Isaiah 9:6 calls Christ the everlasting Father. Does this mean that God is the Trinity?
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6
Christ is our everlasting Father. Does this mean that the Son of God and God the Father are the same, or interchangeable, or enmeshed? Is the Son also the Father?
I was reading the booklet, “The Second Coming of Christ,” by James White this morning, and he explained something that I had never understood before about the marriage of the Lamb. He writes,
“The marriage of the Lamb… is one event, to take place at one point of time, and that is just prior to the resurrection of the just. Then what is the bride in the marriage of the Lamb? Said the angel to John, “Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” Rev. 21:9. Did the angel show John the church? “And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.” Verse 10.
“The New Jerusalem is also represented as the mother. “But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.” (James White, The Second Coming of Christ, 1871, p. 75.)
The New Jerusalem is not only the Lamb’s wife, but she is our mother. The New Jerusalem is also represented by Sarah, Abraham’s wife, who represents the covenant of promise, or those who are free from sin as opposed to those in bondage:
“But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.” Galatians 4:23-26
The New Jerusalem being our mother and the bride of Christ means that we are the children of Christ and the New Covenant of promise. We are the seed of Christ and this union. Christ brings forth life through the New Covenant, our mother. The life of Christ in the covenant of promise begets His children.
The Son of God cannot be confused with God the Father. Christ is our everlasting Father because we are born again by His life in the New Covenant of promise. And when the end is come, when we are transformed by the resurrection, or “changed… in the twinkling of an eye” (1Corinthians 15:51, 52), into the incorruptible children of God, Christ will be our Father forevermore, time without end. This is what God the Father has given us in His Son.
“Christ is represented (Isa. 9:6) as the “everlasting Father” of his people; the New Jerusalem, the mother, and the subject of the first resurrection, the children. And, beyond all doubt, the resurrection of the just is represented by birth. How appropriate, then, is the view that the marriage of the Lamb takes place in heaven before the Lord comes, and before the children of the great family of Heaven are brought forth at the resurrection of the just.” (James White, The Second Coming of Christ, 1871, p. 75.)