The question "How old is God?" is one of the most profound and persistent mysteries in human history, challenging the very limits of our temporal understanding. As of December 10, 2025, the consensus across major theological traditions is that the only correct answer is one that transcends measurement: God is not merely 'old,' but is fundamentally *eternal* and *timeless*.

This article dives deep into the latest theological and philosophical discussions surrounding the nature of God's existence, exploring why the concept of an "age" simply does not apply and what that means for both the universe and our place within it. The answer lies not in a number, but in a radical shift in how we perceive time itself.

The Eternal Profile: Nature and Attributes of the Divine

Since God is not a created being subject to the laws of physics or the passage of time, a traditional biography with a birth date is impossible. Instead, we must examine the core attributes that define the Divine existence across various major monotheistic traditions (primarily Christianity, Judaism, and Islam). These attributes form the theological "profile" of the Eternal King.

• Primary Nature: Uncreated, Self-Existent (Aseity).
• Relationship to Time: Eternal (Existing without beginning or end).
• Key Titles/Names: The Alpha and Omega, The Ancient of Days, The First and the Last, The Everlasting God.
• Origin: None (God is the source of all existence, not a result of it).
• Age: None (God is not measured by years or temporal metrics).
• Philosophical Status: Necessary Being (A being that must exist, whose non-existence is impossible).
• Theological Debate: Atemporal vs. Sempiternal existence.
• Cosmic Role: Creator of the Universe and Time itself.

The fundamental theological assertion is that God is the *cause* of time, not an entity *within* it. If God had a beginning, something would have had to create God, which contradicts the definition of God as the ultimate, uncaused cause (the Unmoved Mover in Aristotelian philosophy).

Three Core Theological Views on God's Relationship to Time

The question of God's age is essentially a question of God's relationship to time. Modern philosophical theology has largely settled on two main, competing views, with a third view attempting to bridge the gap. Understanding these is crucial to grasping the concept of divine eternity.

1. The Atemporal View: God Outside of Time

This is the traditional and most widely accepted view, championed by early Church Fathers like St. Augustine of Hippo in his work *Confessions XI*. The atemporal view posits that God exists in a state entirely outside of time, a concept called atemporality.

• Core Principle: God does not experience succession, duration, or change. For God, all moments—past, present, and future—are eternally present in a single, unified 'now.'
• Implication for Age: Since time began with the creation of the universe, God existed 'before' time and is therefore not subject to its constraints. God has no age because an age requires the passage of time.
• Key Entity: St. Augustine argued that God created time *with* the world, meaning there was no 'when' before creation.

In this perspective, when we speak of God, we are speaking of a being that is *timeless*. This removes the possibility of God aging, changing, or experiencing a sequence of events, which maintains the theological concept of God's immutability (unchangeableness).

2. The Sempiternal View: God Within All Time

A more contemporary and debated view, often referred to as *sempiternality*, argues that God is eternal but *within* time. This view addresses the difficulty in reconciling a timeless God with a God who acts, responds, and interacts with creation in a temporal sequence.

• Core Principle: God exists from everlasting to everlasting, experiencing the flow of time alongside creation, but without beginning or end. God's existence is infinite in duration.
• Implication for Age: God is not 'ageless,' but rather 'infinitely old' or 'everlasting.' God has always been and always will be, experiencing a succession of moments (a 'temporal location') but never a first or last moment.
• Key Concepts: This view is often favored by process theologians and some open theists who emphasize God's dynamic interaction and responsive nature.

The sempiternal view suggests that while God is eternal, God is not static. God is actively involved in the historical progression of the universe, which makes the divine more relatable to human experience, though it raises complex philosophical issues about God's perfect knowledge and immutability.

3. The Biblical View: The Alpha and Omega

The biblical narrative consistently presents God as the one who exists outside of the created order, using powerful metaphors to convey eternity. The title "Alpha and Omega" (the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet) is a potent LSI keyword for God's eternal nature.

• Scriptural Evidence: Passages like Psalm 90:2 ("Before the mountains were born... from everlasting to everlasting, you are God") and Revelation 1:8 ("I am the Alpha and the Omega") directly assert God's existence beyond any temporal scale.
• The Ancient of Days: This title, from the Book of Daniel, does not imply an 'age' but rather an unchangeable, authoritative, and ancient-beyond-measure status. It signifies a being whose existence precedes all known history and time.

The scriptural perspective strongly leans toward the atemporal view, asserting that God is the source of all existence and therefore cannot be measured by the metrics of that existence. God is the *King eternal* who is immortal and invisible.

The Scientific Conundrum: God's Age vs. The Universe's Age

The modern scientific consensus, based on cosmological data and the Big Bang theory, places the age of the observable universe at approximately 13.8 billion years. This figure is often mistakenly used as a lower bound for God's age, but theological and philosophical thought immediately separates the two.

The Age of the Universe (13.8 billion years) is the duration of time *since* the Big Bang—the moment when space, time, and matter came into existence. If God is the Creator, then God's existence must necessarily predate this event.

In the atemporal framework, it is meaningless to say God is "13.8 billion years old" plus one second, because God was not 'waiting' for the Big Bang to occur. God's act of creation, which initiated the universe and time, is an eternal act viewed from the divine perspective. The 13.8 billion years is the age of the *creation*, not the *Creator*.

The debate between the scientific timeline and religious creation accounts (such as Young Earth Creationism) often centers on the interpretation of the word 'day' in Genesis, but even those debates do not assign a finite age to the uncreated God.

The Final Verdict: Why God Has No Age

The deep dive into theology, philosophy of time, and cosmology leads to a singular, consistent conclusion that satisfies the question based on the definition of God as an ultimate, uncaused reality. God does not have an age because God is the foundation upon which the concept of age rests.

To assign an age to God would be to commit a category error, like asking about the color of a sound or the weight of a thought. God is the *Creator of Time*, which means God is not contained by the creation. The divine eternity is a state of being that is whole, complete, and unmeasured by the sequence of moments (past, present, future) that govern our existence.

The mystery of "How old is God?" transforms into the profound realization that God is the source of all temporal and spatial reality. God's existence is the ultimate *before* and *after*, encompassing all things without being defined by them. The answer is not a number, but the concept of timelessness itself.