How can there be a beginning if God always existed?
Question:
If someone asked "where did God come from or how did he get to be" then the person asked (if a Christian) would probably say "He has always been there He still is and will always be." Right, so if He has always been there and is eternal then how come the Bible says "in the beginning?" If God was always there, and He must have created a "first thing," and if He did, then there must be a beginning. I have been confused about this.
Answer:
The Bible states that God is eternal. "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!" (Revelation 4:8). Evolution does the same thing, but that belief system claims that matter, energy, space, and time are eternal. Every belief system realizes there must be something that pre-existed.
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1).
What is being expressed is that God created time, space, and matter. That creation becomes "the beginning." God was around before the beginning and will be around after all else ends. So the beginning describes the start of God's creation and not God Himself.
Question:
Okay, that makes sense. But I am still wondering about how God must have created the first thing. And if He did, then there must have been a start for God. I am confused. I understand that the beginning you talk about is the creation of time, space, and matter
Answer:
If there was a start to something, then something independent and greater had to have caused the start. We already know that life cannot just appear (despite the wishful claims of evolutionists). If that is true of life, what about deity? Can deity just self-start from absolutely nothing? The clear answer should be absolutely not. Even matter and energy is a proven constant.
The Bible contains the only clear and consistent answer: God preexists everything and is the cause of all we see.
Response from Another Reader:
I can offer an additional reality that may clarify your answer for the reader.
First, let me say I appreciated some of your postings, as I think they are well-spoken. For this specific topic, I think the question's confusion stems from a misunderstanding of time itself, which I can fully appreciate as most people do not have the benefit of having any training in the topic of Relativistic Physics.
However, time exists in conjunction with space and matter, so time is not a constant. Gravity, itself a product of mass, changes the rate/flow of time depending on the distance and strength of the gravity source. Normal people believe time to be a constant, so the question of a beginning makes sense. It is because of a view that time exists independently of creation. However, the fact that time is impacted directly by creation shows that time itself is a product of creation. Therefore, when Genesis states that God created " In the beginning, " it acknowledges the start of time (as we measure it) itself.
Of course, God exists outside of creation, which includes time. In God's existence, "time" is not a "thing"; therefore, the question of what is God's beginning is irrelevant, similar to asking at what point a circle begins. It doesn't; it just continues.
I believe when people understand that time is not constant, they can then realize it is part of creation itself and therefore realize why the question itself doesn't really make sense to ask because the question is trying to relate time (a construct of creation) with existence (irrelevant to creation's time) - existence is consistent with God's name for himself to Israel "I AM"
Your answer accurately states the truth, but maybe you left out some details that could further clarify the answer for those with the question.
Thank you for your posts!
Answer:
Your response does bring additional clarity to the issue. I often don't strive to be exhaustive in my answers because it would make them long and harder to read. Leaving some things unsaid generates more questions that can be answered in other responses.
