GOD AND SATAN: THROUGH THE AGES
I. ALPHA -- THE BEGINNING (Forever before)
A. The Eternal God Deut. 33:27
“The eternal God [is thy] refuge, and underneath [are] the everlasting (5769) arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy [them].”
05769 `owlam {o-lawm'} or `olam {o-lawm'} from 05956; TWOT - 1631a; n m
AV - ever 272, everlasting 63, old 22, perpetual 22, evermore 15, never 13, time 6, ancient 5,
world 4, always 3, alway 2, long 2, more 2, never + 0408 2, misc 6; 439
1) long duration, antiquity, futurity, for ever, ever, everlasting, evermore, perpetual, old, ancient, world
1a) ancient time, long time (of past)
1b) (of future)
1b1) for ever, always
1b2) continuous existence, perpetual
1b3) everlasting, indefinite or unending future, eternity
B. The Eternal Son John 1:1-3
v. 1 “In the beginning (746) was the Word (3056), and the Word was with God (2136), and the Word was God.”
beginning -- 746 arche {ar-khay'} from 756; TDNT - 1:479,81; n f
AV - beginning 40, principality 8, corner 2, first 2, misc 6; 58
1) beginning, origin
2) the person or thing that commences, the first person or thing in a series, the leader
3) that by which anything begins to be, the origin, the active cause
4) the extremity of a thing
4a) of the corners of a sail
5) the first place, principality, rule, magistracy
5a) of angels and demons
Word -- 3056 logos {log'-os} from 3004; TDNT - 4:69,505; n m
AV - word 218, saying 50, account 8, speech 8, Word (Christ) 7,
thing 5, not tr 2, misc 32; 330
1) of speech
1a) a word, uttered by a living voice, embodies a conception or idea
1b) what someone has said
1b1) a word
1b2) the sayings of God
1b3) decree, mandate or order
1b4) of the moral precepts given by God
1b5) Old Testament prophecy given by the prophets
1b6) what is declared, a thought, declaration, aphorism, a weighty saying, a dictum, a maxim
1c) discourse
1c1) the act of speaking, speech
1c2) the faculty of speech, skill and practice in speaking
1c3) a kind or style of speaking
1c4) a continuous speaking discourse - instruction
1d) doctrine, teaching
1e) anything reported in speech; a narration, narrative
1f) matter under discussion, thing spoken of, affair, a matter in dispute, case, suit at law
1g) the thing spoken of or talked about; event, deed
2) its use as respect to the MIND alone
2a) reason, the mental faculty of thinking, meditating, reasoning, calculating
2b) account, i.e. regard, consideration
2c) account, i.e. reckoning, score
2d) account, i.e. answer or explanation in reference to judgment
2e) relation, i.e. with whom as judge we stand in relation
2e1) reason would
2f) reason, cause, ground
3) In John, denotes the essential Word of God, Jesus Christ, the personal wisdom and power in union with God, his minister in creation and government of the universe, the cause of all the world's life both physical and ethical, which for the procurement of man's salvation put on human nature in the person of Jesus the Messiah, the second person in the Godhead, and shone forth conspicuously from His words and deeds.
++++
A Greek philosopher named Heraclitus first used the term Logos around 600 B.C. to designate the divine reason or plan which coordinates a changing universe. This word was well suited to John's purpose in John 1.
2316 theos {theh'-os} of uncertain affinity; a deity, especially (with 3588) the
supreme Divinity; TDNT - 3:65,322; n m
AV - God 1320, god 13, godly 3, God-ward + 4214 2, misc 5; 1343
1) a god or goddess, a general name of deities or divinities
2) the Godhead, trinity
2a) God the Father, the first person in the trinity
2b) Christ, the second person of the trinity
2c) Holy Spirit, the third person in the trinity
3) spoken of the only and true God
3a) refers to the things of God
3b) his counsels, interests, things due to him
4) whatever can in any respect be likened unto God, or resemble him in any way
4a) God's representative or viceregent
4a1) of magistrates and judges
v.2 “The same was in the beginning with God.”
v. 3 “All things were made (1096) by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.”
1096 ginomai {ghin'-om-ahee} a prolongation and middle voice form of a primary verb;
TDNT - 1:681,117; v
AV - be 255, come to pass 82, be made 69, be done 63, come 52, become 47,
God forbid + 3361 15, arise 13, have 5, be fulfilled 3, be married to 3, be preferred 3,
not tr 14, misc 4, vr done 2; 678
1) to become, i.e. to come into existence, begin to be, receive being
2) to become, i.e. to come to pass, happen
2a) of events
3) to arise, appear in history, come upon the stage
3a) of men appearing in public
4) to be made, finished
4a) of miracles, to be performed, wrought
5) to become, be made
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown
Commentary Critical and Explanatory
on the Whole Bible (1871)
Jhn 1:1-14 . THE WORD MADE FLESH.
1. In the beginning--of all time and created existence, for this Word gave it being ( Jhn 1:3, 10 ); therefore, "before the world was" ( Jhn 17:5, 24 ); or, from all eternity.
was the Word--He who is to God what man's word is to himself, the manifestation or expression of himself to those without him. (See on JF & B for Joh 1:18). On the origin of this most lofty and now for ever consecrated title of Christ, this is not the place to speak. It occurs only in the writings of this seraphic apostle.
was with God--having a conscious personal existence distinct from God (as one is from the person he is "with"), but inseparable from Him and associated with Him ( Jhn 1:18 Jhn 17:5 1Jo 1:2 ), where "THE FATHER" is used in the same sense as "GOD" here.
was God--in substance and essence GOD; or was possessed of essential or proper divinity. Thus, each of these brief but pregnant statements is the complement of the other, correcting any misapprehensions which the others might occasion. Was the Word eternal? It was not the eternity of "the Father," but of a conscious personal existence distinct from Him and associated with Him. Was the Word thus "with God?" It was not the distinctness and the fellowship of another being, as if there were more Gods than one, but of One who was Himself God--in such sense that the absolute unity of the God head, the great principle of all religion, is only transferred from the region of shadowy abstraction to the region of essential life and love. But why all this definition?
Not to give us any abstract information about certain mysterious distinctions in the Godhead, but solely to let the reader know who it was that in the fulness of time "was made flesh." After each verse, then, the reader must say, "It was He who is thus, and thus, and thus described, who was made flesh."
2. The same, &c.--See what property of the Word the stress is laid upon--His eternal distinctness, in unity, from God--the Father ( Jhn 1:2 ).
3. All things, &c.--all things absolutely (as is evident from Jhn 1:10 1Cr 8:6 Col 1:16, 17 ; but put beyond question by what follows).
without Him was not any thing--not one thing.
made--brought into being.
that was made--This is a denial of the eternity and non-creation of matter, which was held by the whole thinking world outside of Judaism and Christianity: or rather, its proper creation was never so much as dreamt of save by the children of revealed religion.
C. The Eternal Spirit Heb 9:14
“How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal (166) Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
166 aionios {ahee-o'-nee-os} from 165; TDNT - 1:208,31; adj
AV - eternal 42, everlasting 25, the world began + 5550 2,
since the world began + 5550 1, for ever 1; 71
1) without beginning and end, that which always has been and always will be
2) without beginning
3) without end, never to cease, everlasting
D. Other Scriptures: Ps 90:2; Ps 93:2; Rev. 1:8
Psalms 90:2 “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou [art] God.”
everlasting = for ever, always (Strong’s 5769)
Psalms 93:2 “Thy throne [is] established of old: thou [art] from everlasting.”
Revelations 1:8 “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”
1 a {al'-fah} of Hebrew origin; TDNT - 1:1,*; letter
AV - Alpha 4; 4
1) first letter of Greek alphabet
2) Christ is the Alpha to indicate that he is the beginning and the end
5598 omega {o'-meg-ah} a primitive word; TDNT - 1:1,*; n
AV - Omega 4; 4
1) the last letter in the Greek alphabet
2) the last
