In the beginning, Ἐν ἀρχῇ. This is not the beginning of God, but rather the beginning of time, for He is the beginning, (Rev 1:8, Is 46:10) and the beginning came out of God.
The Bible gives us a few other references to the period before the creation of the world and the preeminence and supremacy of God, (Col 1:15-18, Eph 1:4, 2Tim 1:9, 1Peter 1:20). It is here at this point, I won’t say time, because time was not in existence yet, but at this moment, the Father commences His plan of the creation of His family. And He does not proceed alone, but with the Trinity, acting as One as we see this in the allusive Johannin Comma of 1st John 5.
1 John 5:7- For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.
                  God wanted a family, and He started by creating the universe to house His family, but He didn’t create the universe alone. He, just like always, worked as One with Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
                  Now God, who is outside of time, knew the sin that would come about in this world. He didn’t create sin, and evil did not come from Him, but through the creation of man, and the free will that man was given, sin entered the world, and death through sin, (Rom 5:12, 1Cor 15:21). It was not a surprise to God that man sinned, for God knows all things, so why did God create man this way if He knew it would result in sin? Man had to be created with a choice, a free will to love Him. The Father didn’t want a servant or a robot that was forced to love Him. He wanted a family that would lovingly choose Him. Therefore, the Father’s creation was far deeper than merely making the worlds, it included the plan of redemption for mankind, and He developed this through and in Jesus. All our hope, salvation, grace, mercy and spiritual blessings were pre-deposited in Jesus before the foundation of the world, (Eph 1:3), available to all who would choose to love and believe in Him.
                  All this and more was established before time began, given as a free gift through Christ to those who would accept the Father’s invitation into His family.
 
Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
Zack

​Recently I have been drawn, and intrigued, to study the events leading up to the Creation of the universe. God the Father, who has no beginning, and has always been forever in eternity past, decided to create His family in the beginning of what we know as the beginning of time. Now, this can get a little deep, but we must remember that time came out of God, therefore God is outside, and not bound by the dimension of time as we are. Instead of thinking of time in a linear fashion, we need to picture God outside of time, who can see all the events of time, past and present, at once. 

​So, let’s look at the first fourteen verses of the first chapter of the Gospel according to John. John starts his gospel quite differently than the other three. Matthew and Luke both start with Jesus’ physical heritage, Mark begins with John the Baptist, who was the predecessor of the Messiah, but the gospel of John begins literally in the beginning. Now this is the beginning of time as we know it, not the beginning of God, because God has no beginning. He said it Himself in Rev 1:8, which we just read above, He is the beginning, meaning the beginning came out of Him.

There is so much to talk about concerning these verses, but I want to focus on one specific Greek word, ἐγένετο, transliterated as egeneto. This appears seven times in these fourteen verses, and no, seven is not a coincidence. You will find that the Holy Spirit uses multiples of seven often.

​This word, ἐγένετο, from the lemma γίνομαι, ginomai, means to be born, to become, to be made, to exist. This word is implying the purpose behind the creation, or the manifested existence of His creation; a purposeful act of the Father to create His family. Galatians 4:4 uses the same word to describe Jesus being born of a woman, born under the law, however, it wasn't merely coincidence, but He was sent by the Father, organized and planned before time began. This sense of the Father through Jesus, thoughtfully planning the creation of His family, and then sending His Son into this very creation to be the Savior of the world, is what I believe John was conveying when he, through the influence of the Spirit, used γίνομαι seven times. 

What I find interesting is the Holy Spirit did not use the word created, κτίζω, ktizo, as in Eph 2:10, but instead used the existence of His creation, the created man manifested in physical form, which I believe is something much more personal. The Father created us in Christ Jesus, and through Jesus we were manifested into physical existence. As in Col 1:17, by Him all things consist. The Greek literally says, the all, meaning the all of everything that exists in this universe, is held together and stands together by Him and in Him and through Him. And also our text of John 1:3 says, all things were made through Him, and nothing was made that was made. Therefore, it is the physical existence of the Father's creation, through Jesus, that is the primary focus in these first fourteen verses of the first chapter of John. This was the beginning of His family, and the whole purpose of His creation, to have a family to love and in turn His family would love Him for all eternity. Therefore, in writing this account of creation and the events leading up to it, John, led of the Spirit, uses the word γίνομαι to express His creation.

Below are these fourteen verses in the Greek with the word ἐγένετο highlighted red. You will see that two of the words are spelled differently; in verse three it is spelled γέγονεν, and in verse twelve it is spelled γενέσθαι. These are the same exact word from the lemma γίνομαι. The Greek language just changes the beginning and ending of the word as the tense, mood, or voice changes. It is like us using the word run. We spell it differently based on how it is being used in a sentence. For example, you can say I will go for a run, or if it is past tense you would say, I ran, or if you were in the middle of the action you would say, I am running.
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There is also one more Greek word highlighted blue that uses γίνομαι as its root word. It is ἐγεννήθησαν, eganethesan, meaning to become the parent of. Again, giving us a much more personal understanding of God starting His family and His family accepting His free gift of grace and receiving His Son, in Whom all the riches of His grace and mercy reside.
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Below is a comparison of the Greek text because, although I believe the English is translated correctly, it doesn’t convey the importance of what the Holy Spirit is focusing on. For years, before I knew Greek, I always read these verses as His creation, but now I understand the true purpose of the Father- 

​These fourteen verses are packed with the riches of His grace and the exceeding greatness of His power and love toward us who believe. We will continue unpacking these verses next time.
 
Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
Zack

​My last blog post was all the way back on November 11th, 2016. They say time flies when you’re having fun. Well, the last year and a half has been a combination of fun and hard work, and the idleness of the website has not been from lack of study, but rather the opposite.
 
A couple years ago, I decided to study the sixteenth century reformation, in which the fruit of this study has changed my life. I have been inspired by the brave men who gave their lives for the Gospel, and through this study, have gained an understanding of our Christian heritage that will stay with me forever.

This understanding and knowledge that Paul speaks of is so we might have a relationship with our Father, who gave us the precious blood of His Son’s life so that He might have us... a family to live with for all eternity.
 
In Him
Zack Rosiere