THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA

Contents

I. Introduction

II. Jehovah, Eternal, God

III. Jesus, Eternal, God

IV. Concluding Comments

Illustrations and Tables

Figure 1 The Alpha and the Omega

Table 1 The Messianic Psalms

Table 2 Periods of Prophetic Fulfillment

Works Cited and References

Notes

I. Introduction

The great I AM, Jehovah,¹ our God, He has no beginning or ending, He simply “is” (as in “to be”). He always has been and He always will be (Ps. 90:2). It is intuitively obvious that God, as God, must have such perpetuity. To be God, God must necessarily be eternal—why; why is perpetuity so paramount? Because everything in the created order that “is” has existence of sorts, but only God has permanence; this is axiomatic. Permanence distinguishes Him from all else (of course as Creator, He is outside the created order). But more; permanence bespeaks of constancy; indeed, unchageability, for change drives impermanence. God's perpetuity is paramount as an expression of His deity because it is connected with His unchangeability, and God must, by definition, be unchanging, because change not only drives impermanence, it qualifies imperfection. But God must necessarily be perfect. Perfection is a defining aspect of deity; this too is axiomatic. Holiness, the preeminent aspect of deity, is certainly perfection. This perfection characterizes God's nature (Name)–that nature must never change. Of course in His dealings with flippant humanity, He of necessity adjusts perfectly to the situation, largely for our sake (consider Exd 32:11-14, Amo 7:1-6, Zec 1:6). Given that perpetuity is characteristic of deity, it follows that in His self-identification He declared Himself to be deity by revealing Himself to be eternal (Exd 3:13-15, cf. Exd 6:2-3—here LORD=Jehovah, and God Almighty=El Shaddai). I AM was the perfect, actually the only, answer to the question posed to God as to who He is, for it relates timeless embodiment of His very nature. I AM—two simple little words that completely and succinctly, that so very elegantly identify Jehovah as God. Jehovah is stable and permanent, complete in Himself, indeed, encompassing the Whole. He is perfect. He is God. Our God is not in a state of flux (Psa 102:25-27). He is neither moving away from nor toward some terminus; nay, He just perfectly “is,” as deity should be. And because He is permanent, His Word is permanent, which is a great source of encouragement for us in the midst of constant change and attendant uncertainty (Luk 21:33). Those promises that God has made concerning us, which themselves are so weighty seeing our eternal destiny is wrapped up in them, are just as fixed as He is; this is one of the blessed consequences of His permanence.

Think of the many claims to deity across the centuries—none have so fittingly identified themselves up front as has Jehovah God. I AM (JHVH) is precisely the self-identification an intelligent seeker of God would be looking for, at least. Given the above, it is clear that for Jesus Christ to claim to be God, indeed, the revealer of God, He Himself must be I AM (JHVH); that is, He must be eternal.

This pulpit will Scripturally illustrate:

1. That Jehovah, the triune God of the Christian Bible, is eternal.

2. That Jesus Christ, the second person of the blessed Trinity, and the revealer of God, is eternal.

II. Jehovah, Eternal God

Who but an eternal being can declare the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not yet been? Jehovah God claims that He can (Isa 46:9-10). How has He done this—can this claim be substantiated in any way? Indeed, for our God is here sensitizing us to the fulfilled prophecy in His Word. It must be granted that only an eternal being is capable of consistently inerrant prophecy, which is itself borne out by fulfillment. And we have attempted to show in the introduction that only God is eternal, it follows that Jehovah is God, seeing He is eternal by this (prophecy) proof. Fulfilled prophecy proves God. Unfulfilled (latent) prophecy does not disprove Him (Hab 2:3), only errant prophecy would disprove Him (expose fraud). By way of inerrancy here however, Jehovah has practically and convincingly substantiated His claims to deity, because said inerrancy attests to His eternal nature. His omniscience is another proof of course, for His omniscience must surely inform His prophetic declarations, but this omniscience is humanly unsearchable. His fulfilled prophecy is not unsearchable however—it has been given to humankind so as to appreciate Jehovah God and who He is, and what He is doing with respect to us. Nevertheless, in fulfilled prophecy we get a glimpse of omniscience. Fulfilled prophecy establishes God's claims in the court of man (sadly, it would seem that this is the sole court that needs it in this way). Moreover, it graces our faith, for it establishes a factual foundation for our faith. Faith is not a 'bruised reed of a wish' so to speak; it is born of belief rooted in truth, and truth is quintessential reality; facts are like that. Facts are the stuff of proofs, and for our purposes fulfilled prophecies are those facts. If one can accept that only an eternal being is capable of inerrant (precisely fulfilled) prophecy, and that only God is eternal, one has all they need to be one step removed from believing that Jehovah is God, for the matter thus simply boils down to a critical look at His prophecies. Toward that end we are not equipped to make a thorough analysis, but Dr. J.B. Payne in His Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy has done so exhaustively, and so we will largely utilize that work as our source.

Payne tells us that 8352 verses out of a total of 31,124 verses in the Christian Bible are predictive (~27%). The Old Testament books with the largest number of predictions are, in descending order, Ezekiel (821 verses), Jeremiah (812 verses), and Isaiah (754 verses). In the New Testament they are Matthew (278 verses), Revelation (256 verses), and Luke (250 verses). The books most highly predictive according to the proportion of verses involving forecasts of the future are, in the Old Testament, Zephaniah (89% predictive), Obadiah (81% predictive), and Nahum (74% predictive). In the New testament they are Revelation (63% predictive), Hebrews (45% predictive), and II Peter (41% predictive). The books with the most material directly anticipatory of Jesus Christ are Psalms (101 verses in 13 Messianic psalms [Tab. 1]), and Isaiah (59 verses) (Payne 681-82). See also table 2 for the fulfillments by prophetic period.

Given these numbers, one can hardly deny that Jehovah God has prophesied in a bold, grand way, as only deity can. What is more, the sheer volume of predictive matter variously dispersed amongst numerous mouthpieces separated in space and time is indeed a grand feat, but what elevates it above the realm of the mundane in matchless fashion is that these varied predictions are actually unified in their purpose insofar as they largely point to the advent/s and ministry of Jesus Christ. Christian prophecy has purpose. Sure, it attests to itself in its inerrancy per se, but importantly, it attests to itself further through its selfsame, uniformly vectored goal. It is one thing, grand as that is already, to make bold prophetic proclamations across the centuries by various mouthpieces, it is yet another to be proven by their precise fulfillment in space and time, but to have them unfold in unison in their purpose as said goal consummates is surely the personal signature of the divine Author of the same—Jehovah, He is eternal, He is God.

III. Jesus, 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" (Rev 1:8 NASB).

We know that Jesus spoke these words. Notice His self-identification as “The Almighty,” =PANTOKRATWR (“all power/strength,” character map)=El Shaddai-cf. Exd 6:2-3—here LORD=Jehovah). Those verses in Exodus in conjunction with the one here in Revelation (1st Century AD) show us Scripturally His eternal nature, for Jesus is none other than El Shaddai and Jehovah, God of the patriarchs (~20th Century BC). The eternal nature of our God is surfacing here. It is clear that what has been said above concerning Jehovah must necessarily apply to Jesus Christ—the point of intersection is understood to be that deity is eternal. Jesus is permanent and unchanging (Hbr 13:8), and eternal (Pro 8:22-31, Isa 9:6, Mic 5:2, Jhn 1:1-2, Jhn 6:68, Jhn 17:5 , Jhn 8:58, et al.), and therefore, as an eternal being, He is God. Fulfilled prophecy bears this out, and must be rigorously confuted (rigorously shown to be errant just once) to prove otherwise. The burden of proof lies with the would be contender, for God has through His prophetic program made His case. Consider a mundane calculation for the sake of perspective regarding that case. The probability that God Is wrong just once on a purely statistical basis, on such a large base of predictions, is:

1-1/8352=0.99988

there is a greater than 99% probability that God could be wrong just once, statistically speaking.² The odds that He could be wrong just once, which odds are based on that probability (by definition, odds=probability/(1-probability)), are a staggering 8351 : 1. The perspective to be gained from this exercise is that our God did not just 'tip-toe into the prophetic waters' so to speak, He really 'put it on the line'. The fact that a convincing case can be made for His inerrancy here cannot be taken lightly—the point we wish to make is that for these predictions to be right (fulfilled across the board, with the exception of latent prophecy), materially proves that an eternal being has to be behind them, for we would challenge any mortal to accomplish the same with similar constraints of space and time and variant mouthpieces, thereby proving otherwise (let us dismiss the embarrassing notion that random chance could be at play here). Fulfilled prophecy proves God. It must be further appreciated just exactly who has done this—this eternal being has a name, and His name is specifically I AM (Jehovah-Fig. 1), the God of the Christian Bible, none other, for it is precisely the reliability of that Name that is at stake should He be confuted. It does not appear, however, as though He is worried He might ever be proven wrong (Isa 40:28, Isa 41:4, Isa 44:6, Isa 44:8, Mal 3:6, Jhn 4:14, Jhn 11:25, Rev 11:15)...

IV. Concluding Comments

This pulpit was written around the assumption that only an eternal being—one outside of time as we have come to understand that construct³—is capable of completely inerrant prophecy as is attested in the Christian Bible. Humankind is very much constrained by this time construct, but Jehovah God, the eternal being in view here, is not of course.

Central to this discussion has been the proof of fulfilled prophecy. We said that fulfilled prophecy proves God because only an eternal being is capable of such prophecy, and only God is eternal based on a permanence/perfection argument.

We talked specifically about the great I AM, Jehovah God. We said that in His very self-identification He attested to His deity by declaring Himself to be eternal (I AM). We showed that Jehovah made bold prophetic proclamations across the centuries by various mouthpieces, and how these were precisely fulfilled in space and time, and in unison in their purpose, largely with respect to the advent of Messiah Jesus Christ.

We said that correlations in Scripture suggest that the God of the patriarchs—Jehovah, El Shaddai—was none other than Jesus Christ, itself yet another proof of our Savior's deity, for only an eternal being could make appearances like that across time. Notwithstanding, our God is one, a holy Trinity (O, That Name!), but it is Jesus who manifested Himself so profoundly so many times (undoubtedly long before the Cross, and of course as the incarnate God of Redemption, and even many times after the Cross). Thus it is probably not unreasonable to surmise that the command the Father gave our Savior (Jhn 10:14-18) had as its culmination only, the Cross.

Not much has been said about the practical value of these points in the daily walk of the Christian disciple. It should be clear that the disciple understands that they have available to them the inerrant guidance of the eternal God behind the prophecies whose fulfillment attest to His deity, and He has shown Himself completely reliable and sure here. When a Christian needs counsel, the God of prophecy is there to direct their path, both by His Word, and by His Spirit (Isa 30:21)—the Spirit oftentimes imparting guidance stemming from the Word. But how; how does one receive this blessed guidance? It is available to anyone who puts their trust in Jesus Christ—the One on whom the whole of prophecy turns. For the believer, then, the answer to the question is prayer. One receives this counsel through prayer. And prayer is fellowship with Jehovah God. It is the heart's glad utterances of gratitude to be in communion with Him, whether in praising Him, or in one's repentance, or simple quietness that embraces Him and holds Him close (and listens to Him). It can hardly be otherwise that the prophecy this pulpit put forth came to its recipients in any other way. Not to say that this sort of prophecy is to be expected, for with the advent of Jesus Christ prophecy was closed. Jesus Christ is literally the Alpha and Omega of prophecy (“We Have You Yeshua”).

Praised be your Name great Jehovah God...

Illustrations and Tables

Figure 1. The Alpha and the Omega.

Table 1. The Messianic Psalms.

Table 1 sources: ( Archer, 500).

It is truly amazing that approximately 1000 years separate the time of the writing of these psalms and the appearance of Christ our Savior...

Table 2. Periods of Prophetic Fulfillment.

* These periods of fulfillment as shown involve 7480 of the Bible's 8352 predictive verses—see page 681 for the compiler's consideration of types, symbol, figurative prophecy, repetitions, separate prophetic matters, and so on; the full list of predictive verses are listed on pages 695 to 726 and includes partial verses.

** The compiler's principles for the interpretation of prophecy are listed on page 143; his fulfillment methodology is outlined on pages 57-144. The specific predictions attending our table's fulfillments column, in the order of fulfillment, run from page 631 to page 660; note that periods 15-18 are latent.

Table 2 sources: ( Payne, 93-110, 631-60, 680-82).

Works Cited and References

Archer, Gleason L.

A Survey of Old Testament Introduction.

Chicago: Moody Press. 1994. 0-80248201-5.

“Imperfect.”

Wikipedia.

< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperfect >

“Jehovah.”

Wikipedia.

< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah >

“O, That Name!”

< http://jesusamen.org/othatname.html >

Payne, J.B.

Encylopedia of Biblical Prophecy.

Grand Rapids: Baker book House, 1973. 0-8010-7051-1.

Pratico, Gary D., with Miles V. Van Pelt.

Basics of Biblical Hebrew Grammar.

Grand Rapids: Zondervan. 2001. 0-310-233760-2.

“We Have You Yeshua.”

< https://jesusamen.org/wehaveyouheshua.html >

Notes

1. “Jehovah, name of the God of the Hebrew people as erroneously transliterated from the Masoretic Hebrew text. (But then again, who knows for sure what the vowels are supposed to be?). The word consists of the consonants JHVH or JHWH, with the vowels of a separate word, Adonai (Lord). The evidence of the Greek church fathers shows the forms Jabe and Jâo to be traditional, as well as the shortened Hebrew forms of the words Jah and Jahu. This evidence indicates that the name was originally spoken as Jaweh or Yahwe (often spelled Yahweh in modern usage). Etymologically, it is a third person singular, imperfect, probably of the verb hawah (or hajah), signifying "to be." Encarta® 98 Desk Encyclopedia © & 1996-97 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Dr. Gary Pratico tells us there is general agreement that YHVH (=the tetragrammaton) derives from the verb “to be” (=HAYAH, originally, HAWAH), and that it is also associated with an imperfect, third person masculine singular verbal form, though there is disagreement whether the imperfect embodies a present or future tense (Pratico 326). He relates that the tetragrammaton is the covenant name for God in the faith of ancient Israel, and that the name is “also attested in shortened forms that are commonly used in the formation of personal names, such as Elijah” (Pratico 94). He thinks that “an analysis of historical and textual context will contribute more in an understanding of the name than etymological analysis;” as such, based on the context of Exd 3:14-15, he favors a Qal stem derivation (simple action, largely active voice) over the Hiphil (causative action, active voice) (Pratico, 125-26, 326).

It is the association of the name with the imperfect verbal form it would seem that is highly significant, because of the continuous/incomplete aspect conveyed by that form (“imperfect”), and thus by association the eternal nature of the name. In this approach (the name's etymological connectedness with “to be”), the tense, present or future, will substantially nuance the meaning. “To be” presently and at all instants forward and back on a sliding time scale (dynamic incompleteness in both directions—for where precisely are these termini?), is different than “to be” at some point in the future (dynamic incompleteness in the forward direction only)—the former has eternal implications, not the latter. If one backs away from the linguistics somewhat and thinks through the possibilities, it hardly makes sense for the Author here to suggest that He will “be” later on, in more ways than one.

2.Note that the 8352 includes partial verses, for example, Gen 3:15a, Gen 3:15b; also, some of these verses connect with more than one prediction; for example, Gen 46:4, Gen 48:21, and Gen 50:24-25 are connected—our calculation assumes a one-to-one, verse of prediction-to its fulfillment, sort of uniqueness, which is not entirely the case. The calculation is only intended to give some statistical perspective with respect to the predictive/fulfilled material in the Christian Bible.

3. A fair amount of research in the secular sciences has as its goal a better understanding of the concept of time, and some of the better studies show it as a discrete network of nodes that does not miss any of time's important relativistic (its behavior at speeds near the speed of light) as also nonrelativistic (mundane) attributes.

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