What is Eternity?

By Elizabeth Prata

Eternity. Everlasting. Forever and ever. Forevermore. Who is and was and is to come. Always.

Did you ever think about eternity? The weight of the fact that God has always existed and always will? That He just is? That heaven will be eternal for His vessels of grace and will also be eternal for His vessels of wrath?

I have a relative who was a rabid atheist all his life, and repudiated everything and anything about Jesus. He died and is likely in hell. I have another relative who is similarly precariously on the edge of the abyss. The reality of hell certainly makes one think about how long eternity is. The reality of God makes one think of how long we will be privileged to be with Him in the new earth, forever. Can I envision a ‘forever’? No, not really.

God alone possesses lasting time, in contrast to the fleeting time of the human race.

Manser, Dictionary of Bible Themes

God is first said to be eternal in Genesis. “Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called there on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God“. (Genesis 21:33). The NIV uses the word eternal God. Daniel called Him the Ancient of Days. So descriptive!

“Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.  Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.  Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.  For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.” Psalm 90:1-4.

by  Rev. D. H. Kuiper 

The above [Psalm 90:104] passage instructs us in another of the divine virtues or adorable attributes called God’s eternity.  This is an attribute of God which is true of Him alone.  The God of our salvation does not share this quality with us in any sense.  God alone is eternal; we are not, nor do we become, eternal. 

The Eternity of God

Thinking on these things certainly stretches my brain! A seven-year-old student in school asked me the other day, “Who made God?” Try explaining eternity to a kid, when it’s hard to even grasp the concept myself! Rev. Kuiper continues his essay on eternality of God-

God’s eternity belongs to those attributes which are designated by the word infinity or immensity.  Infinity applied to space is omnipresence;  God is omnipresent in that He is exalted above the limitations of space.  Infinity applied to time is eternal;  God is eternal in that He is exalted above the limitations of time.  

The Eternity of God

As the United States election approaches, as the world continues its downward plunge into sin and immorality, as families split apart and feminism races across the globe, as hunger, storms, and disasters strike, all part of a fallen world, ponder the heavens above. The place where startlingly clear stars twinkle, where planets sedately maintain their course, where angels come and go doing God’s business. The place where holiness, beauty, perfection reigns…because God is there. His eternity is how He wants it, and we will be part of His perfect eternity someday.