Eternity Exists

Occasionally we need to take a deep dive in considering a complex spiritual issue. Following is certainly one. Try this, what is eternity, that is, there being no time. We live in a parentheses called “time.” We are so sensitive to it we count seconds. When thinking of spending eternity in heaven or hell we question won’t that get boring?

We ask what age we will be in heaven? We are so preoccupied with growing old that we think the aging process will be a part of the afterlife. No it won’t. Remember we are considering eternity where there is no time, hence no age.

Three things were created simultaneously: time, matter, and space.

John 1: 1 states, “In the beginning was the Word…” Theological scholar Herschel Hobbs says the Greek literally states, “Before time began to begin was the Word….” Sounds confusing but there was a time when there was no time.

Want to go deeper? There was a time when there was no space.

Now the third creation, matter. There was a time when there was nothing, no matter. According to most astrophysicists, all the matter found in the universe today — including the matter in people, plants, animals, the earth, stars, and galaxies — was created at the very first moment of time. They agree, there was an occasion when there was no time. Remember, it was created.

Before these three were created the Trinity existed in eternity. There will be an occasion when this will be true once more.

Following are three examples illustrative of relative facts. Consider a weight, a clock, and a ruler. They aren’t always the same.

A one pound object here on earth weighs one pound because of the gravitational pull on it. On the moon that same object weighs three ounces. Could it withstand the heat on the surface of the sun it would weigh 28 pounds.

The ruler represents mass. Mass, that is the size and density of an object also varies depending on speed. Driving at 50 miles an hour your car is three ten-millionths of an inch shorter. Traveling at 90% of the speed of light it would be half its length.

Now the mind boggler that hints of a state of there being no time. The star Sirius is nine light years away. If traveling there and back at 99.99999% of the speed of light the following would occur. Your friends on earth would be 18 years older and you would be only 12 hours older.

To conclude by saying we can’t understand this is a bummer. It should not be because no such state exists where there is no time, space, or matter with which to compare it. Even the wisest physicists can’t explain it, yet they believe it. Knowing we live on the vortex of such a state which we enter at the moment of death makes it wise to decide in what state we want to spend eternity.

If the state God was in before He created the heavens and earth was good enough for Him, it is good enough for me. I want to spend eternity in it with Him. Jesus stepped through the veil between heaven and earth, died an atoning  death on the cross, and rose again to open the portal into heaven to all who by faith believe in His redemptive work and submit to Him as Savior and Lord might spend eternity with Him.