The Infinite And Eternal God
THE INFINITE AND ETERNAL GOD
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8).
God calls Himself the Alpha and Omega. These are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. We would say that He is the A and the Z. The encyclopedia of human history begins and ends with Him. In the beginning there was God. In the end there will be God. He is and He was and He is to come. This verse deals with God's infinity in relation to time. He transcends the beginning of all things. He has no beginning or ending. He has always existed and will always continue to exist. This quality is graphically portrayed in a Psalm attributed to Moses. A Prayer of Moses the man of God.
Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were born,
Or Thou didst give birth to the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God. (Psalms 90:1-2).
There is nothing that seems so permanent as a mountain. Nothing in our realm of existence is so immovable. Yet God says that He existed and that He was God before the birth of the mountains. The same God to whom we pray is the same God who was God before the earth existed.
We tend to view existence through a very limited perspective. All things in our realm of experience have a beginning and an end. Such is not the case with God. He exists independently of time. He transcends time. This is why He calls himself Yahweh -- “I am.”
I recall once standing on the top floor of the Landmark Building in Fort Lauderdale and watching a trail go by. From my vantage point of thirty stories, I could see the entire length of the train in a single glance, even though it stretched almost a mile across the city. I think that might illustrate the way God sees the progression of time. God sees all of history in one glance. We, on the other hand, have a lower perspective. We stand on the street corner of time and watch the events go rolling by us. The eternity of God speaks directly to His self-existence. He is the uncaused Cause. Nothing ever happened to bring Him about. He transcends the entire chain of cause and effect relationships. There never was a time when He was anything less than He is now. He has not grown any older. He has not become any smarter. He is the eternal God.