A question about God

[Born_in_Crewe]

I was having a debate about whether God exists with somebody and he raised the question, where did God come from? I have always thought that there must be a creator God of some sort, because of the complexity of the world. But it does puzzle me as to where God came from?

If he is someone that's always been there - then that creates difficulties in understanding time...after all, is there such a thing as 'dawn of time'.

If there was something before God...what was it?

 

[donnA]

God always has been, and there was nothing before Him as He had no beginning.
"Time" as we know it did not exsist until Genesis 1
3Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. 4And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

Our finite minds can not understand the infinate.

Thats why it's called faith.

 

[Andre]

I was having a debate about whether God exists with somebody and he raised the question, where did God come from? I have always thought that there must be a creator God of some sort, because of the complexity of the world. But it does puzzle me as to where God came from?

If he is someone that's always been there - then that creates difficulties in understanding time...after all, is there such a thing as 'dawn of time'.

If there was something before God...what was it?

At the risk of stating the obvious, this is a deep and profound mystery. I would be very suprised if humans society ever makes any progress on really answering this question.

But the fact of this mystery not a legitimate argument against the existence of God. Even for the atheist, there is deep and profound mystery in trying to give an account for the existence of the cosmos.

 

[Alcott]

"Time" as we know it did not exsist until Genesis 1

The way that is stated renders it meaningless.

 

[donnA]

The way that is stated renders it meaningless.

I read a bible , not an english book, if you can not understand I can't help you any.

 

[Alcott]

Alright, if time did not exist "until Genesis 1," how is there any until in relation to anything?

 

[mrtumnus]

I was having a debate about whether God exists with somebody and he raised the question, where did God come from? I have always thought that there must be a creator God of some sort, because of the complexity of the world. But it does puzzle me as to where God came from?

If he is someone that's always been there - then that creates difficulties in understanding time...after all, is there such a thing as 'dawn of time'.

If there was something before God...what was it?

If this is a 'prove it' by science type of person, one of the thoughts I have always found most helpful is that it boils down to one of two things:

a) something always was
b) something came from nothing

And science is more aligned with a than b. For example, science supports the concept of infinity -- option a.

Science does not support the concept of an 'effect' without a 'cause' -- option b.

I would say the 'dawn of time' refers to the creation of this universe. Science too supports that the universe we inhabit has a definite beginning -- which is the 'dawn of time' as we know it. God is not contained within this universe. Time is.

 

[BobRyan]

Alright, if time did not exist "until Genesis 1," how is there any until in relation to anything?

Good point -- where there is no time there is no sequence there is no waiting there is no "events" that "can happen later" because there is no "later".

We know that God is "from everlasting" from eternity past - we do not know how to "define time" in "eternity past" because we were not there.

in Christ,

Bob

 

[donnA]

Alright, if time did not exist "until Genesis 1," how is there any until in relation to anything?

In verses 1 and 2 there is no time, UNTIL verses 3 to 5. I'm talking about the bible, not the realm of time(or lack of) and space.

 

[Andre]

In verses 1 and 2 there is no time, UNTIL verses 3 to 5. I'm talking about the bible, not the realm of time(or lack of) and space.

"Horse Cave" Baptist Church? :laugh:

Is there an interesting explanation for that name?

 

[Alcott]

In verses 1 and 2 there is no time, UNTIL verses 3 to 5. I'm talking about the bible, not the realm of time(or lack of) and space.

Either way-- denotatively [time] or connotatively [print space]-- it doesn't really follow. Verses 1 and 2 do mention events, and events have a time dimension.

 

[webdog]

The answer to the OP is like a worm wondering where man came from.

 

[RevJWWhiteJr]

Before Time


Time did not exist until God put creation into motion. He who inhabits eternity and wishes for us to share it with him (in the simplest terms) spoke the physical (our world) into existance out of nothing from eternity (his world) then made us from it, bring us to life with his own breath (self). For an interesting study, overview Proverbs 8. The speaker (the spirit) through the writer explains much of the process, as well as a remarkable glimps into the origin (self) of the speaker and the speakers relationship to and with the creator.

 

[RevJWWhiteJr]

Either way-- denotatively [time] or connotatively [print space]-- it doesn't really follow. Verses 1 and 2 do mention events, and events have a time dimension.

Events in the physical are governed by time, thereby the dimension you mention. Events in eternity (the spiritual) are simply sequential without the passage of time. We can not comprehend, but can understand.

A day to the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day.

Each of these statements cancels the dimension of time for us to God in the other. Each is the same in the spiritual. It is mind boggling to the creature, in the physical. But understandable through the Creator.

Example : Scripture states HE "is longsuffering" (waits for us, which is a concept of time) yet he does so in eternity (the spiritual) which consists outside of time.

2 Peter 3:8-9
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.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

 

[Alcott]

It is mind boggling to the creature, in the physical. But understandable through the Creator.

And which are you, that you claim to understand?

 

[mrtumnus]

Events in the physical are governed by time, thereby the dimension you mention. Events in eternity (the spiritual) are simply sequential without the passage of time. We can not comprehend, but can understand.

I'm curious as to where this belief originates -- that events in eternity are 'sequential'?

If God is truly omnipresent, to include being 'always' present in all time, then in the spiritual events are not sequential -- they are always present. One cannot occur "before" another, because God has not "before" or "after" -- just "present'.

 

[David Lamb]

Alright, if time did not exist "until Genesis 1," how is there any until in relation to anything?

It cannot, but as beings living in time, we just don't have the language for, or the ability to conceive of, the relationship between eternity and a God-created, finite, time, without making use of time-related words like "before", "until", "next", and so on. The bible itself uses such language, as for example in Proverbs 8.23-24:

22 ¶ "The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old. 23 I have been established from everlasting, From the beginning, before there was ever an earth." ​

 

[hillclimber1]

For me donnA's statement is all I need. I don't ponder the imponderable.

 

[Cutter]

In answer to the OP, God did not come from anywhere or anything. If He had to come from something or someone else, then the something or someone else would be God, and He would not rightfully own the Title of God. Anyway such thoughts and reasonings are futile and exhibit doubt in God and suggest He is an impostor.

 

[HisServant]

Speculation...
If God has no beginning, what are the difficulties in concluding that time has no beginning either.

In order to do that we must first distinguish between times as established in genesis 1, and time as in eternity. AKA, Time as it existed before God gave us the markers that define as in Genesis 1…

If there is a before creation, and there is an after creation, time exists. And that takes us back into eternal time

Genesis 1 time has a beginning and an end. Eternal time, (like God) has no beginning and consequently no ending.

Time in genesis, a straight line: Time in eternity, a circle. A circle has no definable point of origin and consequently no point of cessation...

The best understanding of time in its basic components is a succession of events. (And the morning and the evening were the first day) In the time that exists in eternity, (Circle) without the markings that we are familiar with on a clock, how does one determine where this circle begins and ends... Neither can we define where God began, that point does not exist in time.