God is eternal (cf. Deut. 33:27; Ps. 90:2; Rev. 4:8-10), omniscient (cf. Ps. 139:1-6; Prov. 5:21), omnipotent (cf. Gen. 17:1; Ex. 6:3), holy (cf. Ps. 99:9; Isa. 5:16), perfect (cf. Matt. 5:48), glorious (cf. Ex. 15:11; Ps. 145:5) and immutable (cf. Ps. 102:26, 27). He is love (cf. I John 4:8, 16), faithful (cf. I Cor. 10:13; I Pet. 4:19), and truth (cf. Ps. 10:16). As the eternal perfect being, God exists in three persons. Each one is God; and yet there is only one God. Each one possesses all of the essence and attributes of God in totality, but expresses them individually according to their own personality (the Father paternity, the Son filiation, and the Spirit procession or spiration). God is the only absolutely independent being in existence (cf. Rom. 11:36). He is independent in His being (cf. John 4:24), self-existence (cf. Ex. 3:14), wisdom (cf. Rom. 11:34, 35), counsel (cf. Ps. 33:11; Isa. 46:10), and will (cf. Dan. 4:35; Rom. 9:19; Eph. 1:5; Rev. 4:11). Therefore, God had the option to create or not to create. He also had options in when and how He would create.

The Father was under no necessity or compulsion to design the plan of creation. His decision to execute and achieve His eternal resolution came from the freedom of His own eternal volition. Creation was the perfect plan for the Triune Godhead to reveal itself to other creatures (who did not yet exist) and make known the eternal value of His essence and attributes. His plan is a grace plan in totality.

The primary purpose in creation was to provide finite glory to the Son by allowing Him to possess a created human nature along with His eternal divine nature. The secondary purpose in creation was to make God known through creation to created beings. The primary purpose in the Father’s plan was Christocentric (Christ centered) because it brought a new type of glory to the Son, who is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. John 17:22, 24). The Son’s response to the Father’s plan is Paterocentric (Father centered) because His attainment of maximum finite glory provided a new manifestation for the Father’s infinite glory (cf. John 17:4). Therefore, creation reveals the infinite God to His created rational beings.

The Father’s eternal plan of the ages calls for three distinct revelations of the infinite God to finite rational beings. God revealed Himself through creation, which is Natural Theology (Ps. 19:1-4). The understanding of Natural Theology was distorted by original sin; and while it still reveals the existence of God it cannot independently reveal the truth about God. He revealed Himself through the Son’s First Advent in hypostatic union, as the God-Man, which is Incarnation Theology (cf. Heb. 1:1-3; John 1:14; I John 1:1, 2). Christ is no longer on the earth, so Incarnation Theology is no longer a means of understanding God. He revealed Himself through His Spoken Word (cf. II Pet. 1:19-21), which was Prophetic Theology. The Father is no longer speaking to men through new revelation; so Prophetic Theology is no longer a means of understanding God. The only independent means that God is using today to reveal Himself is Canon Theology.