The first phrase in John 3:16 says, for God so loved the world. The words for God direct our attention heavenward to God Almighty. This is the beginning point for the Christian faith—believing in God.
The Bible doesn’t give any explanation for God’s existence. It simply says that, from the very beginning, God has always been. Looking at the very first verse in the Bible, Genesis 1:1 says:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Notice, before the beginning of the universe, God is already there. God has no beginning, middle or end. God is. The Psalmist set this truth to song in Psalm 90:2,
Before the mountains were brought forth,
Or ever You had formed the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.
Look at the last phrase of Psalm 90:2, from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. There is no time we can consider before which God existed. There is no time we can consider that continues after God, as though He might stop existing while the world continues on without Him. The physical world had a beginning and that beginning came by the will of God. But God has neither beginning nor end.
Beginnings and endings are easy to understand. Life is filled with examples of beginnings and endings—schooling, job opportunities, home improvement projects, even life itself. Beginnings and endings are common human experiences. When we think about the universe, even the most popular scientific theory for its origin, the Big Bang Theory, agrees with the Bible that the universe had a beginning. The challenge is for us to admit that God has always been there, even before the universe began.
Thinking about God’s existence requires us to consider eternity. People ask the question, “if everything has a beginning, then what about God?” This question confuses many of the most educated people in the world. But the answer isn’t complicated. It’s a matter of perspective. God doesn’t have a beginning because His existence doesn’t depend on matter, space or time. God’s existence depends only on Himself.
By definition, God is spirit (John 4:24). He lives in the spiritual world, beyond the physical universe. The Bible teaches that this spiritual world is real, inhabited by spiritual creatures and governed by God. So, the question isn’t why God doesn’t have a beginning, but whether we are willing to accept what the Bible says—that God isn’t limited by matter, space, or time, but lives eternally in the spiritual world.
The spiritual world can’t be seen, but evidence for its existence is all around us. The struggles of daily life are very real, but what we see with our eyes is just at the surface. Like the tip of an iceberg giving an indication to an approaching ship of the danger beneath the surface of the water, so our daily life struggles in the physical world give us a glimpse into the activities taking place behind the scenes in the spiritual world.
The Bible calls the spiritual world the heavenly places. In the heavenly places, there are two opposing factions warring against each other for our souls. Paul describes this spiritual battle in Ephesians 6:12:
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
One faction, led by Satan, seeks to steal, kill and destroy everything that God made, including human souls, while the other faction, led by God, seeks to save us and bring us into eternity with Him (John 10:10).
We are not passive spectators in this spiritual battle. Ultimately, we align with or against God, based on our response to God’s invitation to believe in Jesus. In our natural state as sinners, we are aligned with Satan against God. But when we respond to God’s invitation by believing in Jesus, we become aligned with God and He welcomes us into His heavenly household.
And when we receive God’s invitation to become partakers in His heavenly household, we begin to taste and see the goodness of God.
