eternity

• Eternal meaning 


  Timeless (atemporal): God is outside time, and is not bound by time. Boethius, Anselm, Aquinas.

  Everlasting (sempiternal): God has no beginning or end but moves along the same timeline as us. Swinburne.
• Timeless

  Builds on Greek Philosophy, particularly Plato and the Forms.

  The ‘real’ world is that beyond space and time. Here God is unchanging and timeless.

  This world is the ‘unreal’ world where things are in time and where things change.

  God exists outside of space and time and therefore can see past, present and future with perfect knowledge.

  Created time so is therefore not limited by it.

  God is therefore omnipotent, omniscient and immutable (unchangeable).
• Timeless - Anselm 


  • God is “in” every time, and every time is “in” God, created and sustained by God. God can literally see all times, all human actions.
  • God can justifiably judge us, and we can be held responsible for our actions, which we choose freely and God sees at all times
  • just because humans can’t conceive of God’s eternity does not mean God is not eternal).
  • contrasts with “presentism” – only the present moment exists. The past is gone, the future has not happened yet. The only reality is that which exists in this moment. We can’t know the future because it does not exist.
• Moltmann: God does not just sit outside of time being perfect and immutable - he gets involved with us and shares our pains - Jesus' crucifixion

  • he explored Christian theology as a result of his own experiences in WWII
  • he concluded that God exists within time rather than in the timeless, eternal way that Anselm suggests
• Boethius 


  God is outside of time - sees us from a 'lofty peak'

  God sees our future actions but does not control them

  He sees us and our actions at all times at once

  God’s life is limitless and God possesses the whole of His life without end. There is no past, present or future but God sees it all at once (simultaneously). Time does not pass for God.

  God does not see our free choices in advance as there is no ‘future’ for God - he sees time simultaneously
• Problems with God as timeless

  Kierkegaard: the ‘Absolute Paradox’ - if God is outside time then how was he incarnated in the world

  • free will if God knows what will happen to us? - Boethius: sees all of our actions across time from a lofty peak
  • is an unchanging being that exists outside of time capable of love?
  • love involves an emotional response
  • an unchanging God would feel the same way all the time, whether people were contentedly worshipping him or suffering
  • POE - He knows evil exists and doesn't stop it
  • Can we have a personal relationship with God - outside of the world
• Responses to challenges

  Aquinas

  • God = loving and unchanging just because he is God
  • God's nature is love and this is unchanging - perfect goodness
  • God does not change but his creation does - people can move towards or away from God - His love remains

  Creel

  • God = loving and immutable
  • God knows his own will in response to an infinite number of possibilities
  • people have genuine free will but can still know what all the possibilities are in advance and what his response to each of these possibilities
• Swinburne 


  Swinburne says God is everlasting is because he thinks God can change. He disagrees with the idea that being perfect is based on being immutable (an idea that comes from Plato and Aquinas). A loving God must be able to change - an unchanging God would be a “lifeless thing” and it would not be possible to have a relationship with Him. Therefore, God must be within time. King Hezekiah example - 15 years added to his life