BEGETTING (BEGOTTEN OF THE FATHER)

The Nicene Creed states that Jesus is “eternally begotten of the Father”, meaning that the relationship between God the Father and God the Son has occurred throughout all eternity - past, present, and future!  In other words, the event was not limited to a single moment in time when the Holy Spirit incarnated Jesus in Mary’s womb.  The Creed then reiterates the difference between “making” and “begetting” when it states that Jesus is “begotten, not made...”.  C.S. Lewis wrote: “We don’t use the word begotten much in modern English.  To beget is to become the father of - to create is to make. When you beget, you beget something of the same kind.  A man begets human babies, a beaver begets little beavers.  If (a man) is a clever enough carver, he may make a statue which is very like a man.  But, of course, it is not a real man.  What God begets is God (‘very God of very God’); just as what man begets is man.  Contrariwise, what God creates is not God.” (“Let us make man in our image - Genesis 1:26).  God is incapable of creating something that is of Himself...He must beget it. 

​~ Dr. Gil Haas