The Religion That Started in a Hat

The spirits in prison mentioned in 1Peter 3:19, who are they?                       By Jack Kettler

Are these spirits in prison, those who get a second chance at salvation? Are these the spirits of men, or angels or demons? These two are the main questions we will seek an answer to. As in previous studies, we will look at definitions, scriptures, commentary evidence, and confessional support for the purpose to glorify God in how we live.

Scripture

“By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” (1Peter 3:19-20)

ΠΕΤΡΟΥ Α΄ 3:19 Greek NT: Stephanus Textus Receptus 1550

ἐν ᾧ καὶ τοῖς ἐν φυλακῇ πνεύμασιν πορευθεὶς ἐκήρυξεν

This passage of Scripture has been the subject of much speculation. We will look at an older historical interpretation and then a contemporary commentary entry – first, the older commentary entry.

First, from Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers on 1Peter 3:19:

“(19) By which.—If “by the Spirit” had been right in the former verse, this translation might have stood here, though the word is literally in; for “in” is often used to mean “in the power of,” “on the strength of:” e.g., Romans 8:15. But as that former rendering is untenable, we must here keep strictly to in which—i.e., in spirit. This might mean either of two things: (1) “spiritually speaking,” “so far as thought and sympathy goes,” as, for instance, 1Corinthians 5:3, Colossians 2:5; or else (2) “in spirit,” as opposed to “in the body”—i.e., “out of the body” (2Corinthians 12:2; comp. Revelation 1:10), as a disembodied spirit. We adopt the latter rendering without hesitation, for reasons, which will be clearer in the next Note.

He went and preached unto the spirits in prison.—There are two main ways of interpreting this mysterious passage. (1) The spirits are understood as being now in prison, in consequence of having rejected His preaching to them while they were still on earth. According to this interpretation—which has the support of such names as Pearson, Hammond, Barrow, and Leighton (though he afterwards modified his opinion). among ourselves, besides divers great theologians of other countries, including St. Thomas Aquinas on the one hand and Beza on the other—it was “in spirit,” i.e., mystically speaking, our Lord Himself who, in and through the person of Noah, preached repentance to the old world. Thus the passage is altogether dissociated from the doctrine of the descent into hell; and the sense (though not the Greek) would be better expressed by writing, He had gone and preached unto the spirits (now) in prison. In this case, however, it is difficult to see the purpose of the digression, or what could have brought the subject into St. Peter’s mind. (2) The second interpretation—which is that of (practically) all the Fathers, and of Calvin, Luther (finally), Bellarmine, Bengel, and of most modern scholars—refers the passage to what our Lord did while His body was dead. This is the most natural construction to put upon the words “in which also” (i.e., in spirit). It thus gives point to the saying that He was “quickened in spirit,” which would otherwise be left very meaningless. The “spirits” here will thus correspond with “in spirit” there. It is the only way to assign any intelligible meaning to the words “He went and” to suppose that He “went” straight from His quickening in spirit—i.e., from His death. It is far the most natural thing to suppose that the spirits were in prison at the time when Christ went and preached to them. We take it, then, to mean that, directly Christ’s human spirit was disengaged from the body, He gave proof of the new powers of purely spiritual action thus acquired by going off to the place, or state, in which other disembodied spirits were (who would have been incapable of receiving direct impressions from Him had He not Himself been in the purely spiritual condition), and conveyed to them certain tidings: He “preached” unto them. What was the substance of this preaching we are not here told, the word itself (which is not the same as, e.g., in 1Peter 1:25) only means to publish or proclaim like a crier or herald; and as the spirits are said to have been disobedient and in prison, some have thought that Christ went to proclaim to them the certainty of their damnation! The notion has but to be mentioned to be rejected with horror; but it may be pointed out also that in 1Peter 4:6, which refers back to this passage, it is distinctly called a “gospel;” and it would be too grim to call that a gospel which (in Calvin’s words) “made it more clear and patent to them that they were shut out from all salvation!” He brought good tidings, therefore, of some kind to the “prison” and the spirits in it. And this “prison” must not be understood (with Bp. Browne, Articles, p. 95) as merely “a place of safe keeping,” where good spirits might be as well as bad, though etymologically this is imaginable. The word occurs thirty-eight times in the New Testament in the undoubted sense of a “prison,” and not once in that of a place of protection, though twice (Revelation 18:2) it is used in the derived sense of ‘a cage.’” (1)

Next, from Simon J. Kistemaker’s, New Testament Commentary provides a contemporary interpretation of Spirits from 1Peter 3:19–20a:

“Verse 19 is difficult to interpret, for in this relatively short sentence the meaning of each word varies. D. Edmond Hiebert observes, “Each of the nine words in the original has been differently understood.” Accordingly, we cannot expect unanimity in the interpretation of this passage; concurrence eludes us.

Here is the reading of the New International Version:

19. Through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison 20a. Who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.

What does this text say? Let us look at the component parts, explain them sequentially, and view the text in its context.

1. “Through whom.” The antecedent of the word whom is the term spirit (either with or without a capital letter). If we take the relative pronoun whom to relate to the nearest antecedent, then we understand that it refers to the Holy Spirit (see the preceding verse). Through the instrumentality of the Spirit of God, Jesus Christ after his resurrection “went and preached to the spirits in prison.” Note that in his epistle Peter mentions the Spirit a few times: “the sanctifying work of the Spirit” (1:2), “the Spirit of Christ” (1:11), and the preaching of the gospel “by the Holy Spirit” (1:12).

We can also relate the phrase through whom to the word spirit without the capital letter. If we interpret the phrase in this sense, its meaning actually is “in which” or “in the resurrected state.” The relative pronoun, then, relates to the spiritual state of Christ after his resurrection.

Some interpreters suggest the translation in the course of which. The antecedent of “which” then seems to be the general context. However, the connection between the relative phrase through whom and the nearest term spirit is unmistakable and thus preferred.

1. “Also he went and preached.” What is meant by the word also? Apparently Peter wants us to understand it in the sequence of the verbs put to death and made alive. The words he went and preached follow this sequence in the preceding verse. We understand, then, that after his resurrection Jesus went to preach to the spirits in prison.

In the Greek, the same word (“went”) is used in verse 19 as in verse 22 (“who has gone into heaven”). We assume that if Peter speaks about the ascension of Jesus in the one verse, by implication he does so in the other (also see Acts 1:10–11). We have no certainty, however, because the word went as such is indefinite and means, “to go elsewhere.” But if we interpret Paul’s remark about the “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph. 6:12) spatially, then the verb went can mean “to go up” and can refer to Christ’s ascension. Also, the sequence of verses 18 and 19 indicates that Christ went to preach in his resurrected state.

Does the statement he went and preached mean that Jesus descended into hell? No, it does not, because evidence for this assumption is lacking. Scripture nowhere teaches that Christ after his resurrection and prior to his ascension descended into hell. Moreover, we have difficulty in accepting the explanation that Christ in his spirit went to preach to Noah’s contemporaries. But before we continue this point, we must ask this question:

What is meant by the word preached? The verb stands by itself, so that we are unable to determine the content of preaching. In brief, only the fact of preaching, not the message, is important. That is, we understand the verb preached to mean that Christ proclaimed victory over his adversaries. In his brevity, Peter refrains from telling us the context of Christ’s proclamation. We would be adding to the text if we should interpret the word preached to signify the preaching of the gospel. “Hence we may suppose with reason that it is the victory of Christ over His adversaries which is emphasized in 3:19, not the conversion or evangelization of the disobedient spirits.”

1. “To the spirits in prison.” Do the spirits belong to human beings or to fallen angels or to both? In this passage Peter gives the word spirit two qualifications. First, the spirits are kept in prison. In Revelation, 20:7 John writes that Satan “will be released from his prison” (see also vv. 1–3). And in his second epistle, Peter writes that God sent angels that sinned “into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment” (2 Peter 2:4; compare Jude 6). Incidentally, Scripture nowhere states that the souls of men are kept in prison.

Next, Peter says that the spirits are those “who disobeyed long ago” (v. 20a). He writes, “the spirits … who disobeyed.” He does not say, “the spirits of those who disobeyed.” If this were the case, Peter could mean the souls of departed men who had been disobedient during their lifetime. However, the word spirits as Peter qualifies it refers to supernatural beings. Peter’s use of this word agrees with the connotation in the Gospels, where it refers to “evil spirits” (see, e.g., Mark 3:11). This usage also agrees with intertestamental literature, in which the term spirits designates angels or demons.

According to the writer of Hebrews, Christ does not help angels (2:16). Rather, he redeems the spiritual descendants of Abraham. Furthermore, if we would interpret the word spirits to be those of men, we should realize that Peter’s qualification regarding disobedient spirits points to willful rejection of God’s authority. Scripture teaches that there is no forgiveness for the sin of deliberate disobedience (Heb. 6:4–6; 10:26). Last, no scriptural doctrine teaches that man has a second chance for repentance after death. When the curtain is drawn between time and eternity, man’s destiny is sealed, and the period of grace and repentance has ended (read the parable of the rich man and Lazarus [Luke 16:19–31]). Consequently, I interpret the phrase the spirits in prison to refer to supernatural beings and not to the souls of men.

1. “God waited patiently.” A literal translation of this part of the verse is, “when the patience of God kept waiting.” That is, God’s forbearance lasted 120 years before he destroyed humanity, eight persons excepted, with the flood. The construction, translated “God waited patiently,” stresses the leniency of God before he executed his sentence on the human race (compare Gen. 6:3). From the time of Adam to the day when Noah entered the ark, God exercised patience. Noah’s contemporaries were notoriously wicked and served as agents of demonic spirits in their rebellion against God. There is no other time in history in which the contrast between faith and unbelief, obedience and disobedience, was as pronounced as in the days of Noah. The rebellious spirits seemed to control the human race with the exception of Noah and his family.

Greek Words, Phrases, and Constructions in 3:19–20a

Verse 19

ἐν ᾧ καί—in 1902 British New Testament scholar J. Rendel Harris popularized a conjecture that had been suggested by J. Bowyer in 1763. Harris conjectured that the reading of the first part of verse 19 should be ἐν ᾧ καὶ Ἐνώχ (in which Enoch [went and preached]). Although the suggestion proved to be attractive, scholars applied the rule that for a conjecture to be acceptable, it must fulfill two conditions: the text must be incomprehensible without the conjecture and the conjecture must improve our understanding of that text. Examining the evidence, however, they concluded that the conjecture was unable to satisfy these two conditions and therefore had to be dismissed.

ἐν θυλακῇ—although the noun prison is not explained in the text, its position is emphatic. The prepositional phrase in prison is placed between the definite article the and the noun spirits.

Verse 20a

ἀπειθήσασιν—this aorist active participle in the neuter dative plural clarifies the noun πνεύμασιν (spirits). The participle derives from the verb ἀπειθειω (I disobey). In the aorist tense, it points to sins committed in the past. The position of the participle is predicate. We translate noun and participle as “spirits who disobeyed.”

ἀπεξεδέχετο—this compound verb is in the imperfect tense and in the middle (deponent) voice. It expresses continued action in the past tense. Because of the compound, this verb is intensive or perfective. It means “to wait patiently for” or “to wait it out.”

κατασκευαζομέης—the present passive participle in the genitive case with κιβωτοῦ (ark) in the same case constitutes the genitive absolute construction. Note that the use of the present tense denotes duration; from use of the passive voice we infer that a work force was needed to build the ark.

Additional comments on 3:19–20a:

Interpretations of this particular text are many. Here are some of them listed in chronological sequence.

6. Clement of Alexandria, about a.d. 200, taught that Christ went to hell in his spirit to proclaim the message of salvation to the souls of sinners who were imprisoned there since the flood (Stromateis 6.6).
7. Augustine, about a.d. 400, said that the preexistent Christ proclaimed salvation through Noah to the people who lived before the flood (Epistolae 164).
8. In the last half of the sixteenth century, Cardinal Robert Bellarmine introduced a view that has been held by many Roman Catholics: in his spirit Christ went to release the souls of the righteous who repented before the flood and had been kept in Limbo, that is, the place between heaven and hell where, Bellarmine said, the souls of the Old Testament saints were kept (De Controversiis 2.4, 13).
9. An interpretation promulgated by Friedrich Spitta in the last decade of the nineteenth century is this: After his death and before his resurrection, Christ preached to fallen angels, also known as “sons of God,” who during Noah’s time had married “daughters of men” (Gen. 6:2; 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6).
10. Contemporary commentators teach that the resurrected Christ, when he ascended into heaven, proclaimed to imprisoned spirits his victory over deaths.

Although space prevents me from commenting on all the strengths and weaknesses of these views, I select a few of the major objections. And although it is virtually impossible to achieve unanimity in understanding the text, I call attention to the view that many theologians favor.

The first view is the one of Clement of Alexandria. He taught that Christ went to hell in his spirit to proclaim the message of salvation to the souls of sinners who were imprisoned there since the flood. Two basic objections can be voiced against Clement’s interpretation: one, Scripture is silent on imprisonment of souls condemned by God, and two, Augustine’s doctrine that there is no conversion after death repudiates Clement’s view.

Next, Augustine said that the preexistent Christ proclaimed salvation through Noah to the people who lived before the flood. No one disputes the fact that the Spirit of Christ was active in the time between Adam’s fall into sin and the birth of Jesus (see Peter’s comment in 1:11). The objection to Augustine’s view is that he departs from the wording of 1Peter 3:19. Augustine speaks of the pre-incarnate Christ and not of the Christ who “was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit.” Augustine’s interpretation dominated the theological scene for centuries until the doctrinal view of Bellarmine displaced it in the Roman Catholic Church.

Third, Bellarmine taught that even though Christ’s body died on the cross, his soul remained alive. Thus in his spirit Christ went to release the souls of the righteous who repented before the flood and were in Limbo. Bellarmine’s interpretation has been rejected by Protestants, because they point out that Scripture teaches that the Old Testament saints are in heaven (see, e.g., Heb. 11:5, 16, 40; 12:23).

Then there is the interpretation of Spitta. He said that Christ after his death and before his resurrection preached to fallen angels who during Noah’s time had married “daughters of men.” But this view faces a serious objection. Answering the Sadducees who asked him about the resurrection, Jesus asserted that angels neither marry nor are given in marriage (Matt. 22:30). We have difficulty understanding how fallen angels, who are spirits, can have sexual relations with women.

Last, recent commentators teach that the resurrected Christ, during his ascension to heaven, proclaimed to imprisoned spirits his victory over death. The exalted Christ passed through the realm where the fallen angels are kept and proclaimed his triumph over them (Eph. 6:12; Col. 2:15). This interpretation has met favorable response in Protestant and Roman Catholic circles and is in harmony with the teaching of the Petrine passage and the rest of Scripture.” (2)

Next, helpful entries from two encyclopedia dictionaries: 

First, from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia:

PRISON, SPIRITS IN

“The phrase occurs in the much-disputed passage, 1 Peter 3:18-20, where the apostle, exhorting Christians to endurance under suffering for well-doing, says:

“Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God; being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, that aforetime were disobedient, when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.” It is plain that in this context “the spirits in prison” (tois en phulake pneumasin) denote the generation who were disobedient in the days of Noah, while the words “spirits” and “in prison” refer to their present disembodied condition in a place of judgment in the unseen world (compare 2 Peter 2:4-9). The crucial point in the passage lies in what is said of Christ’s preaching to these spirits in prison. The interpretation which strikes one most naturally is that Christ, put to death in the flesh, and made alive again in the spirit, went in this spiritual (disembodied) state, and preached to these spirits, who once had been disobedient, but are viewed as now possibly receptive of His message This is the idea of the passage taken by the majority of modern exegetes, and it finds support in what is said in 1 Peter 4:6, “For unto this end was the gospel preached even to the dead, that they might be judged indeed according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.” On this basis is now often reared a mass of doctrine or conjecture respecting “second probation,” “restoration,” etc.–in part going back to patristic times–for which the passage, even so taken, affords a very narrow foundation (see on this view, Plumptre, The Spirits in Prison; Dorner, System of Christian Doctrine, IV, 130-32; E. White, Life in Christ, chapter xxii). It must be admitted, however, that, on closer examination, the above plausible explanation is compassed with many difficulties. A preaching of Christ in Hades is referred to in no other passage of Scripture, while Peter appears to be speaking to his readers of something with which they are familiar; it seems strange that these antediluvians should be singled out as the sole objects of this preaching in the spiritual world; the word “made alive” does not exegetically refer to a disembodied state, but to the resurrection of Christ in the body, etc. Another line of interpretation is therefore preferred by many, who take the words “in which also he went,” to refer, not to a disembodied manifestation, but to the historical preaching to the antediluvian generation through Noah while they yet lived. In favor of this view is the fact that the apostle in 1Peter 1:11 regards the earlier prophetic preaching as a testifying of “the Spirit of Christ,” that God’s long-suffering with Noah’s generation is described in Genesis 6:5, which Peter has doubtless in his mind, as a striving of God’s Spirit, and that in 2 Peter 2:5 there is another allusion to these events, and Noah is described as “a preacher of righteousness.” The passage, 1Peter 4:6, may have the more general meaning that Christians who have died are at no disadvantage in the judgment as compared with those who shall be alive at the Parousia (compare 1Thessalonians 4:15-18). (For an exposition of this view, with a full account of the interpretations and literature on the subject, compare Salmond’s Christian Doctrine of Immortality, 4th edition, 364-87.)” James Orr (3)

Second, from Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology:

Spirits in Prison

“The spirits in prison are referred to in 1Peter 3:19-20, where Peter declares that they disobeyed in the time of Noah and that Christ went and preached to them in prison. This passage has often been identified as one of the most obscure in the entire New Testament. Other passages are often used to interpret this one, but it must be understood in its own literary context and ideological environment.

Verses 19-21 appear in the middle of a christological confession of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (v. 18) and his exaltation to the right hand of the Father (v. 22 cf. 1Tim 3:16 ). Verses 19-21 declare his triumphant declaration to the evil spirits, and contrasts them with Noah, who was saved through water — a type of Christian baptism.

Peter used this confession and triumphant journey of Christ to encourage his readers, who were suffering ridicule and persecution as a result of their conversion (1:6; 4:4. In particular, it follows 3:13-17, which explains how they should respond to unreasonable abuse, especially when they have been zealous in living an honorable life before their accusers (2:11-3:12). And their participation in the triumph of Christ is assured by their pledge of a good conscience in baptism (v. 21).

This journey of Christ took place after the resurrection rather than between his death and resurrection, since the description follows the resurrection in verse 18, and the relative clause “in which” (en ho) refers either to his resurrected spiritual state, or “at that time,” that is, after his death and resurrection. Since the very same form of the participle (poreutheis, “going,” or “traveling”) is used in both verse 19 and verse 22, it is most likely that this is a single journey of Christ through the heavens to the right hand of the Father (v. 22).

The distinctive characteristic of these spirits is that they were in prison when Christ traveled to them, since the prepositional phrase is in the attributive position (tois en phulake pneumasin, “the in prison spirits”).

That these spirits are the evil angels of Genesis 6:1-4 (or their offspring) is indicated by their being in prison, their disobedience in the time of Noah, their mention in 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6, and the New Testament use of the plural noun (“spirits,” pneumasin) as a reference to evil spirits unless otherwise qualified. This is further supported by contemporary Jewish literature (1Enoch 6:1-8; 12:1-16:4; 19:1; 2Baruch 56:12), which describes these evil angels in the same way as the passage in 1Peter.” Norman R. Ericson (4)

In closing:

As seen by the older Bible commentator Charles John Ellicott, and the older International Standard Bible Encyclopedia entries the difficulty in understanding the text in 1Peter 3:19.

Simon J. Kistemaker in his New Testament Commentary and Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology have the advantage of the most recent tools of scholarship. While the older views on the passage should not be dismissed out of hand, the newer interpretation seems more plausible.

It is safe to say:

The spirits in prison are not men, but fallen angels. Support for this is in 2Peter 2:4–5 and Jude 1:6.

“For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly.” (2Peter 2:4-5 ESV)

“And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.” (Jude 1:6 ESV)

Both of these texts speak of the fallen angels being in chains until the judgment.

Simon J. Kistemaker’s commentary entry on 1Peter 3:19 is convincing when he argues that the spirits are fallen angelic spiritual beings and not fallen men. In addition, Kistemaker reasons that Peter cannot be talking about men. Fallen men do not get a second chance at salvation.

Then Kistemaker cites Hebrews 11:5 that speaks of Enoch to show that godly men in the Old Testament went to heaven, not to prison. Godly men before the resurrection of Christ did not go to spirit prison. This account of Enoch parallels the thief on the cross (Matthew 27:38). Both went to be with Christ.

As a necessary aside. The spirit prison is not Abraham’s Bosom:

Abraham’s Bosom

“Unique phrase found in a parable of Jesus describing the place where Lazarus went after death (Luke 16:19-31). It is a figurative phrase that appears to have been drawn from a popular belief that the righteous would rest by Abraham’s side in the world to come, an opinion described in Jewish literature at the time of Christ. The word kolpos [kovlpo] literally refers to the side or lap of a person. Figuratively, as in this case, it refers to a place of honor reserved for a special guest, similar to its usage in John 13:23. In the case of Lazarus, the reserved place is special because it is beside Abraham, the father of all the righteous. The phrase may be synonymous to the paradise promised to the thief on the cross (Luke 23:43). Together these passages support the conviction that a believer enjoys immediate bliss at the moment of physical death.” Sam Hamstra, Jr. (5)

In the beginning, two questions were asked:

To answer the starting question about the possibility of 1Peter 3:19 talking about spirits of men awaiting a second chance for salvation. It can be said with Scriptural certainty; this is impossible in light of “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. (Hebrews 9:27) In addition, “For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2Corinthians 6:2)

In answer to the second question at the beginning of this study, it is safe to conclude:

God punished the disobedient angels with imprisonment. When Jesus died, He went spiritually and proclaimed as Ellicott said like “a crier or herald” to these spirits in prison. Jesus proclaimed His victory to the fallen angels imprisoned there. “And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” (Colossians 2:15) Amen!

Notes:

1. Charles John Ellicott, Bible Commentary for English Readers, 1Peter, Vol.8, (London, England, Cassell and Company), p. 420-421.
2. Simon J. Kistemaker, New Testament Commentary, Peter, (Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker Book House, 1986), pp. 141-146.
3. Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor, “Entry for ‘PRISON, SPIRITS IN,’” International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, (Grand Rapids, Michigan, Eerdmans, reprinted 1986), p. 2456.
4. Walter A. Elwell, Editor, Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, (Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker Book House), p. 745-746.
5. Walter A. Elwell, Editor, Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, (Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker Book House), p. 7-8.

“To God, only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.” (Romans 16:27) and “heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:28, 29)

Mr. Kettler has previously published articles in the Chalcedon Report and Contra Mundum. He and his wife Marea attend the Westminster, CO, RPCNA Church. Mr. Kettler is the author of the book defending the Reformed Faith against attacks, titled: The Religion That Started in a Hat. Available at: THERELIGIONTHATSTARTEDINAHAT.COM

Observations and Quotations about Atheism and its cousin, Agnosticism:

“God is that, the greater than which cannot be conceived.” – Anselm of Canterbury

“Agnosticism is epistemologically self-contradictory on its own assumptions because its claim to make no assertion about ultimate reality rests upon a most comprehensive assertion about ultimate reality.” – Cornelius Van Til

“By this rejection of God, agnosticism has embraced complete relativism. Yet this relativism must furnish a basis for the rejection of the absolute. Accordingly, the standard of self-contradiction taken for granted by antitheistic thought presupposes the absolute for its operation. Antitheism presupposes theism. One must stand upon the solid ground of theism to be an effective antitheist.” – Cornelius Van Til

“The atheist argues that science has proved the nonexistence of God, but the argument is invalid. No scientist has ever produced any evidence that man’s intellect ceases to function at death. Since his methods have not discovered any spirit, Nagel assumes there can be none. He refuses to question his methods. Atheism is not a conclusion developed by his methods; rather it is the assumption on which his methods are based.” – Gordon H. Clark

“The atheist who asserts that there is no God asserts by the same words that he holds the whole universe in his mind; he asserts that no fact, past, present, future, near, or far, escapes his attention, that no power, however great, can baffle or deceive him. In rejecting God, he claims omniscience and omnipotence. In other words, an atheist is one who claims that he himself is God” – Gordon H. Clark,

“When we go to look at the different world views that atheists and theists have, I suggest we can prove the existence of God from the impossibility of the contrary. The transcendental proof for God’s existence is that without Him it is impossible to prove anything. The atheist worldview is irrational and cannot consistently provide the preconditions of intelligible experience, science, logic, or morality. The atheist worldview cannot allow for laws of logic, the uniformity of nature, the ability for the mind to understand the world, and moral absolutes.” – Greg Bahnsen

“I have concluded that we are in a world made by rules created by an intelligence. Believe me, everything that we call chance today won’t make sense anymore. To me it is clear that we exist in a plan which is governed by rules that were created, shaped by a universal intelligence and not by chance.” – Michio Kaku

“The greatest artists, saints, philosophers, and, until quite recent times, scientists… have all assumed that the New Testament promise of eternal life is valid…. I’d rather be wrong with Dante and Shakespeare and Milton, with Augustine of Hippo and Francis of Assisi, with Dr. Johnson, Blake, and Dostoevsky than right with Voltaire, Rousseau, the Huxleys, Herbert Spencer, H. G. Wells, and Bernard Shaw.” – Malcolm Muggeridge

“Since then I have spent well-nigh fifty years working on the history of our Revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous Revolution that swallowed up some sixty million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

“It is absurd for the Evolutionist to complain that it is unthinkable for an admittedly unthinkable God to make everything out of nothing, and then pretend that it is more thinkable that nothing should turn itself into everything.” – G. K. Chesterton

“A little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion.” – Francis Bacon

“I now believe there is a God…I now think it [the evidence] does point to a creative Intelligence almost entirely because of the DNA investigations. What I think the DNA material has done is that it has shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce life, that intelligence must have been involved in getting these extraordinarily diverse elements to work together.” “…we have all the evidence we need in our immediate experience and that only a deliberate refusal to “look” is responsible for atheism of any variety.” – Antony Flew

“The atheist is cheating whenever he makes a moral judgment, acting as though it has an objective reference, when his philosophy in fact precludes it.” – William A. Dembski

“A universe whose only claim to be believed in rests on the validity of inference must not start telling us the inference is invalid.” – C.S. Lewis

“If there is no God, then all that exists is time and chance acting on matter. If this is true then the difference between your thoughts and mine correspond to the difference between shaking up a bottle of Mountain Dew and a bottle of Dr. Pepper. You simply fizz atheistically and I fizz theistically. This means that you do not hold to atheism because it is true, but rather because of a series of chemical reactions… Morality, tragedy, and sorrow are equally evanescent. They are all empty sensations created by the chemical reactions of the brain, in turn created by too much pizza the night before. If there is no God, then all abstractions are chemical epiphenomena, like swamp gas over fetid water. This means that we have no reason for assigning truth and falsity to the chemical fizz, we call reasoning or right and wrong to the irrational reaction we call morality. If no God, mankind is a set of bi-pedal carbon units of mostly water. And nothing else.” – Douglas Wilson

“If naturalism were true then all thoughts whatever would be wholly the result of irrational causes. It cuts its own throat.” – C.S. Lewis

“When you say there’s too much evil in this world you assume there’s good. When you assume there’s good, you assume there’s such a thing as a moral law on the basis of which to differentiate between good and evil. But if you assume a moral law, you must posit a moral Law Giver, but that’s Who you’re trying to disprove and not prove. Because if there’s no moral Law Giver, there’s no moral law. If there’s no moral law, there’s no good. If there’s no good, there’s no evil. What is your question?” – Ravi Zacharias

“My conclusion is that contrary to popular belief, atheism is not primarily an intellectual revolt, it is a moral revolt. Atheists don’t find God invisible so much as objectionable. They aren’t adjusting their desires to the truth, but rather the truth to fit their desires. This is something we can all identify with. It is a temptation even for believers. We want to be saved as long as we are not saved from our sins. We are quite willing to be saved from a whole host of social evils, from poverty to disease to war. But we want to leave untouched the personal evils, such as selfishness and lechery and pride. We need spiritual healing, but we do not want it. Like a supervisory parent, God gets in our way. This is the perennial appeal of atheism: it gets rid of the stern fellow with the long beard and liberates us for the pleasures of sin and depravity. The atheist seeks to get rid of moral judgment by getting rid of the judge.” – Dinesh D’Souza

What is a Biblical Prophet?                                                                  By Jack Kettler

This study will be a general overview of what constitutes the nature of a biblical prophet. As will be seen, the Old Testament prophetic office was a foreshadowing of the heavenly office of Christ and His headship over the Church. Christ’s present mediatorial reign and implications will be briefly considered. As in previous studies, we will look at definitions, scriptures, commentary evidence, and confessional support for the purpose to glorify God in how we live.

Definitions:

What is a prophet in the Bible?

Answer: In a general sense, a prophet is a person who speaks God’s truth to others. The English word prophet comes from the Greek word prophetes, which can mean “one who speaks forth” or “advocate.” Prophets are also called “seers,” because of their spiritual insight or their ability to “see” the future. *

Prophet:

“A prophet is someone who is the mouthpiece of God. He stands between God and man to communicate to man the Word of God. When the prophet spoke as the mouthpiece, he was inspired and without error. The prophet, though, is not a puppet or a mindless repeater of what he hears. Instead, he retains his own will, mind, and thoughts as he speaks for God. God would put His words in their mouths (Deut. 18:18, Jer. 1:9). A prophet was God’s servant (Zech. 1:6) and messenger (2Chron. 36:15). The prophecies fell into three categories: concerning the destiny of Israel, the messianic prophecies, and eschatological prophecies. The term Law and Prophets refers to the writings of the OT divided into two categories. The Law is the Pentateuch or Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The Prophets are all the rest of the OT books.” **

Scriptures and select commentary entries:

“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen.” (Deuteronomy 18:15 ESV)

Whom was Moses speaking of in this passage?

From the Pulpit Commentary on the passage from Deuteronomy we read:

“Verses 15-22. – There should be no need for Israel to turn to heathen soothsayers, or diviners, or such like, because from amongst themselves, of their own brethren, would God raise up prophets like unto Moses, who, as occasion required, would reveal to them what God willed them to know. Verse 15. – A Prophet. The Hebrew word so rendered (נָבִיא) is a derivative from a verb (נָבָא), which signifies to tell, to announce; hence the primary concept of the word is that of announcer, or forth-speaker; and to this the word “prophet” (Greek προφήτης from πρόφημι, I speak before or in place of) closely corresponds; the prophet is one who speaks in the place of God, who conveys God’s word to men, who is an interpreter of God to men. (As illustrative of the meaning of the word, cf. Exodus 7:1; Exodus 4:16.) Hence Abraham is called a prophet (Genesis 20:7), and the term is applied to the patriarchs generally (Psalm 105:15); God conveyed his mind to them, and they spoke it forth to others (cf. Amos 3:7). Like unto me. When the people heard the voice of God speaking to them at Sinai, and from the midst of the fire uttering to them the Ten Words, they were struck with terror, and besought that they might not again hear that awful voice, but that Moses might act as mediator between God and them – might hear what God should say, and speak it unto them (Deuteronomy 5:22-27). Moses thus became God’s prophet to the people; and of this, he reminds them here, as well as of the circumstances amid which he entered specially on this office (cf. vers. 16, 17). The phrase, “like unto me,” does not necessarily imply that the prophet who was to come after Moses was to be in every respect the same as he; all that is indicated is that he would act as Moses had acted as a mediator between God and the people in the way of conveying his will to them.” (1)

Deuteronomy speaks of a coming prophet. The next passage from Luke shows the fulfillment of Moses’ prophecy.

“Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” (Luke 7:16 ESV)

From Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible on Luke 7:16:

“And there came a fear on all … That were there present, and heard, and saw what was done. Not a fear of dread, and terror, and of punishment, as in devils and wicked men; but a fear and reverence of the divine majesty, whose power and presence they were sensible must be there at that time:

and they glorified God; they praised him, and gave thanks to him, ascribing this amazing action to divine power, and gave God the glory of it; and blessed him for the Messiah, who was sent unto them, as they concluded Jesus to be, from this wonderful instance:

saying, that a great prophet is risen up among us; even that great prophet Moses wrote of, and said should be raised up from among the children of Israel, Deuteronomy 18:15 and that God hath visited his people. The Arabic version adds, “for good.” For God sometimes visits for evil, in a wave of wrath and sore displeasure; but this was a visitation for good: they concluded that God had looked upon them with a look of love, and had a gracious regard to them, and had sent them the Messiah, who, they hoped, would deliver them from the Roman yoke; as he had formerly looked upon, and visited their fathers, and sent a redeemer to them, to deliver them from Egyptian bondage. The Ethiopic version renders it, “and God hath mercy on his people;” and the Persic version, ‘God hath looked upon his people, and hath taken care of them.’” (2)

The writer of Hebrews further confirms the fulfillment of what is said in Luke:

“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (Hebrews 1:1-3 ESV)

In times past God spoke through His prophets. Now He speaks through His Son.

Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary summarizes the Hebrews passage nicely:

“1:1-3 God spake to his ancient people at sundry times, through successive generations, and in divers manners, as he thought proper; sometimes by personal directions, sometimes by dreams, sometimes by visions, sometimes by Divine influences on the minds of the prophets. The gospel revelation is excellent above the former, in that it is a revelation, which God has made by his Son. In beholding the power, wisdom, and goodness of the Lord Jesus Christ, we behold the power, wisdom, and goodness of the Father, Joh 14:7; the fulness of the Godhead dwells, not typically, or in a figure, but really, in him. When, on the fall of man, the world was breaking to pieces under the wrath and curse of God, the Son of God, undertaking the work of redemption, sustained it by his almighty power and goodness. From the glory of the person and office of Christ, we proceed to the glory of his grace. The glory of His person and nature, gave to his sufferings such merit as was a full satisfaction to the honour of God, who suffered an infinite injury and affront by the sins of men. We never can be thankful enough that God has in so many ways, and with such increasing clearness, spoken to us fallen sinners concerning salvation. That he should by himself cleanse us from our sins is a wonder of love beyond our utmost powers of admiration, gratitude, and praise.” (3)

Hence, Jesus is the fulfillment of the future prophet spoken of in Deuteronomy 18:15. Moreover, the perfection of Christ in His position as head of the Church negates the need for Old Testament type prophets functioning today. This argument of Christ’s headship rests upon the sufficiency of Christ. Christ’s representatives today are pastors, teachers and deacons. For elders, see Titus 1:5, 7; Acts 20:17, 28 and for deacons see Acts 20:35; 1Timothy 5:17.

Christ and His exalted place as the head of the Church:

“And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church.” (Ephesians 1:22)

Offices of Christ as head of the Church:

Presently Jesus occupies three main offices: Prophet, Priest, and King first seen in the Old Covenant with Israel. In the New Covenant, these three offices became combined into one office held exclusively by the Lord Jesus Christ.

These Messianic offices anticipated in the Old Covenant:

The Messianic Prophet is seen in “The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken.” (Deuteronomy 18:15)

The Messianic Priest is seen in: “The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent; Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” (Psalm 110:4)

The Messianic King is seen in “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.” (Psalm 2:6)

Scriptural passages that support the Threefold offices of Christ:

From Scripture, Christ as a Prophet:

“A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.” (Acts 3:22-23)

From Scripture, Christ as a Priest:

“Even he shall build the temple of the LORD and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.” (Zechariah 6:13)

From Scripture, Christ as a King:

“Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.” (Psalm 2:6)

“Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass’s colt.” (John 12:15)

“Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords.” (1Timothy 6:15)

Christ holds the unified office of Prophet, Priest, and King, and shares it with no one. The writer of Hebrews in 7:13-17 declares that Jesus is the one eternal high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

Now for some valuable overviews of the Old Testament biblical prophets.

General characteristics of a prophet by Louis Berkhof:

“THE SCRIPTURAL IDEA OF A PROPHET.

1. The terms used in Scripture. The Old Testament uses three words to designate a prophet, namely, nabhi, ro’eh, and chozeh. The radical meaning of the word nabhi is uncertain, but it is evident from such passages as Ex. 7:1 and Deut. 18:18 that the word designates one who comes with a message from God to the people. The words ro’eh and chozeh stress the fact that the prophet is one who receives revelations from God, particularly in the form of visions. These words are used interchangeably. Other designations are “man of God”, “messenger of the Lord”, and “watchman”. These appellatives indicate that the prophets are in the special service of the Lord, and watch for the spiritual interests of the people. In the New Testament the word prophetes is used, which is composed of pro and phemi. The preposition is not temporal in this case. Consequently, the word prophemi does not mean “to speak beforehand”, but “to speak forth”. The prophet is one who speaks forth from God. From these names, taken together, we gather that a prophet is one who sees things, that is, who receives revelations, who is in the service of God, particularly as a messenger, and who speaks in His name.
2. The two elements combined in the idea. The classical passages, Ex. 7:1 and Deut. 18:18 indicate that there are two elements in the prophetic function, the one passive, and the other active, the one receptive, and the other productive. The prophet receives divine revelations in dreams, visions, or verbal communications; and passes these on to the people, either orally, or visibly in prophetical actions, Num. 12:6-8; Isa. 6; Jer. 1:4-10; Ezek. 3:1-4,17. Of these two elements, the passive is the most important, because it controls the active element. Without receiving, the prophet cannot give, and he cannot give more than he receives. But the active is also an integral element. One who receives a revelation is not yet necessarily a prophet. Think of Abimelech, Pharaoh, and Nebuchadnezzar, who all received revelations. What constitutes one a prophet, is the divine calling, the instruction, to communicate the divine revelation to others.
3. The duty of the prophets. It was the duty of the prophets to reveal the will of God to the people. This might be done in the form of instruction, admonition and exhortation, glorious promises, or stern rebukes. They were the ministerial monitors of the people, the interpreters of the law, especially in its moral and spiritual aspects. It was their duty to protest against mere formalism, to stress moral duty, to urge the necessity of spiritual service, and to promote the interests of truth and righteousness. If the people departed from the path of duty, they had to call them back to the law and to the testimony, and to announce the coming terror of the Lord upon the wicked. But their work was also intimately related to the promise, the gracious promises of God for the future. It was their privilege to picture the glorious things, which God had in store for His people. It is also evident from Scripture that the true prophets of Israel typified the great coming prophet of the future, Deut. 18:15, cf. Acts 3:22-24, and that He was already functioning through them in the days of the Old Testament, I Pet. 1:11.” (4)

Another overview of biblical prophets during Old Testament times from the Easton Bible Dictionary:

Prophet

“(Heb. nabi, from a root meaning, “to bubble forth, as from a fountain,” hence “to utter,” Compare Psalms 45:1). This Hebrew word is the first and the most generally used for a prophet. In the time of Samuel another word, ro’eh, “seer,” began to be used (1Samuel 9:9). It occurs seven times in reference to Samuel. Afterwards another word, hozeh, “seer” (2Samuel 24:11), was employed. In 1Chronicles, 29:29, all these three words are used: “Samuel the seer (ro’eh), Nathan the prophet (nabi‘), Gad the seer” (hozeh). In Josh 13:22Balaam is called (Heb.) a kosem “diviner,” a word used only of a false prophet.

The “prophet” proclaimed the message given to him, as the “seer” beheld the vision of God. (See Numbers 12:6 Numbers 12:8.) Thus a prophet was a spokesman for God; he spake in God’s name and by his authority (Exodus 7:1). He is the mouth by which God speaks to men (Jeremiah 1:9; Isaiah 51:16), and hence what the prophet says is not of man but of God (2Peter 1:20 2Peter 1:21; Compare Hebrews 3:7; Acts 4:25; 28:25). Prophets were the immediate organs of God for the communication of his mind and will to men (Deuteronomy 18:18 Deuteronomy 18:19). The whole Word of God may in this general sense be spoken of as prophetic, inasmuch as it was written by men who received the revelation they communicated from God, no matter what its nature might be. The foretelling of future events was not a necessary but only an incidental part of the prophetic office. The great task assigned to the prophets whom God raised up among the people was “to correct moral and religious abuses, to proclaim the great moral and religious truths which are connected with the character of God, and which lie at the foundation of his government.”

Any one being a spokesman for God to man might thus be called a prophet. Thus Enoch, Abraham, and the patriarchs, as bearers of God’s message (Genesis 20:7; Exodus 7:1; Psalms 105:15), as also Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15; 34:10; Hosea 12:13), are ranked among the prophets. The seventy elders of Israel (Numbers 11:16-29), “when the spirit rested upon them, prophesied;” Asaph and Jeduthun “prophesied with a harp” (1Chronicles 25:3). Miriam and Deborah were prophetesses (Exodus 15:20; Judges 4:4). The title thus has a general application to all who have messages from God to men.

But while the prophetic gift was thus exercised from the beginning, the prophetical order as such began with Samuel. Colleges, “schools of the prophets,” were instituted for the training of prophets, who were constituted, a distinct order (1Samuel 19:18-24; 2Kings 1Samuel 2:3 1Samuel 2:15; 4:38), which continued to the close of the Old Testament. Such “schools” were established at Ramah, Bethel, Gilgal, Gibeah, and Jericho. The “sons” or “disciples” of the prophets were young men (2Kings 5:22; 2Kings 9:1 2Kings 9:4) who lived together at these different “schools” (4:38-41). These young men were taught not only the rudiments of secular knowledge, but they were brought up to exercise the office of prophet, “to preach pure morality and the heart-felt worship of Jehovah, and to act along and co-ordinately with the priesthood and monarchy in guiding the state aright and checking all attempts at illegality and tyranny.”

In New Testament times the prophetical office was continued. Our Lord is frequently spoken of as a prophet Luke 13:33; 24:19). He was and is the great Prophet of the Church. There was also in the Church a distinct order of prophets (1Corinthians 12:28; Ephesians 2:20; 3:5), who made new revelations from God. They differed from the “teacher,” whose office it was to impart truths already revealed.

Of the Old Testament prophets there are sixteen, whose prophecies form part of the inspired canon. These are divided into four groups:

The prophets of the northern kingdom (Israel), viz., Hosea, Amos, Joel, Jonah.

The prophets of Judah, viz., Isaiah, Jeremiah, Obadiah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah.

The prophets of Captivity, viz., Ezekiel and Daniel.

The prophets of the Restoration, viz., Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.” (5)

Comments:

A true prophet spoke the Word of God. After the closing of the canon of Scripture ongoing divine revelation ceased along with the prophetic office. See this writer’s chapters on “Sola Scriptura” and the “Primacy of Scripture” in the book The Religion that started in a Hat. We are still to be on guard against false prophets “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Matthew 7:15). This warning does not prove that there are real prophets.

With the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, prophets from among men of old during the infancy of redemptive history are no longer needed. Christ Jesus is our heavenly prophet and mediator.

A necessary aside, we will look at the unique Mediatorship of Christ:

Westminster Confession of Faith Chapter 8:1-3 and Scriptural proofs addresses this:

Section 1.) It pleased God, in His eternal purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, His only begotten Son, to be the Mediator between God and man;(1) the Prophet,(2) Priest,(3) and King;(4) the Head and Saviour of His Church;(5) the Heir of all things;(6) and Judge of the world;(7) unto whom He did from all eternity give a people, to be His seed,(8) and to be by Him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified.(9)

(1) Isa 42:1; 1Pe 1:19,20; John 3:16; 1Ti 2:5 (2) Ac 3:22 (3) Heb. 5:5,6 (4) Ps 2:6; Lk 1:33 (5) Eph. 5:23 (6) Heb. 1:2 (7) Ac 17:31 (8) John 17:6; Ps 22:30; Isa 53:10 (9) 1Ti 2:6; Isa 55:4,5; 1Co 1:30

Section 2.) The Son of God, the second person in the Trinity, being very and eternal God, of one substance and equal with the Father, did, when the fulness of time was come, take upon Him man’s nature,(1) with all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin;(2) being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, of her substance.(3) So that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion.(4) Which person is very God, and very man, yet one Christ, the only Mediator between God and man.(5)

(1) John 1:1, 14; 1Jn 5:20; Philippians 2:6; Gal 4:4 (2) Heb. 2:14, 16, 17; Heb. 4:15 (3) Lk 1:27, 31, 35; Gal 4:4 (4) Lk 1:35; Col 2:9; Ro 9:5; 1Pe 3:18; 1Ti 3:16 (5) Ro 1:3, 4; 1Ti 2:5

Section 3.) The Lord Jesus, in His human nature thus united to the divine, was sanctified and anointed with the Holy Spirit above measure;(1) having in Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge;(2) in whom it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell:(3) to the end, that being holy, harmless, undefiled, and full of grace and truth,(4) He might be thoroughly furnished to execute the office of a Mediator and Surety.(5) Which office He took not unto Himself, but was thereunto called by His Father;(6) who put all power and judgment into His hand, and gave Him commandment to execute the same.(7)

(1) Ps 45:7; John 3:34 (2) Col 2:3 (3) Col 1:19 (4) Heb. 7:26; John 1:14 (5) Ac 10:38; Heb. 12:24; Heb. 7:22 (6) Heb. 5:4, 5 (7) John 5:22, 27; Mt 28:18; Ac 2:36

In particular, note what section three states:

The Confession of Faith, (chap. 8.3.), declares, “Which office he took not to himself, but was thereunto called by his Father, who put all power and judgment into his hand, and gave him a commandment to execute the same.” This reference is speaking of Christ the Mediator.

What is a Mediator? Easton’s Bible Dictionary has a nice entry that is helpful:

“It is one who intervenes between two persons who are at variance, with a view to reconcile them. This word is not found in the Old Testament; but the idea it expresses is found in Job 9:33, in the word “daysman” (q.v.), marg., “umpire.”

This word is used in the New Testament to denote simply an internuncius, an ambassador, one who acts as a medium of communication between two contracting parties. In this sense, Moses is called a mediator in Galatians 3:19.

Christ is the one and only mediator between God and man (1Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 8:6; 9:15; 12:24). He makes reconciliation between God and man by his all-perfect atoning sacrifice. Such a mediator must be at once divine and human, divine, that his obedience and his sufferings might possess infinite worth, and that he might possess infinite wisdom and knowledge and power to direct all things in the kingdoms of providence and grace which are committed to his hands (Matthew 28:18; John 5:22 John 5:25 John 5:26 John 5:27); and human, that in his work he might represent man, and be capable of rendering obedience to the law and satisfying the claims of justice (Hebrews 2:17 Hebrews 2:18; Hebrews 4:15 Hebrews 4:16), and that in his glorified humanity he might be the head of a glorified Church (Romans 8:29).

This office involves the three functions of prophet, priest, and king, all of which are discharged by Christ both in his estate of humiliation and exaltation. These functions are so inherent in the one office that the quality appertaining to each gives character to every mediatorial act. They are never separated in the exercise of the office of mediator.” (6)

In closing:

“Then comes the end, when he [Jesus] shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” (1Corinthians 15:24-26)

Christ is now reigning and as our prophet, priest, and king and His work as the heavenly mediator further invalidates the need for an Old Testament like prophets functioning in the New Covenant era. Christ’s reign is continuing as we still are awaiting the last enemy death to be destroyed. The prophetic, priestly, and kingly offices of the Old Covenant all find perfect fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ. Do we need a prophet today? Yes, it is Jesus, and He is our all-sufficient prophet.

Notes:

1. H. D. M. Spence and Joseph S. Exell, The Pulpit Commentary, Deuteronomy, Vol.3., (Grand Rapids, Michigan, Eerdmans Publishing Company reprint 1978), p. 303-304.
2. John Gill, Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, Luke, (Grace Works, Multi-Media Labs), 2011, p. 200.
3. Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary, Hebrews, (Nashville, Tennessee, Thomas Nelson), p. 1992.
4. Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans Publishing, 1949), pp. 357-358.
5. M.G. Easton M.A., D.D., Illustrated Bible Dictionary, “Prophet,” Third Edition, published by Thomas Nelson, 1897.
6. M.G. Easton M.A., D.D., Illustrated Bible Dictionary, “Mediator,” Third Edition, published by Thomas Nelson, 1897.

“To God, only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.” (Romans 16:27) and “heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:28, 29)

Mr. Kettler has previously published articles in the Chalcedon Report and Contra Mundum. He and his wife Marea attend the Westminster, CO, RPCNA Church. Mr. Kettler is the author of the book defending the Reformed Faith against attacks, titled: The Religion That Started in a Hat. Available at: THERELIGIONTHATSTARTEDINAHAT.COM

For more Study:

* Got Questions https://www.gotquestions.org/prophet-Bible.html

**    https://carm.org/dictionary-prophet

The Names of Jesus by Jack Kettler

The name of the Savior Jesus is significant in New Testament usage in that it is comparable the use of the name of God in the Old Testament.

The original Hebrew-Aramaic name of Jesus is yeshu‘a, which is short for yehōshu‘a or Joshua. The etymological account of the name Jesus is as follows: in Hebrew/Aramaic yeshu‘a in Greek it became Iēsous, then Latin Iesus, and then into English as Jesus.

Here is just some of what the Scripture says about the name of Jesus:

“For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20) (Yellow highlighting mine)

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become Children of God, to those who believe in His name.” (John 1:12)

“And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.” (Acts 3:16)

“Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

“And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, given thanks to God the father through Him.” (Colossians 3:17)

When you study the names of Jesus in Scripture, you will see Him in a more profound way.

The following is an abbreviated list of names of the Lord Jesus Christ appearing in the New Testament. In addition, His prophetic names appearing in the Old Testament.

The Strong’ number is listed in between the Hebrew or Greek word followed by the transliteration for study convenience.

Example one Hebrew: Shiloh – (שִׁיל֔וֹ) 7886 (šî-lōw,

Example 2 Greek: High Priest – ἀρχιερέα 749 archierea

The names of our Lord:

Almighty – Παντοκράτωρ 3841 Pantokratōr

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8)

Alpha And Omega – Ἄλφα, 1 Alpha – Ὦ, 5598 Ō

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8)

Apostle of our Profession – Ἀπόστολον 652 Apostolon – ὁμολογίας 3671 homologias

“Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession.” (Hebrews 3:1)

Amen – Ἀμήν 281 Amēn

“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.” (Revelation 3:14)

Author (founder) and Finisher (perfecter) – ἀρχηγὸν 747 archēgon – τελειωτὴν 5051 teleiōtēn

“Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2)

Beloved – Ἠγαπημένῳ, 25 Ēgapēmenō

“To the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:6)

Beloved Servant – ἀγαπητός 27 agapētos – παῖς 3816 pais

“Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.” (Matthew 12:18)

Blessed And Only Potentate – μακάριος 3107 makarios – μόνος 3441 monos – Δυνάστης, 1413 Dynastēs

“Which he will display at the proper time he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords.” (1Timothy 6:15)

Beginning of God’s Creation – ἀρχὴ 746 archē – Θεοῦ 2316 Theou – κτίσεως 2937 ktiseōs

“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.” (Revelation 3:14)

Branch – וְנֵ֖צֶר 5342 wə-nê-ṣer

“There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.” (Isaiah 11:1)

Bread of Life – ἄρτος 740 artos – ζωῆς· 2222 zōēs

“Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35)

Bridegroom – νυμφίος; 3566 nymphios

“And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.” (Matthew 9:15)

Bright Morning Star – λαμπρός, 2986 lampros – πρωϊνός. 4407 prōinos – ἀστὴρ 792 astēr

“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” (Revelation 22:16)

Captain of Salvation – ἀρχηγὸν 747 archēgon – σωτηρίας 4991 sōtērias

“For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering.” (Hebrews 2:10)

Chief Shepherd – Ἀρχιποίμενος 750 Archipoimenos

“And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.” (1Peter 5:4)

Carpenter – τέκτων, 5045 tektōn

“Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us? And they took offense at him.” (Mark 6:3)

Chosen One – ἐκλεκτός. 1588 eklektos

“And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” (Luke 23:35)

Consolation of Israel – παράκλησιν 3874 paraklēsin – Ἰσραήλ, 2474 Israēl

“Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.” (Luke 2:25)

Christ of God – Χριστὸν 5547 Christon – Θεοῦ. 2316 Theou

“Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered, “The Christ of God.” (Luke 9:20)

The Cornerstone – ἀκρογωνιαίου 204 akrogōniaiou

“Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.” (Ephesians 2:20)

Dayspring – ἀνατολὴ 395 anatolē

“Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring (the Sunshine) from on high hath visited us.” (Luke 1:78)

Deliverer – Ῥυόμενος, 4506 Rhyomenos

“And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion; he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.” (Romans 11:26)

Desire of the Nations – חֶמְדַּ֣ת 2532 ḥem-daṯ – הַגּוֹיִ֔ם 1471 hag-gō-w-yim,

“And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Haggai 2:7)

Door – θύρα· 2374 thyra

“I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” (John 10:9)

Everlasting Father – אֲבִיעַ֖ד 5703 ’ă-ḇî-‘aḏ

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6)

Emmanuel – אֵֽל׃ 6005 ’êl.

“Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)

Faithful Witness – πιστός, 4103 pistos – μάρτυς 3144 martys

“And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.” (Revelation 1:5)

First and Last – πρῶτος 4413 prōtos – ἔσχατος 2078 eschatos

“When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last.” (Revelation 1:17)

First Begotten – πρωτότοκος 4416 prōtotokos

“And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.” (Revelation 1:5)

Forerunner – πρόδρομος 4274 prodromos

“Where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 6:20)

Glory of the Lord – כְּב֣וֹד 3519 kə-ḇō-wḏ – יְהוָ֑ה 3068 Yah-weh;

“And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” (Isaiah 40:5)

God – יְהוָ֑ה 3068 Yah-weh;

“A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” (Isaiah 40:3)

God Blessed – Θεὸς 2316 Theos – εὐλογητὸς 2128 eulogētos

“To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.” (Romans 9:5)

Good Shepherd – καλός. 2570 kalos – ποιμὴν 4166 poimēn

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11)

High Priest – ἀρχιερέα 749 archierea

“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.” (Hebrews 4:14)

Head of the Church – κεφαλὴ 2776 kephalē – τῆς 3588 tēs – ἐκκλησίας, 1577 ekklēsias

“For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.” (Ephesians 5:23)

Apostle and High Priest – Ἀπόστολον 652 Apostolon – Ἀρχιερέα 749 Archierea

“Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession.” (Hebrews 3:1)

Holy One – Ἅγιος 40 Hagios

“What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” (Mark 1:24)

Hope – ἐλπίδος 1680 elpidos

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope.” (1Timothy 1:1)

A Horn of Salvation – κέρας 2768 keras – σωτηρίας 4991 sōtērias

“And has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.” (Luke 1:69)

I Am – ἐγὼ 1473 egō – εἰμί. 1510 eimi

“Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” (John 8:58)

Image of God – εἰκὼν 1504 eikōn – Θεοῦ. 2316 Theou

“In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2Corinthians 4:4)

Jesus – Ἰησοῦν· 2424 Iēsoun

“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21)

Judge – κριτής, 2923 kritēs

“Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.” (2Timothy 4:8)

Lamb – Ἀρνίου 721 Arniou

“And all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.” (Revelation 13:8)

Lamb of God – Ἀμνὸς 286 Amnos – Θεοῦ 2316 Theou

“The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)

Leader and Commander – נָגִ֥יד 5057 nā-ḡîḏ – וּמְצַוֵּ֖ה 6680 ū-mə-ṣaw-wêh

“Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples.” (Isaiah 55:4)

The Life – ἡ 3588 hē – ζωή· 2222 zōē

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

Light of the World – φῶς 5457 phōs – τοῦ 3588 tou – κόσμου· 2889 kosmou

“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)

Lion of the Tribe of Judah – Λέων 3023 Leōn – φυλῆς 5443 phylēs – Ἰούδα, 2448 Iouda

“And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.” (Revelation 5:5)

Lord of All – Κύριος. 2962 Kyrios – πάντων 3956 pantōn

“As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all).” (Acts 10:36)

Lord of Glory – Κύριον 2962 Kyrion – δόξης 1391 doxēs

“None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” (1Corinthians 2:8)

Lord is our Righteousness – יְהוָ֥ה ׀ 3068 Yah-weh – צִדְקֵֽנוּ׃ 6664 ṣiḏ-qê-nū.

“In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’ (Jeremiah 23:6)

Living Water – ζῶν. 2198 zōn – ὕδωρ 5204 hydōr

“Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:10)

Lord of Lords – ΚΥΡΙΟΣ 2962 KYRIOS – ΚΥΡΙΩΝ. 2962 KYRIŌN

“On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.” (Revelation 19:16)

King of the Jews – βασιλεὺς 935 basileus – τῶν 3588 tōn – Ἰουδαίων; 2453 Ioudaiōn

“Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” (Matthew 2:2)

Man of Sorrows – אִ֥ישׁ 376 ’îš – מַכְאֹב֖וֹת 4341 maḵ-’ō-ḇō-wṯ

“He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” (Isaiah 53:3)

Mediator – μεσίτης 3316 mesitēs

“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1Timothy 2:5)

Master – Διδάσκαλε, 1320 Didaskale

“And a certain scribe came, and said unto him, Master; (teacher) I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.” (Matthew 8:19)

Messenger of the Covenant – וּמַלְאַ֨ךְ 4397 ū-mal-’aḵ – הַבְּרִ֜ית 1285 hab-bə-rîṯ

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.” (Malachi 3:1)

Messiah – מָשִׁ֣יחַ 4899 mā-šî-aḥ

“Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.” (Daniel 9:25)

Mighty God – גִּבּ֔וֹר 1368 gib-bō-wr, – אֵ֣ל 410 ’êl

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6)

Mighty One – אֲבִ֥יר 46 ’ă-ḇîr

“You shall suck the milk of nations; you shall nurse at the breast of kings; and you shall know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.” (Isaiah 60:16)

Mine Elect – בְּחִירִ֖י 972 bə-ḥî-rî

“Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, (My Chosen one) in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.” (Isaiah 42:1)

Morning Star – πρωϊνός. 4407 prōinos – ἀστὴρ 792 astēr

“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” (Revelation 22:16)

Nazarene – Ναζαρέτ· 3478 Nazaret

“And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.” (Matthew 2:23)

Only Begotten – μονογενὴς 3439 monogenēs

No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” (John 1:18)

Our Passover – πάσχα 3957 pascha – ἡμῶν 1473 hēmōn

“Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.” (1Corinthians 5:7)

Prince of Life – Ἀρχηγὸν 747 Archēgon – ζωῆς 2222 zōēs

“And killed the Prince (author) of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.” (Acts 3:15)

Prince of Kings – ἄρχων 758 archōn – βασιλέων 935 basileōn

“And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince (ruler) of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.” (Revelation 1:5)

Prince of Peace – שַׂר־ 8269 śar- – שָׁלֽוֹם׃ 7965 šā-lō-wm.

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6)

Prophet – προφήτης 4396 prophētēs

“When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” (John 6:14)

Redeemer – גֹּ֣אֲלִי 1350 gō-’ă-lî

“For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.” (Job 19:25)

Resurrection and the Life – ἀνάστασις 386 anastasis – καὶ 2532 kai – ἡ 3588 hē – ζωή· 2222 zōē

“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” (John 11:25)

Rock – πέτρα 4073 petra

“And all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.” (1Corinthians 10:4)

Root of David – ῥίζα 4491 rhiza – Δαυίδ, – 1138 Dauid

“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” (Revelation 22:16)

Rose of Sharon – חֲבַצֶּ֣לֶת 2261 ḥă-ḇaṣ-ṣe-leṯ – הַשָּׁר֔וֹן 8289 haš-šā-rō-wn,

“I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.” (Song of Solomon 2:1)

Savior – Σωτὴρ 4990 Sōtēr

“They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” (John 4:42)

Shepherd – Ποιμένα 4166 Poimena

“For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” (1Peter 2:25)

Shiloh – (שִׁיל֔וֹ) 7886 (šî-lōw,

“The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.” (Genesis 49:10)

Son of God – Υἱὸν 5207 Huion – Θεοῦ, 2316 Theou

“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.” (Hebrews 4:14)

Son of the Blessed – Υἱὸν 5207 Huion – Εὐλογητοῦ; 2128 Eulogētou

“But he remained silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” (Mark 14:61)

Son of David – Υἱὸν 5207 Huion – Δαυὶδ 1138 Dauid

“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” (Matthew 1:1)

Son of the Highest – Υἱὸν 5207 Huion – Ὑψίστου 2564 Hypsistou

“He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David.” (Luke 1:32)

Sun of Righteousness – שֶׁ֣מֶשׁ 8121 še-meš – צְדָקָ֔ה 6666 ṣə-ḏā-qāh,

“But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.” (Malachi 4:2)

The Just One – τοῦ 3588 tou – Δικαίου 1342 Dikaiou

“Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just (righteous) One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers.” (Acts 7:52)

True Vine – ἀληθινή, 228 alēthinē – ἄμπελος 288 ampelos

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.” (John 15:1)

The Way, the Truth, and the Life – Ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ὁδὸς καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια καὶ ἡ ζωή

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

Wisdom of God – σοφίαν. 4678 sophian – Θεοῦ 2316 Theou

“But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1Corinthians 1:24)

Wonderful Counselor – פֶּ֠לֶא 6382 pe-le – יוֹעֵץ֙ 3289 yō-w-‘êṣ

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6)

Word – Λόγος, 3056 Logos

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)

In conclusion, we can agree with the apostle Paul:

“Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him a name, which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the father.” (Philippians 2:9-11)

Mr. Kettler has previously published articles in the Chalcedon Report and Contra Mundum. He and his wife Marea attend the Westminster, CO, RPCNA Church. Mr. Kettler is the author of the book defending the Reformed Faith against attacks, titled: The Religion That Started in a Hat. Available at: http://www.TheReligionThatStartedInAHat.com

Isaiah 9:6 a devotional apologetic Re: “Everlasting Father”                         by Jack Kettler

“For to us a child is born, to us, a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6 ESV)

Isaiah 9:6 is one of the most beautiful passages of Scripture. This study is only going to focus on one phrase from this passage. The entire passage is worthy of study and meditation. Contemplate the cross-references to this prophetic passage as part of the devotional reading.

Cross References

Matthew 1:1 “This is the record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”

Matthew 1:23 “Behold, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel (which means, “God with us”).”

Matthew 28:18 “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.”

Luke 2:11 “Today in the City of David, a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord!”

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

1Corinthians 15:25 “For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.”

Ephesians 2:14 “For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has torn down the dividing wall of hostility.”

Ephesians 2:15 “By abolishing in His flesh the law of commandments and decrees. He did this to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace.”

Deuteronomy 10:17 “For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, showing no partiality and accepting no bribe.”

Isaiah 10:21 “A remnant will return, a remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God.”

Isaiah 11:1 “A shoot will spring up from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.”

Isaiah 11:2 “The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him–the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.”

Isaiah 16:5 “In loving devotion a throne will be established in the tent of David. A judge seeking justice and prompt in righteousness will sit on it in faithfulness.”

Isaiah 22:22 “I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. What he opens, no one can shut; what he shuts, no one can open.”

Isaiah 26:3 “The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in You.”

Isaiah 26:12 “O LORD, You will establish peace for us, for, indeed, all that we have accomplished, You have done for us.”

Isaiah 28:29 “This also comes from the LORD of Hosts, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent wisdom.”

Daniel 2:44 “In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, and this kingdom will not be left to another people. It will shatter all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself stand forever.”

Daniel 9:25 “Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, until the Messiah, the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of distress.”

Haggai 2:9 “The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former, says the LORD of Hosts. And in this place I will provide peace, declares the LORD of Hosts.”

Introduction the apologetic aspect of this devotional:

Unfortunately, due to inexcusable ignorance, and malfeasance, there is some controversy surrounding the phrase in this passage, “Everlasting Father.” What would this controversy be? Is Isaiah teaching that Jesus is the same person as God the Father? If so, this would, according some eisegetes (those who import or read into the text), have Isaiah promoting a form of modalism.

What is modalism?

“Modalism teaches that the three persons of the Trinity as different “modes” of the Godhead. Adherents believed that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not distinct personalities, but different modes of God’s self-revelation. A typical modalist approach is to regard God as the Father in creation, the Son in redemption, and the Spirit in sanctification. In other words, God exists as Father, Son, and Spirit in different eras, but never as triune.”

Comments:

What did Isaiah intend to say in the passage? Was this verse a doctrinal treatise on the Trinity? Said another way, did Isaiah have the Trinity in mind when he says the Messiah will be called the Everlasting Father? There is nothing in the passage to indicate that Isaiah was teaching about the Messiah’s position within the Trinity. Isaiah was introducing Israel to the characteristics of Christ’s character. Isaiah was teaching that Jesus has the characteristics of God. Apart from establishing Christ’s deity, the passage has nothing to say about the Trinitarian nature of God. To go beyond this is to read and import unwarranted assumptions into the text. Doing this is called eisegesis or reading into the text.

To clear up any confusion, the apologetic feature of this study will to give the reader a sound understanding of the phrase “Everlasting Father” or “Father of Eternity” based on sound exegesis from recognized commentators.

The apologetic section on Isaiah 9:6:

Clearing up any confusion with a series of short selections from renowned commentators on what Isaiah meant by the term “everlasting father:”     

Pulpit Commentary:

“The Everlasting Father; rather, Everlasting or Eternal Father. But here, again, there is a singularity in the idea, which makes the omission of the article unimportant; for how could there be more than one Everlasting Father, one Creator, Preserver, Protector of mankind who was absolutely eternal? If the term “Father,” applied to our Lord, grates on our ears, we must remember that the distinction of Persons in the Godhead had not yet been revealed.” (1)

Barnes’ Notes on the Bible:

“The everlasting Father – The Chaldee renders this expression, ‘The man abiding forever.’ The Vulgate, ‘The Father of the future age.’ Lowth, ‘The Father of the everlasting age.’ Literally, it is the Father of eternity, עד אבי ‘ĕby ‛ad. The word rendered “everlasting,” עד ‛ad, properly denotes “eternity,” and is used to express “forever;” see Psalm 9:6, Psalm 9:19; Psalm 19:10. It is often used in connection with עולם ‛ôlâm, thus, עולם ועד vā‛ed ‛ôlâm, “forever and ever;” Psalm 10:16; Psalm 21:5; Psalm 45:7. The Hebrews used the term father in a great variety of senses – as a literal father, a grandfather, an ancestor, a ruler, an instructor. The phrase may either mean the same as the Eternal Father, and the sense will be, that the Messiah will not, as must be the case with an earthly king, however excellent, leave his people destitute after a short reign, but will rule over them and bless them forever (Hengstenberg); or it may be used in accordance with a custom usual in Hebrew and in Arabic, where he who possesses a thing is called the father of it.

Thus, the father of strength means strong; the father of knowledge, intelligent; the father of glory, glorious; the father of goodness, good; the father of peace, peaceful. According to this, the meaning of the phrase, the Father of eternity, is properly eternal. The application of the word here is derived from this usage. The term Father is not applied to the Messiah here with any reference to the distinction in the divine nature, for that word is uniformly, in the Scriptures, applied to the first, not to the second person of the Trinity. But it is used in reference to durations, as a Hebraism involving high poetic beauty lie is not merely represented as everlasting, but he is introduced, by a strong figure, as even the Father of eternity as if even everlasting duration owed itself to his paternity. There could not be a more emphatic declaration of strict and proper eternity. It may be added, that this attribute is often applied to the Messiah in the New Testament; John 8:58; Colossians 1:17; Revelation 1:11, Revelation 1:17-18; Hebrews 1:10-11; John 1:1-2.” (2)

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary:

“Everlasting Father—this marks Him as “Wonderful,” that He is “a child,” yet the “everlasting Father” (Joh 10:30; 14:9). Earthly kings leave their people after a short reign; He will reign over and bless them forever [Hengstenberg].” (3)

Matthew Poole’s Commentary:

“The everlasting Father, Heb. the Father of eternity, Having called him a Child, and a Son in respect of his human nature, lest this should be misinterpreted to his disparagement, he adds that he is a Father also, even the God and Father of all things; the work of creation being common and commonly ascribed to each of the persons of the blessed Trinity, the Maker and Upholder of all creatures, as he is said to be, John 1:3 Hebrews 1:3, and the Father of all believers, who are called his children, Hebrews 2:13, and the Father of eternity; either,

1. The first author (such persons being called fathers, as Genesis 4:20, and elsewhere) of eternal salvation, as he is called, Hebrews 5:9. Or,
2. As we render it, the everlasting Father, who, though as man he was then unborn, yet was and is from everlasting to everlasting. They who apply this to Hezekiah render it, the father of an age, and expound this of his long life and numerous posterity; which I the rather mention, to show what absurd shifts they are forced to use who interpret this text of any other but Christ. For he did not live very long, nor had he, that we read of, more than one son, Manasseh. And if both these things had been true of him, they were more eminently true of many other men. Besides, this Hebrew word being used of God, as here it is of him who was now called the mighty God, constantly signifies eternity, as Isaiah 26:4 57:15, &c.” (4)

Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible:

“The everlasting Father; which does not design any relation of Christ in the Godhead; and there is but one Father in the Godhead, and that is the first Person; indeed Christ and the Father are one, and the Father is in him, and he is in the Father, and he that has seen the one has seen the other, and yet they are distinct, Christ is not the Father; the Son and Spirit may be considered with the first Person as Father, in creation and regeneration, they being jointly concerned therein, but not in the Trinity: it is easy to make it appear Christ is not the Father, but is distinct from him, since he is said to be with the Father from eternity, to be the Son of the Father in truth and love, his own Son, his only begotten and beloved Son; Christ frequently calls the first Person his Father, prayed to him as such, and is our advocate with him, as well as the way unto him; he is said to be sent by the Father, to come from him, and to go to him; and many things are said of Christ that cannot be said of the Father, as his being made flesh, suffering and dying in the room of his people; and the Father is said to do many things unto him, as to anoint him, to seal him, to show him all he did, to commit all judgment to him, and give him to have life in himself as he had: but Christ is a Father with respect to chosen men, who were given him as his children and offspring in covenant; who are adopted into that family that is named of him, and who are regenerated by his Spirit and grace: and to these he is an “everlasting Father”; he was so from everlasting; for regeneration and faith do not make men children, but make them appear to be so; God’s elect are children previous to the Spirit’s work upon them, and even to the incarnation and death of Christ; adoption is an act of the will of God in covenant from eternity: and Christ is a Father to these unto everlasting; he will never die, and they shall never be left fatherless; he and they will ever continue in this relation; he as such supplies them with everlasting provisions, he clothes them with everlasting raiment, he gives them an everlasting portion, promotes them to everlasting honour, saves them with an everlasting salvation, bearing an everlasting love to them. Some render the words, “the Father of eternity” (s); the author of eternal life, who has procured it for his people, and gives it to them; or to whom eternity belongs, who inhabits it, and is possessed of it, is the everlasting I AM, was before all persons and things, was set up in an office capacity from everlasting, and had a glory with the Father before the world was, in whom eternal election, and with whom the everlasting covenant, were made. The Septuagint version is, “the Father of the world to come” (t); of the Gospel dispensation; so called, Hebrews 2:5 the legal dispensation, when in being, was the then present world, at the end of which Christ came; this is now at an end, and a new state of things has taken place, which with respect to the Old Testament saints was the world to come, and of this Christ is the Father or author; as the law came by Moses, and he was the father of the legal dispensation, grace and truth are come by Christ, the Father and author of the Gospel dispensation; the doctrines of it are from him, and the ordinances of it by him; and he is the father of that state or world to come after the resurrection, the New Jerusalem church state, and also of the ultimate glory.” (5)

Benson Commentary:

“The everlasting Father — Hebrew, אבי עד, The Father of eternity: having called him a child and a son, lest this should be misinterpreted to his disparagement, he adds that he is a Father also, even the Father of eternity, and, of course, of time, and of all creatures made in time. Christ, in union with the Father and the Holy Ghost, is the God and Father of all things, the maker and upholder of all creatures, John 1:3; Hebrews 1:3; and especially the Father of all believers, who are called his children, (Hebrews 2:13,) and the author of eternal life and salvation to them, Hebrews 5:9. Or, this title may be given him because he is the father of the new and eternal age, that is, of the economy which is to endure for ever; for Christ is the father of a new generation, to continue through all eternity; the second Adam, father of a new race; the head of a new and everlasting family, in which all the children of God are reckoned.” (6)

Now, the most important section of this devotional apologetic.

Charles Spurgeon explains why Isaiah called Jesus the “Everlasting Father” in this classic sermon:

A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Morning, December 9, 1866, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

“The everlasting Father.” (Isaiah 9:6)

“1. How complex is the person of our Lord Jesus Christ! Almost in the same breath the prophet calls him a “child,” and a “counsellor,” a “son,” and “the everlasting Father.” This is no contradiction, and to us scarcely a paradox, but it is a mighty marvel that he who was an infant should at the same time be infinite, he who was the Man of Sorrows should also be God over all, blessed for ever; and that he who is in the Divine Trinity always called the Son, should nevertheless be correctly called “the everlasting Father.” How forcibly this should remind us of the necessity of carefully studying and rightly under standing the person of our Lord Jesus Christ! We must not suppose that we shall understand him at a glance. A look will save the soul, but patient meditation alone can fill the mind with the knowledge of the Saviour. Glorious mysteries are hidden in his person. He speaks to us in the plainest of language, and he reveals himself openly in our midst, but yet in his person itself there is a height and depth which human intellect fails to measure. When he has looked long and steadily the devout observer perceives in his Well Beloved beauties so rare and ravishing that he is lost in wonder; continued contemplation conducts the soul, by the power of the Holy Spirit, into an elevation of delighted admiration which the less thoughtful know nothing about. So deep is the mystery of the person of our Lord that he must reveal himself to us or we shall never know him. He is not discovered by research nor discerned by reason. “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona,” said Christ to Peter, “for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you.” “When it pleased God,” says the apostle, “to reveal his Son in me.” Another apostle asked the question, “How is it that you reveal yourself to us?” There is no seeing Jesus except by his own light. He is the door, but no man opens that door except Jesus himself; for “he opens, and no man shuts; he shuts, and no man opens.” He is the lesson, but he is also the school teacher. He is both key and lock, answer and riddle, way and guide. He is the one to be seen, for we are to look at him; but it is by him that we are enabled to see, for he gives sight to the blind. Let us then, dear friends, if we really desire to understand that most excellent of all sciences, the science of Christ crucified, entreat the Lord himself to be our Rabbi, and beg to be allowed to sit with Mary at the Master’s feet. May this be our prayer, that “we may know him”; and may this be our desire, that “we may grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”; for “to know him is life eternal,” and to be taught by him is to be “wise to salvation.”

2. The title before us is a somewhat difficult one. Some years ago I preached to you from “His Name—Wonderful.” (See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 214, “His Name—Wonderful!” 207) (See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 215, “His Name—the Counsellor” 208) (See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 258, “His Name—The Mighty God” 251) I felt I could expatiate upon that with ease. We advanced as far as “Counsellor,” and then we stopped a while. After a time we were led to preach upon “The Mighty God”; but we have been somewhat doubting our ability to expound on this particular title, for there is a depth in it which we are not able to fathom. This morning I cannot pretend to dive into the profound depths of the word, but can only skim the surface as the swallow skims the sea. I have no silver of deep learning and gold of profound thought; but such as I have, I give to you. If my basket contains nothing more than a barley loaf and a few small fishes, may the Master of the feast multiply the food in the breaking, so that there may be enough food for his people.
3. It is necessary at the outset to observe that the Messiah is not here called “Father,” by way of any confusion with him who is preeminently called “THE FATHER.” Our Lord’s proper name, as far as the Godhead is concerned, is not the Father, but the Son. Let us beware of confusion. The Son is not the Father, neither is the Father the Son; and although they are one God, essentially and eternally, being for evermore one and indivisible, yet still the distinction of persons is to be carefully believed and observed. We do not contend For the mere word “Persons”; it is only a makeshift word, although we do not know what better term to use; but the fact is all important that the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father. Our text has no bearing upon the position and titles of the three Persons with regard to each other; it does not indicate the relation of Deity to itself, but the relation of Jesus Christ to us. He is to us “the everlasting Father.”
4. The light of the text divides itself into three rays:—Jesus is “Everlasting” he is a “Father”; he is the “Everlasting Father.”
5. I. First, Jesus Christ is EVERLASTING. Of him we may sing with David, “Your throne, oh God, is for ever and ever.” A theme for great rejoicing on our part. Rejoice, believer, in Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.
6. Jesus always was. The Babe born in Bethlehem was united to the Word, which was in the beginning, by whom all things were made. The title by which Jesus Christ revealed himself to John in Patmos was, “Him who is, and who was, and who is to come.” “His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow,” to indicate that he is the Ancient of Days.

Ere sin was born, or Satan fell,

He led the host of morning stars;

(Thy generation who can tell,

Or count the number of thy years?)

In his priesthood, Jesus, like Melchizedek, “has neither beginning of days nor end of life.” His pedigree is thus declared by Solomon:—“When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills I was brought forth; while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: when he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: when he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.” Do not think that the Son of God ever had a beginning.

Ere the blue heavens were stretch’d abroad,

From everlasting was the Word,

With God he was; the Word was God,

And must divinely be adored.

7. If he were not God from everlasting, we could not so devoutly love him; we could not feel that he had any share in the eternal love, which is the fountain of all covenant blessings. He must be eternal who has a part in the eternal purpose. Since our Redeemer was from all eternity with the Father, we trace the stream of divine love to himself equally with his Father and the blessed Spirit. We were chosen in him from before the foundation of the world, and thus in our eternal election he shines forth gloriously. We bless and praise, and magnify him that the name “Son” does not at all import any time of birth or generation, or of beginning, but we know that he is as eternally the Son as the Father is eternally the Father, and must be looked upon as God from everlasting. For he is “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: for by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they are thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”
8. Just as our Lord always was, so also he is for ever more the same. Jesus is not dead; he ever lives to make intercession for us. He has not ceased to be; he has gone out of sight; but he sits at the right hand of the Father. Of him we read, “And, you, Lord, in the beginning have laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of your hands: they shall perish; but you remain; and they all shall become old like a garment does; and like a vesture you shall fold them up, and they shall be changed: but you are the same, and your years shall not fail.” Jesus is as truly the I AM, as that Jehovah who spoke out of the burning bush to Moses, at Horeb. He lives! He lives! This is the foundation of your comfort, “Because he lives you shall live also.” “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, who is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold our profession firmly. For we do not have a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted just like we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, so that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Resort to him in all your times of need, for he is still waiting to bless you. He is made higher than the heavens, but he still receives sinners, and effectually puts away their sins; and since “he ever lives to make intercession for them; he is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God by him.”
9. Jesus, our Lord, ever shall be. He could not be called everlasting if it were supposable that he must one day cease to exist. No, believer; if God shall spare your life to fulfil your full day of threescore years and ten, you shall find that his cleansing fountain is still opened and his precious blood has not lost its power; you shall find that the Priest who filled the healing fount with his own blood still lives to purge you from all iniquity. When only your last battle remains to be fought, you shall find that the hand of your conquering Captain has not grown feeble, nor his arm waxed short; the living Saviour shall cheer the living saint. Nor is this all, for when death has taken you away as with a flood, and all the men of your generation have fallen like grass beneath the mower’s scythe, Jesus shall live, and you, caught up to heaven, shall find him there bearing the dew of his youth; and when the sun’s burning eye shall be dim with age, and the lamps of heaven shall be paled into eternal midnight, when all this world shall melt as the winter’s ice melts at the approach of spring; then you shall find the Lord Jesus still remains the perennial spring of joy, and life, and glory to his people. You may draw living waters from this sacred well! Jesus always was, he always is, he always shall be. He is eternal in all his attributes, and in all his offices, and in all his might, and power, and willingness to bless, comfort, guard, and crown his chosen people.
10. The connection of the word “Father” with the word “everlasting” allows us very fairly to remark that our Lord is as everlasting as the Father, since he himself is called “the everlasting Father”; for whatever antiquity paternity may imply is here ascribed to Christ. According to our common notions, of course, the Father must be before the Son, but we must understand that the terms used in Scripture to represent Deity to us are not intended to be literally understood, and rendered in their exact terrestrial sense; they are only descriptive as far as they may be but do not encompass the whole truth, for human language utterly fails to convey the very essence and fulness of celestial things. When God condescends to speak to men, who are only as infants before him, he adopts their childish speech, and brings down his loftiness of thought to the littleness of their capacities. Babes have no words for the thoughts of senators and philosophers, and such matters must be stated in childish language if babes are to know them, and then the statement must inevitably fall far short of the great fact. The relationship between the Father and the Son is a case in point; it is not precisely the same as the relationship between a father and a son on earth, but that happens to be the nearest approach to it among men. We must beware of stretching and straining the word in its letter, especially in points where it would make us err from the spirit of the truth. Christ Jesus is as eternal as the Father, or he would never have been called “the everlasting Father.”
11. It is the manner of the Easterners to call a man the father of a quality for which he is remarkable. To this day, among the Arabs, a wise man is called “the father of wisdom”; a very foolish man “the father of folly.” The predominant quality in the man is ascribed to him as though it were his child, and he the father of it. Now, the Messiah is here called in the Hebrew “the Father of eternity,” by which is meant that he is preeminently the possessor of eternity as an attribute. Just as the idiom, “the father of wisdom,” implies that a man is preeminently wise, so the term, “Father of eternity,” implies that Jesus is preeminently eternal; that to him, beyond and above all others, eternity may be ascribed. No language can more forcibly convey to our minds the eternity of our Lord Jesus. Indeed, without straining the language, I may say that not only is eternity ascribed to Christ, but he is here declared to be the parent of it. Imagination cannot grasp this, for eternity is a thing beyond us; yet if eternity should seem to be a thing, which can have no parent, may it be remembered that Jesus is so surely and essentially eternal, that he is here pictured as the source and Father of eternity. Jesus is not the child of eternity, but the Father of it. Eternity did not bring him forth from its mighty bowels, but he brought forth eternity. Independent, self-sustained, uncreated, eternal existence is with Jesus our Lord and God.
12. In the highest possible sense, then, Jesus Christ is “the everlasting Father.” I will only pause one minute to draw a practical inference from this doctrine. If our Emmanuel is indeed then eternal and ever living, let us never think of him as of the one dead, whom we have lost, who has ceased to be. What could be a greater sorrow than the thought of a dead Christ? He lives, and lives to care for us. He lives in all the attributes which adorned him upon earth, as gentle and kind and gracious now, as he was then. Come to him, Christian, rest upon him now, just as if he were visible in this place, and you could speak into his ear your troubles, and confess your sins at his feet. He is here spiritually; your eyes cannot see him, but faith will be better evidence to you than eyesight. Trust him now with your cares! Rest upon him in your present difficulties! And you, poor sinner, if Christ were on this platform would you not come and touch the hem of his garment, and cry, “Jesus, let your pitying eye look on me and change my heart?” Well, dear friend, Jesus lives; he is the same today as he was in the streets of Jerusalem; and although your feet cannot bear you to him, yet your desires shall serve you instead of feet; and although your finger cannot touch him, your confidence shall be instead of a hand to you. Trust him now! He whose love made him die lives on. His precious blood can never lose its power. Come now, humbly come, and confide in “the everlasting Father.”
13. II. We come, in the second place, to the difficult part of the subject; namely, Christ being called FATHER.
14. 1. In what sense is Jesus a Father? Answer, first. He is federally a Father representing those who are in him, as the head of a tribe represents his descendants. The apostle Paul comes to our help here, for in the memorable chapter in the Corinthians, he speaks of those who are in Adam, and then he talks about a second Adam. Adam is the father of all living; he federally stood for us in the garden, and federally fell and ruined us all. He was the representative man by whose obedience we should have been blessed, through whose disobedience we have been made sinners. The curse of the fall comes upon us because Adam stood in a relationship towards us in which none of us stands towards our fellows. He was the representative head for us; and what a fall was there when he fell! For every one of us in his loins fell in him. “In Adam all die.” Since his day there has been only one other here to the human race federally. It is true, Noah was the father of the present race of men, for we have all sprung from him; but there was no covenant with Noah in which he represented his posterity, no condition of obedience by which he might have obtained a reward for us, and no condition of disobedience for the breach of which we are called to smart. The only other man who is a representative man before God is the second Adam, the man Christ Jesus, the Lord from heaven. Brothers and sisters, we call Adam father mournfully, for we are cast out of Eden by him, and we till the ground with the sweat of our face; our mothers brought us forth in sorrow, and we must go to the grave in sorrow; but we who have believed in Jesus call another man father, namely, the Lord Jesus; and we speak this not sorrowfully but joyfully, for he has opened the gates of a better Paradise; he has taken away the sweat of toil from our faces spiritually, for we who have believed do “enter into rest”; he has borne himself the pangs which were brought upon us by sin, he took our sicknesses and bore our sorrows; while he has overcome the heaviest affliction, death itself, so that he who lives and believes in him shall never die, but pass out of this world into the celestial life.
15. The grand question for us is this, “Are we still under the old covenant of works?” If so, we have Adam for our father, and under that Adam we died. But are we under the covenant of grace? If so, we have Christ for our Father, and in Christ, we shall be made alive. Natural generation makes us the sons of Adam; regeneration acknowledges us as the sons of Christ. In our first birth we come under the fatherhood of the fallen one; in our second birth we enter into the fatherhood of the innocent and perfect One. In our first fatherhood we wear the image of the earthy; in the second we receive the image of the heavenly. Through our relationship to Adam we become corrupt and weak, and the body is put into the grave in dishonour, in corruption, in weakness, in shame; but when we come under the dominion of the second Adam we receive strength, and quickening, and inward spiritual life, and therefore our body rises again like seed sown which rises to a glorious harvest in the image of the heavenly, with honour, and power, and happiness, and eternal life.
16. In this sense, then, Christ is called Father; and inasmuch as the covenant of grace is older than the covenant of works, Christ is, while Adam is not, “the everlasting Father”; and inasmuch as the covenant of works as far as we are concerned passes away, being fulfilled in him, and the covenant of grace never passes but remains for ever, Christ, as the head of the new covenant, the federal representative of the great economy of grace, is “the everlasting Father.”
17. 2. Secondly, Christ is a Father in the sense of a Founder. You know, perhaps, or at least you readily remember when I remind you, that the Hebrews are in the habit of calling a man a father of a thing which he invents. For instance, in the fourth chapter of Genesis, Jubal is called the father of such as handle the harp and organ; Jabal was the father of such as dwell in tents, and have cattle; not that these were literally the fathers of such people, but the inventors of their occupations. Jabal first took upon himself a nomadic tent life, and set the example of wandering around with flocks and herds; and Jubal first put his fingers to musical strings, and his lips to pipes from which the wind is breathed melodiously. The Lord Jesus Christ is in this sense the Father of a wonderful system. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ, who brought life and immortality to light, and introduced a new phase of worship to this world is, in that respect, a Father; he is the Father of all Christians, the Father of Christianity, the Father of the entire system under which grace reigns through righteousness. Jesus is the Father of a great doctrinal system. All the great truths, which we are in the habit of delivering in your hearing as the precious truths of God sent down from heaven, fell first, clearly and powerfully, from the lips of Jesus. These things were dimly hinted at in the ceremonies of the law, but Christ first of all put them into plain letter so that he who runs may read. Practically it is Jesus who teaches us the doctrine of electing love; it is Christ who reveals to us redemption by blood; it is Christ who reveals regeneration by the work of the Spirit, saying plainly, “You must be born again.” It is Christ who reveals the perseverance of the saints. In fact, there is no doctrine of the Christian system, which is not so clearly revelled in the light of his own glorious Spirit by his teaching that we may not fairly call him the Father of it.
18. Our great Master is also the Father of a great practical system. If there are any in the world who “love their neighbours as themselves,” the Man of Nazareth is their Father; for, albeit that the law signified all that, yet men had not discovered it, but had misread the law. “Eye for eye and tooth for tooth” was their version of law; but Christ comes and says, “I say to you, ‘Do not resist evil; if any man strikes you on the one cheek, turn the other to him also.’” If any man can suffer with patience and can return good for evil, heaping coals of fire upon the head of his foes, this man is a child of Christ. If men worship God in the spirit and have no confidence in the flesh, if they know no holy place, but recognise every place as holy where a holy man is found, such are the true children of Christ, for he said, “Those who worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth.” He is the Father of spiritual worship. It has been common to call Socrates the “father of philosophy”; Jesus is Father of the philosophy of salvation; Galen, the “father of medicine,” Jesus is Father of the medicine of souls; Herodotus, “father of history”; but Jesus is the Father of heaven on earth. He is the Father of disinterested living, of true love for men; he is the Father of forgiving one’s enemies; the Father, in fact, of the divine system of the Christian life.
19. The system of salvation claims Christ to be its Father. Who else said, “By grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God?” Who except the apostle of this man, Christ Jesus? Who told men that it was not by works of righteousness which they had done, but by the merit of his passion and his life that they were saved? Who revealed the way of faith to men but Christ, the great doctrine of “Believe and live?” and those who receive it may claim Christ as Father. He is the Father of the Christian faith—a faith, my brethren, which, albeit that it has done much already for the world, for in old Rome it ended the contests in the Coliseum, threw down the bestial gods of heathendom, and albeit that it is doing much for the world even now, and helping to purge the vast Augean stable (a) of humanity, is to do more still; it is to cast out war, it is to destroy error, it is to regenerate the human race. The Father of this purifying system which is doctrinal and practical, and which has already worked the best results for men, is the Lord Jesus, and since it was devised of old, and will be prolonged as long as the world stands, he is called “the everlasting Father.”
20. 3. Now, there is a third meaning. The prophet may not so have understood it, but we so receive it, that Jesus is, in the third place, a Father in the great sense of a Life Giver, That is the main sense of “father” to the common mind. Through our fathers we are called into this world. Now it is by Christ that there is a communication of divine energy to the soul, it is through him, through his teaching, through the Spirit that he has given, through the blood that he has shed, that life is given to those who were dead in trespasses and sins. He who sits upon the throne says, “Behold, I make all things new.” “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” “This is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” “For as the Father raises up the dead, and quickens them; even so the Son quickens whom he wishes. Truly, truly, I say to you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear shall live. For just as the Father has life in himself; so he has given to the Son to have life in himself.” We know that through Jesus Christ the divine life is given to us. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” He gives the living water, and then it is in us “a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” He is that living grain of wheat, which was cast into the ground to die, so that it might not abide alone, but become a root that brings forth fruit, which fruit we now are, receiving life from him as the stem receives life from the seed from which it sprang. Jesus is our Father in that sense. It is the Spirit of God who operatively quickens the soul and makes us live, but Jesus Christ’s gospel is the channel through which the Spirit works, and Jesus Christ is the true life to us. Receiving Christ we receive life, and without him we cannot have life. “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” Just as through the energy of Adam this vast world is populated until hill and dale are covered with a teeming population, so through the life energy of our Lord Jesus Christ the plains of heaven and the celestial hills shall be populated with a throng that no man can number. Out of every realm, all people, speaking every language, having been bronzed by the heats of the torrid zone, or frozen amidst the frosts of the frigid north, Christ shall find a people into whom his quickening shall come, and they shall live through the energy of his Spirit, and he shall be their everlasting Father. It is in this sense, because that life is everlasting and can never die out, that Jesus Christ is called “the everlasting Father.”
21. Everything in us calls Christ “Father.” He is the author and finisher of our faith. If we love him, it is because he first loved us. If we patiently endure, it is by considering “him who endured such opposition of sinners against himself.” It is he who waters and sustains all our graces. We may say of him, “All my fresh springs are in you.” The Spirit brings us the water from this well of Bethlehem, but Jesus is the well itself. Spring up, oh Well! Spring up, oh Well! Divine Father, blessed Jesus, prove your Fatherhood by requickening our souls this morning according to your word!
22. 4. Fourthly, I do not think that we have yet exhausted this title of “Everlasting Father.” The term implies that Jesus Christ is to be in the future, the Patriarch of an age. Many translators render the passage, “the Father of the future age.” So Pope in his famous poem of the Messiah (b) understands it, and calls him, “The promised Father of the future age.” It has been the custom with men to speak of ages as “the age of brass or iron,” and “the age of gold.” We are always looking for this age of gold; the world’s face is constantly turned to it; so much so that quacks play upon the simplicity of men and tell them when this golden age is coming, and fleece them of their pence, and sometimes of their pounds, under the notion that they can tell them something about the good times which are coming. They know nothing about it whatever; they are blind leaders of the blind: but this one thing is clear to everyone who cares to see it, namely, that such an age of gold shall come, that a period brighter far than imagination paints will dawn upon this poor, darkened, enslaved world. I am always jealous with a godly jealousy lest you should forget this doctrine, or throw it up in disgust, because of the shameful way in which it is made merchandise of by others. Brethren, calculate no dates, sit down to devise no charts, but in your heart be satisfied with this, that there will be a kingdom and a reign, and that in that kingdom there shall be no strife to vex the nations, there shall be no affliction to grieve the people; in that kingdom Jesus, the King, shall be conspicuous, and his refulgent glory shall be the light of all the inhabitants; it shall be a New Jerusalem coming down from heaven, prepared by God, as a bride is prepared for her husband, worthy of her Lord, and a fit reward for the crown of thorns, for the flagellation of his shoulders, for the shame, the spitting, and the cross. Lift the cross high my brethren, for it shall be lifted high. Do not speak of Christ with bated breath, for he comes to be a King. You Christians, do not think yourselves, though despised and rejected of men, to be men of a lowly birth, for “it does not yet appear what you shall be; but we know that when he shall appear you shall be like him, for you shall see him as he is.” Joyfully drink the cup of bitterness, for you shall soon drink the wines on the lees well refined; cheerfully pass through the darkness, for the morning breaks, and the day dawns, and the shadows flee away. Be content to be the offscouring of all things, for one day, when kings shall bow down before him, and all nations shall call him blessed, you shall partake in his honour, and shall be as princes upon the throne with him, Yes, he is to be the Father of a future age. Men have called certain great patriots the fathers of their country. Today let us call Christ the Father of our world. Oh Jesus, you have given to earth far better than a creation. You have not only formed it from chaos into order, and then brought it from darkness into light, and then from death into warm life and beauty, but you have recovered it from worse than pristine chaos, and saved it from a darkness worse than the primeval gloom, and a death more horrible than the primeval shades. You have descended into the depths into which this pearl, the world, was cast, and like a mighty diver all the waves and billows have gone over you, but you have come up again bringing this pearl with you, and it shall glisten in your crown for ever when you shall be admired by angels and adored by all created spirits. This shall be the sweetest part of their admiration and their adoration, you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood, and therefore to you be glory for ever and ever. He shall be in this sense, then, the Father of an everlasting age.
23. 5. Once more—for the text is very prolific—Christ may be called a Father in the loving and tender sense of a Father’s office. Here is a text to show what I mean. God is called the Father of the fatherless, and Job, I think, says of himself, that he became a father to the poor. You know what it means, of course, at once; it means that he exercised a father’s part. Now, albeit that the Spirit of adoption teaches us to call God our Father, yet it is not straining truth to say that our Lord Jesus Christ exercises to all his people a Father’s part. According to the old Jewish custom the oldest brother was the father of the family in the absence of the father; the firstborn took precedence over all, and took upon him the father’s position; so the Lord Jesus, the firstborn among many brethren, exercises toward us a Father’s office. Is it not so? Has he not helped us in all times of our need as a father helps his child? Has he not supplied us with more than heavenly bread as a father gives bread to his children? Does he not daily protect us, indeed, did he not yield up his life so that we his little ones might be preserved? Will he not say at the last, “Here I am, and the children whom you have given to me; I have lost no one?” Does he not chastise us by hiding himself from us, as a father chastens his children? Do we not find him instructing us by his Spirit and leading us into all truth? Has he not told us to call no man father upon earth in the sense that he is to be our true guide and instructor, and we are to sit at his feet and make him our Rabbi and our authoritative Teacher? Is he not the head in the household to us on earth, abiding with us, and has he not said, “I will not leave you orphans (that is the Greek word); I will come to you?” As if his coming was the coming of a Father. If he is a Father, will we not give him honour? If he is the head of the household, will we not give him obedience, and say in our hearts, “Other lords have had dominion over us, but henceforth, you everlasting Father, we will give you reverence.” If he is in all these senses “the everlasting Father,”

Then let us adore, and give him his right,

All glory and power, and wisdom and might,

All honour and blessing, with angels above,

And thanks never ceasing, for infinite love.

24. III. Lastly, we weigh the words, “EVERLASTING FATHER.” I have already explained what this means. Christ is called “the everlasting Father” because he does not himself, as a Father, die or vacate his office. He is still the Federal Head and Father of his people; still the Founder of gospel truth and of the Christian system; not allowing archbishops and popes to be his vicars and to take his place. He is still the true Life Giver, from whose wounds and by whose death we are quickened; he reigns even now as the patriarchal King; he is still the loving family Head; and so, in every sense, he lives as a Father. But here is a sweet thought. He himself neither dies, nor becomes childless. He does not lose his children. If his church could perish, he would not be the Father. How could he be a Father without a son? And this is the best of all, that he is “an everlasting Father” to all those to whom he is a Father at all. If you have entered into this relationship so as to be in union with Christ, and to be covered with the skirts of his garment, you are his child, and you shall forever be. There is no unfathering Christ, and there is no unchilding us. He is everlastingly a Father to those who trust in him, and he never does at any one moment cease to be Father to any one of these. This morning you may have come here in trouble, but Christ is still your Father. Today you may be much depressed in spirit and full of doubts and fears; but a true father never ceases, if he is a father, to exercise his kindness to a child; nor does Jesus cease to love and pity you. He will help you. Go to him, and you shall find that loving Friend to be as tender as in the days of his flesh.
25. He is the author of an eternal system. As I glanced at the words “everlasting Father,” and thought of him as the Founder of an everliving system, I said to myself, “Ah then, the Christian religion will never die out!” It is not possible that the truth as it is in Jesus should ever be put away if he is “the everlasting Father.” I feel as if I could quote again Master Hugh Latimer, when, standing back to back with Ridley, “Courage, Master Ridley,” he said, “today we shall light such a candle in England as shall never be put out.” Look over there at Christ on the cross! He did that day light such a candle as never can be put out. He is “the everlasting Father.” He set rolling that day as it were a snowflake of truth as he died upon the cross; and you know what the snowflake does upon the high Alps; a bird’s wing perhaps sets it rolling, and it gathers another and another and another, until, as it descends, it becomes a mass of snow; and by and by as it leaps from crag to crag, it grows greater and greater and greater, until ponderous masses of ice and snow cohere together, and at the last, with an awful thundering crash the avalanche rolls down, fills the valley, and sweeps all before it; even so this Everlasting Father on the cross set in motion a mighty force which has gone on swelling and increasing, gathering to be a ponderous mass of mighty teaching, and the day shall come when, like an irresistible avalanche it shall fall upon the palaces of the Vatican and upon the towers of Rome, when the mosques of Mohammed and the temples of the gods shall be crushed beneath its stupendous weight, and the Everlasting Father shall have done the deed.
26. “The everlasting Father,” last of all, because he is the Father, in all his people, of eternal life. Adam, you are a father, but where are your sons? If you could return to earth, oh Mother Eve! where would you find your children? I think I see her as she paces around the earth and finds nothing but little grassy mounds, heaps of turf, and sometimes a valley sodden blood red where her children have been killed in battle. I hear her weeping for her children; she will not be comforted because they are not! But hush, Mother Eve, what life did you give them? What kind of life was that which Father Adam conferred upon your sons and daughters? Why, it was only terrestrial life, a bubble life, that melted and disappeared. But Jesus as he comes again will find none of his children dead, none of his sons and daughters lost; because he lives they live also, for he is the everlasting Father, and makes those to have everlasting life who live and breathe through him. Thrice happy are those who have an interest in the truth of our text!
27. Now, dear hearers, may I ask you whether Christ is an everlasting Father to you? There are other fathers. The Jew said, “We have Abraham for our father,” and to this day certain divines teach that we have covenant rights because of our earthly fathers. They believe in the Abrahamic covenant much after the manner of the Jews. “We have Abraham for our father”; therefore we have a right to baptism, therefore we are church members; “born into the church.” Yes, I have heard it said, “born into the church.” Let no man deceive you; this is not Christ’s teaching. “You must be born again.” If not, though your mother would be a saint in heaven, and your father an undoubted apostle of God, you should derive no advantage, but a world of solemn responsibility from the fact, unless you yourself are born again. Do not then say to yourself, “we have Abraham for our father,” for God is able from the very stones to raise up children to Abraham. We had a very remarkable instance not very long ago in this Tabernacle, of how God does sometimes bless the outcasts and leaves some of you, the children of godly parents, in the hardness of your heart to perish. There was a man known in the village where he lives by the name of Satan, because of his being so thoroughly depraved. He was a sailor, and since another sailor in that town had been the means of the conversion of all the sailors in a vessel that left the town, this man desired to sail with him to try and beat his religion out of him. He did his best, but he failed miserably; and as they happened to be coming to London, his friend asked him whether he would come to the Tabernacle. He did not mind coming to hear me, for as it happened, I was brought up near the place where he lived. This Satan came here on the Lord’s day morning, when the text was upon soul murder, (See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 713, “Soul Murder—Who is Guilty” 704) and he sat (some of you noticed him that day), and sobbed and cried under the sermon at such a broken hearted rate that he could only say, “People are noticing me, I had better go out”; but his companion would not let him go out, and that man from that day forth was begotten by the Everlasting Father, and is living and walking in the truth, an earnest believer, doing all that he can for the spread of the kingdom, and singularly clear in his doctrinal knowledge. Here is a man who had been everything that was possible in the way of badness, yet God met with him; and some of you who have Abraham for your father, and are related to godly people, are just all the more hardened for all the preaching you have heard. May God have pity upon you and save you yet! Do not be content with fleshly fatherhood; get the spiritual fatherhood, which comes from Christ.
28. Others of you are today perhaps saying, “Well, we can trust in our good works.” Well, then, Adam is your father, and you know what will become of you. Adam was driven out of Paradise, and you will never be admitted there. Adam lost all his hopes, and you will lose yours. On the basis of the law no flesh living shall be justified. Alas! I fear that many here have another father. How does Christ put it? “You are of your father, the devil,” he says, “for you do his works.” Not works merely of open sin in the form of adultery, uncleanness, theft, and such like, but opposition to Christ is particularly a work of the devil, and unbelief in Christ is the devil’s masterpiece. If you do not then trust the Lord Jesus, do not say tonight when you kneel at the bedside, “Our Father, who is in heaven,” for your father is not in heaven, your father is in hell. Go to the blood of Jesus and ask that you may be cleansed from all iniquity, and then you may say through the everlasting Father, “Oh God, you have made me your child, and I love and bless your name.” May God be pleased to give you all his blessing for Jesus’ sake. Amen.” (7)

In conclusion, E. J. Young’s recent contemporary observation on Isaiah 9:6:

“The Father of Eternity”

“To discover the precise significance of the epithet is not easy. The word ‛ad signifies perpetuity or duration. It may have the sense of eternity, as when Isaiah speaks of the “high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity . . .” (57:15). Possibly that is the force here, for it is stated that there will be no end of the Messiah’s kingdom. In what sense, however, may the Messiah be designated the Father of Eternity? We may perhaps bring on the thought by paraphrasing, “One who is eternally a Father.”

The word “Father” designates a quality of the Messiah with respect to His people. He acts toward them like a father. “Thou, O Lord, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting” (Isa. 63:16). “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear hi.’ (Ps. 103:13).

The quality of fatherhood is defined by the word eternity. The Messiah is an eternal Father. If this is correct, the meaning is that He is One who eternally is a Father to His people. Now and forever, He guards His people ad supplies their needs. I am the good shepherd,” said our Lord, and thus expressed the very heart of the meaning of the phrase. What tenderness, love, and comfort are here! Eternally – a Father to His people!” (8)

Final Comments:

A summary to deliver if ever challenged or asked about the meaning of “Everlasting Father” in Isaiah 9:6.

“And again, ‘I will put my trust in him.’ And again, “Behold, I and the children God has given me.” (Hebrews 2:13 ESV)

According to Hebrew 2:13, Jesus is the father of the children God has given him.

Thus, it can be said, this son prophesied by Isaiah will become a Father to His people, and His reign will be forever!

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Titus 3:5).

“To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen” (Romans 16:27).

Notes:

1. H. D. M. Spence and Joseph S. Exell, The Pulpit Commentary, Isaiah, Vol.10., (Grand Rapids, Michigan, Eerdmans Publishing Company reprint 1978), p. 167.
2. Albert Barnes, THE AGES DIGITAL LIBRARYCOMMENTARY, Barnes’ Notes on the Bible, Isaiah, Vol. 7, p. 295-296.
3. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary on the Whole Bible, (Grand Rapids, Michigan, Zondervan, 1977) p. 518.
4. Matthew Poole’s Commentary on the Holy Bible, Isaiah, Vol. 2, (Peabody, Massachusetts, Hendrickson Publishers, 1985) p. 347-348.
5. John Gill, Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, Isaiah, (Grace Works, Multi-Media Labs), 2011, p. 149-150.
6. Joseph Benson, Benson Commentary of the Old and New Testaments, Isaiah, (New-York, New York, Published By T. Carlton & J. Porter, 1857), online page reference unavailable.
7. Charles Spurgeon, The Everlasting Father, A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Morning, December 9, 1866, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
8. Edward J. Young, The Book of Isaiah Volume 1, (Grand Rapids, Michigan, Eerdmans, Publishing Company, reprinted 1993) pp. 338-339.

Mr. Kettler has previously published articles in the Chalcedon Report and Contra Mundum. He and his wife Marea attend the Westminster, CO, RPCNA Church. Mr. Kettler is the author of the book defending the Reformed Faith against attacks. Available at: THERELIGIONTHATSTARTEDINAHAT.COM