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The Aseity (Self-Existence) of God

Home >> God’s Attributes >>


For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.24 “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands;25 neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things. (Acts 17:23, 24, 25)

God is self-existent, God has always been...Our Maker exists in an eternal, self-sustaining, necessary way, ­necessary, that is, in the sense that God does not have it in Him to go out of existence, just as we do not have it in us to live forever. We necessarily age and die, because it is our present nature to do that; God necessarily continues forever unchanged, because it is His eternal nature to do that. This is one of many contrasts between creature and Creator...God's self existence is basic truth. At the outset of his presentation of the unknown God to theAthenian idolaters, Paul explained that this God, the world's Creator, "is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else"¯ (Acts 17:23-25). Sacrifices offered to idols, in today's tribal religions as in ancient Athens, are thought of as somehow keeping the god going, but the Creator (the I AM) needs no such support system. The word aseity, meaning that he has life in himself and draws his unending energy from Himself (a se in Latin means "from himself"¯), was coined by theologians to express this truth, which the Bible makes clear.
J.I. Packer Concise Theology pg. 26-7

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Title Notes
Self-Existence J.I. Packericon
The Independence or Self-Existence of God D.H. Kuipericon
Aseity of God, His Self Existence Mercy Drops - Excellent outline and summary of God's Self-Existenceicon
Divine Aseity and Apologetics (.pdf) John M. Frameicon
The Affirmation that God is "Without…Passions" William Tateicon
A Brief Response to Ben Witherington Dr. Sam Stormsicon
The God Who Is! Exodus 3:14-15 (.pdf) Reformation & Revival 7.2 (Spring 1998): 103-117.icon
The Living God of the Bible (.pdf) Carl F. H. Henryicon
The Living God of the Bible (.pdf) Carl F. H. Henryicon
The Self-Existence of God A. W. Tozericon
Attributes of God - Where Did God Come From? The Self Existence of God Dr. S. Lewis Johnsonicon
Is There a Supreme Being?, or the Existence of God Dr. S. Lewis Johnsonicon
It Ain't Necessarily So Paul Helmicon
It Ain’t Necessarily So - Second Half Paul Helmicon
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The Existence and Attrributes of God
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