Basic HTML Version
Where Did God
ComeFrom?
This question continues to intrigue people. Do you know the answer?
by
Clayton Steep
W:
E ARE
used to living in
a limited world. Every–
hing around us has limi–
tations- beginnings and endings.
We are aware of infants being
born. We are aware of grandpar–
ents dying. We observe animals,
plants and insects beginning life.
We see their lives cometo an end.
We speak of the birth and the
death of civilizations, of storms,
volcanoes and comets.
We are accustomed to seeing
things get old. Clothing and furni–
ture wear out. Automobiles fall
apart. Buildings deteriorate. Our
bodies become wrinkled and slow.
To mortal man everything has
a beginning, a period of useful–
ness and an end. We mark this
progression of events on our
clocks and calendars. To us, only
what is measurable by hours, days
and years seems to have real sig–
nificance.
So when we hear that God is
eterna!, that He always has been
and always will be, our minds
balk. The words tend to be mean–
ingless because we have nothing
familiar to relate them to.
And that is j ust the problem:
we are trying to relate what can–
not be related in physical terms.
We are trying to apply the limita–
tions of the
physical
existence we
know to the unlimited
spiritual
plane on whicb God lives. The
two cannot be compared.
Our minds can encompass an
hour, a century, a millennium,
but they cannot grasp eternity.
They are not big enough to fully
comprehend spiritual existence.
We can' t even fully comprehend
the physical universe!
As an illustration, let's consid–
er for a moment what God has
created. Astronomers estímate
December 1980
that 100,000,000,000 galaxies
eacb witb 100,000,000,000 stars
dot the universe. And who knows
how many planets and moons?
God says He counts and names
them all (Psalm 147:4).
Now if we allow God one full
second by our reckoning of time
to count and name each star
in tbe heavens, do you know
how long it would take Him
to name them all? Working non–
stop, by our clocks and calendars,
it would t ake more than
300,000,000,000,000 years just to
count and name them. How long
must it have taken Him to design
and create all those stars?
To us these figures are incon–
ceivable. But not to God. God is
eterna!. One of His names in
Hebrew is
Yahweh- the
"Ever–
living One." The Creator is not
bound by the laws of space and
time as we are. While men are
able to theorize about time warps
and tbe relation of energy to the
speed of light, God masters it all.
To Him, according to His wishes,
"one day ... is as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one
day" (11 Peter 3:8).
God "inhabits eternity" (Isaiah
57:15). That is to say He com–
fortably dwells in what we might
think of as beginningless and end–
less time. Genesis 1: 1 and John
1:1 show that at whatever point in
the past we wish to consider as
the beginning- no matter how
far back we try to stretch our
finite minds- God a1ready exist–
ed. "In the beginning God...."
Wbere did God come from?
He didn't "come from" any–
where. He was always there!
Far more important than the
past is eternity into the future
and how
you
can have a part in it.
The Everliving God wants to
change you from the temporary,
limited, physical being that you
are to an immortal, immensely
powerful, spi ritual being- a
member of His very Family, no
more bound by the physics of
time and space. By receiving
God's Holy Spirit you can have
the possibility of living for–
ever.
Notice how the apostle Paul
explained the vast ditference be–
tween those who have God's eter–
na! Spirit and those who do not.
"Though our outer nature [the
physical] is wasting away [getting
older, deteriorat ing], our inner
nature [the spiritual nature in
those having the Holy Spirit] is
being renewed every day."
Paul continues, speaking of the
trials of his life: "For this slight
momentary [not lasting] afflic–
tion is preparing for us an eterna!
[everlasting] weight of glory
beyond al! comparison
[the tem–
porary and eterna! cannot be
compared!]. because we look not
to the things that are seen [the
physical universe and all we know
about it] but to the things that
are unseen [the eterna! spiritual
plane as revealed in tbe Scrip–
tures]; for the things that are seen
are
transient
[temporary, having
a beginning and end]. but the
things that are unseen are
eter–
na!"
(11 Corinthians 4:17-1 8,
Revised Standard Version).
You can read about this in–
credible potential- the purpose
for which you are alive- in our
free book let
Why Were You
Born?
and the article "What Will
You Be Like in tbe Resur–
rection?"
You have never read anything
like them! o
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