The Eternal One

This was originally posted Dec 22, 2006 in my Yahoo! 360 blog:

Its been a really long time since my last post, and I apologize for my absence. So, let's try to pick up were I left off in early December. I want to tackle some of the big words of theology, and one of them is the word eternal. What exactly does the word eternal mean? To understand that, we need to go to the source, to see what the Bible say about who God is. So let's start with a couple of verses to see what they have to say about who God is, starting with Ps 90:1-2 says:

Lord, you have been our dwelling-place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

God has always been seen as being in existence, with no beginning and no end. He has just always been. Now let's take a look at Job 38:4-5. God asks a few questions to Job:

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?”

To understand God one must come to grips with one's own limitations. In the above verse, God is reminding Job that it is He, not Job, that has always existed. For as far back as one can measure the existence of time, God has always been there. It is He that created everything that now exists, which is really a different attribute other than eternal, but goes to show the agelessness of God. You can also see this in Gen 1:1, Ps 102:25 and Heb 1:2.

So with these couple of verses we're ready to define some words. The Hebrew word everlasting (eternal) literally means 'a long duration, forever, everlasting, evermore, or perpetual. It is used in reference to God as having no beginning and will have no end'. The Greek word is translated eternal and means 'without beginning and end, that which always has been and always will be'.

So, to say that God is eternal is to say that He is infinite with respect to time. Put another way, God has no limitations with respect to time. Although He created time, He is outside of time, which is to say that time simply does not exist for Him. The terms “past, present and future” do not apply. Why do I say that? Let's look at 2 Pet 3:8:

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

Which points back to Ps 90:4:

For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.

What do we see here? We see that one of two things are true: Either this refers to the fact that because God is eternal, the passage of 1000 years for God is like the passage of one day for mankind. Or, it means that time doesn't have any meaning to God. I lean in the second direction because from a logical position as creator of everything that can be know by humans, the creator Himself must be outside of the creation – all of it! And time is one of the things that God, to me, must be outside of.

So that you don't think that these are the only verse, here's another Isa 40:27:

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no-one can fathom.

1 Tim 1:17:

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Heb 9:14:

How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God.

Another tack on God's eternality is Ex 3:13-14;

Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’"

“I am who I am.” These simple words have a very important meaning. “I am” is present tense, infinitive, obviously indicating that God existence is perpetual. He didn't say “I was” or “I will be”, He said “I am”, which is another way of saying, “I have always been and will always be”.

Since God has always been and will always be, it means that He is answerable and accountable to no one. He didn't ask for our permission to create the world, and nor does He ask for our help to sustain it. Unlike mankind, He cannot be bribed or coerced to do anything. We do not possess the ability to alter His will. And since God is infinite, He will never suffer death. God offers us eternal life, and only some one who is infinite and eternal could offer such a gift. And only God has the ability to deliver on such an offer. John 5:26 is another interesting verse that adds a new dimension to God's eternality when it says;

For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself.

God draws life from Himself, and grants that life to others. This should give us peace and comfort us in that we can depend upon Him to deliver on His promise of eternal life to us. If God was not eternal, we would never be able to depend upon Him for anything because He would be like us.

Course, this only make sense if you are a Christian.

So I said: "Do not take me away, O my God, in the midst of my days; your years go on through all generations. In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. But you remain the same, and your years will never end. (Ps 102:24-27)

"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ (Act 17:24-28)