[04/09/19]
The eternality of God is perhaps the easiest of points to establish from the scriptural evidence. It is there, once again, in the first words of the Bible. “In the beginning God” (Ge 1:1). This is the starting point, to the degree that eternity can be said to have a starting point. There is not a point in time which precedes God. Solomon observes the eternality of God, and observes as well that there is that within us that not only knows eternity and eternity’s God, but knows it as something just beyond reach.
Consider the statement. “God has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end” (Ecc 3:11). You see it. We sense it. We have to recognize that this God who has made everything in its time is Himself outside of or beyond time. We have eternity in our heart. We sense that there is more than just this life, or even the life of mankind. We sense that even if we seek to cast our thoughts as wide as the universe, yet there must be something more. So, man posits the multiverse, but even with this, the heart recognizes insufficiency. We yearn to understand this infinite-seeming existence around us, but however far we probe, always there is that which remains beyond us to know. Man will not find out the entire work of God from beginning to end. It is beyond his capacity to do so. Man remains finite in an infinite eternity.
Hear further from the Preacher. “I know that everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it, for God has so worked that men should fear Him” (Ecc 3:14). How can he know this? Because God’s perfection demands eternity. We could reverse that statement. God’s eternality demands perfection. Nothing imperfect can stand. But, that from which nothing can be taken or can anything be added? It must necessarily remain forever exactly what it is. This, I observe, is a necessary quality of god-ness, and in God, we find it satisfied.
Hear again from that passage of Isaiah 46:9-10, which is so powerful a declaration of this eternality of God. He speaks to His people through the words of His prophet, and says, “Remember the former things long past, for I AM God, and there is no other; I AM God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.’” This brief passage says so much about the nature of God that it’s worth a study in its own right. But, I would focus at present on that matter of declaring the end from the beginning. This is a claim of certainty, certainly. It is a declaration of absolute trustworthiness. What God says is; end of discussion. It may not have appeared as yet, but its appearing is certain, for He has established His purpose, and it is a thing of perfection as Solomon just described. His purpose cannot be added to. His purpose cannot be taken from. It stands unchanging because God Who purposes is unchanging. He declares the end with absolute certainty from the beginning – I would even stretch it just a bit to say from before the beginning.
We can attribute that certainty to two things. I would give primary attribution to the Sovereign authority and power of God, Who is quite unopposable. He can speak with certainty as to the accomplishing of His will because Who will say Him otherwise? But, there is also this aspect of eternity to bear in mind. God knows, He knows the end from the beginning because He can see it. He stands outside of time, athwart time if you will, and observes the entire arc of all existence in a moment. I think this must play into the way He sees us as the finished work of the Son even though we recognize in ourselves that the work is very far from finished. God declares the end from the beginning, having seen it. I would not wish to press this point to the degree of resembling Greek views of unopposable fate, but it does bear much in common. The certainty is the work of both, I think: that God has willed it and therefore it must be, and God has already seen it, and therefore it already is from that eternal perspective.
[04/10/19]
The eternality of God is further demonstrated to us in the person of Melchizedek, that most enigmatic of men whom we encounter with Abraham early in the record (Ge 14:18). This one comes to bless Abram after Abram defeated the kings who had fought alongside Sodom and Gomorrah. This Melchizedek, we are told, was ‘a priest of God Most High’. He comes, blesses Abram, and then we hear no more of him. This point greatly impressed the Israelites, particularly given their deep concern for genealogies and tracing their lineage back to the patriarchs and thus to Adam. Nothing is said of where this one came from. We cannot trace his branch of the family tree. All we know is he was a priest of God Most High, and at least by his name we can conclude he was a king of some sort.
Just so the author of Hebrews does conclude, speaking of him as, “This Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High” (Heb 7:1). He observes the common Jewish view of the man, that he was without father or mother, without genealogy, ‘having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he abides a priest perpetually’ (Heb 7:10). Observe that key point: He was made like the Son of God; the immediate implication being that the Son of God likewise has neither beginning of days nor end of life, but abides perpetually. He is eternal. This has importance to the author of Hebrews not merely as evidence of an eternal God, for honestly, I don’t think there was much of a need to argue that God must be eternal at that juncture. It was a given. But, this commonality of perpetuity between the Son of God and Melchizedek applies particularly to the office they hold, that of priest. And, in the case of the Son of God, it serves to demonstrate that He has been designated by God as a high priest according to that priestly order of which the only other member we see is Melchizedek. It is the order of eternal priests. I could readily accept the argument that these are not, in fact, two members of that order, but two appearances of the ONLY member of that order, which is to say that Melchizedek is in reality a theophany, an appearance of the Son of God to Abram.
The only further mention we have of this one is the observation of the psalmist in that most quoted of Messianic psalms. It begins with the oft-quoted message in regard to the Son. “The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet’” (Ps 110:1). Repeatedly, this is brought forward in the New Testament texts to demonstrate that clearly David was not writing about Solomon here, but of his Lord, of one greater than David. David proceeds to observe, “The LORD has sworn and will not change His mind, ‘Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek’” (Ps 110:4). Notice this is given without any further explanation, nor any expectation that explanation is needed. Melchizedek was already a clear model of eternality, and clearly represented a priestly order quite apart from, and entirely superior to the Aaronic priesthood. That is the point that Hebrews stresses: Here is an eternal order. Every priest of the Aaronic line passed, as they must, being finite beings. Here is the High Priest who never dies. Here is the better Way, the only Way, the Truth, the Life.
As at the beginning of the Bible, so too at the end, we have a clear declaration of God’s eternal being. “I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Rev 22:13). In true Jewish parallelism, Jesus proclaims the eternal Godhead. The only way this is not a proclamation of eternality is if eternity does not exist, in which case, God yet encompasses all that ever has been or ever will be. But, eternality is in the proclamation, for to be the beginning, one must precede the beginning. To be the first cause, to borrow the philosophical phrase, one must already be before the first caused thing. To be the end, likewise, which is to say the cause of the end, one must continue beyond the end. And of particular note, God does not here say that He will at some point be the last, or be the end. It is present tense. I AM the end. It is already the case. It is always the case. It is a continuous reality that God is both beginning and end, both first and last, ever and always preceding all that has had temporal being, and ever and always continuing beyond all that has temporal being.
But, if this is insufficient, we have also the threefold proclamation of this same point nearer the start of the Revelation. In the first few chapters of that book John records, at the Lord’s command, letters to the seven churches of Asia. Now, as I have already observed, these letters are not restricted to seven physical churches, although those seven physical churches did have a real existence in history. But, seven has symbolic significance, and this is a highly symbolic text that John is writing. But, before getting to the specific letters, there is something of a general introduction. In fact, this is the introduction of the entire book of the Revelation. Here we find Joh declaring his authorship and his readership in a fashion not unlike what is found in the epistles. “John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come; and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne” (Rev 1:4). We considered the last enigmatic clause already. Here, I am concerned with the far clearer declaration of God’s eternality that precedes that clause: He who is and who was and who is to come.
A linguist will readily recognize the connection between these clauses and being. “I am” is a statement of being. “I was” is a statement of historical being. “I will be” is a statement of future being. We tend to use these to speak of particular aspects of being, more than of existence itself, but existence is there in the word. “I was happy” conveys an attribute that was mine at the time, but to have that attribute, it was necessary that I exist to possess said attribute. “I will be with Jesus” conveys a bedrock assurance of the Christian faith, and informs as to my eventual location. But, to have an abode in that location, I must also have existence. “I am considering my beliefs” gives clear statement of my present activity, but in order to consider, I must be.
All this is a rather long path to saying that He who is and was and is to come exists at all points. However far back we consider history, He is there. However far forward we cast our thoughts into the future, He is there. However long we experience a present, He is there. There is no point in time, or even outside of time, where He is not. I suppose one might posit that hell is the place where He is not, but as concerns His eternality that would not apply. We may have to return to that question when we consider the ‘omnis’ of God, but as concerns His duration, it has no real bearing.
What is interesting is that this formula of John’s finds itself thrice repeated. We see it again, still preceding the first of these letters to the churches, but this time, it comes as a direct word of the Lord. “I AM the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty” (Rev 1:8). This but confirms who it was the John meant with his own application of the phrase, and I would note, connects us to that declaration at the end. It makes plain, if it wasn’t already so, that this idea of being the Alpha and the Omega is itself a declaration of eternality.
This One Who ever is, is the One coming with the clouds, whom every eye will see (Rev 1:7). He is the ruler of the kings of earth, the King of kings. He is the One who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood (Rev 1:5). This is the One who has commanded John to write, and the churches to receive.
Finally, we have a third declaration of this description of God from those seen gathered around the throne of God, the four living creatures in particular proclaim, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come” (Rev 4:8). So, then, we have John’s description confirmed both by the Lord Himself and by those four creatures before His throne. The threefold repetition, as R. C. Sproul made clear so often, is a matter of exceedingly strong emphasis. It is an alert, if you will, to pay attention. This is big! Thus, when those four creatures utter the threefold description of God as Holy, they are proclaiming Him the very epitome of holiness, the very definition of holiness. They are drawing our attention to the utter perfection of holiness that is God; which must, in turn, make us mindful of our lack in that area.
In like fashion, we have this threefold repetition of God as the One who was, and is, and is to come. This, too, is something we are being told to take very, very seriously. He ever is. We cannot think to outlast Him, if we thought maybe we could abide in our sins until He passes from the scene. He won’t pass from the scene. Let it be supposed that we manage to unlock the secrets of time travel, and this doesn’t change. Wherever we might manage to roam in time, still He Is.
The combination of these two threefold declarations ought rightly to drive us deep into an attitude of worshipful reverence. He is utterly Holy and utterly eternal. For the guilty, there can be no escape. That perfect holiness will discover our sin, and being perfect, it cannot abide where sin is. Something’s going to have to give, either holiness or sin. But, this Holiness, His Holiness, is eternal. It can have no end as it had no beginning. Ergo, it must be sin which gives, sin which finds itself eradicated. Thank God that Christ Jesus our Lord, as John observed at the outset, has released us from our sins by His blood! Our sins must find themselves eradicated by the eternal, perfect holiness of God; but we ourselves remain to experience an eternal future with Him in which our holiness is made complete and our sin banished from existence!
For those who are not given to the Son, however, the reality of His eternal, perfect holiness remains. For them, the sin is likewise banished from existence, for it cannot remain where God is, and as we shall consider in due course, God is everywhere present as well as every when. They having not been released from their sins must likewise be banished from existence. Sadly for them, indeed sadly doesn’t begin to describe the case, that banishment from existence does not indicate the non-being of the nihilists’ beliefs. The grave is not a terminus of being. It is, rather, an entrance into eternity, whether it be an eternity of life or an eternity of death. There is much to this which remains to explain until some proper point in the course of this exploration of belief, and it may be (almost certainly will be) that much of it remains shrouded in that mystery which is the knowledge that God has reserved to Himself.
But my point here is simply that this Holy God is. He always Is. He ever shall be as He always has been: Eternal, unchanging, Holy. This is the God with whom we shall have to deal, whether we have believed in Him or not; whether we have loved Him or hated Him. That is the reality of existence, the bedrock of being. Far better that we should learn the truth of it, and come to terms with this God, which is to say, submit ourselves willingly to His rule and reign, for rule and reign He shall, whatever our views on the matter. Rule and reign He does. Far better, then, that we should not merely acknowledge His reign, but abide by His rule, and serve Him willingly, even gladly, knowing His care for us, than that we should find our obedience compelled by force at some later date.
