimate control. Simply put, He does not dwell in a simple package of time such as we do. We do have three dimensions to which we can lay claim: the past, the present, and the future. But if God can — and I believe that He does — exist in any or all, and has the divine ability to likewise exist in Heaven, then He must exist in at least four dimensions. But the Apostle Paul says that there are three heavens, and I have found at least four levels of Hell. That brings the count to 11, theoretically speaking. Thus, mankind's three dimensions seem rather limited. Therefore, much of the controversy between believers and skeptics/critics (primarily atheists and evolutionists) concerning God's eternal existence revolves around their respective concepts of time. Although both camps reside in the sphere of the present-tense, and must lead their daily lives within the confines of a 24-hour day and a 365-day year, they have vastly differing opinions upon the understanding of time in the past tense. Evolutionists believe that life on earth began "X"-number of years ago, while creationists firmly believe that life began at the creation described in the book of Genesis, or for the sake of debate, "Y". Now we know that X and Y are not equal; they can and do vary. However, Y appears to be a constant, where X fluctuates occasionally, even within the circle of X "authorities". Regardless of where X may seem to appear on the human-determined timeline of life, this does not address the real issue that goes far beyond merely the birth of mankind: the issue of the beginning of time. When we — whether believer or skeptic — limit ourselves to the theory that everything must have a specific time of beginning or birth, then it is nearly impossible to comprehend that God is timeless. He has no beginning or end, no mother or father, no creator. He is Eternal. God's "Time" and Our "Time" And "infinite" is defined as: Humankind dwells somewhere along a timeline, a linear representation of the years that have transpired since man began recording time. Infinity does not have a beginning . . . nor does it have an end. It is continuous. For example, man takes time at face value. A year of time is equal to 365 days at 24 hours per day. The Bible says, "...one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." (2 Peter 3:8 KJV) Christians and evolutionists alike use the dating system of B.C. and A.D., which of course revolve around the life of Jesus Christ. To our skeptics and critics, however, the fact of God in the form of a human being is so far outside their grasp of "reality" that it is difficult for them to even embrace the Christian-inspired method of dating time, thus the introduction of the "BCE" and "CE" ["before common era" and "common era"] dating system. Our concept of time and of recording and dating events is so deficient in light of infinity, that we have great difficulty in even beginning to grasp the very rudimentary fringes of a Creator who lives at all times, and in all places . . . always. God Is Omnipresent God Created Time! God created everything and every limitation that is placed on everything. He could just as easily remove any or all of those limitations should He desire to do so. The Bible says that God could take the breath away from every living thing in the twinkling of an eye if He desired to do so (cf. Isaiah 42:5). Mankind loves to think we can tell God how to think, what to do, and who deserves His attention the most at any given moment. But the simple fact is that, just as an artist does not need someone else to tell him how to interpret his own painting, God does not need man to tell Him how to be God! Let's Talk about "Boxes" Man is always desperately trying to put God into a box, when all the time, God is the box! Rather, a better way to look at it would be to think of God as the "box maker". He has placed man in a box. Within that box is time, life and death, and a choice. If man makes the right choice, then he is allowed out of the box when God determines the appropriate time, and may proceed into the space which surrounds the former box — since it is actually suspended within a larger box. The top of the box is called Heaven and the bottom of the box is called Hell. Outside of this larger box is something called infinity, and if there is a box around it, it must be so gigantic that it cannot be seen. Now imagine if you will, that God is looking at this little illustration and determines that it is a nice try, but not quite right; so He snaps His fingers, and the boxes disappear. There is life and death, and Heaven and Hell, and infinity, but there are now no boundaries. There is absolutely nothing that could even begin to be a deterrent to God's traveling wherever He might want to go. Past, present, future . . . past, future, present . . . far into the future, far into the past . . . or just skimming along the outer rim. He's God, and He can go anywhere He wants to go, anytime He wants. He doesn't live in a box. People live in a box (usually one we've constructed ourselves). Summing It Up Borrowing a course of reasoning from another website that does this question justice rather concisely and coherently:
How do we know this? We know that from nothing, nothing comes. So, if there were ever a time when there was absolutely nothing in existence, then nothing would have ever come into existence. But things do exist. Therefore, since there could never have been absolutely nothing, something had to have always been in existence. That ever-existing thing is what we call God. God is the uncaused Being that caused everything else to come into existence. God is the uncreated Creator who created the universe and everything in it. The fact of God's eternal "ever-existing" self-existence is not something our finite minds can even begin to understand. For us, all things are temporal, all things have a beginning and an ending. And while that's true of all other false gods in the world, the God who inspired the holy Scriptures has no beginning. He simply has always been! If you think about it, if someone else created God, then God would cease to be God! He would no longer be the Supreme Being, but a lesser created Being. But God revealed to Moses His eternality when He said, "Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh [I am/will be what I am/will be]," and added, "Here is what to say to the people of Isra'el: 'Ehyeh [I Am or I Will Be] has sent me to you.'" (Exodus 3:14 CJB) In telling Moses that His name or attribute is "I Am", He was unveiling a mystery in which He asserted that He has always existed and does exist eternally. However, He did not try to explain it to Moses because He knew the explanation far exceeds our understanding. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:9) So, He simply stated the truth to be accepted or rejected, but without explanation or defense.
 
|
The question of who created God is a most difficult question to answer, primarily because it infers a false assumption that God must have come from somewhere. This is especially true when we Christians assert the Bible's claims of all things needing a Creator, a beginning, a cause.