"Time and Eternity"

This article is about two interrelated yet mutually exclusive subjects, time and eternity. However, these two subjects are almost infinitesimal portions of another subject so much broader in scope and greater in importance that I must first introduce the major subject before writing about time and eternity. That greater subject is the controversial truth of the ultimate reconciliation of the entire creation to God through Jesus Christ.

First, you must understand that the subject of ultimate reconciliation is not new; it is not a new teaching to "tickle the ears" or to deceive the biblically uninformed. It is a truth that was held to be axiomatic by numerous Christians until about the middle of the fourth century. It was held by Christians not many years removed from the apostolic church who could still read and understand the correct meaning and intent of the original biblical writings. It is a truth that was slowly buried by history and tradition as non-Christians began to filter into the church beginning at the time of Emperor Constantine (reigned 280-337 A.D.), and as an emerging clergy began to usurp the priesthood and biblical and spiritual understanding of individual Christian believers.

It is a truth that began to be distorted by medieval superstition. It is a truth that was largely forgotten and sometimes viciously opposed as "enlightened" people began to read such Renaissance works as Alighieri Dante’s (1265-1321) Divine Comedy, and as many pertinent errors of translation were incorporated into the King James translation of the Bible in 1611 A.D. (I am not suggesting that the King James version of the Bible is replete with errors, only that regarding the subject at hand there are many errors of translation.) The heinous Inquisition (1480 to approximately 1600), too, did much to promote ideas contrary to the truth of the ultimate restoration of all things to God through Jesus Christ.

Then, with the so-called enlightened ideas of late 19^th and early 20^th century religious scholarship, new liberal schools of biblical hermeneutics, the fundamentalist Bible School movement, widespread dispensational eschatology, binding church creeds, limiting theological dogmas, and the like, this magnificent truth lay buried and forgotten except by a few Christians who would still receive and pass on the truth in spite of strong opposition.

It is much like Jesus’ parable in Matthew 13:24-38 in which he said the Kingdom of Heaven is like the farmer who sowed good wheat seed in his field; while the man slept, his enemy came and sowed wild wheat seed among the good wheat seed. When the plants sprouted, the servants reported to the farmer that there was wild wheat growing with the good. The farmer replied, "An enemy has done this." In the early church, the truth of universal restoration was sown by the apostles, elders, and teachers. Then, during the Dark Ages (500-1450 A.D.) while the church "slept," her enemies sowed much false and distorted teaching, untruths, partial truths, and half truths. But now—as God’s people are coming to understand Kingdom truths anew—we are able to discern properly between the truth and that which is not truth, the wild wheat seed.

No, the total and complete restoration of all creation (including all humanity) by God is not a new teaching; it is merely an old truth which has been largely buried, forgotten, or distorted for over 1,500 years. Now, during this time when truths about God’s being fully tabernacled among humanity (Revelation 21:3) are breaking anew upon us, "The long, long night is past, the dawn advances fast," and God’s people by the thousands are once again beginning to understand and embrace the biblical truth of universal restoration. Many scholars feel this ancient truth is being exhumed by the Holy Spirit at this point in history as part of God’s overall plans and purposes for humankind just as other great eschatological and Kingdom truths such as preterism are also beginning to burst anew upon the scene. It is part of the whole truth being restored to the whole of God’s Kingdom disciples.

For now, as is the case with much restored biblical truth, we still see this particular truth only through a glass darkly (1 Corinthians 13:12)); we see only bits and pieces of it, but these bits and pieces are enough to cause me to feel that the biblical truth of universal restoration will be one of the most significant portions of truth to be restored to God’s people at this time in human history.

As a studied, enlightened opinion (not as a predictive prophecy), I submit to you that in God’s sovereign timing, this could very well be the capstone of restored truth that will set God’s people free to march triumphantly into full Kingdom living and service. It is the truth that may well serve as the blueprint to liberate and reconstruct the entire universe during this Kingdom age and in eternity. It is the truth that will ultimately cause all created beings to see God as He really is: Sovereign of Time and Eternity; King of the Universe; He Who is All in All; Great Sovereign of kings, queens, princes and princesses, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father!

It is unfortunate that many of God’s people are rejecting the truth of the universal reconciliation of all things to God through the finished and complete work of Jesus Christ. It seems they are doing so without a fair hearing or without diligently examining the Bible for themselves to see if these things are so (Acts 17:11). It is probably being opposed more than any other re-emerging truth since the Reformation, with the exception of the preterist view of fulfilled biblical eschatology—an ancient, re-emerging truth whose time has fully come. (As an aside, Martin Luther, the initiator of the Reformation, wholeheartedly embraced the teaching of the ultimate restoration of all creation.)

My own experience when first presented with this truth was to completely reject it; but because I loved and trusted the Christian friend who presented these truths to me from the Bible, I spent an entire summer studying the subject on my own with just the Bible as my text. From the Bible alone, I am now convinced of the complete veracity of the biblical teaching that the entire creation will be restored to God through the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, that all humankind everywhere and everywhen will ultimately be conformed to the exact image of God’s only begotten Son, for that is—and always has been—God’s ultimate plan for his entire creation. An integral part of that marvelous plan was for God to begin "in the fulness of time" (Galatians 4:4, Ephesians 1:10) the restoration process after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish temple in 70 A.D., at which time Jesus appeared for the second time without sin unto salvation (Hebrews 9:28) and began to make all things new (Revelation 21:5).

Now, after that rather lengthy introduction, let’s turn to a consideration of the two subjects, time and eternity, as being an integral part of the broader truth of God’s universal reconciliation of all things to himself. I’ll attempt to teach these two subjects as somewhat separate from one another, but, of necessity, there is much overlapping of the two. When we look at the subject of time, we will also look at other concepts that are temporal, non-absolute, and relative.

Only the Holy Spirit, the true Author of the Bible, can teach us in depth about time and eternity. And I encourage you to ask him for assistance as you continue to read this article. He can fill in the many gaps I’ve left out of this article because of my own limited understanding. I freely admit there is much I still don’t comprehend. There is much yet to be learned as the Holy Spirit gives us illumination and enlightenment. In a sense, there is much about time and eternity that only time to come and eternity can clarify for us. In considering time, we will also touch on such terms as infinity, space, the universe, and that part of Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity pertinent to this article.

A concept we must grasp immediately at the outset of this part of the article about time is that time is a created phenomena (Hebrews 1:2) consisting of past, present, and future—just as humans are created phenomena having youth, middle age, and old age. No, we cannot touch, smell, or hear time, but it is there, ever-present, always flowing out of the past and marching into the future.

Time was created; it had a beginning, it shall have an end. In one sense, God has already brought time to an end; that is to say, God’s salvific time for bringing an end to his covenantal plans and purposes occurred at the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., but chronological time will continue until it is wholly swallowed up into eternity. Salvific time or chronological time—they are both created entitities among countless other entities which are part of the entire created universe.

Time is as much a class of God’s creation as, for example, rocks, elephants, trees, and water are classes of creation. Before the creation of the universe, time did not exist; at the end of the eons of time it shall cease to be. It will be swallowed up into eternity just as all death (the first death and the second death, which is the lake of fire) (Revelation 20:14) will be swallowed up into victory and cease to be. Time—composed of milliseconds, seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries, millenniums, ages, and eons—was created in the beginning and will be dissolved at some point in the future.

This phenomena we call time was created by God for humanity. Why? I’m greatly oversimplifying, but it was created to aid fallen humans to accommodate ourselves to this material and temporal plane of existence and to aid us in living out our days in preparation for a new, totally spiritual existence beyond time in a state of existence called eternity. We will all pass from a physical, material existence into a glorious spiritual existence; time serves only to aid us—to give us time, so to speak—to prepare for that new spiritual state of being. And each of us has been allotted a certain amount of time to make such preparations. Let us use our time wisely and responsibly in service to God and others!

A proper understanding of time as a created phenomena having beginning and ending is an absolute prerequisite to a proper understanding of eternity. Because it is a created phenomena, time can be studied to some extent just as any other part of the creation of God can be studied. For example, we know by definition what time is: "A system for measuring duration." Or, it can be defined as: "A continuum in which events succeed one another from past through present to future." We know how to measure time: with chronometers ranging from incredibly precise atomic clocks to Mickey Mouse watches. We know how it functions by its effects in passing: maturity, decay, corrosion, erosion, deterioration, and the like. Someone has humorously quipped that, "Time is the thing that keeps stuff from happening all at once!" Someone else said it’s "the stuff that happens between paychecks." Finally, someone has said of time: "It can only be spent, not saved."

As previously mentioned, an entirely new learning discipline for the study of time has been established by Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. For purposes of this article, we understand from his theory that time and space are interdependent, inseparably related, and form a four-dimensional continuum (length, height, depth, and duration). That is to say, there is no space without time, no time without space. Space cannot be traversed without the passage of time; without the passage of time, there is no traversing of space. That is why (to furnish only one example) in his post-resurrection, spiritual body Jesus was immediately able to transcend and traverse the space-time continuum with speed surpassing time. By Christ’s power, space and time cohere and consist (Colossians 1:17). Without his binding power, space and time would become non-existent. We also understand from the Bible that both time and space (as we presently know them) will be swallowed up into eternity, subsumed and changed into a higher and different state of being altogether. All that is physical and material will be swallowed up unto that which is wholly spiritual, because God—toward whom we are all bound on our journeys—is pure Spirit (John 4:24), wholly Other than we are in time and space.

In this regard, too, we must consider whether or not time and space are finite or infinite. If they are infinite, are they necessarily eternal? By definition, space is the expanse in which all material things are contained. Infinity is to say that something lacks known or measurable limits and bounds, not that something has no limits or boundaries. I believe that space and time do have limits and boundaries, but they cannot be measured by presently known instruments. Space, time, and the material universe are infinite, but only in the sense they cannot be measured by finite humans. They are not infinite in the sense of being eternal.

Now let’s consider the concept of eternity. Please understand that the strictest, non-theological definition of eternity is a state of being. We shall see that it is much more than that, but it is a state of being, first and foremost. In other words, eternity is not a created phenomena as time is. In all candor, I believe the Bible teaches very little by way of defining or describing eternity. Why? Because the Bible is essentially a book of time and for time. It was written for us who are temporal and not yet totally eternal. We are presently creatures of time. Only when we fully enter that state of being called eternity… only when He who is Eternal becomes All in All in us… only when time ends and is swallowed up into eternity… only when eternity becomes an absolute reality to us… only when we are spiritually metamorphosized into our eternal milieu… only then will we formerly temporal and physical beings comprehend eternity and matters of an eternal nature. Everything written in time about eternity (including this article) is at best enlightened speculation based upon limited information.

I stated that the Bible is relatively silent about the eternal state of being. That is not to say that human teachings and theology haven’t taught us a great deal about eternity, but, sadly, much of it over the past 1,500 years or so has come from human minds not sensitive to the mind of the Eternal One via the Holy Spirit. Praise God for the true teaching ministry of the Eternal Spirit!

We read in the Bible that God is Eternal, or, more literally, the Father of Eternity (Deuteronomy 33:27, Isaiah 9:6). He is called so in the sense that he is the originator and sustainer of eternity. In short, eternity is part of God. He is eternity. Eternity is in God. In continuing to consider the eternal state, we must completely jettison any thinking that time has anything to do with eternity or is part of eternity. Time and eternity are two separate entities. They are exclusive of one another in an absolute sense.

Eternity is a state of absolute timelessness, not a state of unending time. Eternity is a state of being, resident in the very nature and person of God in which such concepts as past, present, future, before, after, minutes, hours, and years do not exist. There are no endless ages of time in eternity. Eternity is a state of absolute simultaneousness, not a state that goes on and on and on with the passage of time. The ages of time will end; they are alien concepts in eternity. Time and eternity have no relationship with one another just as up or down, for example, have no relationship with light or dark. The terms are mutually exclusive. Time is not part of eternity just as up is not part of light. Eternity is not composed of endless segments of time or of unending ages.

It may seem like I’m overemphasizing this point, but it is absolutely essential that you understand such differences between eternity and time before you can begin to comprehand what the Bible teaches, for example, about eternal life or eternal punishment. Time is not part of eternity. Eternity is not composed of segments of time. Eternity is not time standing still. It simply is not time in any sense that we understand time. Eternity doesn’t go on and on, ad infinitum. Eternity doesn’t go anywhere or anywhen, nor does it do anything. Eternity simply is. It is as foolish to say that eternity goes on and on and on as to say, for example, that Texas goes on and on and on. Texas simply is a state in which people exist. So it is with eternity.

Time is created. It is extra-eternal in the sense we say something is extra-biblical. Time is a measurable, fixed, limited, created phenomena. Eternity, in contrast, is part of the very nature and person of God. Eternity transcends beyond our comprehension anything having to do with time. Eternity simply is, just as God simply is. The expression, It is that it is, has unique reference to eternity just as I am that I am has unique reference to God. Just as Jesus said, "Before Abraham was, I am," (John 8:58) it can be said of eternity, "Before time was, I am."

For my next point let’s consider only briefly the definitions of such biblical words and terms as forever, forever and ever, everlasting, and related expressions. In over 500 places in the Bible where we find such terms in the English language as the three just mentioned, they have with very few exceptions been incorrectly translated from the original Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic languages in which the Bible was written. Forever can most often be translated as age-lasting or continuing for the ages of time. Forever and ever and everlasting should be translated as for the age(s) of the ages or enduring for the ages of time. None such biblical words or expressions are about segments of time that go on and on and on without end. I am simply saying that these words are all temporal words expressed in temporal languages, fallen languages of a fallen race of beings, languages that are inadequate to wholly express and define that which is eternal. They are not words having to do with eternity; they are only about time.

In the original languages, the biblical emphasis on such words seems to be upon the quality and purpose of such words rather than upon an unending duration. In other words, eternal life or eternal fire means the nature, quality, or purpose of the life or fire rather than their length or duration. Eternal life is the very life of God, a life the seed of which we now possess and which will come to full fruition in eternity when the ages of time have ceased to exist. Eternal fire or fire which burns forever and ever (Revelation 20:10ff) speaks of fire which has the quality of purging, disciplining, correcting, and cleansing, but which will burn itself out for lack of fuel at the end of the ages of time. True, the Bible says such fire is unquenchable, meaning that it cannot be put out nor extinguished by external forces, but such fires will simply burn out when they have consumed all their fuel and served their intended purposes.

The emphasis in the Bible is upon fire’s purposes, not its duration. I’ve given only a few examples of such words and expressions. An exhaustive—and startlingly convincing—personal study can be made of every such word in the Bible with the use of a good concordance.

In summary, it can readily be seen that both time and eternity are concepts beyond total comprehension by fallen and limited human beings. Even under the pure teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit, our minds and understanding are too limited to fully grasp their meanings. Nevertheless, even a dim understanding of such concepts will help change our imaginings and preconceived notions of space, time, the universe, God’s nature and personality, God’s "size," God’s inherent eternality, and our own future eternality.

God is cultivating within his people an eternal nature, a nature no longer rigidly bound to and regulated by time, by clocks, by seasons, by cycles. The thoughts of God’s people are becoming boundless and eternal, no longer controlled and motivated entirely by memories of the past, by present events, or by dim hopes for an endless future in the "sweet bye and bye." Failed 20^th century eschatological views have contributed to new, hope-full views of the future, one such being preterism’s views of fulfilled prophecy and an unlimited and boundless future of abundant life and service.