Question:

Who made God?   On our way to school this morning, my 10 yr. old  asked me who created God. He had to go to class before I got a chance to answer. What would be a good response to his question?  We allowed him to watch the Bible series that was on recently.  It sparked a renewed interest in him and he has had many questions after watching the series.

Answer:

I am afraid that I do not have an answer that will make a lot of sense to a 10-year-old.  A theological answer will probably be too abstract for him/her, and this is the only answer I have to give.

My answer is that God, by definition, is the uncaused cause.  All physical and even spiritual realities are caused by something.  This is called the Law of Causality.  Therefore there must be a first cause.  That cause is God.   The way God put it to Moses when he was asked who had sent him was this:  Tell them I AM sent you.  One of God’s qualities, along with his omniscience, omnipresence, his love, his justice and his righteousness is his existence.   God just is.   “I AM” YHWH.

Perhaps what you could say to your son that he could understand is this.  If God was created, that would mean there was something greater than God which created him.  Obviously, there is nothing greater than God.  Therefore God simply is.  (this is a less abstract and obtuse way of saying that God is self-existent).

I hope this helps, but fear it will only help slightly.

John Oakes