ALWAYS
“We believe in one God, Creator of all things, infinitely perfect and eternally existing in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”
God revealed His Name to Moses: I AM (Exodus 3.14). The One Who Is, the Existent One. Uncreated and unbegun. Just is – and therefore was. Always was. As He says about Himself: “I am the first and the last; besides me there is no god” (Isaiah 44.6).
I AM was the source and foundation for everything else that “is”. He is the Creator of all things (Genesis 1.1; Revelation 4.11).
When all other things have run down, burned up, died out, He will still be. He is “the last” (Isaiah 44.6). He will always be (Romans 16.26; Jude 1.25) – and anything that continues to be, that has “eternal life”, that continues to live on, will only do so because it is in right relationship to I AM.
When we say “I AM”, we say “He” – singular. “The LORD is One” (Deuteronomy 6.4). Yet Christians believe – and we believe and teach – that God reveals Himself as three distinct persons – not three Gods – but three separate persons who, in some inexplicable way, exist in such a unity that He speaks of Himself in the singular – “He”.
HE is eternal. The three persons are eternal.
The Father always was and always will be. Uncreated and unbegun.
The Son (“the Word”) always was and always will be. Uncreated and unbegun.
The Holy Spirit always was and always will be. Uncreated and unbegun.
I AM, the first and the last, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, was before all things.
He will continue to be after all things.
This is what we mean in our statement of faith by “eternally existing”.
In relationship to time, God is infinite. He is eternal.
Time does not apply to Him. He is outside of it, apart from it. He is timeless.
It is part of His creation. It began and it will end someday. This used to sound like strange philosophical gobbledygook; quantum physics has confirmed that it is the way reality is.
Because He is infinite with relationship to time, He does not ‘become’. He just is.
He does not grow or develop or change. He just is.
He is aware of time. He can even enter time at points of His choosing. I read one theologian who illustrated the point by comparing God to a man on top of a high church steeple watching a parade. He sees the entire parade at once and yet is aware of every moment of every part of the parade.
I know the style of this little essay is odd – choppy little sentences. That is intentional because for me, that is the easiest way to talk about these incredibly complicated things – in little bite size bits. I know that each bit is true. I can see in a rather loose and foggy way the connections between each idea. But I can also see that these relationships are so complex that we can’t comprehend them. I don’t know that we have to. We must just believe them and marvel at them. I have a strange feeling we’ll be doing a lot of marveling at these things – not understanding, just marveling – into eternity’s ages.
When I ponder and marvel at these things, God’s enormity causes my soul to be humbled by what He is. I bow down and worship.
A personal note about these blogs: What I am writing here may seem like it has nothing to do with living in this world. It does – but we are digging down to the foundations of what we believe – the foundations upon which everything else in our faith is built.
It may seem like weird words floating in clouds with no connection to the ground upon which we walk. I know that. I am writing it – and writing as simply as I can – because I grow more aware as time passes that I am not eternal and that these foundational beliefs are crucial to our faith. They are incredibly difficult to convey via preaching because they are not immediately applicable. However, they are the necessary foundation for all that is applicable to life in our faith. And someone has got to know them.
Because this all seems so philosophical and immediately irrelevant, many believe such ideas can safely be ignored. Many pastors are no longer prepared to teach these things. That is a loss that removes the foundations of the faith and turns the glory of Christianity and the gospel into mere social work. That concerns me.
And if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? (Psalm 11.3)
I guess I just want to leave behind my simple offerings as a foundation for the next generation, for our church – in the hope that someone will see how important these things are and will know how to continue building for God’s glory.
God revealed His Name to Moses: I AM (Exodus 3.14). The One Who Is, the Existent One. Uncreated and unbegun. Just is – and therefore was. Always was. As He says about Himself: “I am the first and the last; besides me there is no god” (Isaiah 44.6).
I AM was the source and foundation for everything else that “is”. He is the Creator of all things (Genesis 1.1; Revelation 4.11).
When all other things have run down, burned up, died out, He will still be. He is “the last” (Isaiah 44.6). He will always be (Romans 16.26; Jude 1.25) – and anything that continues to be, that has “eternal life”, that continues to live on, will only do so because it is in right relationship to I AM.
When we say “I AM”, we say “He” – singular. “The LORD is One” (Deuteronomy 6.4). Yet Christians believe – and we believe and teach – that God reveals Himself as three distinct persons – not three Gods – but three separate persons who, in some inexplicable way, exist in such a unity that He speaks of Himself in the singular – “He”.
HE is eternal. The three persons are eternal.
The Father always was and always will be. Uncreated and unbegun.
The Son (“the Word”) always was and always will be. Uncreated and unbegun.
The Holy Spirit always was and always will be. Uncreated and unbegun.
I AM, the first and the last, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, was before all things.
He will continue to be after all things.
This is what we mean in our statement of faith by “eternally existing”.
In relationship to time, God is infinite. He is eternal.
Time does not apply to Him. He is outside of it, apart from it. He is timeless.
It is part of His creation. It began and it will end someday. This used to sound like strange philosophical gobbledygook; quantum physics has confirmed that it is the way reality is.
Because He is infinite with relationship to time, He does not ‘become’. He just is.
He does not grow or develop or change. He just is.
He is aware of time. He can even enter time at points of His choosing. I read one theologian who illustrated the point by comparing God to a man on top of a high church steeple watching a parade. He sees the entire parade at once and yet is aware of every moment of every part of the parade.
I know the style of this little essay is odd – choppy little sentences. That is intentional because for me, that is the easiest way to talk about these incredibly complicated things – in little bite size bits. I know that each bit is true. I can see in a rather loose and foggy way the connections between each idea. But I can also see that these relationships are so complex that we can’t comprehend them. I don’t know that we have to. We must just believe them and marvel at them. I have a strange feeling we’ll be doing a lot of marveling at these things – not understanding, just marveling – into eternity’s ages.
When I ponder and marvel at these things, God’s enormity causes my soul to be humbled by what He is. I bow down and worship.
A personal note about these blogs: What I am writing here may seem like it has nothing to do with living in this world. It does – but we are digging down to the foundations of what we believe – the foundations upon which everything else in our faith is built.
It may seem like weird words floating in clouds with no connection to the ground upon which we walk. I know that. I am writing it – and writing as simply as I can – because I grow more aware as time passes that I am not eternal and that these foundational beliefs are crucial to our faith. They are incredibly difficult to convey via preaching because they are not immediately applicable. However, they are the necessary foundation for all that is applicable to life in our faith. And someone has got to know them.
Because this all seems so philosophical and immediately irrelevant, many believe such ideas can safely be ignored. Many pastors are no longer prepared to teach these things. That is a loss that removes the foundations of the faith and turns the glory of Christianity and the gospel into mere social work. That concerns me.
And if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? (Psalm 11.3)
I guess I just want to leave behind my simple offerings as a foundation for the next generation, for our church – in the hope that someone will see how important these things are and will know how to continue building for God’s glory.