Where Did God Come From?

If God created everything else, then where did God come from? It’s been the question for the ages. Can we know, or is there a more important question we should be asking?

Creationists and evolutionists continue to debate the existence of God. One side claims that creation must have a Creator. And the other side always comes back with the question of where did this Creator come from?

It’s a fair question. Where did God come from?

Flawed reasoning

Mankind exists in a physical universe. Everything in our world has a beginning and an end. We are born, and we will die. Everything has to start somewhere.

It is this reasoning that leads many to think that God must have a beginning. But beginnings and endings exist in time. And time is merely a measurement that has not always existed.

Before time began

What we call “time” came into existence when the universe was created. Time did not exist before then. God says He created time. “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens [outer space] to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years” (Genesis 1:14).

Years, months, days and seasons are all physical measurements of time that are directly related to the sun, stars, moon and earth.

So to grasp the idea of God’s life never ending, our minds simply try to put the spiritual and physical realms side by side and measure eternity forward with the physical measurement of time. This makes sense to us until we try to grasp eternity backwards. Once we go back to when the universe and time didn’t exist, our minds still want to extend that physical measurement of time backwards into a spiritual realm where time doesn’t exist. Our finite minds can’t understand how there can be a universe without time.

This is why God says, “Thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place” (Isaiah 57:15, emphasis added).

God exists in a realm that is not measured nor controlled by time, and that is why He has no beginning or end in our physical realm.

Understanding the spirit realm

Okay, that helps explain why God doesn’t have a beginning. But how did He come to be?

The short answer is we don’t know because we can’t comprehend it as humans.

God is Spirit (John 4:24). He exists in a realm that is totally different from the realm we live in. His intelligence far exceeds ours. He calls all the billions of stars by name, and His understanding is infinite (Psalm 147:4-5).

Even though we have finite minds, we want to understand everything—including the spirit realm. But this is simply not possible. An infant can’t comprehend the things its parents do, and we are like infants compared to God.

God even tells us there are many things about Him we can’t grasp, even though we will try to understand (Deuteronomy 29:29; Proverbs 25:2). King David, a man after God’s own heart, admitted there was so much about God he couldn’t grasp (Psalm 139:6).

But this same King David asked a more relevant question. He asked God, “What is man that You are mindful of him?” (Psalm 8:4).

Why we ponder God’s past and our future

Yes, mankind has pondered God and eternity ever since Adam and Eve. And that is because God “has put eternity in their hearts” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). You and I are made in God’s image and likeness (Genesis 1:26), and that is why we have the talents, intelligence and creative powers that the animals do not.

The Bible shows that not only is God Spirit, God is also a family (Ephesians 3:14-15). And God the Father’s purpose is to make you and me, and all who have ever lived and died, His children for all eternity (Hebrews 2:10).

Yes, God wants us to become like Him in ways we can’t comprehend as humans. The great Creator of all that exists says, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

Let that sink in a minute. Now, I don’t know about you, but I can imagine a lot. And God says He has things in store for us we can’t even begin to imagine.

So instead of asking where did God come from, let’s ask, Where do I fit in God’s plan? The answers are in the pages of your Bible. And what you will find out is more than you could ever imagine!

Tim Groves is a member of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association. He and his wife, Teresa, along with their four children, live in South Carolina.

For more about our Creator God, eternity and God’s plan for humanity, see:

• Meet Your Maker
• Limiting God?
• Imagine!
• How Big Is Big?