[03/20/19]
Here, we come to one of the chief points accompanying the sovereignty of this god we seek to descry. If this god being is sovereign, if he has no dependency upon any outside agent, then it is necessary that he is self-existent. If this god being was created or born, then his existence is dependent upon the one or ones who created or bore him. They may be god beings, at least one of them, but he cannot be. He is a dependent being of some sort.
We get a sense of this from our own experience. This is not, to be clear, a reliable guide for determining the nature of godhood, for we most assuredly are not god beings. Yet, we recognize that as children of particular parents, we owe a particular allegiance to those particular parents. We are answerable to the ones who bore us. The fact that this is encouraged by Fifth Commandment does not establish the point, but reinforces its rightness. What I mean to say is that one need not ascribe to the texts of the Old Testament to find this to be the case. I suppose it is possible, if just barely, that one would find a pagan society somewhere in which there was no expectation of filial allegiance, but I am quite sure that if one could be found, it would be the rare exception that proves the rule.
We also experience this point in any of our social interactions, most notably, those of the workplace. To be employed is to know a certain dependency upon the employer. That dependency may be weaker or stronger for any number of reasons, but the dependency is there regardless. We are not free to do as we please while employed. We answer to a higher authority. There may be a great deal of liberty, but it is never absolute. We discover that no matter how high one advances in business, or in politics this reality pertains. The worst of dictators may, for a season, appear to answer to nobody, but eventually reality insists they do, and it may prove a lesson most painfully and fatally learned.
But, we are concerned with this god being at this juncture, not our fellow creatures. This god being, to be accounted a god being, must be answerable to none, dependent upon none. In order for this to be the case, he or she must be self-existent. He or she has no outside source. We may say as well that such a being has no origin, but let me hold that idea for the moment. For now, let it suffice that this doctrine of self-existence, or aseity, is rendered necessary by the single most essential characteristic of god-ness. Sovereignty so absolute demands self-existence.
