- “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent.“ {John 17:3}
- “The Son of God shared the Father’s throne, and the glory of the eternal, self-existent One encircled both.” {Ellen White: PP, p. 36}
We should note that Jesus received from the Eternal (Father) the Divine eternal life that was in Him, but He did not receive the name “Eternal”. That was not even possible, because the name “Eternal” means “He who created eternity and who Alone has no beginning.” Many say that the reason why Jesus doesn’t get the “Eternal” name is because He had earthly life with human nature. Is Jesus perhaps created as human Beings, or does he have that original life of God, since Jesus received the same kind of life as the Father?
- “Angels of God looked with amazement upon Christ, who took upon Himself the form of man and humbly united His Divinity with humanity in order that He might minister to fallen man. It is a marvel among the heavenly angels. God has told us that He did do it, and we are to accept the Word of God just as it reads. And although we may try to reason in regard to our Creator, how long He has had existence, where evil first entered into our world, and all these things, we may reason about them until we fall down faint and exhausted with the research when there is yet an infinity beyond.” {Ellen White: 7BC, p. 919, 1888}
- “Here Christ shows them that, altho they might reckon His life to be less than fifty years, yet His Divine life could not be reckoned by human computation. The existence of Christ before His incarnation is not measured by figures.” {Ellen White: ST, May 3. 1899 par. 4}
The following verses make it clear that Jesus has a beginning:
- “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.” {Colossians 1:15}
- “And the Son of God declares concerning Himself: “The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting… When He appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him: and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him. (Proverbs 8:22-30)” {EGW: PP, p. 34}
We know that Jesus has been present since eternity. Does eternity have to do with both directions? Does it mean it can have a beginning? According to the Bible, the saved will receive eternal life. Eternity means a dimension of time.
- “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.“ {Psalms 24:7}
Don’t those doors have a beginning? No, eternity means they will stay forever. The doors symbolise resurrection, which is also eternal. For these doors, eternity begun when God set them in.
- “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made”. {John 1:1-3}
The Father, Who is the Source of everything, has no beginning, and He existed before all eternity. Jesus was born of the Father and has a beginning. His beginning is from before the beginning of eternity, before the creation of the cosmos, before the existence of any time. But exactly when Jesus was born has not been revealed to us. Eternity began with God’s creation of the Universe and of celestial stars and planets. That is when the dimension of time begun. There was no time before the creation of our physical world!
- “The teaching of salvation, the teaching of true godliness, the knowledge which has been revealed from eternity, which enters into the purpose of God, expresses His mind, and reveals His purpose—this Heaven deems all-important.“ {Ellen White: CT 14.2}
Here we see how God’s prophet describes knowledge as being revealed from eternity. This revelation was given to created Beings, who have a beginning. This describes eternity as being its beginning!
- “He (God the Father) has chosen them from eternity, that they might be holy. He gave His Son to die for them.” {Ellen White: AA 559.3}
We should note that Jesus received from the Eternal (Father) the Divine eternal life that was in Him, but He did not receive the name “Eternal”. That was not even possible, because the name “Eternal” means “He who created eternity and who Alone has no beginning.” Many say that the reason why Jesus doesn’t get the “Eternal” name is because He had earthly life with human nature. Is Jesus perhaps created as human Beings, or does He have that original life of God, since He received the same kind of life as His Father?
Eternity is an expression that means a future without end, and a past from its beginning. In eternity we will see the eternal results of what has been revealed. The Spirit of Prophecy also confirms that eternity means history, which is connected in a prophetic chain. The prophetic chain of human salvation began through the conversation of the Father and the Son:
- “The history which the great I AM (the Father) has marked out in His word, uniting link after link in the prophetic chain, from eternity in the past to eternity in the future, tells us where we are today in the procession of the ages.” {Ellen White: Ed 178.3}
Eternity has a concrete starting point! Likewise, voices from eternity are not voices without beginning, but voices from the ancient past:
- “Before his death this eminent physician ordered a column to be erected near the spot where his body was to lie, on which were to be inscribed these texts, as voices from eternity: “God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16)“ {EGW: HP 235.3}
In the quotes below, we see that eternity has one beginning. The quotes do not refer to our eternal but to eternity, which, according to the representatives of the Trinity, has no beginning.
- “The mother should not be off guard for a moment. She is doing a work that will tell in time and in eternity.” {Ellen White: ST, July 13, 1888, par.12}
- “They must put forth their own God-given powers, or they will sink lower and lower, and be of no account for good, either in time or in eternity.” {Ellen White: CTBH 149.2}
According to these statements of the Spirit of Prophecy, the concept of time exists independently of the dimension of eternity. The time we know began in creation, and will end at the destruction of sin, when eternity will begin again. Everything that happened before and after is in eternity! So is the birth of Jesus as the Son of His Father in eternity (which is outside of time dedicated to the creation of matter and living Beings on Earth). With our limited minds, this is difficult to understand, but it must not be a reason to develop a new teaching that ignores the principle of “this is how it is written”. All this clearly helps us to understand the meaning of the following words:
- “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus BEFORE the world began, But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” {2 Timothy 1:9,10}
- “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me i.e. to be ruler in Israel; whose GOINGS forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” {Micah 5:2}
- “In speaking of His preexistence, Christ carries the mind back through dateless ages. He assures us that there NEVER was a time when He was not in close fellowship with the eternal God.” {Ellen White: LHU 17.7}
And in this quote, we see that ever since Jesus’ birth in eternity past, He has been in perfect communion with the eternal God, the Father. He also informs us in the above verses that He originated and that He has His beginning from the Father, that Divine self-existent life, which makes Him a Divine Being. That origin is from eternity, before the beginning, and which begun with that act! Jesus came from the body and matter of God the Father and this is exemplified for us to understand it through the unique creation of Eve from Adam. Eve doesn’t have a later beginning than Adam’s because she originated from Adam and although she was created after him, since he already existed then, Eve’s body has the same age as his.
This Text is part of the book First Commandment OR Trinity? – Encyclopedia of Evidences of the Old Trampled Truths of All Areas