"Before Times Eternal"

This expression, found in two epistles written at a significant period, falls on the ear with arresting weight and grandeur. It carries us back in thought to boundless depths of a past so remote that we fail to envisage its immensity.

"Before times eternal," is profoundly anterior to all the ages of Time. If we mentally travel back over the ages of human history which have already covered well-nigh six thousand years-for all Scripture dates begin from the creation of Adam, this being linked with the period of reconstruction which made the earth a fitting abode for man-there yet remains a dateless gap back to the original creation of Genesis 1. 1-" In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

How long the earth remained in its pristine perfection we do not know; nor do we know whether the subsequent ruin of the earth-Genesis 1. 2, occurred in the catastrophe of a moment, or was effected by a series of convulsions covering a prolonged period: neither do we know how long the earth remained a scene of chaos ere God interposed and transformed the dismal ruin into a scene of order, beauty, and stability, and created man-Genesis 1. 3-27.

But whatever may be the immensity of past ages, we are confronted with a "before" which baffles all calculation. "Before times eternal." Is it permitted unto us to know something of what was in the mind of God in that profound "Before"? Yes, it is; and among the scriptures which enlighten us is 2 Timothy 1. 9, which together with cognate passages reveal the fact of a divine purpose toward us-us, of a Dispensation far, far on, in the vast roll of successive ages. What is this divine purpose? Surely it must be fraught with an importance commensurate with its place in the divine counsels before times eternal'? Yes, it is of unspeakable importance both in relation to God and Man, to Time and Eternity; and its importance in the divine estimation may be gleaned from the fact that it was kept a precious secret locked up in the heart of God-a secret too sublime for disclosure until "The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father's should come and accomplish that supreme work which would lay the

foundation for the effectuation of God's eternal purpose. This mighty work is done, and now the secret is revealed-" The revelation of the mystery (literally, 'the secret') which hath been KEPT IN SILENCE THROUGH TIMES ETERNAL" (Romans 16. 25).

"The secret which from all ages hath been hid in God" is now disclosed in the light of the Cross, the Resurrection, and the Glory which shines from Him who sits far above all the heavens at the right hand of God. Now we know that a glorious object was before the mind of God according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal-but concerning this we will say no more, for our object is not to expound (if indeed, such a theme is possible of exposition) but to introduce the subject as dealt with by fellow servants of Christ, in this, and following issues of Needed Truth.

Our purpose will be secured if this Foreword should be used of God to arrest attention and excite soul interest in a subject which should occupy a place in our hearts corresponding with that which God has given it in His Word.

unknown | Jan 1932
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