August 4th

The following question was found online. It is from the viewpoint of someone who does not believe in God, and is looking for questions that cannot be answered in order to justify his/her belief that there is no God. You can hear the lack of trust in God in the question. The viewpoint of my answer is from total trust in God. Each answer is a quick overview – not a detailed explanation! God is a God of truth, and the Bible is full of answers…

Christians always state that God is eternal, what if matter is eternal instead of God?

In the larger context of this question, the author is not stating that he/she believes in God, but rather that matter should be considered an eternal substance instead of God.

I think this is a fantastic question, because it addresses a major flaw in the theory of evolution. No matter how much you simplify or reduce the universe to the beginning of evolution, a nagging question will always remain: “Where did that come from?” For instance, if the beginning of our world was a big bang, then where did the material for the big bang come from? If the beginning of our world was primordial soup, then where did the soup come from? The questions can go on and on. Of course, this line of reasoning leads one to believe that there is still a creator at some point in the process. But if the Bible can say God is eternal, then why can’t an evolutionist say matter is eternal? Let’s break down the question.

What is eternity? By definition, eternity is infinite. It has no beginning and it has no end. The Bible states in Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God…” In John 1:1, the Bible says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This statement is directly about Jesus as God, and the eternity of God as well. What was God in the beginning of? Well, He was before creation; he was before the timeline of man. He simply exists. When Moses asks God to tell him his name, God replies in Exodus 3:14 and says “I Am who I Am.” God’s very name is an ever-present reality. God has no beginning and He has no end. He is present; he is eternal. Another way to think of God’s existence as an eternal God is to understand that God exists outside of time. Our human finite brains are so consumed with time that we cannot think outside of it, but in reality time is no constraint on God. God talks of the future as if it is the past, and He refers to the past in the present tense. He is seeing everything all at once. How can something have no beginning and end? We can’t imagine it in a timeline, but the one who exists outside of time is an eternal being. God is the only being or thing that fits this description.

If we reject the idea of a God who is eternal, then we have to accept the idea of eternal matter. Logically, this seems to be a much greater problem than simply trusting in God. The following excerpt was taken from the March 1992 edition of Answers Magazine; the full article was written by Dr. Henry M. Morris.

“Although it is impossible for us to comprehend fully this concept of an eternal transcendent God, the only alternative is the concept of an eternal self-existing universe, and this concept is also incomprehensible. Eternal God or eternal matter—that is the choice. The latter is an impossibility if the present scientific law of cause-and-effect is valid, since random particles of matter could not, by themselves, generate a complex, orderly, intelligible universe, not to mention living persons capable of applying intelligence to the understanding of the complex order of the universe. A personal God is the only adequate Cause to produce such effects.” (Morris, pp.20-21)

So even if matter were eternal, it would not adequately explain the complexities of our universe without the existence of God.

Colossians 1:16 says: “For by him (Jesus) all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through him and for him.”

Isaiah 46:9-10 says: “For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’”

God is certainly at the helm of creation. God will certainly be around when creation itself is no more. And God can certainly be trusted for today. Eternal matter or eternal God? I choose God.