Home > Arguments about God's nature - contradictions
How can God die? The entire universe would cease to exist. God's own being holds it together, for God to die would mean that we too would die. Yet we are still here so clearly God is not dead and has never died.
It is a contradiction of God's attribute of eternality. Since God has no beginning he can have no end.
"In Islam, Allah cannot die because He is the Ever-Living, beyond the reach of death or any limitation. The Qur'an states, 'He is the Ever-Living; there is no deity except Him' (Surah Ghafir, 40:65), and 'Everything will perish except His Face' (Surah Al-Qasas, 28:88). Death applies to created things—those with beginnings and ends—but Allah is eternal, the One who gives life and takes it, never subject to it Himself. If God could die, He wouldn't be God; He'd be weak and temporary, which clashes with His absolute power and Tawhid.
In the Trinity, the idea that Jesus (peace be upon him), as God, died on the cross raises a contradiction: how can the eternal Creator cease to exist? Even if temporary, death implies a loss of control or being, unfit for the Almighty. Islam insists Allah is unchanging and immortal—He sustains all, never faltering. The Qur'an affirms, 'Rely upon the Ever-Living who does not die' (Surah Al-Furqan, 25:58). Tawhid ensures God's permanence, making Him the only One worthy of worship, free from the frailty of death."
Surah Al-Furqan, 25:58
This comes from a weird view of death that the bible nor the Qur'an supports. When we die, do we cease to exist? No, of course not. We continue to exist just without a body. We are placed into a holding cell until judgement day. Both Christians and Muslims agree with this. So let's not treat death as if it would make God cease to exist. That's a silly argument.
Death also doesn't mean there is an end to God's eternity. Again, this just doesn't make sense. Does time stop when you die? No. God would still have experiences and consciousness even if he were to die physically.
But even with that, what is death really? For a human, death is the breaking of our complex unity. Our bodies are separated from the rest of our being (soul and spirit). So when we die, death is just us moving from this realm to the next to await judgement and our beings are broken with our bodies remaining on Earth.
When God died, he experienced two forms of death. The Son was separated from the Father and the Holy Spirit. The unity of Yahweh was destroyed but the Father, the Spirit and the Son all continued to exist that entire time. At no time did any part of God cease to exist.
Jesus also experienced physical death where his body was separated from his soul/spirit. So God died both as a human and as a God with experiencing separation for the first time and the breaking of his eternal unity. Again, this wouldn't make him not God and wouldn't make him not exist. Just his unity was broken.
When Jesus resurrected and was glorified, both of these unities were restored and God is now fully alive as he was before but with some scars and with the perfect ability to judge mankind with both perfect knowledge and wisdom but also with personal experience of what it means to be a man.