Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadR.A. Torrey Collection: Torrey, R.A. - What Bible Teaches (About God): 03 -The Eternity of God
TOPIC: Torrey, R.A. - What Bible Teaches (About God) (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 03 -The Eternity of God
Other Subjects in this Topic:
Ch 03 The Eternity of God
I. GOD IS ETERNAL.
Gen_21:33 — "And Abraham planted a grove in Beer-sheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God."
Isa_40:28 — "Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard that the
everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding."
Hab_1:12 — "Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, thou has ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction."
Psa_90:2; Psa_90:4 "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night."
Psa_102:24-27 — "I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: Thy years are throughout all generations. Of old hast thou laid the foundations of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end." (See also Isa_57:15; Rom_1:20; Gen_1:1Jn_1:1.)
Proposition: God is eternal His existence had no beginning and will have no end. He always was, always is, and always will be.
Compare to Exo_3:14. He is the I Am — Jehovah.
II. GOD IS UNCHANGEABLE.
Mal_3:6 — -"For I am the LORD, I change not."
Jas_1:17 — "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."
1Sa_15:29 — -"And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent:
for he is not a man, that he should repent." (See also Heb_6:17 and Num_23:19.)
Proposition: God is unchangeable. His counsel, purpose, and character are always the same.
OBJECTION: Jon_3:10 — "And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not." Here it says that God repented.
ANSWER: God remained the same in character, infinitely hating sin, and in His purpose to visit sin with judgment. But as Nineveh changed in its attitude toward sin, God necessarily changed in His attitude toward Nineveh. If God remains the same, if His attitude toward sin and righteousness are unchanging, then His dealings with men must change as men turn from sin to repentance. God's character remains ever the same, but His dealings with men change as men change from a position that is hateful to God's unchangeable hatred of sin to a position that is pleasing to his unchangeable love of righteousness.
OBJECTION: Gen_6:6 — -"And it repented the LORD that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart." Here it not only says that God repented of what He had done in creating man, but "it grieved him at His heart."
ANSWER: (1) Man's wickedness was so great and so abhorrent that his very creation was an object of great grief to God. This does not necessarily imply that God wished, all things considered, that He had not created man. Rather it suggests God grieved that He had. Many things we do grieve us, and yet, everything considered, we do not wish that we had not done them.
(2) God repenting that He had made man means (as verse 7 clearly shows) that He turned from His creative dealings with man to His destroying dealings (v. 7).
This was necessitated by man's sins. The unchangeably holy God must destroy man who has fallen into sin.
III. GOD IS SELF-EXISTENT.
Joh_5:26 — "For as the Father hath life in Himself." Proposition: God is self-existent. God not only exists from eternity, but also exists from Himself. (See also Act_17:24-28.)