How old is God?

Question

How old is God?

True Bible Answers · Accepted Answer

The question itself reveals something profound: God has no age, because He has no beginning. He exists outside of time altogether. As the Psalmist writes, "From everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God" (Psalm 90:2). He is not old — He is eternal. F. Hole brings this out beautifully in his meditation on Psalm 77. Asaph had been occupied with his own years and the "days of old," but then his gaze shifts upward: We spend our years as a tale that is told, whether in the ancient times or to-day. His years are throughout all generations, since from everlasting to everlasting He is God. F. Hole The contrast is striking — our years are like a story briefly told; His years have no boundaries at all. L. M. Grant draws this out further on Psalm 102, where the Lord Jesus is addressed by the Father: His years had no beginning, and will have no end: of old He had laid the foundations of the earth. He Himself was from eternity, but not so the creation, which He Himself had brought into existence, — both earth and the heavens. L. M. Grant And again: He Himself remains "The Same" in contrast to all creation. Just as His years had no beginning, so they will have no end. Creation grows old like a garment — but He who made it does not age, does not change, does not begin or end. L. M. Grant also writes on John 1, showing that this eternality belongs not just to "God" in the abstract, but to the Son personally: As such He had no beginning: in the beginning He was there. In person He is eternal.... In the eternal past, as in the eternal future, God is a blessed Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Only One who is Himself eternally God could possibly declare the eternal God. L. M. Grant W. R. Dronsfield presses home the logic of this in a striking way: If an eternal Father, without beginning nor end, begets a Son, that Son also must have neither beginning nor end; else He is not a True Son according to the Father's essence. God's nature is infinite, therefore His Son's nature is infinite. We must abandon all reasoning from the finite. Every finite creature begets a finite creature with a beginning, but the Infinite begets the Infinite with no beginning. W. R. Dronsfield James McBroom puts it with beautiful simplicity: He is an eternal Person — every creature receives being from Him and is every moment sustained by Him.... Such an One could have no genealogy, He is without beginning or end of days. James McBroom Scripture itself supplies a title that captures this truth. Morrish's Bible Dictionary explains the name "Alpha and Omega": A title or character of God and of Christ, which points to His eternity as 'the beginning,' 'the first,' the I AM. "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end," or "the first and the last;" which is similar to a passage in Isa. 41:4: "I Jehovah, the first, and with the last; I am he." Morrish's Bible Dictionary And Isaiah 57:15 calls Him "the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity." God does not merely live for a very long time — He dwells in eternity as His native home. Time is something He created; it does not contain Him. So the answer is that the question itself breaks down when applied to God. "How old?" assumes a starting point, and God has none. He is not billions of years old, not infinitely old — He is simply without age. Every creature receives its being from Him, while He Himself is uncreated, self-existent, and changeless. From everlasting to everlasting, He is God.

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