ETERNITY
WHAT IS ETERNITY AND WHAT IS IT LIKE?
What is eternity? That is a good question. Well, lets first of all say that eternity is NOT time. We are living in a period of a length of time, pre-determined by God the Creator. This period of time started at the beginning of the creation and ends when the old heaven and earth get burned up and the new heaven and earth appear. When we talk of heaven and earth here, we are not talking of the third Heaven where God dwells, but of the universe and the planet Earth and its atmosphere. This period, which we also call “HISTORY”, where future becomes, present and present becomes past, is like a large cloud hanging in eternity.
We heard some preachers say that God exists in the past, present and future. This is only true if you look at God’s existence from a worldly perspective, as a past and future can only exist where there is time.
In eternity it is only PRESENT. When Genesis 1:1 says “In the beginning” it relates to the creation and not eternity, because, as we have already said, eternity has no beginning (past) and no end (future). There is NO TIME in eternity.
God NEVER changes. He is ALWAYS the same perfect, complete and always existing Holy God.
Malachi 3:6 “For I, the LORD, do NOT change;”
Psalm 103:12 reads “As far as the EAST is from the WEST, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.”
If you stand at the Equator and start walking to the west you will for ever be walking to the West. Likewise, if you were walking to the East you will for ever be walking to the East. Should you walk to the North, you would soon reach it and the start walking to the South! Get the picture? Now Eternity has NO BEGINNING and has NO END. Again, there is no starting point ant there is no ending point. Again, time does NOT exists in eternity.
We CAN’T comprehend the concept of eternity and God’s eternal existence. It is too vast for our finite minds to process and understand. We believe in FAITH. One of the beautiful names of God is “I AM”.
Exodus 3:14 “God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
God is always “I AM” and as the Creator of “TIME” He is not affected by nor dependent on time. He can freely move in and out of time and do with it whatever He wants to do with it. Again He is the great ‘I AM“, He is the eternal self-existent One. He is outside of time.
It is the dream of so many people, to never die or at the least live for a long period of time. The non-aging gels, the wonder pills that keep you young and more dramatically the people who have requested that their bodies undergo Cryopreservation where their dead body is slowly frozen minutes after they die, so that, when technology allows, they can be resurrected again. It is so silly and so unbelievable! All they have to do is open the Bible and read John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever BELIEVES IN HIM shall not perish, but have ETERNAL LIFE.”
IT IS THE FREE GIFT OF GOD TO ALL WHO TRULY BELIEVE IN JESUS
It is so easy, so simple and so available to all, if only they would believe. God’s wonders and love is all around us in His creation. It is in His Word, the Scriptures, available freely to all. It is revealed to us in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ Who reveals the Father to us. Yet most people willingly ignore it all and live their lives without God.
Jesus clearly told Nicodemus, a member of the Pharisees and a leader of the Jews, that he must be BORN-AGAIN if he wanted to enter the Kingdom of God. John 3:3 “Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is BORN AGAIN he cannot see the kingdom of God.” For more on being BORN AGAIN go to our Topic Page “BORN AGAIN”.
Now we have established how to get to eternity let us look what it will be like. Remember we are not dogmatic about what we think eternity will be like, but we will try as good as possible, from the Scriptures, describe a possible scene of what eternity might be like. We will know for sure the moment we move to the other side.
The MOST IMPORTANT point will be that believers will FOREVER be in God’s presence. We will never be separated from Him ever again. We have eternal security in Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.
We will for ever WORSHIP Him and SERVE Him.
Everything we do will be out of our untainted love for God.
Revelation 11:16 “And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and WORSHIPED God,”
Revelation 22:3 “There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will SERVE Him;”
We will NOT remember UNSAVED loved ones. Some people have asked us about their loved ones that didn’t believe in Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, whether or not they would remember them when in eternity. The answer is clearly NO. God will wipe all memory of them from our minds.
Isaiah 65:17 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former things will NOT be remembered or come to mind.”
Revelations 21:4 “and He will WIPE AWAY every tear from their eyes; and there will NO longer be any death; there will NO longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have PASSED AWAY.”
Some refer to the story of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16:23 “In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and SAW Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom.” However, the reason why the rich man could see Lazurus in the bosom of Abraham is because Hades (the place where the soul/spirit of unbelievers go when they die) and Paradise (the place where the soul/spirit of believers go when they die) were both in the same compartment of Sheol (the place where the soul/spirit of people who die go) but divided by a great chasm fixed which stopped them from crossing over. The Lord Jesus was using this story that once you are in place after death, either Hades or Paradise, you can not contact and warn anybody to change their behaviour on earth or ease the pain of torment unbelievers are suffering from. Having said this, we have to stress that when Jesus died and was buried, His body was laid in the tomb while His Soul/Spirit went down to Paradise and when He rose He took all the soul/spirit of all believers that were in Paradise at that given moment and took them and Paradise to the Third Heaven, where it now is. (To read more about Paradise go to our topic page “Paradise“.
2 Corinthians 12:2 “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a man was caught up to the THIRD HEAVEN.”
2 Corinthians 12:3-4 “And I know how such a man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows—was caught up into PARADISE and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak.”
We believe that the words in Revelation 21:4 “wipe away every tear” may talk about the possible tears believers may shed when they sit beside Jesus Christ at the Great White Throne Judgment Seat and see their unbelieving loved ones being judged and cast into the Lake of Fire. The Scriptures are not telling us this specifically. Once the new Heavens and Earth come down ALL FIRST (PAST) THINGS are forgotten and we remember them no more. Neither will we, the believers in eternity with God, remember our sins (past lives) any longer. God says that He WON’T remember our sins any more.
Psalm 103:12 “As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.”
He can not FORGET because He is OMNISCIENCE and knows EVERYTHING, but He will NOT REMEMBER.
So why on Earth, if God doesn’t remember, why should we remember?
As we have already said above, in eternity it is only PRESENT. When Genesis 1:1 says “In the beginning” it relates to the creation and not eternity, because, as we have already said, eternity has no beginning (past) and no end (future). There is NO TIME in eternity.
BECAUSE there is no time in eternity we will NEVER be bored! Also, because God is PERFECT AND COMPLETE in every way we will THROUGHOUT eternity learn something NEW about God and the things He has prepared for us in eternity.
We will NEVER stop learning what is the breadth and length and depth and height of all the the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden in God Almighty, Colossians 2:3, something we can’t imagine at present.
In 1 Corinthians 2:9 Paul says “but just as it is written, “THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD,
AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.”
This not only talks about God’s amazing graceful plan of redemption for all those that trust in His beloved Son, but also about the glories of eternity that He has prepared for us. Our human wisdom just couldn’t make us understand these wonderful truths unless they are all revealed to us. Praise the Lord, these truths ARE revealed to us through His Scriptures, but we’ll just have to wait to see the glories of eternity until we arrive in that wonderful place. We can’t wait and we hope that you can’t either.
There WON’T be any ELDERLY people or CHILDREN in Heaven. When we receive our resurrected bodies we will be in our eternal bodies. We believe these bodies are probably ( and that is our thinking only) like the bodies we have when we are around 30 years old. The reason why we think that way is, when Adam and Eve were created they were not created as babies but as adults. If they hadn’t sin they would have remained the same in their bodies, without aging. Because there is no time in eternity babies would not be able to grow. Although we will recognise each other in eternity we will not be married and live as husband and wives as there won’t be anymore babies born in eternity. Matthew 22:30 says “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” As the previous verse states that there won’t be marriages in Heaven and that God’s Word also states that copulation is for within marriage, it won’t be necessary any longer as the number of people God has chosen to be with Him in eternity will be complete. It was only instituted to populate the Earth according to God’s perfect will.
EVERYBODY will have a PERFECT body, without any deformity or illness. Isn’t that good news? Our minds will also be perfect, You won’t be getting a C-grade in Heaven. We will always have A’s.
In eternity we most like will eat but the food we eat will be supernatural food which will not decay because there is no curse in eternity and our eternal bodies will most likely absorb or process it in a supernatural way.
We will all have different responsibilities in eternity. During the Millennium reign of the Lord Jesus Christ we will reign with Him from the New Jerusalem , which will hover above the Earth and from which we, the Church Saints, will move to and fro on the Earth. The level of responsibility will depend on the rewards we receive when we stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ, just after the Rapture. This Judgment Seat is not for salvation but for rewards. we receive depending on our our motives behind the service we gave to the Lord in our Christian life. You can read more about the Judgement Seat of Christ on our Topic page “Judgements“.
If you have loved ones that still don’t know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, TELL THEM ABOUT THIS WEBSITE!
