Part 3: God's Eternity

Intro

1: God exists without beggining and end.

Psalm 90:1–4 AV

1 Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. 2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. 3 Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. 4 For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.

2: God’s eternity consrasts with the transitoriness of man.

Psalm 102:11–12 AV

11 My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass. 12 But thou, O LORD, shalt endure for ever; and thy remembrance unto all generations.

Psalm 102:25–27 AV

25 Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. 26 They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: 27 But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.

Psalm 90:5–6 AV

5 Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. 6 In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.

Job 36:26 AV

26 Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out.

Compare this with:

Isaiah 41:4 AV

4 Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.

3: Scripture teaches that God existed before time itself began:

Jude 25 AV

25 To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.

See the RSV:

Jude 25 RSV

25 to the only God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and for ever. Amen.

A Systematic reflection on the Bibliucal Data.

The bible makes it clear that God is eternal.

However, it does not make it clear as to how God is eternal.

There are 2 ways in which something can exist withou a begining and without an end:

1: Omnitemporal - It can exist throughout infinate time

2: Atemporal - It can exist outside of time altogether. He will be beginingless and endless simeple because the concepts themselves would not exist outside of time.

Core: To exist eternally means to exist without begining or end.

God’s Relationship to Time

Temporal existance is incomplete.

We do not have the future - it exists only in potential.

We do not have the past - it is over and cannot be changed.

All we have is the present.

This incomplete existance is incompatible when dealing with a suprime, perfect, maximally great being like God.

A Omnipotent being knows the future as well as He knows the past and present. He knows the past in perfect detail.

Arguments for God being Eternal in time:

1: God changing relations within the world.

Intrinsic change: Intrinsic change is when something changes in its non relationl properties.

Ex: An apple changes from green to brown.

Extrinsic change: A relational change.

Ex: My dad was taller than me but is now shorter than me - He diddnt change, I did, so he changed in relation to me.

In creating a temporal universe God now changes extrisically in relation to his creation.

Illastration:

A rock frozen in space at absolute zero.

A meteor goes past and then another meteor. The rock has not changed in itself, but it has changed in relation to the meteors, thus be changless but also in time.

The incarnation is another example.

2: God’s knowledge of Tensed facts.

Tenste facts are facts related to past, present and future.

As an omniscint being od must know tensted facts.

Does God know what time it is now? Yes, that would mean that he knows tensed facts.

Outside of time would mean that “now” is unknowible.