Eternal Time?

[fhansen]

I’ve entertained the notion that time is a sort of “pause” in eternity whereby God literally provides us with the time-along with the place and other conditions-to work out our salvation and sanctification, rather than to exercise the immediate judgment that sin should probably incur. A simple and silly idea maybe but in any case it leads me to another question. Since I can’t imagine created beings existing outside of time (I can’t imagine timelessness at all, for that matter), could time remain a dimension of our existence in eternity? Or does immortality, of necessity, imply timelessness?

 

[johnco]

hi,

timelessness is’nt less than time, rather it is more. in time we have to experience our joys one at a time, in sucession, however in eternity we may experience them together. all we have in time is the present moment, the past is gone, the future has not yet happened. eternity will have it all.

God bless,

johnco

 

[Mirdath]

If you haven’t read it, I have to recommend Edwin Abbott’s Flatland, which explores the concept of the third dimension from the perspective of the second. Our concept of time can be taken in much the same way.

One of the most important moments in the life of the protagonist of Flatland (Mr. A. Square, lawyer), is when he first meets the Sphere, who demonstrates his multi-dimensionality by moving up and down, appearing as a circle of varying size to the astonishment of the square. This is directly analogous to our perception of the dimension of time.

To a being extant outside time, the lives of beings in the third dimension would appear much like the time-lapse photographs of cars moving down a highway. Their entire lives would be visible in a ‘snapshot’, from birth to death. ‘Eternity’ would be this kind of perspective: time is just another way to move, and the movements of anything bound by time would be visible all at once in their entirety.

 

[nablaise]

actually I see eternity as a ‘pause’ in time.

I think eternity means somehow the present moment.

I think that’s where life is because that’s where God is. This is what to me is implied by the name of God. ‘I Am’.
This means now, not a moment a go, or in few seconds, but now.

So death begins when one is separated from the present moment. In other words, when we are not fully in the present moment, we are in the ‘death’ realm. And that’s where time exists.

I think this is what Jesus was pointing in his comments after teaching the Lord’s Prayer. He talked about not to worry about the future, to save things in heaven where they will not be stolen. I think he meant that we have to use out time wisely and do things which are really worth doing. And we can only do this when we are present to God who is in the Now and who is our light. But if we are distracted by the past which does not exists, and the future which does not exists yet, we are in the imaginary and this is not reality.

Reality is in the present. That’s where we can hear God’s voice and do what is needed to be done…

Like taping this message I hope

God bless