January 11 – God is
Eternal
Psalm 93:2 –
"[God's] throne was established long ago; you are from
everlasting."
I believe that the
hardest concept for the human mind to grasp is that God has always
existed. How can one understand not having a beginning, like all
humans have? In order for God to be all-powerful, he would have to
be eternal; otherwise, he would just be another created being with
great power, and therefore would need a greater Creator himself –
which leads us back to a being who was not created.
When Moses at the
unconsumed burning bush asks God who is sending him to the
Israelites, God commands Moses to speak "I am who I am".
In other words, God is the self-existent one who exists now and has
always existed. In that sense, God stands outside of time
measurement as we know it, because he is not constrained by time or
history. He only limits himself to allow for future events to happen
"independently" of his direct control, as he has given
humans the ability to act with their own free will, not just as a
marionette on a string, controlled only by an unseen hand. The
concept of the future, however, is for another day's topic.
King Solomon
surmised that "God has set eternity in the hearts of men; yet
they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end"
(Ecclesiastes 3:11). So, we do have some inkling of the idea of our
existence never ending. It would be so depressing to have nothing
with which to look forward, after this life on earth has ended. It
would be at the very least absurd to join with the Jehovah's
Witnesses' doctrine that only 144,000 literal persons out of the
entire historical population of the earth, would continue to live
eternally, while billions would simply cease to exist. Remember, we don't know
what it means to have not existed; therefore, it is even harder to
grasp going from existence to non-existence. Our continuation, as
Solomon stated, is inherent within our very souls.
Father, open our
eyes to see the future you have lovingly planned for us believers.
No comments:
Post a Comment