Ernie Carrasco
[Originally published as The Eternality of God]
Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen. (Psalm 41:13)
I received an email from a man trying to understand how God stepped out of eternity to create the universe. He said in part:
What research do you recommend, which helps one understand how God came out of eternity and made Genesis 1:1 come to pass? In other words, how does an endless succession arrive in the present? I understand that God is timeless and that He came out of eternity to create the universe about 10,000 years ago. But what was the Trinity doing prior to 10,000 years ago?
Reader, if you have struggled with this question, you are not alone in your bewilderment in understanding the eternality of God. All of us, as finite human beings, have a hard time wrapping our minds around eternity. It is less difficult for us to understand time having a beginning and going on infinitely, but eternity past is difficult to grasp.
God declares himself to “Be” — he just “Is” — he “Exists.”
When Moses asked God to identify himself so he could report back to the people, “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you” (Exodus 3:14).
By the way, Jesus made the same claim: “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). The Pharisees who heard Jesus’ proclamation clearly understood what Jesus was saying. “Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by” (John 8:59), because to them, his words were blasphemy.
While that does not answer the question, it does confirm that God has always existed, even before time. Perhaps what we need to understand is that God created time. Time is part of the created universe. Without time, there is no universe.
We understand the universe to be triune in nature composed of time, space, and matter/energy. The first verse of the Bible establishes this: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). God made time (beginning), space (heaven), and the earth (matter/energy).
Since he is the Creator, he has access to time at any point in time, and since he is eternal, he is also present in all points in time. He is present in the past, present, and future. God is “omnipresent.”
God says, “Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure” (Isaiah 46:9-10). The psalmist declares, “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?” (Psalms 139:7).
There is no escaping God, although many attempt to deny his existence. God calls such people “fools” (Psalm 14:1).
No research can demonstrate how God accomplishes this. There are some things we simply cannot know. There are some things that God intended for us not to know; our brains just cannot handle them. “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29).
“Those things which are revealed” are written down in God’s Word, the Bible. Reader, if you do not know God, you can know him — he can be known. Knowing him is as easy as ABC. Borrowing from Pastor J.D, Farag of Calvary Chapel, Kaneohe, Hawaii:
- Acknowledge or Admit your sinfulness (Romans 3:10, 23) and your need for a Savior (Romans 6:23)
- Believe that Jesus is Lord. (Acts 4:12; John 1:12; John 3:16, Romans 10:9-10)
- Call upon or Confess His name. (Romans 10:9-10,13)
Here is an article from the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) that talks a little more about the eternality of God: Time and Eternity.
