Who Made God?

A while back I preached a sermon on proof for the existence of God. During the message I noticed a young boy kept raising his hand. Not wanting to interrupt the flow of my message, I simply ignored him even though he persisted in raising his hand throughout the entire sermon. Following the message, I was surprised that the boy accompanied by his mother cornered me in the back of the church. The boy was not about to let me off the hook. He wanted his question answered. Even before I could ask him what was on his mind, he blurted out “Who made God?” Now to be honest, I really wasn’t expecting a boy of maybe eleven at best to have such a question. But the truth is people of all ages struggle with this question. It is the question that agnostics as well as theologians often ask. Everyone wants to know the answer even if they already truly believe in God. This then, is the question I want to address in this month’s teaching.

So, who did make God? According to noted theologian and apologist Norman Geisler, no one made God because He was not made. God has always existed. Logic dictates that everything that had a beginning had a beginner. Since God did not have a beginning, He did not need a beginner. Not only that, He is self-existent. That means His existence is not dependent on anything other then Himself. Therefore, it really is meaningless to even ask the question about who made God. If God is self-existent and as such could not have been made, then that question is really asking “Who made the unmade?” And that is a meaningless question that has no answer.

But didn't something cause God? Everything has to have had a cause -right? The law of cause and effect states that every effect had a cause. Therefore, everything we know was caused by something and that something was caused by something else. So where did it all begin? What caused the first something? There must be a first cause that wasn’t caused. It all had to begin somewhere. Whether you are an atheist or theist, you must address this issue. This is what is referred to as “infinite regress”. At some point, we must get back to the first uncaused cause. Was it the universe? No, since we now know that the universe had a beginning so it had to have had a cause as well. Was it the elements or gases found in the universe? Where did they come from? What was the first cause of it all?

What is the best answer to that question? Here’s the truth: only those things that had a beginning had a cause. Since God did not have a beginning, He did not need a cause. He then is the only thing/one who can be the ultimate beginner – that first uncaused cause. This uncaused cause of all things is who we call God. This makes God and only God necessary since He is needed to begin it all. The universe and everything in it is not necessary outside of serving God’s purpose and plan. In the end, we must answer the question about the first uncaused cause. What is the best answer? Is it some yet undiscovered force within a finite and unnecessary universe? Or is it the self-existent God who is infinite, eternal, and necessary? Logic and reason dictate that only God can be the answer.

To learn more about answering the question “Who made God”, I recommend you read the book by Norman Geisler and Ravi Zacharias, Who Made God and Answers to over 100 Other Tough Questions of Faith (Zondervan, 2003) and the book by William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics (Crossway Books, 2008).

Dr. Richard Tompkins