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On the Argument for Divine Timelessness from the Incompleteness of Temporal Life
In his study of time and eternity, [1] Brian Leftow argues that the fleeting nature of temporal life provides grounds for affirming that God is timeless. Drawing on Boethius's characterization of eternity as complete possession all at once of int...
Creation, Providence, and Miracle
Creatio Ex Nihilo "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1.1). With majestic simplicity the author of the opening chapter of Genesis thus differentiated his viewpoint, not only from that of the ancient creation myths of Israel's ne...
A Critique of Grudem's Formulation and Defense of the Doctrine of Divine Eternity
In his recent Systematic Theology, [1] Wayne Grudem treats all of the traditional attributes of God, a welcome change from typical contemporary theologies with their anti-metaphysical bias. Unfortunately, his treatment of divine eternity seems to me ...
The Ultimate Question of Origins: God and the Beginning of the Universe
The Fundamental Question From time immemorial men have turned their gaze toward the heavens and wondered. Both cosmology and philosophy trace their roots to the wonder felt by the ancient Greeks as they contemplated the cosmos. According to Aristotle, it is...
A Review of Paul Helm's <em>Eternal God</em>
Writing in the spirit of Jonathan Edwards, Helm provides a philosophical defense of the coherence and plausibility of the view that God is a timeless, omniscient being whose existence is logically inconsistent with libertarian freedom in any of His creatures. ...
Creation and Conservation Once More
Introduction "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1.1). With majestic simplicity the author of the opening chapter of Genesis thus differentiated his viewpoint, not only from that of the ancient creation myths of Israel's neighbo...
God and Real Time
Introduction While certain of the traditional attributes of God such as omnipotence or omniscience (particularly divine foreknowledge) have been thoroughly--and, one is tempted to say, nearly exhaustively--analyzed and defended in recent philosophical literat...
A Swift and Simple Refutation of the <em>Kalam</em> Cosmological Argument?
I. Introduction In his helpful book God, Reason, and Theistic Proofs, Stephen T. Davis explores at some length what criteria must be fulfilled by a theistic argument in order for it to count as a successful piece of natural theology. Of course, the argument m...
Prof. Grünbaum on Creation
Introduction In a number of recent publications, Adolf Grünbaum (1989, 1990, 1991) has criticized the application of the theological notion of creatio ex nihilo to the origination of the universe. Since I have elsewhere responded to his covey of objectio...
The Caused Beginning of the Universe: A Response to Quentin Smith
I. Introduction Quentin Smith [1988] has recently argued that there is sufficient evidence at present to warrant the conclusions that (i) the universe probably began to exist and that (ii) it began to exist without being caused to do so. While I am inclined t...