Q&A 35: Does the Bible say that God is limited &/or that He changes? - Part I

You have a handout that's quite a wad. We're going to try to cover it this Sunday and next Sunday with the caution that I'm not going to try to cover everything. Some of it I'm going to leave it for you to read if you're interested in it. And otherwise we would be going a little too fast.

But I think the question here is does the Bible, so this is Q&A 35, does the Bible, especially the five books of Moses, say that God is limited and or that he changes? So that's the question. There's a central set of Christian doctrines or teachings have held that God is infinite in each of his attributes. God is infinitely holy, for example. God is infinitely loving, infinitely gracious. His knowledge is infinite. Those are central teachings to Orthodox Christianity, and by that I don't mean Greek Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, Russian Orthodox. and that God is not limited by and subject to time, except to the degree that He volunteers to be. Such as, for example, did Christ become limited in time as He was born of Mary? Was Christ limited in time as He was born of Mary?

Yeah, to some degree, only to the extent that he volunteered to be so, right? He now stepped into time. Well, let's see, we have some special guests here. I don't want to stress anybody's arm, but we have a very heavy hand out here that we'd like you to make use of. To the extent that Christ stepped into time and became, as we say it, fully God but also fully man, to the extent that he became a man, in his humanity he was limited in time. Right? In his humanity he was limited in time. In his humanity he was limited. Yes, however, as he stepped into this world and into this time, he became subject to time in his humanity.

He did not cease being God. So here is Christ, who was born at a particular time, and good morning pig. Here is Christ who was born at a particular point in time, and lived at a particular point in time, And even as to place, except for his brief venture as an infant into Egypt, we don't have any evidence that he left Israel, except for that one period of time as an infant. And here's the other thing, here is God presenting himself physically as an infant.

So here's a limitation with respect to time. but it's because that he voluntarily took on those limitations. Right? He voluntarily took on the limitations. Does that make sense? Now... Sure, and it is sort of a mind-boggling thing for us to ponder, isn't it? Is Christ walking around here on this planet now? No, he's not. Is he still fully human? Yes. Now. Is he a full human being in the heavenlies? Yeah. That's kind of mind-boggling, but the Bible teaches that it's true. He is an entirely new entity, a new creation. The beginning of the new creation.

Now, in recent decades, I would say over about the last 30 years, There is a set of teachings that have been presented known as, sometimes variously, and we'll use this term, open theism is the teaching, or the open view, the openness of God, and a few other terms. And I'm taking this from the end of the second paragraph here on the first page. So those are some of the different terms that are used with the idea that God is limited in some aspect of his attributes, and mostly open theism teaches that God does not know the future, and that God changes. It has even been expressed that God likes surprises.

Well, and that's exactly the point. Now, you might say, well, heavens, I haven't run into that. There was a meeting about 10 years ago in Colorado Springs. It was a gathering of evangelical theologians and pastors. And there was a poll taken among them. And about one third, and this was 10 years ago, about one third of them either believed or were sympathetic with the ideas of open theism. that God doesn't know the future and that God changes.

Yeah. He does not. He does not change. He does know the future. He does know the future. And he does not change. Does God know when a sparrow falls? Yes. And, you know, the Lord knows the numbers of hairs on her head. For me, it's particularly easy, right? So... Yes, that's right. Let's look at the bottom half of page one. There's a chart there, and the chart is intended to make a comparison. Three different columns. and in particular aspects of the character of God or the gods. The first column is the God of scripture as we understand it.

The God of open theism is the next column and then the third column over is the gods of paganism. By the God of scripture I mean the classical understanding that God knows the future, that God doesn't change, right? The god of open theism, this is the new teaching that's been around for a few decades. And then the gods of paganism are the gods, for example, of the Greeks and the Romans or many of the other ancient pantheons.

And in that first column, infinite knowledge, we would say that scripture teaches that God has infinite knowledge. He knows everything. There isn't something that is some secret to God. The God of open theism would say, no, God doesn't know everything. God doesn't know what's going to happen in the future and with many things he's as surprised as you are. With the gods of paganism, there was not infinite knowledge either.

Here's an interesting account. According to the Greek and Roman gods, the chief of the gods, Zeus, would hide himself in a cloud and then commit adultery in order to keep his wife from knowing about the adultery. These are the gods of paganism who not only have lackful knowledge and are able to exclude knowledge from another god or goddess, but also have no morality. So this is what you find, and of course this is what they believed in the Greek and Roman pantheon, and what you find is Open theism is shifting in that regard towards paganism, right?

Because you're saying God doesn't know everything. Infinite wisdom. The open theist teaching would be God does not have infinite wisdom. Prophecy is God's best guess. If God promises something, That doesn't mean it's going to happen. It just means that that's God's best intent. He'll try to pull it off. God works most things together for good as much as he can. As far as he can pull it off. Yeah?

Immutability is God does not change. God does not change. If you think about it, if God has the capacity to change, that can actually be rather frightening. God loves you today, but if He's changeable, then that could change. God has forgiven your sins today.

It's a rather frightening thought, isn't it? If God has the capacity to change, in character, that's rather unnerving. We can't count upon his promises. He's in fact not faithful because he just can't be. And besides that, faithfulness might change. Right? If that's the case, just get on with your life and do the best you can.

Yeah, the thought is rather frightening to think that God in the things that he has promised, in the things that he has prophesied, that he could change. And yet, it was interesting to have this meeting some ten years ago in Colorado Springs, where theologians, we're talking college professors, Christian college professors, seminary professors, pastors getting together, and about a third of them saying, yeah, I either believe that or sympathize with that thought. So does this mean that God changed something?

Well, we'll be addressing that here because the Mormons also believe that God changed and changes. Well, here's the principle Mormon teaching, which by the way is contrary to the Book of Mormon. But the principle Mormon teaching is this, that God, the one that we call God now, was once a man and who became God. And so in the Mormon teaching, just as God was once a man and became God, we also have the capacity as men to become gods.

Now it sounds to me that that's exactly what Satan offered in the garden. Didn't the serpent offer exactly that? But that means that God changes. God is not eternally God from the past on into the future, which both the Bible and the Book of Mormon teach, by the way. That God is changeless and has always been the same.

But the Mormon prophets, because they have the capacity to reveal things, even in contradiction to the Book of Mormon, Because they can reveal that, one of their revelations is that God was once a man and we likewise as men can become gods. And that's the gospel of Mormonism, if you will.

And it says that God changes. Well, so when the open theists within Christendom start talking like this, this gets the Mormon's attention. They're saying, hey, you're talking like me, right? Yeah, so anyway, that is a key point. The move in the direction of open theism is a move in the direction of the gods of paganism, and it's a move in the direction of Mormonism. God is infallible. The Bible says God is infallible. The God of open theism is fallible. He makes mistakes.

One of the examples that they would give is Jesus told the disciples about this. He said, see this temple? Not one stone will be left upon another. And that's in fact what happened. The Romans came and dumped every stone off the edge of the temple mount. So what Jesus prophesied came true about four decades later.

So the open theists say, but wait a minute, the retaining wall is still there, and so Jesus' prophecy was imperfect, was incorrect. Well, Jesus was talking about the temple being torn down, not the retaining wall that holds the temple mount together, right? But their proof of open theism is that Jesus was a flawed prophet. Of course, one of the things we're going to talk about is what did Moses say to do with prophets who prophesy error? Stone them. So that means that the Jews should have stoned Jesus, right? Something's wrong with this, right?

Unchangeable character. The Bible says God does not change. He does not change. The fact that God is loving and gracious, the Bible says you can count on it for all eternity. That's what the Bible says. However, open theism says no, God's character can change. He changes his mind. They would say he changes his mind because he doesn't know the future and he discovers new things. Hmm. Or, subject to the physical world. God is subject to the physical world. Yes. Is time an aspect of the physical world? Yeah. Time is an aspect of this physical world. God is not subject to it.

Now, there are other characteristics in which the open theist would be in agreement with us and not with, they would say, for example, God is infinitely holy. I'm not sure what there is to say that won't change, but if there is only one God, they say, no, that's going to stay the same, in which case they would disagree with Mormonism, right? I'm sorry, what?

I can't see why they would limit God to what advantages does God have? Here is what they will say. Here is what they will say. And of course, we'll be taking a look at some of the passages that they try to use in support. But they say, well, a God who is not perfect, a God who doesn't know the future A God who is limited is a God that's easier for us to relate to. That's the explanation given anyway.

He makes mistakes and so do we and so we can relate to him better. Yeah, it fits in more easily with evolution. As a matter of fact, once you start bending things, where do you stop? Yeah, you can fit in a lot of things more easily that way, I suppose. Yeah?

I think when a tsunami happens, something like that, they say, well, the God who is loving you, everything, would never let that happen. So you must not have control of the physical world. Yeah, that's another point that's made is that sometimes those who hold open theism will use it as a way of explaining why there is evil. God feels badly about it, but he can't do anything. Yeah. I think there's better explanation. Here is some questions I would have for you up on the screen.

Here in Genesis 2.9, out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. So that God would see what he would call them. So then God doesn't know what Adam is going to call the animals. Right? So that would be somewhere they would look at the passage and say, see God doesn't know what Adam is going to call the animals.

Or, here's another one. God remembered Noah. Oh my heavens, I forgot Noah. Is that what it means? Oh my land, here's this guy, he's rocking around in this boat, everything is storming, all these animals and they're just giving him terrible time. I just forgot about him entirely. Is that what happened?

Here's Genesis 18, 20 and 21. And the Lord said, The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave. I will go down now and see if they have done entirely according to its outcry which has come to me, and if not, I will know. But if I don't go down, I won't know? Is that what it means? If God doesn't go down and He has no idea what they're doing. Is that what that means? How about this one? Here's Exodus 2, 24 and 25. I've kind of changed it into a poetic pattern there.

God heard their groaning. God remembered. This is this remember question again, right? God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Oh heavens, I forgot that I promised these guys. Centuries have gone by. I don't know how I got so distracted. Right? Is that what that means? No. I saw the sons of Israel and God took notice of them. Before that he hadn't taken notice. Is that what this language is trying to tell us? Or let's try another one. Here's Psalm 17, 6-8.

I have called upon you, for you will answer me, O God. Incline your ear to me. Hear my speech. Wondrously show your love and kindness, O Savior, of those who take refuge at your right hand from those who rise up against them. Keep me as the apple of the eye and hide me in the shadow of your wings." So has God got an ear? Has God got eyes? Oh, a right hand? Has God got a right hand?

See, here's again where we start crossing with Mormonism. Mormonism teaches that the God of this universe was once a man, but still has a body, and that that's God the Father. And, you know, when Mary got pregnant, it's because God the Father went in and had intercourse with Mary. That's how they taught that Mary got pregnant. So what you see here is the figures of speech all of a sudden get taken literally. What we understand is figures of speech. So it talks about the apple of God's eye. Is there an apple in God's eye? Does God have an eye? Like you and I? Is God a chicken? Because it talks about the shadow of your wings. What are those words?

Figures of speech, right? Figures of speech. We won't go there yet. You see, there are figures of speech that the Bible uses, and some of those figures of speech are similar to what we would use, and some of them are different. Figures of speech are also cultural, aren't they? One of the things we pointed out some years back, we had a How to Save the Bible class and we talked about figures of speech.

And we had a fun time because in English, if somebody is joking with you, they're pulling your leg, right? In Spanish, they're pulling your hair. But in German, you're carrying them on your arm, right? So that's the different figure of speech for joking We have those different figures of speech. And in different languages, there are different figures of speech. In different cultures, there are different figures of speech. So we'll say, you know, he's driving me up a wall. He is? What does that look like? It's a figure of speech, isn't it? We use lots of figures of speech. I had a lot of fun with this figure of speech thing. when Hassan was here.

We went into a computer store. And the minute we walked into the store, here's Hassan and I standing together, this salesperson comes up and says, can I help you out? And Hassan was thinking he wants us to leave. And after a little bit of conversation, Hassan was all the more distressed when I said, well, if you don't mind, we'll just go ahead and take a look around the store here.

And the salesman said, knock yourself out. Hassan was greatly puzzled by this figure of speech. And I said, I, of course, explained it to him. And I just said, it's a good thing he didn't say, go break a leg. So we have figures of speech. We laugh at them. They're lots of fun. Sometimes, like Hassan, we may get distressed until we understand. But I think as we read Scripture, it's important to recognize there are figures of speech.

Jesus talks about hating parents. Doesn't He? He talks about hating parents. Does that mean that God wants you to hate your parents? No. Why the extreme figure of speech? The extreme figure of speech is such that your love for the Lord is so great that your love for your parents, which ought to be there, is by comparison hate. It is to show the greatness with which we're to love the Lord. But it's not intended to teach that you hate your parents.

This is figures of speech and the understanding of figures of speech in a particular culture. Now let's take a look here. On page two, we've got a couple of bullets towards the top and it says the approach we'll take in this elective is this. And by the way, you've got 24 pages. We are not going to cover all 24 pages, which may be either a distress or a relief, depending on your viewpoint. But the approach we're going to take is this.

Point one, we're going to introduce the principles of interpretation regarding anthropomorphisms, showing what is true and biblical and what is false and unbiblical. Now, what do I mean by anthropomorphisms? Besides the big word. Anthropomorphism is any time we take something and give it a human attribute that isn't necessarily human.

We'll see verses where the trees of the field will clap their hands. Now, how many trees have you seen with hands? Not so many, right? And clapping, well, it's even a little harder to imagine, right? The rocks will cry out. Have you ever heard any rocks crying out? Probably not. So those are anthropomorphisms. It is giving a human characteristic or action or feeling to something that is not human. And we do that with inanimate objects, like a rock, and we also do that with God. We talk about God hearing us and God's ears, God's hands, right? Jesus was put where? At God's right hand. Does God have a right hand and a left hand?

No. It's a figure of speech. Now, we're going to address particular passages in the book of Moses that are seen by some as saying that God is limited and or that He changes. And then we'll do a survey of other points and issues, offering more written material on those points and passages for those who are interested. So the reason for including so much written material is for those people who want to pursue it further, fine. But it's not our intent to cover everything that you have in your hand there. Here is another instance we have in the middle of page 2.

Here's Psalm 91, verses 2 through 4. I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress. So God is a stone wall. Right? No, it's a figure of speech. It's a word picture. Right? My God in whom I trust. For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His pinions. So God has changed from a stone wall to a bird. Right? Well, maybe not. And under his wings, oh boy, there's more Berg word picture, right? You may seek refuge. His faithfulness is a shield and a bulwark. So God's now a shield. By the way, how many people know what a bulwark is? A bulwark, that's not a word we use a whole lot. basically a part of a fortress, right?

So you have shifting figures of speech that are used here. They are recognized as figures of speech and not taken literally. Okay. Question. Yes. We're looking at the English language in your figure of speech. Pardon? We're looking at English language with figure of speech. Yes. What about other languages?

Yes, and some of them are like ours, and some of them are different. We gave the example earlier where, you know, in English, you're joking, you're pulling my leg. In Spanish, it's you're pulling my hair. In German, it's you're carrying me on your arm. So different languages will have different figures of speech. In some cases, they'll be similar figures of speech. In some cases, yeah. Yeah.

If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. Does that mean... What's that? Yeah, if you've seen the Father, does that mean... and is it the physical sight that he's concerned about? Or are we talking about a spiritual comparison? Yeah. These are uses of language where we need to understand the intended figure of speech, right? Yeah. Another good case in point.

Let's look at page 3 on your handout at the top. Now, the Bible is going to describe here at the top of page 3 a freaky land. It says here in Psalm 98.8, let the rivers clap their hands and let the mountains sing together for joy. Last time you were up in the mountains, did that happen?

Probably not, right? These are figures of speech. It is an anthropomorphism, that is, giving human characteristics to inanimate objects. Here's Isaiah 55, 12. For you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace. The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you. and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Figures of speech, aren't they? Giving human characteristics to something that's not human.

It's done, and it's understood here as a figure of speech, it's done with inanimate objects, and it's also done with God, where it talks about God's ears, or even God's hands. And that introduces us to the bottom part there. In the middle of page three, there is a part there that has some bullets below it that says, the work of God in the physical realm, such as in creation, is often spoken of as being by God's hands, or hand, and is called the work of his hands. When God does something in the physical realm, The Bible is rather consistent from the Old Testament into the New Testament, that that is done by God's hands. But there's also another consistency that's very interesting, and that is the second set of bullets down there.

This is the one Daniel in 2 Corinthians 5, Colossians 2.11. When God does something that is in the spiritual realm, It is said, and this is Old Testament into new, it is said that God does it without hands. Isn't that interesting?

When God does something in the physical realm, it's said to be done by God's hands. When it says specifically it's not with hands or without hands, that's where God does something in the spiritual realm. So God created the world, and the biblical expression is He did it with His hands. When He identified you with Christ, that was done without hands. That's the Hebrew figure of speech. Isn't that interesting? So here is God who doesn't have hands. But when He does something in the physical realm, that's with hands. When He does something in the spiritual realm, it's done without hands. Very interesting. And it's both Old Testament and New Testament. I've checked it out. It's consistent all the way through with that pattern of using the figure of speech with hands or without hands.

When Scripture speaks of God doing something in a human form, that figure of speech is called an anthropraxism. If you can't pronounce it, don't worry. But the point is that that's a particular category of figure of speech that the Bible uses and does so rather consistently in the Old Testament and into the New. When God is spoken of as having human feelings, that's anthropopathism. God is expressed as if he has human feelings. But does God go around reacting to things in time like we do?

Let's take it for instance. If after church I went out there and I found some fellow was taking a sledgehammer to my car, I probably would not be nonchalant and unmoved by that. I would probably, you know, what are you doing? And try to stop the guy. I would react to the discovery. Is God discovering things? No. God is not discovering things and suddenly realizing things. God doesn't pace the floor of heaven saying, Ah! Vern's done it again. What am I going to do now? Right? That's not the way God deals with things.

But Scripture, in order to communicate to us who deal in this realm of time and feelings that go up and down, Scripture uses those terms as an accommodation to our form of language, but not because God's surprised by things or suddenly gets ticked off because something happened or didn't happen. And that's something we'll be taking a look at. What about some instances, there's one that shows up a couple of times, God proposes to Moses twice.

I'm going to wipe these people out and just start over with you. Why is God doing that? Is it because that's what God really wants to do? Why would God twice propose that? I'm going to wipe these people out. They're just rebellious and they can't remember anything we tell them. And I'll just start over with you.

Why does He do that? Has God forgotten that He made promises to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob? Why would God approach Moses in this way? It basically seems to set aside the promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Why would he do that? Ultimately what you will find is that there are passages like that that seem like, why on earth would God propose that to Moses? But what he wants Moses to realize is why God would not do that. So here's Moses coming back to the Lord and saying, but Lord, you promised. And the Lord says, that's right, I did. That's right, I did. And I'm glad you see that. And that's why I'm not going to do that. It's not at all that he was thinking or had forgotten that he'd made a promise to Abraham, but he wanted Moses to realize when God makes a promise, he's going to stick with it through all eternity.

That's part one. The other thing is, people will bring up a passage where God was going to do this, and then somebody did something, and so God does something else instead. And they'll say, see, you know, God changed his mind. Well, the thing is, what God has out there is a whole bunch of, you know, if you do this, I'll do this. If you do this, I'll do this.

God is dealing with them, not out of his ignorance, not because he changed his mind, but because he's got different consequences in place that he knows what people are going to choose. And yet he lays out those consequences. And if you choose this, you'll get this consequence. And you choose this, you'll get this consequence. Does God know which choice they're going to make ahead of time? Yep.

But if they had taken this one, then they would have had this consequence. If they'd taken this other choice, this other path, they would have had that consequence. God's not changed his mind at all. The human being has. The human being has made a choice or made a decision.

Does that kind of make sense? Yeah, it does make a lot of sense. But getting back to some of these circumstances, why did he propose to kill Moses? Well, I think if you look at those things, God, just like he said to Moses, I'll get rid of the rest of these people and kill you. He will present things to people in order that they understand. In order that they understand.

And that they put in their own minds what's the spiritual principle here. Let's bring it to another point. Here is Adam and Eve. They're in the garden. Genesis chapter 3. They've just sinned. And the first question God asks is, where are you? Is it because God has no idea where they are? Why does God ask the question?

He asks the question not for God's sake, not so God can find out, oh, there you are, but he asks the question so that they will recognize for themselves that they're lost. the fact that he has to ask the question means something has changed. So I think that's the thing. When God asks questions or makes proposals that seem contrary to his promises or his character, he does so not because God somehow changed or God is ignorant, but he does so so that human beings will understand. He asks questions, he makes statements, even makes proposals so that human beings will understand. The truth is God in Genesis 3 asks several questions. None of them are because God doesn't know the answer. All of them are because God wants the human beings to understand what's happening. And by the way, he doesn't ask the serpent any questions.

Why? Pardon? Yeah. Why am I going to bother with this serpent? It's the human beings that I want to have come to the understanding. The serpent's never going to understand. There's no way to get the serpent to understand at all, and it doesn't matter.

Yes? Yeah, where are you? Yeah, where are you? And it's not because God had no idea where he was. God knew where he was all the time. God knew the very minute that he ate of the fruit. God knew all the time. As a matter of fact, let's ask this question. Did God know that Adam was going to eat of the forbidden fruit. Yeah. God knew in advance. So none of it was outside of God's knowledge.

God asks questions. He makes proposals. He makes proposals that seem contrary to what He has promised or His character. Why? So that human beings will understand. Not because God doesn't understand or because God has somehow gone berserk. Right? Yes, let's talk about that because we're going to get into that top of page 4 pretty quickly here.

God is angry. Did God suddenly become ticked off? You know, right at the very moment that the Jews did some terrible disobedient thing, did God just suddenly swell up with this rage and go stomping and the floor of heaven is just rattling and jumping because God really ticked off? I can't stand those people! Jump, jump, bang, bang, bang! Right? Is that what's happening? Was God surprised that they would somehow rebel? No, not at all.

There are in Scripture about 10,000 prophecies. About 5,000 of those have been fulfilled already. The other 5,000 are yet to be fulfilled, just in round numbers. Why are those prophecies there? Those prophecies are there because we have a God who knows the future, including the ones that haven't been fulfilled yet. He still knows it.

Yes? Not at all. Yeah, he mentions Ananias and Sapphira in the book of Acts. Yeah, no shock to God. Now, here's what I think is going on where it talks about we grieve the Holy Spirit. God, and this is something we'll address later, but just to bring up the issue now, God dwells in the eternal present. To Him all times are now. That's one reason why this idea that God doesn't know the future is inane. All times are present.

Jesus said, John chapter 8, before Abraham was born, I am. If you wanted to say that he existed before Abraham was born, He would have said it in the imperfect tense, that I was there before Abraham was born. That's how he would have said it. That's not what he said. What he said was, before Abraham was born, I am.

God dwells in the eternal present. All times for him are right now. He's never surprised. So, for example, when we grieve the Holy Spirit, it isn't because we suddenly did something and the Holy Spirit goes, right, and reacts to it. When we do something that grieves the Holy Spirit, it has always grieved the Holy Spirit, right? That's something that has always grieved the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit as the Spirit, like the Son and like the Father, dwell in the eternal present. All times are now. And that's one reason why it's so easy. I might as well jump ahead here. This little chart is in your handout. Let me find the page number here. If somebody finds it, feel free to call it out. Let's think about this.

We who believe were identified with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension and seeding. Those five things, right? So in order For God to identify you with Christ centuries before you were born, He had to know that you would be born and that you would be born again. Right?

And because unbelievers don't get this. So here is a God who knows in advance who is going to be born and who is going to believe, and he takes that person, irrespective of time, takes them back in time and identifies them with Christ, in Christ's death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seething, and makes all those consequences of that identification apply to that person centuries later?

Is that a God who doesn't know the future and who's stuck in time? I would say absolutely not. It's somewhere between inane and insane to propose that. This is a God who is not stuck in time. This is a God who knows in advance that you are going to believe. and identifies you with Christ there back in history, his dealing with things spiritually in time and in sequence is no problem at all for him, because all times are present. All times are present. See, we're stuck in what you could call this time tunnel. And because we're stuck in this time tunnel, We see things from the perspective that we have right now.

God does not. To him, all times are present. I've used this illustration, but perhaps it's helpful here. Let's suppose that this pen here at the very tip here at the eraser part is when God created everything. And let's say that this is the end of the present heavens and earth. And somewhere in the middle of that is Christ's coming. His death on the cross, His burial, His resurrection, His ascension and seating.

Does God look past at the creation, at the moment He created things? No. Does He look to the future, to things that have not yet happened? No. To Him it is all present tense. Before Abraham was born, not I was, But I am. God dwells in the eternal present, and we're going to step into that eternal present with Him. The time that we spend here on this planet is limited. But there will come a day when we'll step into that eternal present with Him. We'll be face to face. We'll be like Him, but we'll see Him as He is. Scripture says. God is not a God who doesn't know the future. To God, the future doesn't exist. All times are now. God doesn't think in terms of past, present, and future like we do.

Time is a construct for here. It's something that works here. We have watches and hourglasses. These days more and more people are getting their time off their cell phones. But that whole time construct and the sequence of things happening is all something for here. There will come a time when all the concerns of time have gone away, have ended.

It is a wonderful truth. We don't have a God that says, I forgive you of your sins, I think. I forgive you of your sins today, but tomorrow, who knows? I mean, that's a rather frightening thought. But instead, your point is well taken. We have this great comfort of a God who says, I don't change, and your sins are forgiven, and that's final. We have a God that says, I love you, and there is no ceiling on that. There is no limit to that. There is a God who is so gracious I love this.

After looking at the identification truths which show up in verses 4 through 6 of Ephesians chapter 2, so Ephesians 2, 4 through 6, it goes and talks about the identification truths. Verse 7, so that in the ages to come he might show, that word show means to demonstrate, he might show us his grace. People wonder what they're going to be doing in heaven. Don't worry about that.

It's what God's going to be doing. God's going to be demonstrating His grace, His infinite, awesome grace, on into the rolling ages of eternity. It's not what we'll be doing, it's what God's going to be doing. I don't think we'll give a concern about what we're doing. God's grace will be so awesome, we will be gasping from one moment to the next, as good as I can say. When we've been there 10,000 years, when I don't think 10,000 years is quite the same meaning, God's grace is awesome.

It's infinite. It is so awesome that in the rolling ages to come, He will demonstrate His grace and there won't be some time when we'll say, okay, well that's done. It'll never happen. That time when God said, well, we're about out of time. That'll never happen. God's grace is so awesome and so infinite and He's not going to change that.

God's love for us is not going to change. It's amazing, all the sins of all time, both those committed before Christ was crucified and those committed after Christ was crucified, all of them, for all time, were placed upon Christ in that moment, almost 2,000 years ago. In a few hours, our sins were dealt with. both the people who had long before died as well as those who would much later be born. All those sins were applied to him right then and there.

That's a God who is not limited by time. That's a God who is able to take things regardless of time and apply it into that moment in time to Jesus Christ. He's not limited by time. What's that? Yeah, time is an aspect of this physical creation. Why did God create the sun and the moon and the stars? It gives things to mark time, right? Yeah, those are ways in which we mark time. Yeah, if you don't have, you know, morning and evening and sun and stars and moon and all that. What's a day? You don't have any way to say there's a day. Right? Not really. No. Not really.

So this is amazing stuff, but I think it's really important for us to understand this has to do with the character of God. This has to do with the character of our salvation. This has to do with the character of our eternity. We're not dealing with a God who is surprised by things.

We're not dealing with a God who is pacing the floor of heaven, wringing his hands, thinking, oh, what am I going to do now? Look what Vern's done. Verne's blown it so bad, I have no idea what I'm going to do. How could he possibly do this? That's not the character of the God that loves us and sent his son to die for us.

So anyway, we will take a look at more. We've just plumb ran out of time here. And we'll be looking at more of this next week. So hang on to this. Don't worry, this paper is high in fiber. So we can look at it next week, if the Lord gives us so long. Okay, let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for what you've revealed about who you are. Lord, how awesome it is to just take comfort and confidence in your unfailing promises, in your infinite knowledge of everything that has taken place, that is taking place, and ever will. And in your ability to, as you have told us, to work all things for good. Not just most things, or as much as you can. And we thank you for the assurances that we have from your word. Absolute assurances. Infallible assurances. And for your unfailing love. We just pray in Jesus' name. Amen.