Eternality

We are studying the Book of Revelation, and thus far we haven’t answered an important question, namely, what was John’s purpose in writing the book? There are a lot of people who would say that the purpose is obvious: It was a book that was written to tell people who read it what’s going to happen in the future.

Here in verse 8 is one of the rare places in Revelation where God the Father himself actually is speaking. What he does is describe who he is by various names. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, who is, and who was, and who is to come – the Almighty.”

God’s eternity involves many attributes. Theologians call them “incommunicable attributes,” which mean things that are true of God that are not true of us in any way. Some of God’s attributes are communicable. God is a God of truth. We can know truth in part.

In verse 8 God also refers to himself as “The God who is, who was, and who is to come.” Previously I pointed out that that’s actually echoing that great name for God that was disclosed to Moses at the Burning Bush when God said, “I am who I am.”

We come today to the last term God applies to himself in verse 8 – “the Almighty.” It’s a translation of the Hebrew words El Shaddai, which occur for the first time in the Bible in Genesis 17, verse 1. God is speaking to Abraham. He says, “I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless.”