“Where did God come from?” Have you ever had a 4 year old ask you that question? It is difficult to explain to a child the concept of God’s self-existence (God exists without being dependent upon anything).
“Where did God come from?” is also a question that atheists put forward as an argument against there being a God. When we hear that question, we need to immediately turn it around. Instead of immediately explaining the eternity of God ask, “Where did the universe come from?”.
The atheist has made the mistake of ascribing eternality to the universe but withholding the possibility that there could be an eternal God. They are essentially deifying nature and robing God of his own true characteristics. The Bible warns that unbelievers will behave this way. Romans 1:22-23 says, “Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”
We know the universe is not eternal. We know that it has had some beginning point. Science teaches this and Genesis 1:1 affirms it. We know that there is cannot be an infinite regress or an infinite series of causes in the physical realm. There had to have been a beginning to the physical world.
In reality the eternal God is the first cause or unmoved mover who created and set the physical world in motion. The Bible teaches this repeatedly. Jude 25 says, “To the only God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, *before all time* and now and forever. Amen.”
John 1:1 affirms that when the beginning occurred, Jesus (the Word) was present and instrumental in creation–John 1:1, 10. He himself is the source of life–John 1:4. He himself is the source of moral goodness–John 1:9.
Jesus stood in eternity and created time and space–Colossians 1:16. He is the eternal God who continually upholds the universe with the word of his power–Hebrews 1:3. He is the one through whom time will cease–1 Thessalonians 4:16-17.
The universe had a beginning. By necessity, there must be one who is the beginner. That beginner must himself be eternal without a beginning. That being is the God of Heaven who sent his special Son to die that the world may be saved.