Eternity
By Jonathan Mitchell

This study will probe this philosophical topic, and will be:
"OUTSIDE the BUILDING
On the Corner of Heresy Way and Revelation Road"
(Spoiler Alert: Contains Questions and Thinking that may be Disturbing)

Does Eternity Actually Exist? Is God Eternal? or:
Is "eternal" and "eternity" a philosophical construct that our thinking and presuppositions have placed upon God and His realm of "Being"?

Webster's definition of "eternal": having infinite duration; having no beginning or end of existence; everlasting; endless (or: seemingly endless). "The Eternal" has become an appellation for God. Webster's definition of "eternity": quality, condition or state of being eternal; infinite time; without beginning or ending; endless past and endless future.

It is interesting that these two terms did not come into the English language until AD 1380. They did not come from Hebrew or Greek origins. Their journeys into Middle English came via the French eternitè, which came from the Latin aeternus, a contraction of aeviternus (of great age), from aerum (AGE).

It seems evident that the current Christian concept of eternity, and of the quality of being eternal, arose in the Middle Ages. However, the long influence of Jerome's Latin Vulgate translation (late fourth century) was the driving influence in Christianity, due to his rendering of the Greek aionios (from aion: age) by the Latin term aeternus. And from his work, the above history of terms migrated to French and then to Middle English. It is not very difficult to observe the distortion of thought and word-meaning that came about on the journey from Greek, to Latin, to French, and finally into English. In everyday Christianity we can often hear the idea that "eternity" means "timelessness" - a concept that is foreign to the Greek and Hebrew terms that are used in Scripture.

I have long been uneasy about the common practice of viewing God, and His realm, as being referred to as "eternal," or, "eternity." This uneasiness came from my understanding of the Hebrew and Greek terms that are traditionally used as a source for these concepts. Those textual words do not lead to these "traditions of men."

My wife and I had just had breakfast on our patio, and this question went through my mind: "Does eternity actually exist?" Following that, came the question: "Is God eternal?"

The majority of those who are in some strain of Christianity base their core views of God upon the Bible, or upon church tradition, which ultimately anchors its views in the Hebrew Scriptures (OT), or the Christian Scriptures (NT). Now, admittedly, Greek philosophy has had a huge impact upon Christian theology, with Plato and Neo-Platonism playing a large role. But if we bracket and then set-aside the philosophy and theology of the "church," from the second century, on, we might not find the concepts of eternal or eternity in the teachings of our source materials. So here is where I stepped outside the building.

My subtitle, above, is a tongue-in-cheek description of this article/investigation. But, with a grin, I base it upon the KJV rendering of Acts 24:14, where Paul affirmed that, "after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets." So I stand on Scriptural grounds, with Paul as my patron : ) But a better rendering of this central clause is:

"according to the Way (or: corresponding to the Path) - which they are normally calling a sect (or: maintaining [to be] a party; or: terming heresy)."

The Greek word for "heresy" is hairesis, and its root idea is: "a choice; an option," and thus, "a sect" or a "faction." It refers to a person, or group, who has made a different choice. Thus, you see, all "denominations" are actually "heresies." We're in good company; relax.

Now during our breakfast-meditation-discussion time this morning, the thought came rushing through my mind: "Everything in Scripture, from Gen. 1 to Rev. 22, had a beginning. Nothing was, or is, timeless." The whole Bible is about time, and seasons, and ages. All of creations shouts time to us. There is

TIME yields PRODUCTION, which yields EXPANSION (growth)... and leads from season to season; from age to age.

It seems that there is no "eternity past" (as theologians often say), nor an "eternal NOW," nor even an "eternity future." ALL is PRESENT TIME: NOW, which like a river is on the move, flowing into another PRESENT TIME. In our discussion of this, Lynda postulated: "Time is continuously flowing; time is continuously present in the NOW. It begins in God (because TIME is a part of God, and God is its Source), and, like a river, it flows out throughout all creation."

God is not eternal; God is simply God: without qualifications, descriptions, restrictions, limitations, or human constructs that try to explain Him/Her/It. "Eternal" is a recent human concept that has been placed upon God. But, we suggest, God is (and contains) TIME: both kairos and chronos. God, in at least part of His composition, is composed of "beginnings," and is therefore continually producing "beginnings." God conceived a Thought, and Idea (which was face-to-face with Him) and then gestated the Universe, and on "Day One," He gave birth to it. Within that creation were DNA and fractals of Sperms and Ovums, each producing after their own kind - in time (in gestation periods).

Thus God created the ages and the ages which contained ages, and this continuously happens - every time God has a Thought or an Idea and then proceeds with a Blueprint which is used to produce another creation. Every word has a beginning - in the mind of God - and in that beginning is a product of God (His Offspring), the outflow of His Life. Each one also has a goal, a destiny, a finished product (telos); it has a Seed within itself, so as to continue producing (after its kind).

No word, thought or idea is "eternal," for each has a beginning... yet perhaps not an end. What is created is God, and so, with its creation it houses God and manifests God. Humanity began with, "And God said..." and with that action, the Logos (Word; Thought; Idea; Blueprint) came into existence, as Humanity. The Human began living with the inflow of the breath of Life (literally: lives).

Lynda further commented: "We also have records of preservation of time, in nature: fossils; rock layers; tree rings; etc. Ancient buried wells; ancient flows (of ice, rivers, oceans). And patterned repetitions (fractals) reveal God's blueprint throughout all creation."

God, as Life, may seem "eternal," but "life" has both beginnings and endings. Life has seasons. The tree rings reveal the characters of its seasons throughout the lifetime of the tree.

Now some will quote Mal. 3:6,

"I am Yahweh, I change not!"

But the context of vs. 5 shows us that it is His faithfulness and His character, and thus His love, which do not change. This verse is not saying that He is static or immobile - all Scriptures witness to the fact of His dynamic involvement in His creation. We read in Acts 12:24,

"But the Logos of God (God's Word, thought and idea; or: the message pertaining to and the source of which is God; the verbal expression which is God [B reads: the Lord {= Christ or Yahweh}]) kept on growing (increasing) and continued being multiplied."

And consider Col. 2:19, where we read concerning,

"the Head (or: the Source), from out of Whom all the body (or: the entire body) - being constantly fully furnished and supplied to excess with funds and nourishment, and progressively joined cohesively (welded together; knitted and compacted together; united and made to go together as in mounting for copulation) through the instrumentality of the joints (connections; junctures; fastenings) and links (things bound together, as by ligaments) - goes on growing and increasing God's growth (or: the growth of God; the growth and increase which is God)."
He is the Vine, and we are His growth (the branches) - Jn. 15:1ff.

So, we might conclude that since God does not change, then growth and expansion is a part of His essential Being. Growth implies life and a certain aspect of movement. Moving through time, having children, creating, loving (making love), increasing His family - these are all things that He constantly does: He does not change from this. And all of this involves TIME. We even find Him maneuvering time, in Scripture: lengthening a day for Joshua (Josh. 10:1-15); curtailing the days for the Judeans (Mat. 24:22).

Another thought, which came on this third day, is how easily God interacted in and with time. He was in the Garden of Eden; He visited Abraham before the destruction of Sodom, and came by to let Abraham know that Sarah will have a son. He visited Mt. Sinai. He had Israel build a tent for Him, so that He could live among them. He interacted with the creation during the Exodus story, and in Israel's wilderness wanderings. Then He incarnated Himself in Jesus. Now He incarnates Himself in us. He has constantly involved Himself with TIME and His creation. It seems that TIME must be in His Life-blood.

Consider the perception of God being apocalyptically called "the Ancient of Days," in the vision pertaining to "the Son of man," in Dan. 7:13.

God came upon Jesus, at Jesus' baptism. God was within Jesus (Jn. 14:10; 2 Cor. 5:19a). And in Rev. 21:3, the Voice from out of the atmosphere instructs us that God's home is with humanity. He lives with us, here and now - within the "realm," or existence, of TIME.

Jonathan

Marge White comments:

"It is rather freeing to remove the idea of eternal as pertaining to God. Even though eternal means forever and ever, and unending, that is still a constraint, a limited "unlimitedness," so to speak. It's just another box to tuck God into and keep Him under control. Eph. 3:18 speaks of being able "to comprehend the length, breadth, depth and height" of His Love (vs. 17). Since He is Love, then that is also a comprehending of Him, is it not? These are four dimensions, and I think that time (length?) is sort of the glue that holds our 3 dimensional world together.

Without the implementation of time, even as just a concept of past, present and future, the substance that we are now could not exist. There couldn't even be a flow within the reality of the present. But really, those who are stuck in their thinking of what was, or inactively waiting for what will be, in many ways are no longer living. But back to that scripture, "that you may comprehend with all the saints" has the purpose of "that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." Which I think ties in with what you were thinking. Actually the whole idea of time, and even fractals, can be mind-blowing. Quantum physics (the philosophy of it) points to God. And gazing at the stars (which may not even exist anymore because we only view their past) is mind-blowing, too. The vastness of the universe has to be considered as just IS too. Life of the ages is a bit profound."

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