Who made God?

We have the idea of self-existence or what we call in theology the concept of aseity. When I see that word written on my whiteboard in theology class, or when I see it in a textbook, I know that the vast majority Christians have never heard of the word and it's so obscure and esoteric they don't care about hearing about the word.

But I have to tell you honestly and personally, I see that word, and I get chills up my spine because in that one little word is captured all of the glory of the perfection of God's being. What makes God different from you, and different from me, and different from the stars, the earthquakes, and any creaturely thing is that God and God alone has aseity—God alone exists by His own power.


“Aseity” comes from the Latin aseite, meaning literally “of oneself.” Used of God, it denotes that He exists in and of Himself, independent of anything else. He is self-existent.

Being self-existent, however, is not the same as being self-caused (causa sui). It is impossible to cause one’s own existence, since, again, a cause is ontologically prior to its effect, and something cannot be ontologically prior to itself. Thus, a self-existent Being (a Being with aseity) is not a self-caused being; rather, a self-existent Being is an uncaused Being. It simply has no cause, since only beings who can possibly not need a cause. Hence, a Being who can't possibly not be must be an uncaused (necessary) Being.

The biblical basis for God’s aseity is found in the facts that (1) He existed prior to and independent of creation and that (2) He brought into and sustains in existence everything else that is. Many of the verses that support God’s aseity have already been utilized to demonstrate His pure actuality. “In the beginning God …” (Gen. 1:1). “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (Ps. 90:2). “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.… Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:1, 3). “He is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else” (Acts 17:25). “From him and through him and to him are all things” (Rom. 11:36). “He is before all things” (Col. 1:17). “He has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe” (Heb. 1:2). “God, for whom and through whom everything exists …” (Heb. 2:10). “By your will, they were created and have their being” (Rev. 4:11).