Revelation 1:8.
The ‘Alpha and the Omega’
When we think of God
or someone asks us what we mean or understand
when we use the word ‘God’, we are obviously limited.
It is really impossible for a created being to be able to describe in human words, his or her Creator,
who by definition is far above what He created in status and power and value.
To use the example given in the Book of the prophet Jeremiah,
how could a pot describe the Potter who designed and made it.
At least we can think and speak and use some words, however inadequate,
which is more than a pot or a cup or a saucer can do.
Thankfully, God has revealed to us several names and descriptions
which help us mere mortals to understand His nature;
El Shaddai or Almighty God,
Jehovah Jireh, God the Provider,
I Am, the Eternal One;
the Creator;
the Lord of Hosts.
The scriptures give us several names and titles of Jesus:
the Son of God,
the Son of Man,
the Prince of Peace,
the King of kings and Lord of Lords,
the Anointed One.
And the scriptures give us several names and titles of the Holy Spirit,
such as the Paraclete, the One who comes alongside us, like a lifeboat,
our Advocate, or Defence Lawyer,
and our Comforter.
All of these deserve studying and meditating on,
and each one gives us strength and comfort,
but today’s text calls us to focus on ‘Alpha and Omega’.
The first message we get from the use of the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet equivalent to our A and Z, is a confirmation of God’s eternal nature;
He always was, is today, and always will be – Almighty God.
Both here and in chapter 21 verse 6 the term ‘Alpha and Omega’ is applied to God the Father, while in chapter 22 verse 13 it is applied to Jesus,
which demonstrates his eternal divinity
and equality with the Father in the Trinity.
Martin Luther wrote: ‘We are not the ones who can preserve the church,
nor were our forefathers able to do so,
nor will our successors be able to do so.
No, it was, is, and always will be He who says “I am with you always, to the end of the Age”, who is:
“Jesus Christ who is the same, yesterday, and forever” in Hebrews 13 verse 8, and “He who is and was and is to come” in Revelation 1 verse 8.’
In the original Greek the text is: “ego toh Alpha kai toh Omega,
ho protos kai ho eschatos, heh arche kai toh telos”.
For some reason, the AV or KJV translates this as
‘I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last,’
whereas on the other hand the NASB translates the text as
‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last,
the beginning and the end,’
as does the NIV and the ESV.
This is an example of why, when possible,
we should read the original texts in the words that they were written in, because even though they were inspired and preserved by the Holy Spirit,
all translations of them are influenced in some way by the culture, beliefs,
and even subconscious biases of the translators.
Hence the importance of studying the original words,
because all translations are influenced in some way by the culture, beliefs, and even biases of the translators.
The claim to be the Alpha and the Omega,
means that God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit
existed before anything and everything else.
No One or no Thing created God
because if Someone or Something did, then that would be greater than God.
The claim to be the First and the Last,
means that God is all history from start to finish;
and the claim to be the Beginning and the End,
means God is in control of everything that exists
from the inception of life to its consummation.
Here in Revelation the Lord reminds us that He is the beginning of everything
and the end of everything;
from everlasting to everlasting, He is God, as it says also in Psalm 90 v.2.
He was before all things, as in Colossians 1 v.17,
and everything that we know or understand,
we know and understand only because He has revealed it to us.
God did not create the universe or life without a purpose or plan,
and having created He would not leave that purpose unrevealed
to those whom He had created in His own image and likeness,
so He has revealed His will to us
in and through the written Word of God,
the holy scriptures,
human writings in human language, but divinely inspired.
The written Word of God, that we have in our hands;
the 66 books of the Holy Bible,
is made up of 39 in the OT written in Hebrew BC
and 27 in the NT written in Greek AD.
Almighty God the Alpha and the Omega
speaks to us in and through Genesis right through to Revelation,
and in the 64 books and ‘Letters’ in between.
Each one of the 66 individually and collectively convey to us
the glorious plan and purpose of our divine Creator and heavenly Father through Jesus Christ.
Even though He is outside of space and time
through the divinely revealed scriptures
we can know this wonderful Alpha and Omega God as our Maker;
our Saviour, our Redeemer, our Friend and our Lord;
and Coming King and Judge.
An Australian Lutheran pastor Strelan wrote a number of theological books and in one called “On ‘Alpha and Omega’ “
he said the use of the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet
remind John’s hearers - including us
that God the Father and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit
embrace the whole of history, the start and the end,
and everything in between.
To Strelan, the words ‘First and Last’ emphasise that God the Father
and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are at the centre of history,
and only by believing in God can all history make sense,
and have meaning and purpose.
This is why German theologians use the word ‘Heilsgeschichte’
which means ‘Salvation history’; all history is ‘Salvation history’.
‘Heilsgeschichte’ means no matter how important a Prime Minister
or King or President is,
there was Someone greater than him before he came to power
and there will be Someone greater than him after he has fallen from power.
With regard to the words ‘Beginning and End’,
Strelan says these affirm that God and Jesus Christ are the genesis,
the source, and the authors of existence,
and are also the goal or purpose or ‘end’ of human history.
Human history is ‘teleological’ not that it will end or stop with a ‘Finale’
but that it is moving towards a Goal or Target,
set by Almighty God outside of time.
In other words, those who do not believe in God
and who do not believe the Bible contains His revealed world
cannot really understand what life is all about,
but can only live day by day, searching for the answers,
but never finding them by human understanding or science.
Regarding the statement “ego toh Alpha kai toh Omega”,
the words ‘Alpha and Omega’ refer to the magnitude
of the eternal presence of God, which is far above and beyond all creation,
and just as the Father and the Holy Spirit pre-existed the universe
and are independent of it, so is the Son.
Jesus was NOT a created being, an angel or a prophet,
but co-equal with God the Father.
He was, is, the first of those who will be raised bodily in the resurrection,
the originating source or author,
and the Perfector or finisher of their faith.
He is the Church’s Lord,
Who will be with her until the end of the present age, for He is the same, yesterday, today, and forever.
Apart from the Father, the Son alone bears this 2nd title,
because He alone died and rose again, to rescue God’s people.
He is their one and only Redeemer. He is OUR one and only Redeemer!
On “heh arche kai toh telos”, ‘the Beginning and the End’,
Theologian Louis A. Brighton says
“This title emphasises the fact that along with the Father,
the Son was responsible for all that was created
and that He will be responsible for the present order’s passing away,
and for a new creation, a new heaven and a new earth,
which will exist for ever, and for His glory.”
If there is no God, then everything that exists does so because of a random Big Bang of energy which created matter,
and we are nothing more than evolved animals,
so when we die, we cease to exist except as a memory
as officiants at Humanist funerals claim.
If there is a God and He created Jesus
either sometime after the creation of the universe and the angels
or in the womb of Mary,
then the one who died and rose again was only a prophet or a good man
as Jehovah’s Witnesses and Muslims believe.
If there is a God but the Holy Spirit is only a thing, a force, or a power,
and not a Person
then all the Christian Churches which claim to be Trinitarian are wrong
and the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Christadelphians are right.
The words ‘Alpha and Omega’ are important because they point to
and remind us of the awesome magnitude of the infinity of the Godhead;
We confess the uniqueness and greatness of the Father
who was not only our Creator at some time in the past
but Who is our Sustainer and Provider every day we breathe;
the One whose name is hallowed;
the One whose will we pray will one day be done on earth
as it is now and always will be done in heaven;
We confess the uniqueness and greatness of Jesus Christ,
the only-begotten Son of the Father;
born of Mary but much greater than her;
the One who died and who rose again and ascended into heaven,
from where one day he will come to judge the living and the dead;
and we confess the uniqueness and greatness of the Holy Spirit
the One who hovered over the waters before the world was created
and Who dwells within every believer, making our bodies His temple.
We confess belief in the One Who with the Father and the Son is eternal God,
whenever we sing ‘Holy, holy, holy. God in 3 Persons, blessed trinity’.
Our God is a great God;
He had no beginning which why He is the beginning
and the end of everything,
and because He is the first and the last,
and always is and always will be,
we can be assured that in spite of our faults and failings
He has loved us from the beginning of time,
loves us now, today,
and will go on loving us, forever and ever, and ever and ever. Amen.
And the peace of God which is both eternal
and beyond all human understanding,
keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
