The Bible teaches that there are two possible births and two possible deaths. Everyone experiences the first birth – the natural birth. Some experience the second birth – the spiritual rebirth. When the Scriptures speak of the first death they are referring to physical death. Unless Jesus comes, everyone will experience this death. But when the Scriptures speak of the second death they are speaking of the eternal death of Hell. And some will experience this death as well.

Those who are only born once will die twice and those who are born twice will only die once. If you are not only born but born again, you will only die once and immediately enter into eternal life. But if you are only born once and do not experience the new birth, you will not only die a natural death but suffer an eternal death in Hell. This is why I say that the second birth is the most important beginning we experience.

But we have only talked about beginnings that we experience. Think back past all other beginnings to the ultimate beginning. This is the time when no other beginning had ever taken place. This is the moment of the beginning of all things. Some scientists are calling this the Big Bang. But whatever view you hold, this is the time when the beginning happened. If we could somehow go back to that point of time, we would find that something was already there!

Something preceded the ultimate beginning! Indeed, someone was there before the beginning! This is the person to whom John points. This is the Eternal One. He is the one spoken of in Genesis 1:1 where it says “In the beginning God . . .” John picks up on this theme in his Gospel, where the first words are “In the beginning was the Word.” And now he speaks of that which was from the beginning. In other words, before anything else was, God was. He is the Eternal One. He is the Prime Mover. He is the Cause of all beginnings. He is the ultimate reality behind all reality. This is really the message of all Scripture. God is there. God is real. God is!