Here is a email where Ray explained that God is eternal.
http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,11344.msg98233.html#new -------
Your question may be "short," but it is not specific. I realize how difficult
for most to "pay close attention to all the words."
You ask whether "God our Father" had a beginning? You then suggest that the churches teach that
"God always existed." Which is your question? Did "God the FATHER" have a beginning or did 'GOD"
have a beginning. See the difference? We must make a distinction, as there is a distinction.
The phrase "God the Father" is nowhere found in the O.T. Hebrew Scriptures, only in the N.T. Greek (Ex: John 6:27).
"GOD" (Who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ) has always existed and did not have a beginning.
However, God as a "FATHER," did have a beginning. One cannot be a father unless He is a "parent," for that
is one of the main definitions of a "father" in the Greek language. God has conceived a Son, and from that
time He became a FATHER with a Child--the beginning of His FAMILY.
God means "placer or disposer." God is not a "placEE" or a "disposEE." God the PlacER was never placED
So: "GOD" as the original supreme Being of the universe did not have a beginning.
But God "THE FATHER" of our Lord Jesus Christ did not become the "FATHER" until He became the Father
and Spiritual Parent of Jesus Christ. Hope this helps clear up your discussion.
God be with you,
Ray
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This God who became the Father of Jesus Christ, always existed. We only learn about Him from Jesus Christ, He reveals Him and tell us He exists. But Jesus tells us we can not see Him, because He is invisible, Spirit. I don't think we can comprehend that.
So this God that is eternal Spirit wanted to create other life and there arises the plan for this creation. He was invisible and knew physical created being could not relate to Him as He was, invisible Spirit. So why didn't He just make Himself visible, so we could see Him? He DID and that is Jesus Christ, He is a perfect representation of the Father, the God brought about before and put over this entire creation. But He is not the Father. He is what the eternal God designed and brought forth in an image of a man that we can relate to, He is "the first-born," so when all the beings to come were created they would have this God, As Jesus Christ that they could see and hear.
Col 1:15 who is the image of the invisible God, the First-born of all creation.
Col 1:17 And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.
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This is from the 06 conference 'THE FATHER'S WILL?'
http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,3720.0.html -------
John 10:30 I and the Father are one!
They’re not the same person, but ‘one,’ there’s a difference. But one, same spirit, same mind, same attitude, same character, same power, same strength, same wisdom, same purpose, they are one.
v
So He is God, but He is not His own Father. Jesus Christ came to reveal the Father; Luke 10:22; John 6:46;
Matt 11:27, Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son will reveal Him.
Nobody knew anything about God the Father, until Jesus Christ revealed Him. The only God that anybody knew was Jesus Christ.
v
If you want to come up with an analogy of where God is in His own realm, as far as time goes. The closest physical analogy you could come up with is a circle. Not starting back there and going this way, that way is the past and this way is the future.
Now if the realm of eternity is as a circle, can somebody point to where eternity begins on a circle? Can anyone show me, on this circle, where eternity ends? You can’t, can you.
Now I’ll give you another little mind boggler, not only can you not show me where it begins or where it ends, I’m telling you it has no beginning and it has no end. It doesn’t move in a circle, it is a circle. Therefore time has nothing to do with eternity.
Even your dictionaries most of them, not all, say eternity is an endless period. Eternity has nothing to do with time, time starts here and goes to there.
Eternity is like a circle, you can’t find the beginning and you can’t find the end. Because it has no beginning and it has no end. Therefore in that sense a circle is ultimate truth. So God knows there can never be any thing more perfect than He is. That’s where He introduces Himself to us. We are introduced to a being who is perfect.
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Since God the Father embodies eternity, wouldn't that make Him apart from time? The Father must perceives time a certain way, but it appears differently to we finite beings contained within it. So it is not that the Father has always existed for as long as 'time' has existed, because God does not exist in time like we do, He is apart from His creation, transcendent over it and time.
Using the analogy Ray had of the circle, to the Father all points (time presented by the circumference of a circle) in time are equally real, not just the present ("calleth the things that are not, as though they were." Rom 4:17). And this circle can expand out and grow continuously.
Luke 1:33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end."
The Father has self-existence/sufficiency, is perfection. So that He is changeless, will not change for the worse and does not need to change for the better.
John 4:24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
Most translations do not use 'a' spirit any more, because God is not limited as a being, even a spirit being.
He is spirit and invisible and He is everywhere at the same time, omnipresent. How could you 'see' something like that?
mercy, peace and love
Kat