What does it mean to be eternal? Is God eternal? Discuss? What does it mean to be eternal?

Why do Christians believe God is eternal? 1 The Bible suggests that God has always and will always exist 2 God is not a physical being like us. 3 God is the Creator of the universe. Time passing is a feature of the universe. God as the Creator of the universe is therefore outside of time. 4 God is the ultimate cause of why things exist and why there is change in the universe. This relates to Thomas Aquinas’ first two Ways. 5 God is perfect and hence is not subject to time because time passing implies imperfection. When time passes you change and lose what you were previously. This argument is found in Anselm’s Proslogion. 6 God exists necessarily (See Aquinas’ third Way to demonstrate the existence of God).

ACTIVE TASK YOUR TASK: Choose a historical event (that you know the date of – e.g. 911, 1066) Get into CHRONOLOGICAL order. A very active way of achieving this would be to issue students sitting in a row with different dates or historical events. To illustrate the idea of everlasting, ask a student to move along the row to illustrate God moving through time. For timelessness, ask the same student to stand back and survey the whole row from a distance. This illustrates how each of the dates or events are simultaneously present to God. The notion of timelessness raises various issues. It is clearly more based on the philosophy of Plato than scripture, this may pose a difficulty for some believers. However, one of the attractions of the view is that it does enable believers to preserve a belief in divine immutability (although this concept may also have platonic origins). Some students may realise that the concept of God as everlasting raises the issue of foreknowledge in a way that timelessness may avoid. If this sort of discussion takes off, it may be worth pursing the topic of omniscience or the views of Boethius next rather than omnipotence.

Definitions Timeless – the belief that God stands outside of time and that all time is equally present for him. Everlasting: the belief that God moves through time along with creation but has no beginning and no end. Process theology – a reformulation of the concept of God which rejects the immutability of God and that teaches that God is also in the process of becoming or changing.

Different perspectives on eternity God is TIMELESS: past, present and future are all alike to him. God is EVERLASTING within time God moves through time with his creation, but changes with it (process theology) Remembering what you learned last lesson, which of these is most consistent with the Christian idea of God? Which is most consistent with a philosophical concept of God?

Draw your life timeline Create a character for a soap opera. Draw a timeline of their life, including at least 5 different things that happen to them.

Eternal meaning Timeless The timeless God sees all events in an eternal present. Your 5th Birthday party, your GCSE results and your first grandchild are all immediately visible ‘now’ as far as God is concerned. Augustine writes ‘ thy years neither come nor go; whereas ours both come and go’ Draw your eternal God onto your timeline.

Boethius (480-524) Most famous for writing the Consolations of Philosophy whilst awaiting execution by the Romans. Consolations is a dialogue with ‘Lady Philosophy’. Boethius argues that God is changeless and does not exist in time. He saw ‘the whole simultaneous and perfect posession of unending life’. Boethius is saying that life for God is not like ours which involves change and the passing of time. For God, there is no past, present or future. This is linked to the belief that God is simple and unchanging.

Supporting arguments for Boethius The Bible suggests this God is not physical God is the creator of the universe and therefore must be outside of it God is the cause of why things exist and change in the universe (Aquinas) God is perfect, anything that is subject to change is imperfect (Anselm) God exists necessarily

Aquinas analogy of the road

Aquinas developments Anything that exists in time has a past and future. God is a changeless being and does not have a past or future; he is always the same. Therefore, God must be timeless.

Aquinas developments God is pure actuality – he does not change so is not temporal. For Aquinas eternity is a timeless state and this implies that God’s eternity is not divided. It is all present to him in an eternal now. For God, then, there is no passing of time and God cannot change as time involves change. Eternity is changeless and God cannot exist in time.

Philosophical Problems Religious Language (can only talk about God using via negativa, myth, symbols or analogy. God cannot be involved with his creation as he is outside time. Think of miracles or incarnation. Anthony Kenny and Richard Swinburne argue that this does not make sense to say that all time is present to God The Bible teaches that God changes in his activity and relationship with humans.

So, is God everlasting? The Bible suggests that God is both timeless (miracles) and everlasting (‘I the Lord do not change’. Malachi 3:6)

An everlasting God Richard Swinburne suggests that God exists at all points inside time but does not exist outside time. Nicholas Wolterstorff says that the biblical view of God requires him to act freely in response to the actions of humans, so he must act within time. If the incarnation is to have any sense he has to be seen as everlasting.

Philosophical Problems How can God be in time and not be affected by creation and, therefore, be subject to change? Can we make sense of God that is temporal without being spatial? Isn’t a God who is within time just as we are and so cannot be omnipotent?

Process theology Says that God moves through time with creation but is affected by interaction. This limits his omniscience. They understand time as real for God as it is for us – but there are differences: God is everlasting – he cannot grow old and die as we do. There are aspects of God that are unchangeable, such as the fact that God is omnibenevolent and the fact that he knows everything.

Add the process theology ‘God’ and the ‘everlasting God’ to your timeline.

Homework Read the Boethius information sheet