Did God Create the Universe and Die?

August 1995
by Hal Flemings

Theists and deists both agree that a super intelligent Being created the universe. From that position of harmony they quickly diverge, since theists believe in a caring Creator and deists believe in a Creator who is indifferent to his creation. While the world is overwhelmed with myriad instances of highly ordered interrelated systems and expressions of life and consciousness thus giving rise to the view that a God exists, the historical presence of suffering, cruelty, poverty and death is the plain evidence of an uncaring God to the deist. A kaleidoscope of rebuttals emerge from the camp of various theistic communities. Reasons, some cogent and some questionable, are set forth to provide the answer to the centuries old question: Why does a Caring and Capable God permit suffering and evil? Because of the long history of pain and badness, some individuals have advanced the notion that the Creator literally may be dead and for that reason the question of whether or not He is caring has no meaning. After all, if one is dead the question of one’s caring nature is equally dead. This paper presents arguments for the proposition that God is alive and well wherever He abides. We are convinced that God is not dead.

THE PHILOSOPHICAL ARGUMENT

Let us label the first defense the Philosophical Argument. Now, if God has existed indefinitely into the past that very fact suggests a transcendent nature immune to the passage of time and circumstances and thus becomes an argument for his indefinite existence into the future or beyond all time. Phrased differently, whatever there was in the nature of God that permitted him to exist into the indefinite past would seem to permit him to exist into the indefinite future.

It would seem that the opposition would have to produce the evidence for some new element in the stream of reality significant enough as to cause the demise of God. It seems that such an element would have to be found in his creation since he did quite well without his creation. However, since all the elements of creation are finite entities, fragile in the waters of time and wholly dependent; it appears unlikely they could affect the existence of God at all.

Although the Bible shows that God has and will create an immortal nature for some individuals, it must be remembered that they are not adversaries of God.

THE PROPHETIC ARGUMENT

Never mind the difficulties in logically working out how it is possible to see the future--another way of saying Seeing what has not happened--, the Bible presents clear cases of specific prophecy where it is empirically possible to show the prophecy preceded the event foreseen (Consider 1 Timothy 4:1-5 for one indisputable example). Now given that, there are prophecies in the Bible in which God saw himself in events transpiring in our era (Rev. 17:10 - 18:24) and beyond (Rev. 19, 20, 21, 22). This means that in times past God saw that he would be alive and active during and beyond our times. He did not see our era and the centuries ahead without his presence. This is the Prophetic Argument.

THE INTERVENTIONIST ARGUMENT

We next turn to the Interventionist Argument. On occasion, when certain individuals have been the subject of what have been called demonic attacks, the appeal for help from the Creator has resulted in an end of the attack. (Proverbs 18:10) Some force, apparently supernatural, intervened and put a stop to the dreaded experience. Since episodes like these have continued up until the present, some would argue they provide another evidence that God is not dead but alive and active.

THE BIBLICAL ARGUMENT

If one accepts the Bible as a document authored by the Creator, then what the Creator has stated about himself through his human secretaries adds to the evidence. At 1 Timothy 1:17 (NWT) we read: "Now to the King of eternity, incorruptible, invisible, [the] only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen" This text tells us that God as a Being is "incorruptible" which means that he is nondependent and self-sustaining requiring nothing in his world to keep him alive and going. Also, the text calls the Creator "the King of eternity" which plainly indicates an existence throughout eternity over which he presides.

The foregoing are brief and probably sorely underdeveloped arguments for God’s present existence. Notwithstanding, they make some substantive points. For Jehovah’s Witnesses, God is very much alive and before long, they are convinced, all living humans will see indisputable evidence of that fact.