“Where was God before the Beginning?”

“In the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time” –Titus 1: 2

Before the 1920s it was generally assumed that the universe was essentially unchanging in time or eternal, and therefore it had no beginning. If the universe did not have a beginning it would be absurd to believe in a book that starts with the phrase “In the beginning” and it would also be preposterous to believe a God who created everything out of nothing. So most of the reasonable and scientific people at that time rejected the idea of creation by asking the very question that forms the title of this article.

According to some scientists the most important intellectual discoveries of the 20th century, or of any century was the discovery of the expansion of the universe. Edwin Hubble found that stars are not uniformly distributed throughout space, but are gathered together in vast collections called galaxies. By measuring the light from galaxies, Hubble could determine their velocities. He was expecting that as many galaxies would be moving towards us as were moving away. This is what one would have in a universe that was unchanging with time. But to his surprise, Hubble found that nearly all the galaxies were moving away from us. Moreover, the further galaxies were from us, the faster they were distancing away from us. The universe was not unchanging with time as everyone had thought previously. It was expanding. The gap between distant galaxies was increasing with time.

This discovery transformed the debate about whether the universe had a beginning. If galaxies are moving further away now, they must have been closer together in the past. If their swiftness had been constant, they would all have been on top of one another about 15 billion years ago. Was this the beginning of the universe? Many scientists were still dismayed of the fact that the universe had a beginning because it seemed to imply that physics was a failure. However, scientists today have little doubt about the fact that our universe had a beginning!

Fourth-century theologian St. Augustine wrestled with the question, ‘Where was God before the beginning?’ for a long time. His answer was that ‘Time’ was part of God's creation, and there simply was no "before" that a deity could call home. Armed with the best physics of the 20th century, Albert Einstein arrived at a very similar conclusion. In 1915, he introduced his revolutionary General Theory of Relativity. In this, space and time were no longer Absolute, no longer a fixed background to events. Instead, they were dynamical quantities that were shaped by the matter and energy in the universe. They were defined only within the universe, so it made no sense to talk about a time before the universe began. According to Einstein's theory of relativity, time only came into being as the universe expanded toward its current size and shape.

The General Theory of Relativity and the discovery of the expansion of the universe shattered the old picture of an ever existing and everlasting universe. Instead, general relativity predicted that the universe, and time itself, would have a beginning. In fact, this is what the Bible had been saying all along, "Time began with the universe." Time began in the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth. So there was no 'time' before the beginning and therefore the question 'Where was God before the beginning?’ was proved to be absurd. Despite repeated experiments and theorization, all what science could achieve was conclusive evidence to prove that the first phrase of the Bible, 'In the beginning', is true!

The Bible also predicts that there was a time before the beginning of time. Titus 1: 2 and 2 Timothy 1: 9 says that God had a plan of salvation for those who believe in Jesus Christ for eternal life, even before the beginning of time. Very soon the scientists will find evidence for this as well. If the first phrase of the Bible is true the rest of it should also be true. It’s just a matter of time before the scientists will accumulate enough evidence to prove God’s Word right.

Written By: Dr. Manoj Kumar Khatore

Copyright © 2012 Dr. Manoj Kumar Khatore

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