GOD IS ETERNAL

The Eternity of God

God always existed. He is eternal. We as human beings live in time and space, it is linear. Eternity if described in human terms stretches backwards and forwards with no end. Eternity is of perpetual duration neither having beginning nor end. This is where God dwells in. The high and lofty one who dwells in eternity. This is also how God sees things, before He created one thing he knew the beginning from the end of all things.

Question- If God created all things then who created God or did He create himself?

Answer-. First you can’t make something out of nothing without an eternal being already being there. You can’t exist and non- exist at the same time. You can’t cause your own existence. Being in a state of potentiality and actuality at the same time.

If God is caused by another than he is not God the uncaused cause of all things. Then there is something that is greater and that becomes God. Finite things need a cause, not infinite things. Something does not come from out of nothing. Without an eternal something you cannot have creation. God is uncaused, everything created is caused, nothing is Self caused or uncaused. If it is caused by something else, then it is not eternal. The world, the universe cannot be uncaused because it is not eternal. Science has proven this fact. Whatever comes to be has a beginning, and is caused, which means itself is not the source . What is the cause must be before the effect. What begins has a beginning and certainly will have an end, at least in the present state of things. God cannot be dependent on another but is a self contained and dependent being. Ex. 3:15 “ I am who I am” Jesus applies this name of god for himself in Jn.8:58 “ I tell you before Abraham was, I am.” Ego Emi; which is in the present indicative active form of the verb “to be”, meaning, what is true of this being before is true of him today, that He has no change from eternity past to eternity future. Never changing always the same what he has now he always had. He is the source of all things, He is absolute, and constant within himself, having no beginning, no middle, nor end. A Billion years from now he will still have the same being not increasing in knowledge one iota, nothing can be added to his being. Isa. 40:13-14 “ Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or as His counselor has taught Him? With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, and showed Him the way of understanding? Acts 15:18 tells us “Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world (from eternity).” His knowledge encompasses all, there is no type of weakness in God's nature he is omniscient , all is perfect, if not, then those things cannot be eternal or part of his infinite nature.

To have existence and be alive means you are a being, but it does not mean you are a created being. There are two classes of beings in the universe, created and non-created. God is in the non-created class and He as Spirit is all by himself, as the one God. God and the creation are two distinct entities, one can only exist with the other, they are not mutually dependent, the other (creation) is dependent on the one that is eternally existent, who is from everlasting to everlasting. The only one that can exist without the other is the one God called in Scripture “I am that I am”, which means He is self-existent, always being who he is, omniscient, all knowing never needing to learn and omnipresent able to everywhere at the same time having no limitations. This is the God of the Bible.

So creation that came into existence is not God but made by God as He began to create. If God is the creator, He cannot be the creation and whatever is created cannot be God. If God is the creator, there is a time that the creation did not exist and God did. All created things come into existence in a point of time. We can accurately say before the creation, God was not the creator until He began to create. In the same way one is not a painter until he paints.

God became the creator as he created the universe, however this act did not change His nature but was an expression of his mind and will. The term creator explains to us that by necessity God existed before creation, before time. Therefore he was not dependent on any one thing but himself.

When we speak of God's eternality we understand eternity is self perpetuating, it does not grow in degrees but is constantly the same, no change or sequence it is a permanent state of perfection. god being the only living and non living thing that has this quality. It is contrary to time by its nature. Nothing is before it. Eternity is the sole property of God, it is his intrinsic nature. All else spring forth from Him by His will and for His pleasure, being dependent on him for its sustenance.

God always existed, He is eternal. This is a inconceivable thought or concept to fully grasp. We who live in time and space do not have the ability to grasp fully what eternity is as we are limited in knowledge. To best describe eternity, it stretches backwards and forwards with no end. Eternity is of perpetual duration neither having beginning nor end. He, God being eternal is before all things and will be also afterward. This is where God dwells in, the high and lofty one who dwells in eternity. This is also how God sees things, before He created one thing He knew the end even before the beginning of all things. His decrees are from eternity before anything was created Eph.1:4: “ just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, “ Our redemption occurs after the world is created but the decrees were found in him in eternity. Ps 33:11 “The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations. Isa.41:4: “ Who has performed and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? 'I, the LORD, am the first; and with the last I am He.'“ All things created are found in his eternal counsel, they are present in him from eternity even though they are not actually present in existence. Before he began to create one thing he knew the beginning from the end of all things. He does not know one thing now and another later even though they are brought in succession through time. God has His plans, His thoughts not bounded by time. They are present with Him in even though their appearance in the world needs to be executed in succession to accomplish His plans. “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… “ (Isaiah 46:9, 10, NASB).

The only way to prove God and His eternal state of existence is for someone from outside time to send a message to those who exist in a time dimension. Isaiah 43:13 “ God proclaims that He is outside the time dimension. He also gives the proof by foretelling events before they occur (Isaiah 44:6-7, 41:21-23) . “I declared the former things long ago and they went forth from My mouth, and I proclaimed them. Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.… Therefore I declared them to you long ago, before they took place I proclaimed them to you, lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them, and my graven image and my molten image have commanded them’” (Isaiah 48:3, 5, NASB).

Ps 90:1-2: “LORD, You have been our dwelling place in all generations . Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” He has always been there is no time assigned as to the beginning of his being.

2 Pet 3:8: But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. Steven Charnock comments on this comparison of God and man “If a thousand years be but as a day to the life of God, then as a year is to the life of man, so are three hundred and sixty five thousand years to the life of God: and as seventy years are to the life of man. So are twenty five millions four hundred and fifty thousand years to the life of God. Yet there still is no proportion between time and eternity, we must dart our thoughts beyond al those, for years and days measure only the duration of created things…(On the eternity of God, The existence and attributes of God, Stephen Charnock, p.287) In other words this is just a human comparison by God to communicate what time is in relation to Himself. Job 36:26 “Behold, God is great, and we do not know Him; nor can the number of His years be discovered.

He is called the ancient of days” in that all time is flows from him, he being not subject to it. Ancient does not mean decaying or old, in that he cannot be young either.

All things find their source in God, He holds incomprehensible power that cannot be apprehended by man. Nothing can into existence without him, He is the source of all and upholds all Col. 1:16-17 for by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

Heb. 1:3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, All things are dependent upon God for their source of life Heb11:3 …the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible (invisible which are the atoms).

Isa. 55:8-9: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. “Man cannot comprehend eternity since we are created beings found in time. We have limits God does not.. Gen.1:1 in the beginning God created…If we look back we cannot go further than the beginning of creation since we are creatures limited to time and made in time , so to understand the infinite we are not capable of in the fullest sense. We may understand he is eternal and infinite but not comprehend the nature of it. As Zophar challenged Job in chpt.11:7 “Can you search out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limits of the almighty, they are higher than heaven.” As believers we are given something more than those in Old Testament times. 2 Cor.2:10-11: “ But God has revealed them to us by his spirit, for the spirit searches all things, yes the deep things of God…Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.” God is Spirit Jn.4 an uncreated infinite eternal spirit in essence and nature. Angels are spirits that are created, and finite.

God is called the almighty which means he possesses all power among the other characteristics of his nature. This is united with his eternity of being so that all his attributes share equally in his unlimitedness. Rev 1:8: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Rev 1:17-8: the alpha and omega the almighty. He is the beginning of all and the end also existing outside the elements of creation. He is able to call things into existence from out of nothing. Creation by its own definition is bringing something into being from nothing

1 Tim 1:17: “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”1 Tim 6:15-16: “…He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.”

While God alone is eternal in an infinite sense, God can bestow an eternal nature to a creature who has a beginning such as angels and souls of mankind. Eternal life can be communicated to them but it is not part of their essential nature, it is not called their own. It is accidental, dependent on another for the duration of their existence since they are created as temporary. He can invest in them a new property so that they cannot perish, so they will spend eternity in a place of happiness or punishment as they choose the right and wrong that God offers. As creatures we grow in all things especially knowledge, we can acquire something and lose something, we mature. In God's nature this is not so his being is always one and at the same point receiving nothing in addition nor can he lose anything he is always the same. Ps. 102:25-27: “Of old You laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You will endure; yes, they will all grow old like a garment; like a cloak You will change them, and they will be changed. But You are the same, and Your years will have no end. This scripture is applied to Jesus Christ in Heb.1 and of whom the Bible says is “the same yesterday, today and forever.” Both the Father and the Son having the same nature.

What attacks God's nature the most is idolatry; man erecting things made from their own hands or giving credence to the creation in worship or obedience. Rom.1:20 “ For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse”

Applying that which is eternal, omniscient, omnipresent to a corruptible nature vs.23 to change the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four footed animals and creeping things.” God who is separate from his creation has been degraded to be not only a created thing but the lowest order of species.

God's promises are forever, as he says 1 Pet 1:23-25  “having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,… the word of the Lord endures forever.” Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.

Matt 24:35: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. Lk.21:33

Isa. 55:11: “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” God communicates to man in his language for mans sake. For the Christian he can be confident that what God says will be done and is perfect in its judgments.

Prov.8:23: says his wisdom is from everlasting Ps 119:89: “Forever, O LORD, your word is settled in heaven.’

Ps 119:160: “The entirety of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.”

When God swares He does so by Himself because their is none greater Gen.22:16 by myself I have sworn says the Lord.” Heb.6:13: For when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear to no one greater, he swore by himself.” Deut.32:40: “For I raise My hand to heaven, and say, “As I live forever.”

The Bible describes God as unchangeable, eternal, immutable always existing. Whatever He reveals of himself is eternal. All His attributes are eternal as they flow from his nature who in essence is also eternal. His power his wisdom, his life, holiness, knowledge, justice mercy, and love. All that God is and flows from him is perfect and eternal are his attributes which express his nature. They are constant they cannot change, this is why he can have unconditional love and we have to work in that and make choices.

The God of the Scripture is presented as eternal in His nature, unchanging. The Bible teaches that God is eternal Duet. 33:27: “ Neither is his name changed”, Ps 135:13 “Your name, O LORD, endures forever, your fame, O LORD, throughout all generations.”

The Word teaches teaches that all three persons of the Godhead are also eternal, all belong to the order of eternity. The Father is eternal James 1:17, the Holy Spirit is eternal John 14:16”And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever--Heb 9:14how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to omnipresent Ps 139:7Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?

The Son is eternal Hebrews 13:8 “ Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Micah 5:2 “ speaking of Jesus-whose goings forth are from old (ancient times) from everlasting (from eternity)”there are two goings forth one from eternity and one from in time from Bethlehem. There is no creature that can lay claim to this kind existence. As in Prov.8:22 “the Lord possessed me at the beginning of his way before his works of old, He is wisdom personified if he is a created thing a work from God then there is a time God has no wisdom

John 1:1-4 “ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” All creatures have their life proceeding from him, He is the cause of their existence and all things. As Paul pointed to In Acts 17:28 to the philosophers we live and move and have our being in him.

God is eternal and does not change. The same property of eternity is ascribed to Christ and the Holy Spirit. If there is an eternal Father, then there is an eternal Son, and an eternal Spirit. one cannot have a father without having a Son. These are terms of relationship. The title, Lord Jesus, applies to the Son alone. It does not apply to the Father, and it does not apply to the Spirit. All three are called LORD, (YAHWEH). They are three persons. God the Father himself says toward the Son in Heb.1:10: “ And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands... and they shall be changed: but thou art the same,( quote of Psalm 102:25)

In the Scripture only three persons are ever called God, no more than three are ever seen together as God.

Something that has an infinite eternal nature never comes into existence. Otherwise it has a beginning which means it did not always exist. What undergoes a change cannot be God. Change describes something not retaining its own being, only something that is created is subject to change.

Mal. 3:6: “I the Lord do not change” what undergoes a change cannot be the eternal God.