Series: Defending Your Faith
Why Must the World Have Had a Beginning?
Most Christians instinctively believe there must be a God because the world did not make itself. Deep down, we know creation points beyond itself to a Creator. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1). But many people still ask a hard question: Did the universe really have a beginning, or has it always been here? That question matters, because if the universe had a beginning, then it did not create itself. It had a cause. And Scripture tells us that the cause behind all things is the living and eternal God. Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity, you are God (Psalm 90:2).
The Wrong Question: “Who Made God?”
Agnostic Bertrand Russell stated the dilemma this way: Either the world had a beginning, or it did not. If it did not, then it would not need a cause. If it did, then some ask, “Who caused God?” But that question sounds stronger than it really is. It assumes the wrong thing. Christians are not saying that everything has a cause. We are saying that everything that begins to exist has a cause. That is a very different claim.
God did not begin to exist. God is eternal. He is not part of creation. He is the Creator. Isaiah 40:28 says, The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the whole earth. Revelation 1:8 declares, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “the one who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” So, when someone asks, “Who made God?” the biblical answer is simple: no one made God. He is the uncreated, self-existent, eternal Lord.
And that matters. If God had a beginning, He would not be God. But because He is eternal, He is the One from whom all things come. As Hebrews 11:3 says, By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God. Nothing cannot produce something. The created order points us to an uncreated Creator.
Two Clear Reasons the Universe Had a Beginning
If we can show that the universe had a beginning, then we have strong reason to say it had a beginner. We will look at two main lines of evidence. One comes from science, especially the second law of thermodynamics. The other comes from philosophy, especially the impossibility of an infinite number of past moments. Neither argument replaces Scripture, but both agree with Scripture. The Bible does not blush to say that the world had a beginning, and that God stood before it all as its sovereign Maker.
The Witness of Creation: The Universe Is Running Down
According to the second law of thermodynamics, the universe is running out of usable energy. In plain terms, things wind down. They do not keep going forever on their own. If the universe had existed forever, it would have run down completely by now. But it has not. That tells us the universe is not eternal.
Think of a car. It has a limited amount of gas. That is why it must be refueled. If the gas supply were truly infinite, it would never run out. Or think of an old clock. If it is unwinding, that means it had to be wound up. In the same way, if the universe is winding down, then it did not wind itself up. It had a beginning.
This fits well with the testimony of Scripture. Psalm 102:25-26 says of creation, Long ago you established the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will endure; all of them will wear out like clothing. You will change them like a garment, and they will pass away. Hebrews 1:10-12 repeats that same truth and contrasts a fading creation with the unchanging Son of God. The message is clear: the universe is not self-existent, not self-sustaining in an ultimate sense, and not eternal. It is upheld by the word of His power (Hebrews 1:3), and it bears the marks of a created order.
So, this is not just an abstract scientific discussion. It is a witness. Creation itself is testifying that it is not God. It is pointing beyond itself to the One who made it.
Speculation Cannot Save an Eternal Universe
Some have suggested that maybe the universe is somehow self-winding or endlessly rebounding. But that is speculation, not established fact. And it does not remove the problem. Even if one imagines cycles, the second law of thermodynamics still presses the same point: usable energy is not increasing forever. The system still runs down.
Even agnostic astronomer Robert Jastrow pointed out that once hydrogen has been burned within a star and converted to heavier elements, “it can never be restored to its original state.” He added that “minute by minute and year by year, as hydrogen is used up in stars, the supply of this element grows smaller.”[1] That is another way of saying the universe is not endlessly renewing itself in any final sense. It is moving in one direction.
The Bible has told us all along that creation is not ultimate. Romans 1:20 says that God’s invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse. Creation is not the object of worship; it is the evidence. It points to the Creator.
From Disorder Back to a Beginning
If the total amount of energy is not infinite, and if usable energy is steadily running down, then the universe has not been here forever. If it had no beginning, it would already be exhausted. And if the universe is becoming more disordered over time, then it cannot be eternal in the past. Otherwise, total disorder would already have arrived.
So, we are driven to this conclusion: the universe had a beginning, and that beginning was not self-caused. Genesis 1:1 does not present creation as an accident, but as an act of God. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The biblical doctrine of creation ex nihilo fits what we see: the universe is contingent, dependent, and not everlasting. God alone is everlasting.
The Logic of Time: The Past Cannot Be Infinite
There is also a philosophical reason to believe the universe had a beginning. If there had been an actually infinite number of moments before today, then today would never arrive. You cannot pass through an endless series and finally get to the present. But here we are. Today has come. Therefore, the number of past moments must be finite. Time had a beginning.
And if time had a beginning, then the space-time universe had a beginning as well. That means the cause of the universe must be beyond the universe. It must be beyond time, beyond space, and beyond matter. In theological terms, that cause must be transcendent. This is exactly what Scripture teaches about God. He is not part of the cosmos. He is Lord over it. John 1:3 says, All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. Colossians 1:16-17 says, For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.
So, when we follow the logic honestly, we do not end with an impersonal force. We are led to the eternal Creator, the living God.
Even Skeptics Have Seen the Force of the Argument
Even the skeptic David Hume acknowledged key parts of this case. He wrote, “I never asserted so absurd a proposition as that anything might arise without a cause.”[2] He also said it was absurd to believe there were an infinite number of moments: “The temporal world has a beginning. An infinite number of real parts of time, passing in succession and exhausted one after another, appears so evident a contradiction that no man… would ever be able to admit it.”[3]
If those premises are true, then the conclusion follows: the universe had a beginning, and therefore the universe had a Creator. That Creator is not a blind force, but the eternal God revealed in Holy Scripture. He is the uncaused Cause, the self-existent Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the whole earth (Isaiah 40:28).
A Closing Appeal
And this truth is not meant to leave us merely impressed. It is meant to bring us to repentance, faith, and worship. The God who made all things is the God before whom all people must stand. Yet this same God has spoken in His Son. The One through whom all things were made is also the One who came to save sinners. So do not stop with the argument. Come to the God to whom the argument points. Turn from sin. Believe the gospel. Bow before the eternal Creator who became our Redeemer in Jesus Christ. Seek the Lord while he may be found; call to him while he is near (Isaiah 55:6).
[1] Robert Jastrow, God and the Astronomers (New York: W.W. Norton, 1978), 15–16.
[2] David Hume, The Letters of David Hume, vol. 1, ed. J.Y.T. Greig (Oxford: Clarendon, 1932), 187.
[3] David Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, ed. Chas. W. Hendel (New York: Liberal Arts, 1955), 165–66.
Copyright © 2006–2026 by Miguel J. Gonzalez Th.D.
Dr. Miguel J. Gonzalez is the Founder and President of Reasons for Faith International Ministries. He served as a pastor for ten years in Charlotte, NC and has taught in churches and conferences throughout the United States. He currently hosts the Time in the Word and Truth To Live By podcasts and writes at KnowingChristianity.blogspot.com.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved
