But, the objector says, the very form of the expression “He begat” and “He was begotten,” brings in the idea of a beginning of generation.  But what if you do not use this expression, but say, “He had been begotten from the beginning” so as readily to evade your far-fetched and time-loving objections?  Will you bring Scripture against us, as if we were forging something contrary to Scripture and to the truth?  Why, every one knows that in practice we very often find tenses interchanged when time is spoken of; and especially is this the custom of Holy Scripture, not only in respect of the past tense, and of the present; but even of the future, as for instance “Why did the heathen rage?” Ps. ii. 1. when they had not yet raged and “they shall cross over the river on foot,” Ps. lxvi. 6. where the meaning is they did cross over.  It would be a long task to reckon up all the expressions of this kind which students have noticed.