Science Tells Us About God’s Attributes – Part II

Last time we saw how the Theory of Relativity predicts that the Creator of the universe must be eternal, infinite, omnipresent, immaterial, and omniscient. Now we’ll finish our list of God’s attributes that relativity tells us the Creator must possess.

E. God is Transcendent & Self-existent.

Relativity says that the First Cause of the universe came from a place outside of and apart from all time, space, and matter. Existing apart from the universe in a state of supremacy is the definition of being transcendent. Thus God is transcendent. Also, the First Cause of the universe had to be self-existent, meaning it wasn’t dependent on anything else. This too is an attribute of God.

F. God is Unchangeable.

To our list we can add another quality—being immutable or unchangeable. How do we know God cannot change? Because anything that is infinite and eternal is, by definition, unable to be changed.

Consider infinity for a moment. Infinity is defined as the set of all numbers to which one cannot add one or take one away. It includes everything. If you can’t add anything to it or take anything away from it, it cannot be changed. This also tells us why God cannot in any way be physical or material.

Let us ponder a collection of DVDs. Now let us collect all the DVDs in the world and put them in a line. Can we always add one more DVD to our collection? Yes. Can we always remove one from it? Again, yes. So no matter how we try, we can never amass an “infinite” set of DVDs. It’s simply impossible. The set will always be finite. This is why there can never be an “infinite” set of any physical thing. This applies to anything made of matter—to atoms, to grains of sand, to DVDs, and even universes. (Aye, laddie. The multiple universe theory doesn’t work.) It’s impossible for a set of finite things ever to become infinite. And because it can’t be added to or subtracted from, it’s unchangeable.

We can also apply this rule to time. If history is merely a collection of days, then adding one more day to today gives us tomorrow. We can always add another day to history. Thus, time is finite, not infinite. This is called the Kalam Cosmological Argument and is yet another proof that time had a beginning.

Thus The First Cause of the universe, the God who is infinite and eternal, must be unchangeable.

The Bible tells us much about God’s unchanging nature. From Psalm 102:25–27 (NLT): “Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth and made the heavens with your hands. They will perish, but you remain forever; they will wear out like old clothing. You will change them like a garment and discard them. But you are always the same; you will live forever.”

The Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck tells us there is a great difference between the Creator, which is pure Being, and the creatures God made, which are always becoming. The Creator is immutable, unchanging. But, says Bavinck, “Every creature is continually becoming. It is changeable, constantly striving, seeks rest and satisfaction, and finds this rest in God, in him alone, for only he is pure being and not becoming.”