The Beginning and the End

The other title of God here used, “the Almighty,” corresponds to the Hebrew form used from the book of Genesis onward – El Shaddai.

For instance, in Genesis 17:1 we read that the Lord – that is, Yahweh – revealed Himself to Abraham by this name El Shaddai, the almighty God, for it says:

“When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am Almighty God [El Shaddai]; walk before Me and be blameless.’”

The root meaning of the form El Shaddai would appear to be “God who is sufficient” – that is, “the all-sufficient God” – the One in whom all creation is summed up, from its beginning to its ending.

The same picture of the absolute all-sufficiency of God is contained in the New Testament as well.

“For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things.” (Rom. 11:36)

All things have their origin in God. All things are kept in being by God. And all things find their end and their completion in God.

Thus we find that the various biblical names and titles of God contain within them a revelation of God’s own eternal nature. As we contemplate the eternal nature of God, we begin to form a true picture of eternity.

Eternity, correctly understood, is not time in endless duration; rather, eternity is the nature and mode of God’s own being, the uncreated realm in which God Himself exists.

Out of eternity, by the act of creation, God brought into being the present world, and with it the order of time as we now know it – past, present and future. By another divine act God will one day bring this present world to an end, and with it, time, as we now know it, will once again cease to be. Time is directly and inseparably related to our present world order. With this world order time came into being, and with this world order time will once again cease to be.