The Self-Existence of God

The idea that God has no origin comes from two sources: First of all the name of God, “Yahweh” by which God describes it as “I am that I am”. From this theologians extract the idea of the self-existence of God, that He is complete in and of Himself, having only being, not being caused by anything. Secondly, it was necessary for theologians to speak to Aristotle’s idea of the First Cause. All things, stated Aristotle, have a cause, but there must be, at some point, something that caused all things. Theologians of all time, most famously Aquinas, used this idea as a proof of God—that God, by definition, is that which caused all things.

The problem, biblically, with all this is that God did not actually reveal Himself as self-existing. Yes, He described himself as “I am that I am”—but what does that really mean? It means, “I have a nature and you don’t have the right to question it.” But also, in context, it means, “I am the one who is there with you,” especially meaning the poor Israelites. To get self existence from the phrase, especially without any other support canonically, leaves the whole notion on weak grounds.

Like the traditional idea of Trinitarianism, the self-existence of God can neither be affirmed nor denied by Scripture, and so we must remain agnostic. That which is not clearly reveled about God by God himself is unknown. What other option is there, biblically other than the self-existence of God? Well, we know that God caused all things in this universe. But we also know that God is outside of this universe, being a part of the spirit-realm. Thus, we can biblically and philosophically agree that all things must have a Prime Mover, and God is that first cause in this universe. But of the other universe, we do not know enough or have enough communication to know what causes or is caused by anything. And so the cause of God, rather than landing on the side of God’s self existence, must firmly reside in the area of our own ignorance. Unless God chooses to reveal that part of Himself to us, we must live with the mystery.

It bothers me greatly that orthodox doctrine has not stood with biblical revelation, but has accepted that which is philosophically determined. Philosophy is strong within theology, and so it should be. But it should never be a part of doctrine, for God does not require men to think the same as other men in order to be right with Him.