The Names Of God Series: El Olam

El Olam - The Everlasting God

When we look closely at all the names of God in the Bible, one of them stands out as being especially difficult to grasp. More than 400 times God is referred to as El Olam - The Everlasting God. Look at this passage from Psalms:

Psalms 90:1-2

“Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were born or You gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.”

When we say that God is everlasting we are saying that He is eternal. Being eternal, then, means that two things about God have to be true.

First, God has existed throughout all of time as we know it. There has never been a point in time when God did not exist and there will never be a point in time where He WILL not exist.

Second, God is timeless. Time does not impact Him. That means that God exists outside of time and He is unaffected by it. He existed before time began and He will still exist when time ends.

Here’s why that distinction is important. Have you ever had someone ask you who created God? How do you answer that question?

That question assumes that God has to have a beginning. We all have beginnings so we conclude that God must also have had an origin. When we think of God in those terms, we are saying that God is part of His own creation. But God is the Creator. The Creator cannot be a part of the creation.

The Creator has to exist before the creation began and time is a part of that creation. Time began when creation occurred. Look at the very first verse in the Bible:

Genesis 1:1

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

Time began when God brought all things into existence. He was already there. God is self-existent. He has the power of being In and of Himself and He is not bound by time, space or matter.

Our God is referred to as the “Alpha and Omega”, the Beginning and the End. He is eternal and infinite ... without beginning and without end ... from everlasting to everlasting.

Revelation 1:8

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

He is El Olam, The Everlasting God.