Question:
Philosophically speaking, what (other than God) existed before everything came into existence?
My Reply:
Philosophically-speaking, Theologically-speaking, technically-speaking, and however else, nothing (other than God) existed before everything came into existence. (John 1:3).
Added Oct. 25, 2010: I received a philosophical view from a friend on Facebook for this question. He suggested that before anything existed (other than God), we existed. Now, before you pull the New Age
or Mormon cards, let me explain what he's saying: Jeremiah 1:5 gives reference to God knowing us before we were born. Genesis also tells us that when God created, it wasn't a spur of the moment thing, but a well-thought out plan
. We also know that the Salvation plan with Jesus dying and being resurrected was not plan B, but plan A from before the days of creation. So philosophically and theologically speaking, in the mind and eyes of God, we existed before we were created.
Although we need to remember that we did NOT exist in the spirit or any other form before being born. Also, as Genesis 2:7 and Job 33:4 remind us, we are not actually "alive" until God breathes breath into us. So in our understanding of existence, the actual or physical existence, no, we did not exist before creation.
Added Oct. 25, 2010: I received a philosophical view from a friend on Facebook for this question. He suggested that before anything existed (other than God), we existed. Now, before you pull the New Age
or Mormon cards, let me explain what he's saying: Jeremiah 1:5 gives reference to God knowing us before we were born. Genesis also tells us that when God created, it wasn't a spur of the moment thing, but a well-thought out plan. We also know that the Salvation plan with Jesus dying and being resurrected was not plan B, but plan A from before the days of creation. So philosophically and theologically speaking, in the mind and eyes of God, we existed before we were created.Although we need to remember that we did NOT exist in the spirit or any other form before being born. Also, as Genesis 2:7 and Job 33:4 remind us, we are not actually "alive" until God breathes breath into us. So in our understanding of existence, the actual or physical existence, no, we did not exist before creation.
But now here's what's going through my brain as I type this:
- We did NOT exist before creation, for humans were the last to be created.
- Yes, we exist in God, and He had us in mind before creating, but it was not until He "breathed" into us that we were given life.
- I have to wonder about the part where God said, "let us create man in our own image..." Not so much the image part, but the part about Him saying, "Let us create"...so humans didn't really exist then, either, pointing to my first answer.
- But yes, it's correct to say that we exist in God, and that the whole point of creation included humans, and so in that sense, we did exist.
Wow, my brain's starting to hurt. Maybe I should lay off from the philosophy-based questions for a bit, lol.
---Pastor Andy
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