The Everlasting God (El Olam)

An episode of the Reformed Thinking podcast, hosted by Edison Wu, titled "The Everlasting God (El Olam)" was published on July 26, 2025 and runs 37 minutes.

July 26, 2025 ·37m · Reformed Thinking

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Summary

Deep Dive into God as El OlamThe New Testament (NT) profoundly receives and intensifies the theme of God's eternality, demonstrating both continuity with the Old Testament and a climactic Christological focus. While not using the specific Hebrew term "El Olam," the NT employs equivalent concepts and phrases to convey God's timelessness, integrating this understanding into a robust Trinitarian confession.The NT does not dilute classical Jewish monotheism but rather subsumes it into a more comprehensive understanding of God's eternal glory, with the entire biblical storyline operating with El Olam as an "immovable fulcrum." Pauline writings, for instance, explicitly connect God's eternality to the gospel, identifying it as the revelation of the "eternal God" and praising the "King of the ages, immortal, invisible." The permanence of the gospel's benefits rests on "transactions older than creation itself."The most significant development is the direct application of eternality to Jesus Christ. Jesus' assertion, "Before Abraham was, I AM," provocatively claims "shared divine timelessness." The "eternal Word" entered time without surrendering His timelessness, and the language celebrating YHWH's changeless eternity is applied directly to Christ in Hebrews, safeguarding His capacity to secure an "everlasting covenant." Christ's resurrection further seals this, demonstrating His "indestructible life," leading to a believer's "eternal security grounded in eternal being" through union with Him.The NT also presents a robust Trinitarian confession, where Father, Son, and Spirit equally inhabit eternal glory, understood as their "shared life." Furthermore, the NT consistently affirms God's eternal decree and foreknowledge, ensuring that history's unfolding, including events like the crucifixion and final judgment, is the "temporal execution of an immutable, eternal decision." This divine eternality culminates in the Book of Revelation, which concludes the biblical narrative with acclamations to Him who "lives forever and ever."Reformed Theologian GPT: https://chat.openai.com/g/g-XXwzX1gnv-reformed-theologianhttps://buymeacoffee.com/edi2730

Episode Description

Deep Dive into God as El Olam

The New Testament (NT) profoundly receives and intensifies the theme of God's eternality, demonstrating both continuity with the Old Testament and a climactic Christological focus. While not using the specific Hebrew term "El Olam," the NT employs equivalent concepts and phrases to convey God's timelessness, integrating this understanding into a robust Trinitarian confession.

The NT does not dilute classical Jewish monotheism but rather subsumes it into a more comprehensive understanding of God's eternal glory, with the entire biblical storyline operating with El Olam as an "immovable fulcrum." Pauline writings, for instance, explicitly connect God's eternality to the gospel, identifying it as the revelation of the "eternal God" and praising the "King of the ages, immortal, invisible." The permanence of the gospel's benefits rests on "transactions older than creation itself."

The most significant development is the direct application of eternality to Jesus Christ. Jesus' assertion, "Before Abraham was, I AM," provocatively claims "shared divine timelessness." The "eternal Word" entered time without surrendering His timelessness, and the language celebrating YHWH's changeless eternity is applied directly to Christ in Hebrews, safeguarding His capacity to secure an "everlasting covenant." Christ's resurrection further seals this, demonstrating His "indestructible life," leading to a believer's "eternal security grounded in eternal being" through union with Him.

The NT also presents a robust Trinitarian confession, where Father, Son, and Spirit equally inhabit eternal glory, understood as their "shared life." Furthermore, the NT consistently affirms God's eternal decree and foreknowledge, ensuring that history's unfolding, including events like the crucifixion and final judgment, is the "temporal execution of an immutable, eternal decision." This divine eternality culminates in the Book of Revelation, which concludes the biblical narrative with acclamations to Him who "lives forever and ever."

Reformed Theologian GPT: https://chat.openai.com/g/g-XXwzX1gnv-reformed-theologian

https://buymeacoffee.com/edi2730