Bible Questions and Answers

A visitor writes,

"As a Christian we are taught God is eternal. In Geneses chapter 1 verse 1 it states "in the beginning God" I want to stop there and ask these questions. "IN THE BEGINNING" In the beginning of what? It sounds to me that God in encluded in that word BEGINNING In order to have a BEGINNING" there had to be nothing. How can you have something develop that is not there. Beginning and God. How can you have both?"

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

The beginning is the beginning of God’s creation as far as it pertains to man. God has no beginning because he is immortal. The concept is perhaps difficult for a finite mind to envisage, but logically it must be so, otherwise we couldn’t exist. As you rightly point out you can’t have something develop that is not there. Ergo, there must have been something, or more properly someone, there before creation commenced and that someone was God.

To ask ‘who then created God’ is not a sensible question because the answer must be that he needed no creator, because he has always existed.

As the Psalmist writes:

Psalms 90:2  Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.

We cannot begin to understand ‘from everlasting to everlasting’ from our own experience of time.

Paul writes to the Romans:

Romans 1:19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20  For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,

The scriptures which make up the Bible were written by inspiration of God and explain God’s purpose in creating the earth and mankind, and how we can be part of his purpose. There is no coercion; we were created with freedom of choice. We know that we are mortal and in death our faculties cease to function.

Ecclesiastes 9:5  For the living know that they will die; But the dead know nothing, And they have no more reward, For the memory of them is forgotten.

If we choose not to believe that we are part of God’s creation and want no part in his purpose, God will not punish us. We will die without hope and perish forever.

If we believe and obey the Gospel that we find in the New Testament, the requirements are not irksome, and we are promised resurrection from the dead to eternal life in the kingdom of God.

Peter writes:

2 Peter 1:4  by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

The one who made this possible is of course Jesus Christ, and our resurrection will take place when he returns from heaven. 

The apostle John concludes his Gospel account:

John 20:31  but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

It’s surely worth the effort to move on from Genesis 1 to get the whole picture.

I hope you find this helpful,

God bless,

Glenn