How old is God (the Father)? Is it possible to say exactly or are there some difficulties? We want to approach the answer in this text.
The biblical answer to the question “How old is God?” is the following: God is eternal. In this respect he is eternally old or he has no age at all. Depending on the philosophical point of view. Since “the father” is part of God, this is equally old.
The detailed explanation to this question opens again a whole canon of other questions and leads to the topic of the human existence. This text could certainly try to illuminate all these aspects – but then this text would never be finished and probably not helpful. Therefore, let’s tap our big toe into the subject matter and get started.
Table of Contents
The Age of God the Father: An Introduction and Preliminary Considerations
The first sentence of the Bible, which we take here as the sole standard of God’s word, already begins with a hammer: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”.
Especially many westernized countries focus on the fact that God created things. But thereby an important fact is overlooked: God was already there.
In order for God to create something, He had to be there before. At first, this sounds more obvious than it is. Because: Only with the creation of the world the time calculation began, which we know.
Now there are theologians who argue whether it is called “In the beginning” or “In the beginning” or what exactly was started – in the end it boils down to the fact that time, as humans perceive it, started at this point.
We don’t know what it was like before that. We don’t know how God was “created” or where he came from. Perhaps he lives in a structure that has a different time or simply the concept of time does not exist.
What we do know is this: God created a timetable for man. He wanted time to feel like it was going in one direction for us. We humans often represent this as a timeline….
God probably lives outside of these laws of time and space, but can intervene in our sphere of action. This is probably the best explanation why God knows everything: On the one hand he has created everything, on the other hand he can see everything.
That again rum raises the question how much free will we really still have and whether God does not permit certain things after all of which we believe God does not permit them….
Before we go on with speculations, let us go on to a seemingly simple question.
How old is Jesus (now)?
In Christianity, God consists of three persons: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. How this works exactly is God’s secret. However, the following question makes it more difficult:
How old is Jesus? Some also ask the question: How old was Jesus? If Jesus is God, then he must be “eternally” old. Nevertheless, we assume that the man Jesus died at about 33 and was born accordingly.
Before that, however, Jesus has already lived and presumably he has already visited Abraham before he destroyed Sodom & Gomorrah. Which starting time is valid here? The eternal one? Creation of the world? Birth of Mary?
To keep the answer simple for the first, let’s say this: The man Jesus Christ, born of Mary, is now 33 or 2020 (this article was written in 2020) years old.
Jesus, after all, physically rose from the dead and thus ascended to heaven. Does the death on the cross count or the time since his birth? There one must leave the question open.
Summary: How Old Is God?
An ultimate answer to the question simply cannot be given. The biblical explanation for God’s age is “eternal”. Whether God is even affected by time in the same way that we humans are is absolutely questionable. Just as with the Trinity, we will probably only get the answer when we are with Him.
