The reason Jesus acts the way he does, the reason Jesus is worthyof the worship he receives, is that Jesus’ origin is what it is: he is the eternal Son of the eternal Father, the heavenly Son of the heavenly Father, the only-begotten Son who is from above, not from below, whose filiation is not of this world.
The doctrine of the eternal generation of the Son is a central feature of orthodox Christian teaching. In this doctrine, the church confesses not simply that the second person of the Trinity is the one true and living God but how he is the one true and living God: as the Son eternally begotten by the Father who thereby shares the Father’s self-same being, attributes, works, and worship.
The church confesses the doctrine of eternal generation on the basis of Holy Scripture. But it is precisely at this point that many contemporary Christians–who may otherwise sympathize with the importance of sharing the church’s universal confession–nevertheless stumble. Is the doctrine of eternal generation really a biblical doctrine? Does it truly possess the only force it could possess to command the assent of the faithful, i.e., the authority of the Holy Spirit speaking in Scripture?
There are plenty of reasons for answering this question in the affirmative. Some reasons follow from the ways Scripture “names” the second person of the Trinity. Other reasons follow from the ways Scripture portrays the second person of the Trinity in his actions of creating, saving, and consummating all things. Still, many contemporary Christians continue to find these lines of argument unconvincing. Part of the problem doubtless stems from the hermeneutical culture in which they were trained, which tends toward atomism in exegesis or, when it does consider larger canonical patterns of meaning, tends to focus on “horizontal” redemptive-historical patterns to the exclusion of “vertical” analogical patterns of meaning.
There is a place for criticizing these hermeneutical cultures and for repairing them as need be (the latter is, as a matter of fact, my full-time job). But it is the responsibility of the church’s teachers also to address church doctrine to its members within the hermeneutical space that they actually inhabit, not simply in the ideal space that teachers believe they should inhabit. That’s part of faithful shepherding: leading God’s people from where they actually are to where they should be.
Now to the (pretentious) title of my post: What is “the greatest prooftext for the doctrine of eternal generation”? I hope it is clear, gentle reader, that I am not insinuating that there is one great prooftext for the doctrine that stands above all others. The doctrine of eternal generation is the teaching of the whole counsel of God read as a whole. What my title means to suggest is that there may be one particularly instructive, particularly helpful prooftext for leading those sympathetic to but still unsure about the doctrine to the place of more confident affirmation. That text, I suggest, is John 8.
In John 8, Jesus roots his actions of revealing God’s words and accomplishing God’s saving purpose, the very actions that reveal Jesus’ identity as the one true and living God (Jn 8:24, 28: “that I am”), in his origin, his being “from above,” his being from “the Father” (Jn 8:23, 27). Jesus acts the way he does because of where (or better: whom) he is from. Moreover, it is precisely in contrasting the analogy between Jesus’ origin and actions and his opponents’ origin and actions that Jesus confirms the deep biblical logic of the doctrine of eternal generation.
Jesus introduces the link between action and origin in John 5, basing his authority to work on the Sabbath (a prerogative unique to God) in his status as God’s natural-born Son. As one who shares his Father’s nature, he also shares his Father’s self-existence, performs his Father’s works, and is worthy of receiving his Father’s worship (see here and here). Jesus takes up this theme again in John 8 and elaborates on it by contrasting his origin and action with his opponents’ origin and action. “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world” (Jn 8:23). “I speak what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father” (Jn 8:38).
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The present sufferings of our Jewish neighbors have revealed that they are not the only ones with veiled hearts. My heart (maybe yours too?) has been veiled towards the Jews. Paul confessed, “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh” (Romans 9:2-3). I suggest, that until we can say the same, until our hearts are burdened to the point of breaking, not ultimately for the political or social but for the spiritual welfare of our Jewish neighbors, there remains a blindness, a callousness in us towards them that demands repentance.

In the early hours of Saturday, October 7th, the stillness of the Jewish Sabbath was shattered as thousands of rockets rained down on Israeli homes and villages along the Gaza border. As the cloud of chaos descended upon shell-shocked civilians, armed insurgents of the Islamic terrorist group, Hamas, tunneled under, broke through, and flew over the Gaza-Israel barrier and began slaughtering men, women, and children. The images of the attack, many of which were published by Hamas, depict scenes of unspeakable horror; the most grievous atrocities committed against the Jewish people since the Nazi Holocaust. The terror attack left 4,000 wounded, 1,500 murdered, and 200 abducted. Since then, concentric consequences have rolled throughout the world. Israel immediately declared war and began retaliatory strikes against Hamas strongholds in Gaza. Now, the world’s most powerful nations are announcing their allegiances and aligning themselves on opposite ends of a global battlefield. And thousands of American soldiers are preparing to join Israel in her fight against evil.
In the presence of such unimaginable sorrow, in the face of such unmasked evil, as the world inches to the precipice of war, what can Christians an ocean away, do?  We can and we must pray. But for what?
We must pray for the deliverance of the Jews.
There is general confusion among believers regarding the spiritual status of our Jewish neighbors. But Scripture is clear. The true Israel of God has always been a spiritual, not ethnic or national, community. While God was pleased to cut his gracious covenant with Abraham and his offspring, Paul explained “as Abraham ‘believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’… know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham’” (Galatians 6:16). “If you are Christ’s,” Paul insisted, “then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Galatians 3:29). So, sharing Abraham’s faith in the gospel promises of God, not Abraham’s blood, determines one’s membership in Israel.
Conversely, Paul explained, “… not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring” (Romans 9:6-8). Thus, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ across all lands, peoples, and ages is and has always been the true “Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16).
Nevertheless, the Jews have enjoyed the richest privileges of any people throughout redemptive history. Of all the nations on the face of the earth, the Lord chose Israel “to be a people for his treasured possession” (Deuteronomy 7:6). They were “entrusted with the oracles of God” (Romans 3:2). “To them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever” (Romans 9:4-5). Jesus did not just come from them, he came for them; “to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16). But because of their unbelief, because they stumbled over the Rock of Salvation and crucified him at the hands of lawless men (Acts 2:23), God hardened their hearts until the full number of elect Gentiles should be ingrafted into the house of Jacob, the Kingdom of David, the Church of Jesus Christ (Luke 1:32-33).
But God’s gilded past with the Jewish people is gloriously eclipsed by his future for them. Since “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29), Paul reasoned, “God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew” (Romans 11:2). Paul teaches Christians to live in prayerful anticipation of the day the veil of unbelief will be lifted from the hearts of elect Jews, and “all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:26). John saw the fulfillment of this promise as he looked forward, through prophetic eyes to the glory that would be revealed at the return of Christ, and heard, mingled among the multitude of the redeemed from nation, tribe, and tongue, “144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel” (Revelation 7:4). This sure and certain hope compelled the 19th century Scottish Presbyterian, Robert Murray M’Cheyne, to journey to Israel and preach the gospel among the Jews. “I feel convinced” he wrote a friend, “that if we pray that the world may be converted in God’s way, we will seek the good of the Jews; and the more we do so, the happier we will be in our own soul.” He often exhorted those to whom he preached, “We should be like God in his peculiar affections; and the whole Bible shows that God has ever had, and still has, a peculiar love to the Jews.”
The present sufferings of our Jewish neighbors have revealed that they are not the only ones with veiled hearts. My heart (maybe yours too?) has been veiled towards the Jews. Paul confessed, “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh” (Romans 9:2-3). I suggest, that until we can say the same, until our hearts are burdened to the point of breaking, not ultimately for the political or social but for the spiritual welfare of our Jewish neighbors, there remains a blindness, a callousness in us towards them that demands repentance. And since repentance is a matter of both affections (sorrow for sin) and actions (turning from sin unto new obedience) is there any sweeter fruit of repentance for this particular sin than praying for the deliverance, that is, the conversion and ingathering of the Jews?
In their Directory of Worship, the Westminster Divines instructed the churches to regularly, “pray for the propagation of the gospel and kingdom of Christ to all nation; for the conversion of the Jews, the fulness of the Gentiles, the fall of Antichrist, and the hastening of the second coming of our Lord; for the deliverance of the distressed churches abroad from the tyranny of the antichristian faction, and from the cruel oppressions and blasphemies of the Turk…” The grave reality is that Hamas terrorists are not the greatest threat to Jews in Israel, for they can only kill the body. But there stands another who has the power to destroy both body and soul in hell forever. And unless our Jewish friends kiss his Son in love and faith, they will “perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him” (Psalm 2:12).
So, we must pray for the Jews. Pray the Lord would deliver the afflicted through their affliction and open their ears through adversity (Job 36:15). Pray that the Spirit of God would pour into the broken hearts of a grieving people and make them new. Pray that through their tears, they would look in faith upon him who is coming to wipe away every tear: the Seed of the Woman(Genesis 3:15), the Seed of Abraham in whom all the nations of the earth will be blessed (Galatians 3:16), the Prophet like Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15), the Priest after the order of Melchizedek (Psalm 110:4), the Lion of Judah (Genesis 49:9), the Son of David (2 Samuel 7:12), the Son of Man (Daniel 7:13), the virgin born Son of God (Isaiah 7:14 & 9:6), the man of sorrows who was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities (Isaiah 53:5), the Holy One of Israel (Isaiah 6:1-3 & John 12:41), the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), the stone the builders rejected who has become the cornerstone (Acts 4:11), the long-awaited Messiah, Jesus Christ.
What can a Christian say or do for Jews who have suffered so terribly? The French publisher Francois Mauriac asked the same when a young Jew named Ellie Wiesel presented his story of sufferings in Auschwitz that we now read in Night.
“And I, who believe that God is love, what answer could I give my young questioner, whose dark eyes still held the reflection of that angelic sadness which had appeared one day upon the face of the [child he saw hanged]? What did I say to him? Did I speak of that other Jew, his brother, who may have resembled him – the Crucified, whose Cross has conquered the world? Did I affirm that the stumbling block to his faith was the cornerstone of mine, and that the conformity between the Cross and the suffering of men was in my eyes the key to that impenetrable mystery whereon the faith of his childhood had perished? Zion, however, has risen up again from the crematories and the charnel houses. The Jewish nation has been resurrected from among its thousands of dead. It is through them that it lives again. We do not know the worth of one single drop of blood, one single tear. All is grace. If the Eternal is the Eternal, the last word for each one of us belongs to Him. This is what I should have told this Jewish child. But I could only embrace him, weeping.”
God lift the veil from our hearts that we might feel Paul’s same unceasing anguish for the Jews as you lift the veil from their hearts to see Christ in loving faith. God help us weep with those who weep. God defend the innocent and shatter the teeth of the wicked (Psalm 3:7). God help us embrace the Jews, “beloved for the sake of their forefathers” (Romans 11:29) in the loving arms of our prayers, “always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15). O God, bring them in.

Hark! ‘Tis the Shepherd’s voice I hear,Out in the desert dark and drear,Calling the sheep who’ve gone astray,Far from the Shepherd’s fold away.
Bring them in, bring them in,Bring them in from the fields of sin;Bring them in, bring them in,Bring the wandering ones to Jesus.
Jim McCarthy is a Minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and is Pastor of Trinity PCA in Statesboro, Ga.
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God built authority into creation from the beginning, and Satan’s strategy—his plan for maximizing the humiliation he wanted to inflict on God—was to tear down those good and beautiful structures of authority. Do you realize the importance of this? It’s nothing short of profound: to tear down good, God-ordained authority is to join Satan in his rebellion against God; it’s to do serpent-like work.

How God Set It Up
Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. (Gen. 2:19–20)
Have you ever thought about why this odd little story is included in Scripture? Obviously, it shows Adam beyond any doubt that none of the other creatures God created would make a good wife for him. You can imagine Adam’s dismay as the last animal walked by and Adam said, “Zebra. Yeah, that’s not going to work either, but I do admire your creativity, Lord!”
But there’s another reason Moses records Adam naming the animals. By doing so, Adam exercised the authority God had given him over all creatures (1:28). Even in modern culture, we recognize that naming something is an act of authority. When parents name their children, they’re showing their authority over them. When some people name their cars—my wife once named hers “Jellybean”—that’s an act of authority, in that case derived from ownership. Anyway, you get the point. When Adam named the animals, he acted as their king. He carried out the authority and dominion God had given him over the cosmos and its inhabitants.
But look at what happens next:
So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,
“This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” (Gen. 2:21–23)
Adam names Eve. Of course, that doesn’t put Eve on the same level as animals. Genesis 1:26–27 says at least four times that she, just like Adam, was made in the image and likeness of God. What’s more, the phrase “have dominion” in Genesis 1:28 is in the plural, applied to both the man and the woman. Yet even as Adam and Eve both rule over the cosmos as king and queen, God still institutes even within their marriage relationship a structure of authority. Adam is given the responsibility of holding loving authority over his wife, Eve.

In this booklet, Greg Gilbert explains why God reserved the office of pastor and elder exclusively for men by examining the structures of authority God established from the very beginning. Part of the Church Questions series.

Do you see what God did in these early chapters of Genesis? He designed a beautiful framework of royal authority throughout his cosmos. Adam and Eve exercise godly dominion over the animals, while within their relationship Adam reflects God’s divine character as he holds authority over his wife. Ruling over it all is the High King of the cosmos, God Himself.
Authority often strikes people as an inherently negative, abusive, or tyrannical concept. That’s understandable, given how sinful human beings have abused it throughout history.
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