One cannot have fellowship or a committed relationship with a stranger. The better we know a person, the greater is the potential for developing trust, friendship and fellowship.

The strength of our relationship with Jesus comes from, first knowing Him as our Savior, and in a more intimate sense, as Friend and Lover. The better that we do know Him, the greater is the basis for our faith in Him. We are reminded of the heart cry of Paul, as a mature apostle, “That I may know Him!”

The following is a partial revelation of Christ taken from scripture. He is the image of the invisible God. He is the radiance of His glory, the exact representation of His nature.By Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth; all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is head of the body, the church; He is the beginning, the first born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him. He is God, and the Lamb of God. For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. The mystery of God’s purpose, centered in Christ, is for an administration (i.e. Stewardship of a house) that is suitable for the fullness of times where everything in both heaven and earth, will be summed up in Christ; He is the Son over His Father’s house, He is the architect and builder of His Father’s house, and He is the foundation for His Father’s house. He is Lord of lords and King of kings. All authority in heaven and earth is His. The government is upon His shoulders and there will be no end to the increase of His government.

It is difficult to grasp the fullness of all that is expressed in these words! He is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent! What a wonderful Lord we serve!

This tract has been written to provide better understanding of yet another attribute of the Lord Jesus Christ! I refer to His eternal nature.

All aspects of the past and the future that concern us flows out of God who has always existed; One without beginning or end.

I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. (Revelation 22:13)

How is the significance of God’s eternal nature seen in creation and in His plan of salvation? How does it bring greater glory to Him? What does it mean for us?

TIME AND ETERNITY

God certainly knows the end from the beginning.

....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....saying, “My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.” (Isaiah 46:9-10)

Does God understand the future through divine prophetic insight or by a supernatural word of knowledge? I believe there is a more correct answer.

There is only one God and Creator, who created the angels, mankind and all that makes up our space-time universe, including the natural laws that hold everything together. As creator, He existed before anything came into being. Therefore, He is not subject to or constrained by anything that He has created! And this includes time.

Consider the following scripture on creation. In Proverbs 8, verses 22 through 31, the wisdom of God, speaking as a person, describes how various steps of creation were birthed out of God’s perfect understanding and foreknowledge of His purpose for mankind, something that would take place in the far distant future. Notice the many references to time in these verses:

The Lord possessed me (wisdom) at the beginning of His way, before His works of old. From everlasting I was established, from the beginning, from the earliest time of the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills I was brought forth; while He had not yet made the earth and the fields, nor the first dust of the world. When He established the heavens, I was there....When He made firm the skies above, when the springs of the deep became fixed. When He set for the sea its boundary,....When He marked out the foundations of the earth; then I was beside Him, as a master workman; rejoicing always before Him.

What did God, in His wisdom, rejoice in at this very early time of creation? —Two things (verse 31): In the earth that was being prepared for mankind to inhabit, and in the sons of men who would respond to Him, become His sons, and with whom He could have fellowship.

It is a picture of the Lord being delighted in those from among mankind, who, one day many eons hence, would be His sons. Not a vision of the future, nor prophetic insight into who would be saved, but the reality of intimately knowing each one in his generation, ages before the time of their birth.

Because He is eternal, God exists outside the flow of linear time that characterizes His physical creation. The past, the present and the future have very real meanings to us, but they are not applicable to God. He is not called God of the past or God of the future, He is I AM, God of the present! He can instantly move forward in the domain of time to know us, see our decisions and understand the consequences of our actions, long before we actually arrive at that particular period of time in our life.

When it became time for Jesus to ascend back to heaven after His resurrection, He did not pray, “Father, send Me a ladder or a chariot of fire to take Me home.” He simply ascended! We have no problem with Him being Lord over gravity, but many of us have difficulty understanding that He is Lord over time as well. I’m sure that there are no watches or calendars in heaven!

Perhaps through the wisdom that God gave him, Solomon appeared to possess revelation of the significance of time (Ecclesiastes 3:1-15):

There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven. (Verse One)

Solomon mentions twenty-eight events that have appointed times (verses 2 through 8).

He then addresses the gifts and callings that God has prepared for each of His children.

I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves. (Verse 10)

We are to be at rest in the Lord, full of confidence in His calling on our life. We can rest in the certainty that God knew all about our lives, our service for Him, the circumstances that we faced, our failures and successes long before we were even born. It may be future for us, but He has already been there to guide, encourage, strengthen and comfort us. To grasp these truths, we need a revelation of God’s eternal nature in our hearts.

He has made everything beautiful (appropriate) in its time. Also He has set eternity in their heart, without which man cannot find out the work that God makes from the beginning and (even) to the end. (Verse 11, THE INTERLINEAR BIBLE)

What is future for me in my walk with the Lord is unknown to me, but it is known by God for He has already been there to shepherd me through all future events in my life. He will never coerce me, but He does see the decisions that I will make of my own volition. Thus, I am predestined according to His foreknowledge of me.

All that is yet to be for me has already been seen by God. Solomon expressed this truth very clearly:

That which is has been already, and that which will be has already been, for God seeks what has passed by. (Verse 15)

God has full knowledge of all that is currently taking place, as well as all that will occur in the future, and is patiently at rest waiting for those events, which He knows all about, to take place in the lives of each generation of His people. This is one aspect of the rest of God.

Since the Lord knows, even before they were born, how each person will exercise their free will to serve Him, He foreknows their place in His kingdom to come. This is the basis of “predestination.”

For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.... (Romans 8:29)

We have indeed been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God (1 Peter 1:1-2).

The following are examples from scripture of God’s foreknowledge in the lives of two of His servants, Jeremiah and King David.

Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations. (Jeremiah 1:5)

God knew Jeremiah even before he was an embryo in his mother’s womb! The Lord did not say that He knew about Jeremiah through prophetic insight, but rather that He intimately knew him as an adult, sufficiently well to consecrate and appoint him to one day become a prophet to the nations.

David was well aware of God’s foreknowledge of his life (Psalm 139:1-6).

For Thou didst form my inward parts; Thou didst weave me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Thy works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame (i.e. adult stature) was not hidden from Thee when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance (embryo); And in Thy book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them. (Psalm 139:13-16)

The days of David’s life were written in God’s record in heaven before David was even born. Not a record of what the Lord caused David to do, not a prophetic vision, but an observation of how David, of his own freewill, did conduct himself as an adult.

These two examples of God’s foreknowledge, revealing that He exists outside the constraints and flow of linear time, are not unique for David and Jeremiah; they apply to all men. If we recognize this truth, it is easier to see the hand of God in all of our circumstances pointing and encouraging us to make the right decisions. We can rest in Him and His promises to us.

YESTERDAY, TODAY AND FOREVER

Time is a created parameter in the universe. It is interesting to see how God refers in His word to time in the past, present and future. This is usually done by use of the Greek word AION, which is translated as “age,” an indefinite period of time.

The following are some examples of the past:

Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past. (Romans 16:25)

....To bring to light the administration of the mystery which for long ages past has been hidden in God.... (Ephesians 3:9)

The following are examples of the present; we are currently living in what scripture refers to as “this present evil age” (Galatians 1:14).

....The harvest is the end of the age...so will it be at the end of the age... (Matthew 13:39, 49)

This current period of time is also referred to as the “church age,” which began when Jesus died on the cross. Scripture speaks of this age being the age that consummates all previous ages because its end ushers in the fulfillment of God’s purpose by the coming of His kingdom.

Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages have come. (1 Corinthians 10:11)

....But now at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sins by the sacrifice of Himself. (Hebrews 9:26)

The following are scripture references to the future:

In order that in the ages to come He might show forth the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:7)

And have tasted of the good word of God and the powers of the age to come. (Hebrews 6:5)

The phrase “forever and ever” is translated from the Greek words, “unto the ages of the ages.” One tends to think of God’s eternal nature in terms of the future, of His unending, everlasting life. However, one can also glimpse His eternal nature by looking back into the past.

THE WITNESS OF CREATION

God points us back in time to His creation of the world so that we will better understand His eternal and divine nature.

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made.... (Romans 1:20)

The more we know of His glorious qualities, the more our faith in Him is strengthened. The handiwork of God in creation testifies of the Creator. However, this testimony, to a large extent, comes as a result of scientific examination. In essence, God states that what He has created will bear witness of Him just as His word does, and they will not contradict each other.

Science develops hypotheses (or theories) based on inferences of observed data to define natural principles. When an hypothesis cannot be proven, it simply remains a theory. Evolution is a good example of such a theory. On the other hand, when an hypotheses is proven to be correct, it becomes a law or principle that testifies of the handiwork of God. General Relativity is a good example of such a principle.

When science and the Bible appear to disagree, either science has just a theory or the Bible has been misinterpreted. Scientists rely on controlled observations while theologians rely on revelation of scripture; but in the end truth is all that counts!

An excellent example of such disagreement is found in the story of Galileo, a devout Christian and a scientist of his day. The church at that time taught that the earth was fixed in space and the sun rotated around it. This teaching was based on scriptures that were interpreted to support this view (Psalm 104:5; Eccelesiastes 1:5).

It (the sun) rejoices as a strong man to run his course. Its rising is from the one end of the heavens, and its circuit to the other end of them....(Psalm 19:5-6)

Galileo discovered through the use of telescopes that, in fact, the earth rotated around the sun. When Galileo made his discovery known, he was branded a heretic by the church. However, he had discovered a truth, and in time his teaching was recognized to be correct. His scientific observations verified the truth of Romans 1:20.

Scientific knowledge cannot, by itself alone, produce revelatory faith, but it can confirm the word of God and so testify of Him.

To have faith in the truth of Romans 1:20, one’s faith must first be well anchored in the certainty of Christ as Creator.

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 came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. (John 1:3)

All inanimate material in the universe, all natural laws governing the universe, every unique specie of plant and animal life, the angels, and last of all man in His image, were created by and for the Lord Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:16).

Everything was created by the word of His mouth, being spoken into existence through the power and authority of His word.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)

The Hebrew word for “created” is BARA, which means to make out of nothing.

All heavenly bodies in the universe were prepared from the matter brought into being at creation.

By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that which is seen is not made out of things that are visible. (Hebrews 11:3)

And this includes light!

Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. (Genesis 1:3)

In the Genesis account of creation it is interesting to note that God created light before He created the sun to be a source of light for the earth (Genesis 1:3, 14-17). Since light always travels at 186,000 miles a second it provides an invariant standard in the universe for accurate measures of distance and time.

In the past century, Einstein’s theory of General Relativity has been proven to be true, which states that at some instant in the distant past, mass, energy, space and time all simultaneously came into existence. Thus, everything that makes up the universe, in all dimensions, has a common origin. This is in complete agreement with Hebrews 11:3, which points to God as that origin.The more we discover about God’s creation, the clearer is the evidence of His creative genius! Romans chapter 1, verse 20 is certainly true.

When we look back into history, the first period of time that we should examine is the calendar of events that have taken place since the creation of Adam. This is the Bible record of God’s dealings with mankind. The chronology of many events recorded in scripture have been validated by archaeological discoveries, so that the Bible history of Adam’s descendants can be considered accurate.

Can one look further back into the past and discover more about the Lord? For example, the following phrases in scripture appear to express time more from a divine reference than from our solar based time: “before the ages,” “long ages past,” “for ages past” and “before the foundation of the world.”

In His mercy, God has allowed man to make great discoveries in various fields of science, especially in recent years. Many new truths point to the reality of a divine intelligent Creator. These advances in science, in concert with the gospel of Christ, are designed to draw men to God before the day of His judgment dawns. God’s creative genius bears witness of Him.

One of the most impressive advances in science has occurred in biology with discovery of the highly complex structure of the human genetic D.N.A. code that defines the non-spiritual properties of man and related body processes.

The nucleus of every cell in one’s body (except red blood cells) contain the same D.N.A. that is organized into 23 pairs of chromosomes. Each chromosome has hundreds to thousands of codes for building double strands of 1 of 4 kinds of protein molecules. Genes are functional segments of these long double stranded D.N.A. molecules that make up chromosomes. Each persons D.N.A. has over 3 billion such chemical sequences in approximately 80,000 genes, a highly complex, detailed blueprint that makes each one of us unique, such as eye and hair colors, race, sex, etc. We truly are wonderfully and fearfully made; such complicated organization did not evolve from a lower form of life by natural processes. The intricate complexity and consistent detail at this micro (or minute) level of creation, plus the unbelievably great expanse of the universe with innumerable heavenly bodies, both point to the power of a great God and Creator.

THE VOICE OF CREATION

Another field of significant scientific advance has been physics. The development of telescopes and satellites in the past century has enabled astronomy and cosmology to open up the universe as a visual showcase of the handiwork of God. What has been discovered speaks of His glory!

The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. (Psalm 19:1-2)

The word “expanse,” which is also translated “an extended surface,” comes from the Hebrew word RAQA which means “to spread out.” This is precisely what the principle of General Relativity teaches; the initial beginning of matter, energy, time and space has spread out in all directions from an initial origin at the speed of light, to form our present expanding universe.

Since light travels at a constant speed, it provides a scientific basis for measuring time, and thus age of the universe.

Most of us are familiar with the Doppler effect. If a car approaches us while blowing its horn, the sound pitch rises, and then falls as the car passes us and goes away. The frequency of sound that our ears hear goes from high to low.

The same principle is true for light waves. If a star is observed approaching the earth, its emitted light would be seen as shifted to the blue (higher frequency) portion of the color spectrum. Conversely, a star going away from the earth would emit light that had shifted to the red (lower frequency) part of the color spectrum. The difference in red shift between two such observed stars would be proportional to their distances from us since it is a measure of their relative velocities away from us.

Several scientific methods have been developed in recent years to determine the approximate time of beginning, and thus, age of the universe. A mean of these measurements yield a time of around 17 billion years. Such a figure points to the eternal nature of God. A day, a century or a million years are vastly different expressions of time to us, but they are all the same to God as none of them represent any limitation to Him. In scripture, the Lord states that one day to Him could be as a thousand years to us, or a thousand years could be as a day (2 Peter 3:8).

God’s sovereignty over solar based time was demonstrated when He caused the sun to “stand still” for almost a day to allow Israel, under Joshua, time to defeat the Amorites (Joshua 10: 12-14).

Science estimates that there are billions of billions of stars in the immense universe; how interesting it is that God, in words to Abraham, likened the number of stars in the heavens to the sands on the sea shore (Genesis 22:17).

God has enabled scientists, in the last century in particular, to make startling discoveries of the universe so that He can speak through their discoveries, “Come and see the magnificent work of My hands and the grandeur, the order and glory of My creation!”

Probably the most impressive demonstration of this truth has been the orbiting Hubble telescope, whose cosmic close-ups have been widely published throughout the world. This telescope has extended knowledge of the cosmos more than any other instrument.

The earth’s atmosphere, which is a constantly churning blanket of gases, distorts and blurs images of earth-based telescopes. Hubble has produced pictures of distant galaxies that are not only much sharper in detail, but which are breathtakingly beautiful as well. It has provided a window into God’s universe! Hubble has proven the existence of black holes. The great variety of pictures recorded include phenomena such as the process of star-birth, quasars, galaxies at distances of ten billion light years away, the death of massive stars, as well as detailed pictures of planets in our own solar system. Images of the impact of a stream of asteroids, the size of large mountains, into the planet Jupiter revealed the turbulent cloud atmosphere of that planet.

Telescopes declare the glory, immensity and order of God’s universe; the big picture. Microscopes see the small picture; the nature of matter and the genius of God’s creation of D.N.A. that defines the life processes in man. Both establish the truth of Romans chapter 1, verse 20.

In what other manner does God’s creation speak to us?

But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you; and the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you. Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you; And let the fish of the sea declare to you....that the hand of the Lord has done this....(Job 12:7-9)

When we consider birds with their unique melodies and colorful plumages, we are impressed with the variety in their beauty. A similar expression of beauty is found in the color, scents and shapes of flowers. However, it is in the sum total of all flower and bird species that one begins to grasp the magnificent diversity of beauty there is in God’s creation. The same message of diversity is heard from animal, marine and insect life as well.

It is interesting to note that the Lord does not refer to members of His body as “living bricks,” denoting conformity, but as “living stones” pointing to diversity.

A clear message from creation is that one invisible attribute of God is His desire for diversity.

When we speak to the earth and allow it to teach us, we will discover the great patience, wisdom and power of God in preparing over many ages an environment that would be suitable for the life of man who was to be created in His image.

It was many ages after matter was first created before any life was brought forth. Traces of simple forms of life have been found in fossil evidence that is over a billion years old. Geologists divide this history of life into six eras of time.

The early periods of time saw dramatic changes in the earth due to many things such as temperature, continental shift, ice ages, volcanoes, earthquakes, meteorite impacts, wind, rain and floods. These were all part of God’s creation process to prepare, over time, an earth fit for man.

Some obvious requirements for man’s habitat, in addition to living plants and animals, would include fertile soil and sources of energy such as coal, oil and gas. These were prepared over a great many generations of time.

In His divine craftsmanship of life, the Lord designed genetic capability in species to be able to change and adapt to changes in their environment. However, due to sudden climactic changes some species, being unable to adapt, died out. Paleontologists have discovered fossil skeletons of many creatures (animal, bird and marine species) that are now extinct. They have served their purpose, and are now only voices speaking to us of the time and environment of their existence. There were both carnivore (flesh-eating) and herbivore (plant-eating) animals, some of which were enormous in size. Total skeletons of giant mammoths have been recovered that lived over a million years ago becoming extinct around the time of Adam’s creation. Complete skeletons of many species of dinosaurs have been recovered from rocks and reassembled; creatures that lived between sixty and two-hundred million years ago! Discoveries even include petrified dinosaur eggs with embryos in them.

These voices from the earth speak of the patience, wisdom and craftsmanship of the Creator in preparing soil that possessed all the ingredients necessary for plant life, and all the chemical qualities, especially carbon, that were essential for creating the body of Adam. And not just Adam, but through his descendants many years later, a body in which God Himself would tabernacle His divinity! These were the things over which the wisdom of God rejoiced during creation (Proverbs 8:22-31).

The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding He established the heavens. (Proverbs 3:19)

How does God in His word communicate the divine phenomenon of a Creator who, existing outside of time, creates time, matter, energy, space and eventually life?

Part of the answer lies in recognizing the various translations of the Hebrew word “YOM.” This word is translated as “eternity” in Isaiah 43:13, as “forever” in Deuteronomy 18:5, as “all time” in Deuteronomy 4:40, as “old age or day of old age” in Ruth 4:15; 1 Kings 1:1; 2 Chronicles 24:15, and as “age” in Daniel 12:3. However, it is translated as “day” in the Genesis account of creation to apparently express a divine order in God’s work. One example is the use of YOM in the following scripture:

This is the account (i.e., generations) of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day (YOM) that the Lord made earth and heaven. (Genesis 2:4)

Other examples are God’s references to six “days” (YOM) in the creation process (Genesis 1:5-30). Here YOM is introduced in God’s chronology of events before the sun was created on the fourth “day” to provide the basis for measuring solar time. For this reason, God did not intend YOM to be interpreted as a literal 24 hour day. This fact is also evident from the ancient age of the earth.

There are still many Christians who sincerely believe that the earth was created in six literal, consecutive, twenty-four hour days and is only a few thousand years old. A necessary consequence of this being true is that multitudes of fossil skeletons are not what they appear to be; they cannot be millions of years old. Paleontology is not a believable valid science. Images from the Hubble Telescope do not reveal an expanding universe that is billions of years old; pictures of galaxies that are over ten billion light years from the earth are some kind of “optical illusion.”

Galileo all over again!!

ENTERING INTO HIS REST

Wonderful assurance! What great peace there is in recognizing that everything is in the hands of a sovereign all-knowing God. He knows all that lies ahead, and it is He, not Satan, who is calling the shots. He has established His throne in the heavens; and His sovereignty rules over all. (Psalm 103:19)

God entered into rest after His work of creation was complete (Genesis 2:1-2). This era of rest can be thought of as a seventh “day” or Sabbath rest. From His throne, He calls us to enter into His rest.

For we who have believed enter that rest just as He has said, “As I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest, although His works were finished from the foundation of the world. (Hebrews 4:3)

What does it mean, “His works were finished from the foundation of the world?”

The Lamb of God saw what lay before Him, even before He began creation, and committed Himself to embrace the cross. In the sense of certainty in what was to take place, the Lamb was “slain before the foundation of the world.” Likewise, He also saw in detail the purpose, calling and grace that would be prepared for each one of His children in their respective generations. Knowing the end of our faith, decisions and service, even before the world was made, He recorded in His book of life the names of all those who would prove faithful (Revelations 13:8).

Likewise, knowing the certainty of our calling in Christ, it can be said that works were prepared for each one of us to walk in, even before the world began.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)

We enter into His rest by moving forward in faith and obedience to do these works. Because He is intimately familiar with all that lies before us, we can be assured that He has prepared for us sufficient grace for the purpose to which we have been called. In addition, we can also be assured that He will cause everything to work together for good in His creative workmanship of conforming us into His image (Romans 8:28).

Who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity. (2 Timothy 1:9)

Everything that concerns us today and tomorrow began in the eternal timelessness of our Lord; we can rest in Him. Everything is in His hands.

REFERENCES

I have made a number of statements of scientific truths in this tract without providing any supporting validation. Since any such literature must be Biblically based, I heartily refer readers to the following two books by Dr. Hugh Ross.

Dr. Ross is a committed Christian teacher and leader, as well as a well known astrophysicist. His writings provide clear, coherent detail of scientific truths in a manner that supports one’s faith in Christ. His books are written so that they can be understood by non-technical readers.

1. THE CREATOR AND THE COSMOS (1993)
How the greatest scientific discoveries of the century reveal God.

2. CREATION AND TIME (1994)
A biblical and scientific perspective of the creation-date controversy.

These books, and other literature by Dr. Ross, are available from the following address:

REASONS TO BELIEVE, P.O. Box 5978, Pasadena, CA 91117, or from the following website—
http://www.reasons.org/resources/books/index.html