<---The Glories of Heaven
WHAT IS ETERNITY?
God always has existed, there no way to know and nor find out how is that God exists for ever and ever. We only know with our tiny mind that He lives for ever. Since always He is God, whose name was Jehovah. This God is the source of all things in the universe. He is the Creator, and all things were created by Him. When He created, He did not make something out of existing materials. Rather, He created something out of nothing; that is, He created all things out of nothing. Hence, He is the Creator, the source, of all things.
This Creator is God. The Hebrew word for God is Elohim. The word Elohim, a compound noun made up of two words, means “the faithful and mighty One.” He is the mighty One with power. Moreover, He is the mighty One who keeps His promise. Elohim God is the faithful, mighty One, whose name is Jehovah.
THE SELF-EXISTING AN EVER-EXISTING GOD
THE ETERNAL GREAT I AM
The title Jehovah is also a Hebrew word which is basically the same as the verb to be. The name Jehovah simply means “to be.” What does this mean? This means that this faithful, mighty One is the One who is. In the universe, only He is, and all the rest are not. The phrase “to be” equals “to exist.” He exists; hence, He is.
If He did not exist, He would not be. The name Jehovah is “to be,” and this “to be” is without beginning or ending. Hence, the actual version of the Bible renders this name as “He who is self-existing and ever-existing.” To be self-existent is to be without beginning, and to be ever-existing is to be without ending. His being, His existence, is without beginning and without ending. This Creator is self-existing and ever-existing.
A person is born, exists and has a being, an identity, but we cannot guarantee that it will be here in forty or fifty years’ time; it will not continue to exist here forever. After fifty years, we cannot say where he will be.
In other words, he won´t be in this world and will let to exist. Someone may have a lovely cat at home, but it can live at most for a little over ten years; after that, will let to exist. Therefore, its name cannot be “To be.” It is the same with us human beings. Our human life span is the limit of our existence.
If our life span is one hundred years, then we will exist for one hundred years. We can celebrate the new year only one hundred times, not one hundred and one. After one hundred years, we will let to exist. Hence, our being cannot exist for ever, we are finite beings. The name Jehovah means “To be,” "to exist", therefore He is infinite, that means "to be present". Our existence is finite, that means our existence is "temporal”. All our human existence is finite, that means our existence is "temporal” has a limit time, we have a time to born and a time to die.
Different to ours, God lives for ever through all the times, He never was born, always has existed and never will die, lives for ever and ever.
The present version of Revelation 1:4 speaks of Him who exists now, who existed in the past, and who will exist in the future. In Hebrew, Jehovah means He was, He is, and He is to be.
That is why He is trustworthy. He is not only the faithful, mighty One but also the ever-existing, mighty One. Therefore, the Lord Jesus told the Pharisees in John 8:24, “Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.”
Who can save us? Only Jesus, he says “I Am”; only He can save us. Who is “I Am”? “I Am” is Jehovah or God, the Father of Jesus for the current christians. In the name Jesus, "Je"- is the simplified form of Jehovah and -"sus" means Savior The name Jesus means Jehovah or God, the Savior. "Je" = God, "sus" = Savior, Jesus savoir of all men.
The One who is self-existing, ever-existing, without beginning, without ending, ever-living, ever-being, and ever-present has come to be our Savior. This is the real meaning of the name Jesus, to Him all the honor and glory for ever and ever.
Then, we may ask Him, “Lord, You said that You are, but what are You?” The Lord would say, “I am whatever you want, and I am whatever you lack. What do you want? Do you want life? Good, I am life.” We may say, “Lord, I want salvation,” and He would say, “That is right. I am salvation.”
A brother may say, “Lord, I can love all my brothers.” The Lord would say, “That is wonderful! I am love.” Lord, what shall we do? submission is hard to practice.
The Lord would say, “I am submission.” The young people may say, “It is such a hardship for us students to study. I want to pass the entrance examination into a good school. Therefore, I need wisdom.” The Lord would say, “That is wonderful! My name is God, the mighty one. I am your wisdom and intelligence ask for them at any time, never let to ask for.”
We thank the Lord that He is! In John 8, the Lord mentioned three times that He is “I Am” (vv. 24, 28, 58). In verse 24 He says, “Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins,” and in verse 28 He says, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am.”
Among the Jews, at least Saul of Tarsus was one who persecuted christians. The Jews had already killed the Lord Jesus, yet Saul still continued to destroy the church and persecuted the believers of Jesus.
However, on his way to Damascus, Jesus whom he persecuted appeared to him from heaven and said to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4).
Saul was shocked, a gleaming light covered him, and he asked, “Who are You, Lord?” The Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you persecute” (v. 5). Only then did Saul realize that this Jesus was God, the I Am whom his fathers worshipped.
That is why, in effect, the Lord said, “After you have crucified Me, you will know that I am.
In the end, we can only bow our head and in sign in worship say, “Lord Jesus, now I know that You are. You really are. We thank and praise the Lord for this wonderful truth.
THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD: THE ETERNITY
Eternal refers to the endless past, the unending future, or to God's present experience of all time. God has no beginning as man can understand beginning and no ending either, but God exists now and knows both the beginning and the end as we perceive them. God always existed, and always going to exist.
Always, always, always never ends, never aged, the pass of the time it is not a obstacle for God, in front of him time does not exist.
This rational thought is hard to understand with our tiny mind, but God has gave us a understanding to accept that He has always existed and will always exist.
This also points to how much we can trust God. Since He created time as we know it, God lives outside of time and can see the beginning and the end of our lives and the age of all human kind from the beginning of the world.
Therefore when God tells us that events will proceed us, we must trust in him and we can rest assured that those events will happen just as God described. More than that though, we can live with the peace of knowing that when we die we will be with Him forever without end. A day will be as a thousand years.
In Psalm 90:2 we can read;
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
and other texts;
Genesis 21:33; And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God.
Isaiah 57:15; For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
Deuteronomy 33:27;
The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them.
I Timothy 1:17;
Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
God is eternal. His existence had no beginning and will have no ending. He always was, always is and always will be. (Compare Exodus 3:14) He is the I Am -- God.
Isaiah 40:28 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 under- standing no one can fathom.
Habakkuk 1:12 O LORD, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, we will not die. O LORD, you have appointed them to execute judgment; O Rock, you have ordained them to punish.
Psalms 90:2, 4 [2] Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. ... [4] For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.
Psalms 102:24-27 [24] So I said: "Do not take me away, O my God, in the midst of my days; your years go on through all generations. [25] In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. [26] 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. [27] But you remain the same, and your years will never end."
Isaiah 57:15 For this is what the high and lofty One says -- he who lives forever, ...
Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities -- his eternal power and divine nature -- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
God has always existed and He always will. Nothing can resist Him and nothing will ever be able to bring an end to Him. There is no power, strenght or intelligence that be able to destroy God. The rebel angels wanted to do so, destroy God for ever, but The Almighty made to cast to the rebel angels to eternal hell where suffer the consequences of their rebellion against God.
Since God cannot have an end, He promises to provide the eternal life with Him if I believe His Son died for me, I will believe and live my life right now serving Him and believing in my heart that He only can save my soul, without Him there is no salvation, but eternal damnation.
GOD IS IMMUTABLE AND ETERNAL
The being of creatures is successive; the being of God is permanent, and remains entire with all its perfections unchanged in an infinite duration. Indeed, the first notion of eternity is to be without beginning and end, which notes to us the duration of a being in regard of its existence; the creatures are in a perpetual flux; something is acquired or something lost every day.
A man is the same in regard of existence when he is a man, as he was when he was a child; but there is a new succession of quantities and qualities in him. Every day he acquires something till he comes to his maturity; every day he loseth something till he comes to his period.
A man is not the same at night that he was in the morning; something is expired, and something is added; every day there is a change in his age, a change in his substance, a change in his accidents. But God hath his whole being in one and the same point, or moment of eternity. He receives nothing as an addition to what he was before; he loseth nothing of what he was before; he is always the same excellency and perfection in the same infiniteness as ever. His years do not fail (Heb. 1:12), his years do not come and go as others do; there is not this day, to-morrow, or yesterday, with Him, ,God is immutable, there is no change in Him.
As nothing is past or future with him in regard of knowledge, but all things are present, so nothing is past or future in regard of his essence. He is not in his essence this day what he was not before, or will be the next day and year what he is not now. All his perfections are most perfect in him every moment; before all ages, after all ages.
As he hath his whole essence undivided in every place, as well as in an immense space, so he hath all his being in one moment of time, as well as in infinite intervals of time. Some illustrate the difference between eternity and time by the similitude of a tree, or a rock standing upon the side of a river, or shore of the sea; the tree stands always the same and unmoved, while the waters of the river glide along at the foot.
The flux is in the river, but the tree acquires nothing but a diverse respect and relation of presence to the various parts of the river as they flow.
And though the angels have no substantial change, yet they have an accidental; for the actions of the angels this day are not the same individual actions which they performed yesterday: but in God there is no change; he always remains the same. Of a creature, it may be said he was, or he is, or he shall be; of God it cannot be said but only he is. He is what he always was, and he is what he always will be; whereas a creature is what he was not, and will be what he is not now.
As it may be said of the flame of a candle, it is a flame: but it is not the same individual flame as was before, nor is it the same that will be presently after; there is a continual dissolution of it into air, and a continual supply for the generation of more. While it continues it may be said there is a flame; yet not entirely one, but in a succession of parts. So of a man it may be said, he is in a succession of parts; but he is not the same that he was, and will not be the same that he is.
But God is the same, without any succession of parts and of time; of him it may be said, "He is." He is no more now than he was, and he shall be no more hereafter than he is. God possesses a firm and absolute being, always constant to himself. He sees all things sliding under him in a continual variation; he beholds the revolutions in the world without any change of his most glorious and immovable nature. All other things pass from one state to another; from their original, to their eclipse and destruction; but God possesses his being in one indivisible point, having neither beginning, end, nor middle.
God hath life in himself (John 5:26): "The Father hath life in himself;" he is the "living God;" therefore "steadfast forever" (Dan. 6:26). He hath life by his essence, not by participation. He is a sun to give light and gives life to all creatures, therefore he has an unlimited life, a life transcending all bounds.
If God were not eternal, he were not immutable in his nature. It is contrary to the nature of immutability to be without eternity; for whatsoever begins, is changed in its passing from not being to being. It began to be what it was not; and if it ends, it cease to be what it was; it cannot therefore be said to be God, if there were neither beginning or ending, or succession in it (Mal. 3:6): "I am the Lord, I change not;" (Job 37:23)
Had he not been eternal, there had been the greatest change from nothing to something. A change of essence is greater than a change of purpose. God is a sun glittering always in the same glory; no growing up in youth; no passing on to age. If he were not without succession, standing in one point of eternity, there would be a change from past to present, from present to future. The eternity of God is a shield against all kind of mutability. If anything sprang up in the essence of God that was not there before, he could not be said to be either an eternal, or an unchanged substance.
God is unchangeable. His counsel, nature, motivations, agenda, purpose and character are always the same.
Malachi 3:6 I the LORD do not change.
James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
1 Samuel 15:29 He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a man, that he should change his mind. (See the same at Numbers 23:19.)
Hebrews 6:17 Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath.
Of comfort. What foundation of comfort can we have in any of God's attributes, were it not for his infiniteness and eternity, though he be "merciful, good, wise, faithful?" What support could there be, if they were perfections belonging to a corruptible God? What hopes of a resurrection to happiness can we have, or of the duration of it, if that God that promised it were not immortal to continue it, as well as powerful to effect it? If His power were not Almighty, if his duration were not eternal.
If God be eternal, his covenant will be so. It is founded upon the eternity of God; the oath whereby he confirms it, is by his life. Since there is none greater than himself, he swears by himself (Heb. 6:13).
The immutability of his counsel follows the immutability of his nature. Immutability and eternity go hand in hand together. The promise of eternal life is as ancient as God himself in regard of the purpose of the promise, or in regard of the promise made to Christ for us. "Eternal life which God promised before the world began." (Tit. 1:2).
No any doubt, God is eternal. The enjoyment of God will be as fresh and glorious after many ages, as it was at first. God is eternal, and eternity knows no change; there will then be the fullest possession without any decay in the object enjoyed. There can be nothing past, nothing future; time neither adds to it, nor detracts from it; that infinite fulness of perfection which flourisheth in him now, will flourish eternally, without any discoloring of it in the least, by those innumerable ages that shall run to eternity, much less any despoiling him of them: "He is the same in his endless duration" (Psalm 102:27).
As God is, so will the eternity of him be, without succession, without division ; the fulness of joy will be always present; without past to be thought of with regret for being gone; without future to be expected with tormenting desires.
When we enjoy God, we enjoy him in his eternity without any flux; an entire possession of all together, without the passing away of pleasures that may be wished to return, or expectation of future joys which might be desired to hasten. Time is fluid, but eternity is stable.
Because God is always vigorous and flourishing; a pure act of life, give new and fresh rays of life and light to the creature, flourishing with a perpetual spring, and containing the most capacious desire; forming your interest, pleasure, and satisfaction; with an infinite variety, without any change or succession; he will have variety to increase delights, and eternity to perpetuate them; this will be the fruit of the enjoyment of an infinite and eternal God: he is not a tiny glass of water, but a big fountain, where water is always living, flowing, gives life and never will end up.
Thanks very much to; Witness Lee and Stephen Charnock.
No comments:
Post a Comment