The Universe Eternal?

"If your deity can have always existed, the universe can have as well. If your deity can have come from nothing, the universe can have as well. Anything that you try to use to claim that the universe must have been created can be applied equally well to your deity." Andrew W.

To deal with the dilemma of God and His eternal nature, atheists will often abandon their own accepted science, and create the straw man of an eternal universe. Stephen Hawking said,

"This argument about whether or not the universe had a beginning, persisted into the 19th and 20th centuries. It was conducted mainly on the basis of theology and philosophy, with little consideration of observational evidence. This may have been reasonable, given the notoriously unreliable character of cosmological observations, until fairly recently. The cosmologist, Sir Arthur Eddington, once said, 'Don't worry if your theory doesn't agree with the observations, because they are probably wrong.' But if your theory disagrees with the Second Law of Thermodynamics, it is in bad trouble. In fact, the theory that the universe has existed forever is in serious difficulty with the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The Second Law, states that disorder always increases with time. Like the argument about human progress, it indicates that there must have been a beginning. Otherwise, the universe would be in a state of complete disorder by now, and everything would be at the same temperature." Public Lectures--"The Beginning of Time" www.hawking.org.uk/pdf/bot.pdf

In other words, everything material degenerates (rots). An apple rots in time. So does an egg. Rocks crumble into dust, in time. If the universe was around forever (trillions and trillions plus years), everything material would have turned to dust.

However, the Bible teaches that God is not material. He is what Scripture calls "spirit" (see John 4:24). He is the essence of life itself, the creator of human life, and is invisible (as is "life"), immortal (not touched by death), and eternal (no beginning or end).

All who are "born" of His Spirit (see John 3:1-5), receive the gift of eternal life (see Romans 6:23). They are sealed with the spirit of life. If you find all this hard to believe, simply repent and trust Jesus Christ (surrender to His Lordship), and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free (see John 8:31-32).