Archive for Eternity
The Essence of Faith
Posted by: | CommentsMan instinctively knows that his soul will transcend time and exist again beyond physical death. Man seeks to define God so that the mystery of eternity can be understood in natural terms and allow himself to gain control over it. But, God has not granted man the right or the ability to define Him by experience or natural observation. God retains the right to reveal Himself to man and it is only by His own revelation of Himself that man has any hope of knowing anything about God or his relationship to God.
The exciting thing about God is that he wants us to know him! He loves to reveal his character and nature to us. It is said that the essence of faith is believing that God is who He says he is and will do what He says he will do. That means its impossible to be a person of faith if you don’t understand who God says He is, or what he is going to do. That information only comes by revelation – which is found in the Bible.
The Truth of Who We Are
Posted by: | CommentsTruth is powerful because it is the basis for what we think and do
The things you believe are the raw materials that propel your life – the fuel that underpins your thinking and emotions. The things you believe also play a direct role in the choices you make every day. Therefore, the things you believe are directly responsible for the results you get in life. Your beliefs ultimately produce the good, the bad and the ugly of your experience. If you believe lies, you will suffer from faulty thinking and make bad choices. This precarious condition is a universal characteristic of humanity. We all believe things to be true that are not true.
It can be ego deflating to accept the idea that we have lies in us, right now, that we believe to be true. Why is believing a lie such a big deal and why is believing a lie so destructive? The answer is found in the relationship between the things we believe, the things we think, and the choices we make every day. One leads to the other and if what we believe is a lie, everything that flows from that lie eventually becomes a problem. It begins with a thing every person has that I call the Body of Truth. Our Body of Truth represents the sum total of the things we believe to be true or false, right or wrong. Our Body of Truth is our personal constitution for living.
What we believe spiritually is the most foundational chunk of our belief system. Why? If we believe we are animals that have evolved from primal goo we will live like animals who only have an obligation to survive. If we believe we were created by an eternal, moral God, we will live like spiritual creatures who have an obligation to their creator.
Why is Eternity Necessary?
Posted by: | CommentsIn natural terms, anything that exists occupies a certain amount of space. A fourteen foot couch will not fit in a room that is 10 x 10. If space is not occupied, it is empty. The physical size of an item determines the amount of space it requires, and it fully occupies the space it needs. A box that is 2ft x 2ft x 2ft occupies 8 cubic feet of space and 8 cubic feet of space is the amount of room required to accommodate the box. With respect to things that may exist in eternity we face a huge concept for the mind to grasp. What could be significant enough to require accommodations as large as eternity?
I am not trying to give the impression that eternity can be compared to a room of a certain size. I am trying to paint a picture that demonstrates the ideas of occupation and accommodation. Eternity must be occupied by something that needs it and logically that something would use up all of the “space” in eternity. There would be no need for eternity if it were not utilized to the fullest extent. Any unoccupied portion of eternity would be unnecessary, and eternity would end at the point it is not needed. If eternity ended at any point it would not be eternal.
What I am feebly attempting to describe is existence in its purest form. It involves a constant state of being that has no beginning and no end. If eternity exists, it exists to accommodate whatever occupies its “space.” In my opinion, anything that requires a timeless environment to accommodate its existence is entitled to be called God. And if God fully occupies eternity, characteristics of omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence become logical characteristics of that God.
A God who is eternal would pre-exist everything else in time (the natural universe). And if other things and beings exist in eternity and in time, God would be the creator and cause of all things. Everything created by God would be subordinate to Him and dependent on Him for life and existence.
This is as far as I can go in my thinking to discuss this issue from the perspective of human logic. The details of eternity and the nature of things that exist in eternity cannot be known factually through reasoning or scientific observation. But I do believe the issue I have presented is reasonable, even though it describes theoretical conditions that are beyond the capabilities of a human to know. The issues involved are truly supernatural.
Proof of Eternity?
Posted by: | CommentsThe science of the natural world is based on cause and effect. Time is composed of events and behind each event there is always a direct cause for that event. This law of cause and effect involves a principle of dependency; everything that happens depends on something else happening first. If there is no cause, there is no effect. What we refer to as science is based on the requirement of something always being the result of something else.
How logical is it to believe the law of cause and effect would be violated at the front end of the biggest thing we can see? If there was no cause that produced the first moment in time (the beginning of the universe) it would be a contradiction of one of the foundational principles of science. It is difficult to accept the idea that all we can see had no cause. If there was no cause it means the principle that drives the universe (cause and effect) was not a factor at the moment it began to exist. But if science is correct about everything else, something cannot be caused by nothing.
With respect to the origin of the universe, the law of cause and effect creates a circular question similar to the riddle concerning chickens and eggs. If something caused time to begin, something had to exist before the first moment of time. There may have been another huge block of time that existed before our first moment of time. It is possible that the time frame we measure had its beginning at the last moment of the preceding time frame. For discussion purposes let us assume that is the case. The next question is this: What caused the preceding block of time to begin?
The question keeps repeating itself. No matter how many huge blocks of time are strung together, each would have a beginning and an ending. Each would require a cause that brought it into existence. The only answer that puts an end to this infinite question is the reality of a timeless state. And if it is timeless, it is eternal.
If eternity is a reality what would be capable of occupying it? Only eternal things would require eternity to exist. The most logical possibility would be God. When the truth of that is accepted we suddenly discover the cause behind the beginning of the universe as we know it. Some would call that “creation”.
The Time Niche
Posted by: | CommentsScience as we know it is totally involved with time and attempts to understand events and things within the context of time. Because science strongly influences our education, most people today use science as the primary means of making decisions about truth. Science is wonderful as far as it goes but science eventually confronts a point in time it cannot breach. That point is the dividing line between time and eternity.
If eternity is a reality, it follows that our universe merely occupies a niche in eternity. But what a niche! The physical aspect of the natural universe is so vast it also seems beyond understanding. Physical science indicates the universe appears to exhibit a definite age of about fifteen billion years, however, even billions of years will not begin to fully occupy an eternity.
Anything having an age is a function of time and requires a beginning. There is no significant disagreement among physicists or astronomers that the universe had a definite beginning. They also believe it will have an ending. The debate begins when ideas are introduced about the cause behind the event that brought the universe into existence. This is the point where I believe we are given a logical glimpse of eternity.
The scientific consensus is that something happened in an instant that started an incredible chain reaction and eventually produced everything we now see. The event scientists refer to as the “big-bang” is peculiar because nothing can be seen on the other side of it to explain why it happened. Scientists have identified the sequences of events in the chain reaction produced by the “big bang,” and they have presented explanations that go back to the first few moments of the event but can go no further. At the instant time began it appears something incredibly big happened as a result of nothing.
Since time requires a beginning, we are faced with two possibilities. The first possibility is that something did precede the “big bang.” The second possibility is that nothing preceded the “big bang.” If nothing preceded the first moment of time it means the universe and all that we can see had no cause. Since we can’t logically buy into that idea (the no cause option), we are left with the high probability that something did precede the “big bang” and it could likely be eternity and whatever occupies eternity.
Coincidentally, eternity is where God claims to live and exist.
