John 10: 28 “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”
When we were children, some of us asked our parents, “How old is God?” The typical answer was, “He’s always been.”
In such a case, eternity is both past and future. We earthlings cannot comprehend this concept of time. We are conditioned to adhere to everything having a beginning and an end. Our lives are an example. So is the life of a tree, a sermon, the baseball season or the baking of a cake.
To be asked to relate to a time concept without a beginning or an end is not within our limits of understanding, and may be asking too much. At times however, there are concepts we must accept by faith and without a thorough comprehending.
Also, the age of the universe is an unanswerable question. If God is eternal, might the universe be eternal? Are we to think God existed in an environment of nothingness for all of previous eternity? And then all of a sudden He decided to create billions of galaxies, stars/suns, and planets. Might God have said “What a great idea! Why hadn’t I thought of that before?”
Many have tried to place the earth and universe in a limited time factor. Even NASA, America’s space agency, puts a time limit of 13.7 billion years on the age of the universe.
We know that stars/suns are born and they die. Our sun for example, we are told, is five billion years old and contains enough hydrogen to burn for another five billion years. Is this possible?
For the terminal human, the question of time has long been of great importance. Had it not been, why would have the clock and calendar been invented? Our lives are geared to time factors. The length of our lives, the length of the work week or the running of a mile by the Olympic runner have been in our minds.
I asked the question in a sermon, “Do any of you comprehend the meaning of eternity?” Not a single hand was raised. Even though we accept eternity as a Biblical truth, the understanding of it is limited.
We are still left with the question, is eternity both past and future? In the true sense of the definition of the word, of course it is or it wouldn’t be called eternity! Past and future eternity meet in our now; we are living in eternity.
Two chapters in the Bible start with the words, “In the beginning;” Genesis chapter one and John (in the New Testament) chapter one. While these words dictate a starting point to all things, would there not have to be, by definition, an ending point?
Perhaps Genesis one and John one are so stated because God knows our human minds cannot comprehend the reality of eternal in past tense. Or those verses may be referring only to the earth or our solar system.
Could that have been a question?
While the existence of the universe doesn’t appear to have a beginning and an end, creation of the earth and mankind certainly does. Can we agree on the belief/ theory that the universe is eternal but not the earth and mankind? Maybe, maybe not!
The Bible teaches eternal life for the believer but does it teach eternity for the earth and universe? Perhaps the following verses will help to answer these questions.
Romans 6: 23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” In this verse eternal seems to be referring to people but does it also apply to other things?
Ecclesiastes 1: 4 “One generation goes and another generation comes, but the earth remains forever.”
Revelation 21: 1 “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea,” confirms the validity of Ecclesiastes 1: 4 written by Solomon nearly 3000 years ago but indicates the creation of (or transforming into) a new earth.
Psalm 102: 25-26a “Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish.”
So which is it? Will the “Earth endureth forever” as written by Solomon or will it perish as said by his father, David? Still the question remains unanswered unless one considers Revelation 21: 1.
Romans 10: 9-10 “If thou shalt confess (say it, believe it) with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” This is a promise from God and says nothing about us understanding eternity or knowing when it begins.
The only critical belief is what we believe about Jesus. Romans 10: 9-10 emphasizes confession and other verses indicate repentance and belief.
1 John 1: 9 “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.” Confession is essential for the cleansing process. If man cannot realize he is a sinner (Romans 3: 23), how could he confess something that does not (in his mind) exist?
Repentance is essential for a changed life and a new life (John 3 and 1 Thessalonians 5: 17).
We must always teach that eternal salvation is attained by a faith based belief (Ephesians 2: 8) in Christ Jesus crucified (Matthew 27: 35) for the remission of sin (1 John 1: 9) and resurrected (Matthew 28: 6).