Attributes of God
Senior 6 · General and Religious Studies
Attributes of God
Lesson 4 of 5
22 min
Almost every child asks it. If everything has a maker, who made God? The question is a good one, and the answers of Christian and Muslim thinkers go to the heart of two attributes: eternity and infinity. Their answer is that God was not made. Everything that begins needs a cause; God, they hold, never began. As Surah al-Ikhlas puts it: "He begetteth not nor was begotten" (112:3).
This lesson examines what it means for God to be without beginning, end or limit, how the Bible and the Qur'an express it, and how the idea is used in arguments for God's existence and questioned by others.
Definition
Eternity: existence without beginning and without end. Two understandings are common: everlasting (God exists at every moment of time, forever) and timeless (God exists outside time altogether).
Infinity (of God): being without limit in any perfection, such as power, knowledge, goodness or presence. It does not mean a very large number.
Self-existent: existing by one's own nature, not depending on anything else for existence. Islamic theology says God is al-Qayyum, the Self-Subsisting.
Contingent: depending on something else to exist. Every created thing is contingent.
Cosmological argument: an argument that the existence of the universe points to a first cause that is not itself caused.
Important
Source A: Psalm 90:2 (World English Bible)
"Before the mountains were born, before you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God."
Source B: Revelation 1:8 (World English Bible)
"'I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, 'who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.'"
Source C: Qur'an 57:3 (Pickthall, 1930)
"He is the First and the Last, and the Outward and the Inward; and He is Knower of all things."
Source D: Qur'an 112 (Pickthall, 1930)
"Say: He is Allah, the One! Allah, the eternally Besought of all! He begetteth not nor was begotten. And there is none comparable unto Him."
Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, in which the New Testament was written; "the First and the Last" (57:3) makes the same claim in the Qur'an. God is before everything that begins and remains after everything that ends: "Everyone that is thereon will pass away; There remaineth but the countenance of thy Lord of Might and Glory" (55:26–27). But how does God relate to time itself? Figure 1 shows two answers.
A. Everlasting. God has always existed and always will, moving through time with creation but without beginning or end (diagram A). This fits the Bible's language of God acting at particular moments, such as hearing a prayer today.
B. Timeless. Time is part of creation, so God, the creator, is outside it (diagram B). Boethius defined eternity as "the complete and perfect possession, all at once, of endless life". Psalm 90:4 hints at this: "a thousand years in your sight are just like yesterday when it is past." Many classical Christian and Muslim theologians held this view, which also supports Boethius's answer on foreknowledge (Lesson 3).
To call God infinite is to say that no perfection of God has an edge. God's power, knowledge, goodness and presence are not large amounts that could be measured; they are without limit.
| Aspect | The Bible (World English Bible) | The Qur'an (Pickthall, 1930) |
|---|---|---|
| Not contained by space | "heaven and the heaven of heavens can't contain you" (1 Kings 8:27) | "Unto Allah belong the East and the West" (2:115) |
| Knowledge and wisdom without limit | "His understanding is infinite." (Psalm 147:5) "Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God!" (Romans 11:33) | "And if all the trees in the earth were pens, and the sea, with seven more seas to help it, (were ink), the words of Allah could not be exhausted." (31:27) |
| Beyond comparison | "The everlasting God … doesn't faint. He isn't weary. His understanding is unsearchable." (Isaiah 40:28) | "Naught is as His likeness" (42:11); "there is none comparable unto Him" (112:4) |
Worked example 1: the cosmological argument (the kalam form)
The Muslim theologian al-Ghazali (died 1111) argued, and the Christian philosopher William Lane Craig restated in 1979:
Analysis. If the cause also began to exist, it would need a cause too, and so on without end. Supporters argue that the chain must stop at a cause that did not begin: eternal, self-existent and very powerful. This is where eternity enters the argument, and it answers "Who made God?": only things that begin need a maker.
Evaluation. Critics question premise 1 (do we know it applies to the universe as a whole?) and ask why the first cause must be the God of scripture rather than something else. Supporters reply that premise 2 is supported by modern cosmology's evidence that the universe had a beginning. The argument does not compel belief, but it shows why believers think eternity is not an arbitrary claim.
Worked example 2: mathematical infinity and God's infinity
A student says: "Infinity is just a number that keeps getting bigger, so an infinite God must keep getting greater."
Response. In mathematics, the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, … have no last member: the list is endless. Theological infinity is different. It does not describe a quantity that grows but a perfection that has no limit to begin with. A being that "keeps getting greater" would be changing and so not immutable (Lesson 3). God's infinity is complete, not growing.
Tip
Use "begins to exist" precisely. When you answer "Who made God?", the strongest answers point out that the claim is not "everything has a cause" but "everything that begins has a cause". Then explain why believers hold that God never began.
Warning
"Eternal" is not the same as "very old". Something that has lasted a very long time still began. Eternity means no beginning at all. In the same way, "infinite" does not mean "extremely big".
Important
Discuss. Which picture of eternity in Figure 1 fits better with a God who hears and answers prayer? Which fits better with a God who knows the future? Can a believer hold both?
Practice
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa: Figure 1, the table, the worked examples and the exercises.
