I have been struggling with the concept for years, and it was only recently that I have been able to get a grip on it. It may not be correct, for no one except God knows what eternity is, but here is an explanation worth considering.
Eternity and time are two opposite yet corresponding concepts. Eternity is never ending, and time is always running out. Yet time runs endlessly and ceaselessly into eternity. Eternity is made up of ever-ending and also never-ending bouts of time.
We notice time through change. Changes occur inside us and around us. These changes make us notice the passage of time. We notice that a day’s time has passed when we see sun rising and setting and night falling. We notice these changes around us and within us (getting tired, hungry, sleepy), and we know a day’s time has passed. Weathers and seasons change, and we feel another year has passed. We see a child being born, growing up, maturing, growing old, and eventually dying, and we know a generation’s time has passed.
It is through change (within us and around us) that the passage of time is noticed. If these changes were to cease there would be no passage of time or time, for that matter, and eternity would set in.
Now for a second imagine a state of existence where change ceases to exist. The sun is always up (or the moon is always up), seasons don’t change, we don’t grow, we don’t mature, and we don’t age. It’s a state of existence where everything maintains the status quo. Past, present, and future do not exist. They do not exist because there is no change of anything to record the passage of time. Instead of a linear concept of time, you are on a point concept of time. That point is the past, the present, and the future.
And this is what eternity is.
A state of affairs, good or bad, restless or peaceful, happy or sad, that does not change is eternity. And this state of eternity (conceptually) is not really difficult to achieve. It requires a different set of laws of nature. I believe a God who can create one set of laws can create another one as well. All that needs to be done is to stop the process of change or to slow it down considerably and one is in eternity or an extended concept of time.
Doubting eternity is naïve. There are enough miracles of God in us and around us to give us evidence He creates laws of nature for his desired ends. If He can make this life and this world time bound through change, He can make a different life and a different world timeless as well. Eternity is as much of a miracle as time and temporary. We live and breathe through one, and we will be made to live through the other.
Eternity and time are two opposite yet corresponding concepts. Eternity is never ending, and time is always running out. Yet time runs endlessly and ceaselessly into eternity. Eternity is made up of ever-ending and also never-ending bouts of time.
We notice time through change. Changes occur inside us and around us. These changes make us notice the passage of time. We notice that a day’s time has passed when we see sun rising and setting and night falling. We notice these changes around us and within us (getting tired, hungry, sleepy), and we know a day’s time has passed. Weathers and seasons change, and we feel another year has passed. We see a child being born, growing up, maturing, growing old, and eventually dying, and we know a generation’s time has passed.
It is through change (within us and around us) that the passage of time is noticed. If these changes were to cease there would be no passage of time or time, for that matter, and eternity would set in.
Now for a second imagine a state of existence where change ceases to exist. The sun is always up (or the moon is always up), seasons don’t change, we don’t grow, we don’t mature, and we don’t age. It’s a state of existence where everything maintains the status quo. Past, present, and future do not exist. They do not exist because there is no change of anything to record the passage of time. Instead of a linear concept of time, you are on a point concept of time. That point is the past, the present, and the future.
And this is what eternity is.
A state of affairs, good or bad, restless or peaceful, happy or sad, that does not change is eternity. And this state of eternity (conceptually) is not really difficult to achieve. It requires a different set of laws of nature. I believe a God who can create one set of laws can create another one as well. All that needs to be done is to stop the process of change or to slow it down considerably and one is in eternity or an extended concept of time.
Doubting eternity is naïve. There are enough miracles of God in us and around us to give us evidence He creates laws of nature for his desired ends. If He can make this life and this world time bound through change, He can make a different life and a different world timeless as well. Eternity is as much of a miracle as time and temporary. We live and breathe through one, and we will be made to live through the other.
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Excerpts from - A Chronicle of Amends