Who Created God? How Do We Know He Exists?

The questions “Who created God?” or “Where did God come from?” have been asked by various kinds of people. I have had more than one grade school child ask me this when I am out speaking in churches. They believe in God but are seeking understanding. On the other hand, skeptical unbelievers (agnostics, atheists, and other non-Christians) ask the questions as a part of their rejection of God. They think the Christian cannot answer the question, thereby showing that the Christian has a blind faith.

But whether it is an innocent or hostile question, it in essence assumes knowingly or unknowingly that God is a created being, and therefore, the question assumes an atheist view. The questioner looks at the world around and sees that everything in this world has a cause, so it seems reasonable that if God caused the world, then something must have caused God. But of course, that would beg the question, what caused the something that caused God? That would lead to the question, what caused the something that caused the something that caused God? But that would lead to an endless series of the same question.

The answer to the question, “Who created God?” is simple. Nothing and no one created God. By definition, God is the eternal, uncaused cause of everything else. He is the great first cause. He is not like everything else we know from experience. Everything else has a cause and a beginning. But God is outside of time. He has no beginning and no end. He has always existed. He described himself to Moses as “I AM” (Exodus 3:14). He is “immortal, invisible, the only God” (1 Timothy 1:17). Before he created anything, he is “from everlasting to everlasting” (Psalm 90:2). He is not created. He is the infinite, eternal Creator. Being eternal means that he is totally independent. He does not need anything or anyone to exist. He is self-existent.

God is not created. He is the infinite, eternal Creator.

And if he is the eternal uncaused cause, we can infer some other characteristics based on what he has caused to exist. He must be all powerful to create the vast universe. He must be infinite in knowledge and understanding to make the mind-boggling complex, information-rich DNA molecule in every plant, animal, and person. He must be personal to create personal human beings. He must love beauty and order because we see it all around us in the world that he created (even though this world is now fallen, somewhat disordered, and damaged because of God’s just curse on creation when Adam sinned). But the Bible reveals more attributes about this eternal Creator, which we cannot know by reason alone, nor can we fully understand with our finite minds.

He is only one God, but he exists as three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all coequal and coeternal. The word trinity is not in the Bible, but the doctrine of the “Trinity”1 is clearly taught. While our finite minds cannot really comprehend this triune nature of God, our minds can understand the clear scriptural references to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, which collectively reveal this truth. This triune nature of God is hinted at in his creation. Time is three-dimensional: past, present, and future. So is space: length, width, and height. And matter is in three states: solid, liquid, and gas. But none of these perfectly illustrate the triune nature of God.

Scripture also reveals that God is holy, just, merciful, gracious, patient, kind, truthful, unchanging, faithful, and forgiving. He is omnipresent in his creation and yet distinct from his creation. And he seeks to have a personal relationship with each human being.

Who Created the “Gods”?

There are many false gods in the world. They are invented in the minds of men with the help of Satan and demons (fallen angels). The Bible says that when people worship these gods, they are worshipping demons (1 Corinthians 10:20; Psalm 106:34–38).

Deists believe in a god distinct from creation. Such a god only started the creation and built into it the laws of nature to let it develop and run according to those laws, and he is bound and limited by those laws. Such a god is not one who loves, communicates, and redeems.

While Muslims believe there is only one god, who is the creator, the god of Islam is not the God of the Bible, for the Quran denies the Trinity and that Jesus is God. Islam has a completely different doctrine of salvation and offers a very different kind of relationship with their god.

Polytheists (like Hindus and animists) believe in and worship many gods, such as the sun or moon or stars or a river or an animal or ancestors. Or they invent gods in their minds, like the gods of the ancient Romans, Greeks, and Babylonians. And they make statues and images out of wood, stone, gold, or silver to represent their gods.

Pantheists believe the physical creation is god. So they worship nature or the environment and speak of “Mother Earth.”

All these false gods are created by man. They are figments of the imagination fueled by satanic and demonic deceptions.2

How Do We Know the Infinite, Eternal God of the Bible Exists?

The Bible starts with the assumption that God exists.

The Bible presents no philosophical or scientific proofs that this God exists. It starts with the assumption that God exists. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” God existed before the beginning of time, space, and matter. It makes sense that the Bible begins this way when we remember that Moses wrote the book of Genesis in the wilderness wanderings after he led the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt. The Israelites already knew through the miracles in Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea that God exists. And God spoke to their father, Abraham, many times and otherwise proved his existence to Abraham. And Abraham descended from Noah who received instructions from God before and after the flood. Noah was descended from Adam who also talked with God.

Some scholars think that the book of Job might be the oldest book of the Bible, but the authorship is uncertain. It might have been written by Job himself, Elihu (one of Job’s friends), Moses, or Solomon. But Job and Elihu knew of God’s existence before the book of Job was written, as did Moses and Solomon. So again, there is no need for proofs of God’s existence in the book of Job.

But God has revealed in the Bible that there are various ways that he has proven to people his existence and at least some of his attributes (including his power, authority, and sovereignty) and has proven that all other gods are false, man-made physical or mental idols.

Just as a painting requires our minds to believe in the existence of the artist and just as a watch or a piece of furniture forces us to conclude there was watchmaker or a carpenter, so too the creation around us points to a Creator, and we are without excuse for not acknowledging his existence (Romans 1:20). And just as man-made things tell us something about the character of the maker, so the creation tell us something about the character of the Creator. The amazing galaxies and planets reveal the glory and power of God (Psalm 19:1). The orderly, lawlike movement of heavenly bodies reveal that the Creator loves order, laws, and faithfulness (Psalm 97:6; Jeremiah 31:35–37). The universal human sense of right and wrong in the conscience indicates that our Creator is the author of those moral absolutes (Romans 2:14–15).

Predicting the future accurately is another way that God reveals that he is the only true God. This is the way we are told to distinguish a true prophet of God from a false prophet who represents a false god (Deuteronomy 18:18). God challenges the false gods to predict the future in Isaiah 41:21–23 (see also Isaiah 44:6–8, 45:1–6, and 46:8–11):

Set forth your case, says the Lord; bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob. Let them bring them and tell us what is to happen. Tell us the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, that we may know their outcome; or declare to us the things to come. Tell us what is to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods.

The Bible contains hundreds of specific prophecies about the birth, life, death, and resurrection of the Messiah; about Israel, Jerusalem, other cities, nations, and individuals; and about God’s final judgment, the end of the world, and the future eternal state of believers and unbelievers. Most of these prophecies have already been fulfilled and are verifiable, showing that only God knows the future and the Bible alone is his Word.

God also frequently challenged the false gods:

• Moses did the miracles to judge the false gods of Egypt (Exodus 7–11).
• Confronting the false gods of Baal worshippers, God proved that he was the true God by consuming Elijah’s waterlogged sacrifice (1 Kings 18).
• God humbled arrogant, idolatrous, Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar by making him live like a wild beast in the forest for a time, and as a result, the king eventually acknowledged the sovereign Lord God of Israel, who is the King of all kings (Daniel 4).
• He likewise convinced King Darius that he is the only God by miraculously protecting Daniel in the lion’s den (Daniel 6).

God spoke directly to people audibly or in dreams:

• To Abraham (Genesis 12:1–3)
• To Moses from the midst of an unconsumed, burning bush (Exodus 3)
• To Joseph through an angel before the birth of Jesus (Matthew 1:18–25)
• To Saul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1–18)

After speaking in diverse ways in different times through the prophets, he spoke supremely through the earthly life of Jesus Christ, who was the exact representation of God’s nature (Hebrews 1:1–3). The miracles of Jesus over creation, sickness, death, and his own resurrection proved God is the true and living God (Acts 17:30–31).

God also confirmed his existence, truth, and authority through his prophets and apostles, whom he confirmed as his messengers by the miracles they performed (Hebrews 2:3–4; 2 Corinthians 12:12).

Our faith is not contrary to reason.

These proofs are not beyond all doubt. We must still choose to believe that the Bible is true. But the evidence for the truth of the Bible is compelling. Belief in the God of the Bible is a rational belief, not a blind leap of faith. Our faith goes beyond what our finite minds alone can grasp. But our faith is not contrary to reason, like the faith of the atheist.

The Foolish, Self-Destructive Blind Faith of the Atheist or Agnostic

Those who doubt or deny the existence of God have a foolish, blind faith. Their faith is against reason. They believe that everything in the universe is the result of time, chance, and the laws of nature. They have created false gods in their minds.

George Wald, an American scientist who studied pigments in the retina and was corecipient of the 1967 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, made this foolish statement in 1954:

Time is in fact the hero of the plot. The time with which we have to deal is of the order of two billion years. What we regard as impossible on the basis of human experience is meaningless here. Given so much time, the “impossible” becomes possible, the possible probable, and the probable virtually certain. One has only to wait: time itself performs the miracles.3

But it is irrational to think that time and chance produced the laws of nature. Time, chance, and the laws of nature cannot produce the complex retina of the human eye that Wald studied. Time is not the hero of the plot. Time is not God. Time does not create things. It destroys things. A house without thoughtful maintenance will eventually be collapsed ruins. Wald’s statement is sheer nonsense.

Richard Dawkins, longtime Oxford University professor of evolutionary biology and the most famous atheist today, says,

The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is at bottom no design, no purpose, no evil, and no good. Nothing but blind, pitiless indifference. DNA neither knows nor cares. DNA just is, and we dance to its music.4

But DNA is not the creator. This is self-destructive thinking. If DNA controls everything and we just dance to its music, then we cannot trust our thoughts. Dawkins cannot know that his statement is true. The DNA just makes him think these thoughts. This is totally irrational. Atheism is a blind leap of faith that destroys any basis for purpose and meaning in life and any basis for morality.

Well-known astrophysicist and atheist Neil deGrasse Tyson advocates idolatry when he says:

Our ancestors worshipped the sun. They were far from foolish. It makes good sense to revere the sun and stars because we are their children. The silicon in the rocks, the oxygen in the air, the carbon in our DNA, the iron in our skyscrapers, the silver in our jewelry—were all made in stars billions of years ago. Our planet, our society, and we ourselves are stardust.5

In 2009, Dr. Lawrence Krauss, another prominent atheist and then-astrophysicist at Arizona State University, tells us about our origin this way in a lecture at the Richard Dawkins-led Atheist Alliance International’s 15th annual conference in Burbank, California, on October 21, 2009. His words were enthusiastically received by the audience.

This is something that I wrote a whole book about. And someone asked yesterday why I wrote that book. Because it is the most poetic thing I know about the universe. . . . But the amazing thing is that every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand. It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics. You are all stardust. You couldn’t be here if stars had not exploded, because the elements (the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron—all the things that matter for evolution) weren’t created at the beginning of time. They’re created in the nuclear furnaces of stars. And the only way they could get into your body is if the stars were kind enough to explode. So forget Jesus! The stars died so that you could be here today.6

Well, Dr. Krauss might think his words are poetic, but they are not science. The sun and the stars did not create us by dying (by exploding as supernovas). Nor did they create themselves. People are indeed foolish to worship them and to forget Jesus. Atheism is self-destructive, for it destroys any basis for rational thought and the science that atheists think proves evolution and destroys faith in God.

Conclusion

Truly God has spoken, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1). The gods of other religions are false, and people worship them in vain.

The God of the Bible is the eternal Creator of heaven and earth. He has made that abundantly clear in the creation he made, in our conscience, in the Bible, and in his acts in space-time history. And he is also the righteous judge of the whole creation and holds us accountable for our unbelief and disobedience to him who gives us life and all things. We all stand guilty before him because of our sin and rebellion, and we deserve his sentence of death. We have all sinned and fail to live up to the moral perfection that God in his holiness demands (Romans 3:23). But he became a man in the person of Jesus Christ to die on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins and rise from the dead to give us eternal life (Isaiah 53:6; Romans 6:23). To receive that forgiveness and life, we must each repent (acknowledge our sin and guilt) and trust in Jesus Christ alone as our Savior and Lord (Mark 1:15; Acts 16:31, 17:30–31). So the real question is this: What will you do with Jesus?