God the Son = Eternal Father?
- Edwin O'Hanlon
- 15 hours ago
- 5 min read
‘For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.’
- Isaiah 9:6 -
Christmas came and went for another year, but since this latest festive period, I’ve been wondering one thing. How is it that Jesus Christ, Son of God, is called ‘Eternal Father’ on Christmas cards across the globe and (almost) no one raises an eyebrow or wrinkles a nose? Don’t they read Isaiah’s messianic prophecy made 700 years before Christ and say: “Sure. Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace all check out for Jesus. But how is the Son of God also called Eternal Father?” Well, fear not, as after some digging, I’ve assembled an answer that both settles the matter and glorifies the inspiration of Holy Scripture.
Since Christ came in the flesh to “save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21), minor missteps and outright heresies have washed upon the shores of true, biblical Christianity. The first was Arianism, named after Arius, a false teacher in early-4th century Egypt. Arius denied Christ’s deity, claiming that God brought Jesus into being as the first act of creation. In Arius’ eyes, the Son was a finite being with some divine attributes, but He was neither eternal nor divine in and of Himself. After a century of debate, Arianism was officially denounced by church councils, but the heresy lived on, making its way into damnable cults like Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormonism.
Many today read Isaiah 9:6 and stumble into another heresy of modalism. Oneness Pentecostalism is the prime proponent of modalism today. They teach one God but deny His biblical triunity. They believe Jesus is God, but that God manifests Himself in different modes as Father, Son, or Holy Spirit. They even falsely say the Spirit is a mere expression of Jesus’ power, and not a separate divine Person in and of Himself. Thus they only baptize in the name of Christ, and not as the Lord Jesus commanded us to baptize: “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19).
All heresy is impermissible as it denigrates the true triune God. At best, heresy hinders edification and sanctification, and at worst it damns souls. King David and the apostle Paul lived 1000 years apart, but God enlightened both men’s hearts and minds to treasure His Word. David said of God’s pure revelation: ‘Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path’ (Ps. 119:105). Without it, we grope and stumble in the dark. Likewise, Paul told the Romans: ‘Whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction’ (15:4). And to his son in the faith Paul said: ‘All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work’ (2 Tim. 3:16-17).
All this to say that when we stumble over Scripture penned millennia ago in a language not our own, we do well to breathe deep, pray for help, and dig into the Word rather than run for the hills of heresy. When you read the wonderful promises of Isaiah 9:6, forgive yourself for wrestling with the biblical triunity of God. Our finite minds cannot fully grasp it, which is why the Oneness cults try to explain away God’s complexity. Ask yourself what Isaiah meant when he not only called the Son of God Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, and Prince of Peace, but also Eternal Father...
We know Isaiah didn’t teach that the Son, the second person of the Trinity, is identical to the Father, as such modalism is heresy. Sam Storms says Isaiah used Eternal Father as “a descriptive analogy pointing to Christ’s character. He is fatherly and father-like in his treatment of us.” Then again, Isaiah talks of eternity more than most prophets, like when he calls God ‘the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy’ (57:15). So maybe Isaiah was unveiling the mind-boggling fact that a child would be born 700 years in the future who was eternal and the father of time. Maybe Isaiah was calling Messiah the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the One ‘who is and who was and who is to come’ (Rev. 1:8)? Maybe…
“The New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New,” as Augustine said. God gave progressive revelation, so Isaiah didn’t grasp God the Father and God the Son quite as New Testament authors did. He didn’t know the Son would take on flesh and say: “I and the Father are one…the Father is in me and I am in the Father” (John 10:30,38). Isaiah, son of Amoz, who beheld visions in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, wrote 700 years before the Son took on flesh and asked Philip: “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). So some think Isaiah used Eternal Father because if you want to know the Father, you need only look to Jesus.
It is certainly true that Jesus Christ is ‘the radiance of [God’s] glory and the exact representation of His nature’ (Heb. 1:3). Only Jesus makes the Father known and none come to the Father but by Him (John 14:6). And yet…do any of these explanations ring entirely true? Don’t they all sound slightly hollow? As a Christian whose earthly father was cruel and abusive, I don’t deny that Jesus is everything I ever dreamt a father could be. I agree with Charles Spurgeon that “there is no un-fathering Christ and there is no un-childing us. He is everlastingly a father to those who trust in Him.” Yet I contend that a more glorious door opens when we explore Isaiah’s original Hebrew. So let’s be good Bereans and do just that.
Go back to Isaiah 9:6 and the phrase most often translated as Eternal Father is Avi'ad in the Hebrew. Avi'ad consists of two words: ab (אֲב) meaning father and ad (אֵד) meaning eternal or everlastingness. Check how father or ab (אֲב) is used in the Old Testament and you find it means possessor or source of. Turn to Isaiah 57:15 and you see God is called ‘the One high and lifted up Who dwells forever.’ The word translated as forever is ad (אֵד), meaning God inhabits ad (אֵד), or literally the state of everlastingness. Then turn back to Isaiah 9:6 and you start to see that Isaiah is literally calling the child who will be born to us the father of everlastingness due to his use of avi'ad.
Ancient linguistics is fascinating in and of itself, but what does all this mean for us? Well, we ought to burst with joy knowing that the Christ-child prophesied by Isaiah is the possessor of everlasting life. He gifts eternity to all who trust in Him because in Him is life. Rather than introducing contradiction, Isaiah 9:6 upholds the inspiration Scripture as it teaches New Testament truth. As John’s Gospel says: ‘In Christ was life, and the life was the Light of men’ (1:4). From before creation, Jesus Christ, Son of God, had the power to raise the dead to eternal life because He is eternal life! All who turn from sin and believe in Him will live forever even if they die. This is good news indeed that we ought to sing from the rooftops (and continue to print on next year’s Christmas cards).
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