Welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. This will be study #29 of Revelation, chapter 1, and we are going to be reading Revelation 1:8:

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

In our last study we saw how God even uses the Greek alphabet to teach spiritual truth, as the words we have, *alpha* and *omega*, are spelled out, but are actually an English translation of the Greek letters, and in the Greek text, it is only the letter *alpha* and the letter *omega*, and God has made known to us that the Greek alphabet has twenty four letters. Now, we can know this, yes, by Greek scholars, and they would tell us this, but we can check it out for ourselves in the Strong's concordance which records every word and, therefore, every letter in the Greek New Testament.

All you have to do is go to the back of the Strong's concordance, and you will find the Greek dictionary that lists all of the words found in our King James New Testament or in our Bible. And there you will find, in alphabetical order, twenty four letters, that is, after each letter, for example *alpha*, you will find all the words in the Greek New Testament that begin with the letter *alpha*. Then go to the next letter, *beta*, and you will find all the letters that are in the Greek New Testament that begin with that letter. You can go through the entire Greek alphabet, and you will find only twenty four letters, and words that have that letter as its first letter.

And, so, every letter of the Greek alphabet is represented in the New Testament, so we are not going outside the Bible at all; we are staying in the Bible, and God has given us enough information to know that *alpha* is to be the first Greek letter, and *omega* is to be the last Greek letter, and there are twenty four Greek letters.

Now the order of the other twenty two does not matter so much, as it is God giving us the first one and the last one, and we can count, and we know that after *alpha*, if we begin counting with *beta*, that is one; and then we continue until the end of the alphabet and we come to *omega*, and that would be the twenty third letter after *alpha*. And that would be the significant point, I think, that God is making, besides just stating that He is the *last*, He is the *ending*, and by saying He is *omega*, He is reiterating that and emphasizing the point that it is the last letter.

But, spiritually, it is the twenty third letter after *alpha*, and the number twenty *23* does carry spiritual meaning. For instance, from creation in 11,013 B.C., we travel six thousand years, plus twenty three years, for a total of 6,023 years, and then God brought the flood that destroyed the first earth by water in 4,990 B.C.

And from the flood in 4,990 B.C., we travel down the corridors of time 5,023 calendar years, and we come to the cross, which was another judgment, or the demonstration of the judgment that the Lord Jesus Christ endured for the sake of His people; and that would be 5,023 years from the flood. And you can add that up. Just add 4,990 on the Old Testament side, plus 33, as Jesus was crucified in 33 A.D., and you get a total of 5,023 years.

Now I say "calendar years" because normally we minus 1, due to there being no year zero. In actual years, it is 5,022, but God also permits us this additional method of calculation, so that He can give us more opportunities to discover spiritual things related to numbers.

Now, just one other thing to mention, from creation until 1988 was 13,000 years, and then we add on 23 years, and we come to the year 2,011, which also happened to be 7,000 years from the flood; and it was in 2011, on May 21, that God brought judgment day on the world, just like he brought the flood 6,023 years from creation, and this judgment day that God brought on May 21, 2011, it was the beginning of the end. It is the end of mankind. It is a prolonged period of judgment, just as the waters of the flood lasted and multiplied for five months, increasing all over the earth, until they began to abate.

So after May 21, 2011, we are in the day of judgment, and so the number *23* points to judgment, and that is why Jesus is the *first*, He is the beginning; He is *alpha*, and He is the *last*, He is the ending, He is *omega*, that which comes *23* letters after *alpha*, pointing to the fact that the *end* (which Christ is) is judgment day, and it will be the judgment of God.

Now another thing we want to discuss a little bit is that we saw verses, as it says in Revelation 1, verse 8, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending," and we looked at some verses that show how Christ is the *beginning*. For instance, we went to John 1:1:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

And that is referring to Jesus because later because it says, "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." Well, He was in the beginning, and He is the Creator; He is before all things, and He has the preeminence above all things. That is also one of the reasons why He had to die before the foundation of the world, in order to be the "firstborn from the dead." He is the beginning. He is the *first*, and He is *alpha*.

Well, we saw that, and it would be good for us to just note that this means that Jesus knows everything possible about the beginning. There is no knowledge, no information, that He lacks concerning the beginning of all things. Well, someone might say, "Of course not, He is eternal God. He is the Creator. He is the one who began everything, obviously, He knows everything regarding the beginning, and the Bible calls Him "the beginning." It is His name. Certainly He knows everything possible about the beginning."

And I do not think you will find too many people who understand that Jesus is God (of course, there are some that lack that understanding, and they also lack a saviour), but you will not find too many that understand that Jesus is God, who would argue that He is behind in anything at all regarding the beginning of things. Yes, definitely, Christ knows all about the beginning.

Now I am just pointing that out because, somehow, when it comes to Jesus being the *ending*, there is a question that arises, and people began to doubt and wonder and think, "Well, Christ does not know everything about the ending." And that just does not make any sense; it is not fitting with anything we are reading here: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord."

So, the Lord Jesus Christ is *alpha*, the beginning, the *first*, it says in another place, and He knows everything about that, but, somehow, mysteriously, when it comes to the ending of things, well, He does not know some things - some theologians and churches and individual think - that the Lord Jesus lacks understanding, and He does not know "the day or hour." And there is a verse that says, "neither the son," but we have to realize that that is an impossibility for Christ to lack any bit of knowledge, even the slightest bit, regarding the end of all things.

Why? Well, because, for one thing, it is His very name - He is that *ending*. He is the *last* and the *omega*, and He knows full well about that, as He does about the beginning of things. He is eternal God who possesses all knowledge of all things, at all times, and even beyond time. He knows everything related to eternity past and into eternity future.

God inhabits eternity and, certainly, He knows when this world will end, when this little speck of a creation (a little speck in time) that He created will conclude, and when we will enter into the glorious eternal future that He has planned for us.

God definitely knows that, and He knows that May 21, 2011 was judgment day. He is the one that opened up that information in order to warn us, and He certainly knows the duration of the day of judgment, how long this day will last. And it very well could be that it will be sixteen hundred days; that also comes from the Bible; it comes from the word of God, and Christ is that Word. He is the one that is in full and complete control of all that we know, and all that we understand, concerning the Bible.

Well, I just wanted to mention that before we continue on here in our verse, here in Revelation 1:8:

...which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. the Almighty.

Now this is the second time already in our study of the Book of Revelation that we have seen these statements: "...which is, and which was, and which is to come."

Back in Revelation 1:4 it says:

John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace *be* unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come...

And we discussed this at that time, so we are not going to spend too much time on it now, except to say that, once again, God is emphasizing His eternal nature, that He is an ever living God, that He has always been, and He always will be, and He is right now. And, of course, that is very important for us, and it could be that was the reason that God begins with that. We would think the order would be, "which was, which is, and which is to come." That is the order of time, but God begins both of these phrases with, "which is." And then He says, "which was, and which is to come." He wants us to know that at this second, this moment, this point in time (and, of course, this applied to the reader throughout the many centuries of the New Testament age, and it applies to us at this moment, because He is the same God: He is the same yesterday, today and forever, He changes not), right now, this glorious, everlasting God exists; He is living.

He is a very present help, the Bible says, in time of trouble, and we may go to Him now, at this time, this day, and this moment, seeking His help, seeking His comfort, seeking His strength, seeking whatever it is that we need and that we are lacking. We can go to God now, and God wants us to know that, and that is how it will always be, for ever and ever, as we live on (and we will not die, if we are a true child of God, we have been granted eternal life), and this relationship with God that we now enjoy, that we presently have, where He is there for us and available, and we can go to the throne of His grace, and we can pour our our hearts before Him, this relationship will now be an eternal relationship that will have no end.

This is one of the glorious truth and facts that the Bible reveals, that we now have a helper. We have a Comforter. We have the One who *is*, the great I AM, the *ego eimi*, the one that Moses saw at the burning bush and asked, "Who is it that I shall say has sent me?" And the response was, "I AM that I AM, that is my name."

And He was a present help, a present God to Moses, and He was a present help to all of the people that we read about in the Bible, because those people lived, just like we are alive right now, and they also had opportunity to go to that same God that we have opportunity to turn to this day; and so David turned to Him, and all of the faithful kings (Hezekiah and Josiah), all of the faithful people, like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They turned to Him in the fiery furnace, or like Daniel in the lion's den. All of God's people, in a present time of danger, of affliction and tribulation, have had the wonderful blessing and privilege, and the wonderful great hope, of turning to a living God that was there for them at that moment, even though He transcends the moment.

He is infinitely beyond our present moment in this point in time. He is a God, that if we could somehow look backward (and, yes, we can look backward in the Bible through the Biblical history, and He is always there, from the very beginning), and we could somehow manage to see - which we cannot very well due to our finite nature - but if we could look beyond this world and creation (this whole universe that was created as God spoke the words), we would see a God that *was*, a God that was alive, and had all the fullness of His being for as far, and as deep, and as long as our minds could travel into the past; we would keep going and going and going, and there is God.

I do not know how it is, and I am sure you have wondered at this, too, how can there be such a glorious and awesome Being as God? How can there be such an eternal, majestic deity as the Bible reveals? And I do not know.

We cannot understand someone who has no beginning, and that is something God pointed out in Hebrews 7, just to make sure we understand that Jesus is the beginning, as far as the creation of this world; He is the one who started it, but He Himself has no beginning. He is this God that we are reading of, the *alpha*, the beginning, and then following this statement the Lord wants us to know, "which is" and "which was," beyond the beginning point of this world. He is this eternal God, the great JEHOVAH, the One that all we can do is fall down on our knees and bow before, because we are little, tiny, finite creatures.

We are creatures of time, and we are bound to this creation; all we know, everything we know, things begin and things conclude. They have an ending, and God is not like that. God is the One which was, and always has been, and God is the one that shall be, and always will be. He has no *beginning* and no *ending* Himself.

What a mind-boggling thought that is. Just let your mind's eye wander backward or forward, and it just keeps going and keeps going and keeps going, and we just naturally - and I used that word intentionally - think, "Well, there must be a beginning point with God. Everything has a beginning." But, no, there is no beginning with God, and He is this eternal Being that inhabits the complete spectrum of existence, beginning to end, and present, and He lives.

He lives, and we do not understand Him. We cannot comprehend Him. He is beyond our ability. His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts than the heavens are from the earth, and that is quite a long way, and I think that is also an understatement, as far as this infinite, Almighty God of the Bible is concerned.

He is an everlasting God, and oh, how pitiful it is, and how wretched we are, that we have dared in our time - and men still dare - to think that they know more than God, that they are wiser than Him, that their minds are the ones that determine all things, that we are the ones in control, that we are the ones in charge of things (of circumstances and events). We are the "movers and doers."

Oh, how insulting and how pitiful it is, when we think about it, that we dare (we human beings, creatures of time, and we are like the flowers and grass that today is, but tomorrow is cast into the oven; our lives are like a vapour that appear for a time and then vanish away; we are here for a few short days, and those days are full of trouble), that we dare to meddle in manners that are well beyond us, and to develop things like the world has, like evolution: "Oh, we know. We know what happened in the beginning. We know how this world and universe came into existence. Yes, let us tell you about it. It was several million years ago. Oh, no, let us change that - it was a few hundred million. No, actually, now we think it is a few billion, but we know, we know all these things."

What foolishness! What utter and complete foolishness it is, when men think to know things that are reserved for the Almighty, for the One, and the only One, who knows such things, and was there. He is the One who tells us, and that is what the Bible does; God reveals how things began, and, oh, we are just so foolish, of ourselves and if we are left to ourselves, and we are blind and dumb, and we lack understanding greatly.

But we thank the Lord that He who *is*, and which *was*, and *will be*, is our guide, and He is the one who is instructing us, and leading us, through the days of this life into the path of an eternal future.