Time And Eternity
n your article Seven Things You Have to Know to Understand End Times Prophecy, you say “A Millennium is obviously a defined span of time, while by definition Eternity is the absence of time.” You say similar things about there not being Time when we are in our eternal state in other parts of the articles. I am curious why you think there will be no time on the New Earth.
Q. In your article Seven Things You Have to Know to Understand End Times Prophecy, you say “A Millennium is obviously a defined span of time, while by definition Eternity is the absence of time.” You say similar things about there not being Time when we are in our eternal state in other parts of the articles.
I am curious why you think there will be no time on the New Earth. Is it from Revelation 10:6 where the KJV translates it “there should be time no longer”? If so, shouldn’t that be interpreted to mean “no more delay”?
I don’t know if you have ever read (a well known author’s book on Heaven) but he talks about this on pages 259-260. Here are a few bullets.
* Paul spoke of Heaven in terms of “the coming ages” (Eph 2:7). He speaks not just of a future age but of ages (plural).
* The tree of life on the New Earth will be “yielding its fruit every month” (Rev 22:2). There are days and months both in the intermediate and eternal Heaven. (I realize you used this as an example of when there will still be time therefore it must be part of the millennium however I don’t see anything in the passage to suggest the Tree of Life and the New Jerusalem and The River of Life WON’T be a part of the Eternal State)
* God says, “The new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me… From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me” (Is 66:22-23). New Moons and Sabbaths require moon, sun, and time.
* God said, “Summer and winter, day and night will never cease” (Gen 8:22). This wasn’t the result of the Curse; it was God’s original design.
* The inhabitants of Heaven sing (Revelation 5:9-12). Music in Heaven requires time. Meter, tempo, and rests are all essential components of music, and each is time-related. Certain notes are held longer than others. Songs have a beginning, middle, and end. That means they take place in time.
I would love to hear your thoughts about this. Thanks. By the way, I love your writings and I look forward to meeting you in Heaven!
A. For the record, I didn’t say there would be no time on the New Earth, but in Eternity. And I didn’t get the idea from Rev. 10:6 but agree with you on it’s actual meaning.
Since the Bible doesn’t describe eternity beyond saying that there’ll be one, no one else can accurately describe it either. But the word implies an absence of time. Isaiah 57:13 says that God inhabits Eternity. As an eternal being, God is not simply someone with a lot of time, but is outside the time domain altogether. That’s how He knows the end from the beginning.
When He created the Earth He established time for its governance. One of the most revered Rabbinical Scholars of all times explained that when the Bible says that on the 7th day God rested, it means that he permanently established the space-time reference that would govern Earth. And in Micah 5:2 where it says that the Messiah’s origins were “from of old, from ancient times” it literally means “from before time and perpetual” proof of the Messiah’s eternal existence
Of all your citations from (the well-known author’s) book the only one that’s even possibly a clue to eternity is Paul’s, and even there the age of the Church was barely begun and the Millennial Age is yet to come, as is the Kingdom Age which runs concurrently. Since the two are decidedly different in terms of location, focus and description, it’s no stretch to count them separately
Your argument that Rev. 22:2 doesn’t exclude eternity is specious. It sounds good but lacks any real merit. Nothing in the Bible excludes eternity but that doesn’t mean it describes it.
The Isaiah 66:22-23 quote applies to the Kingdom Age on Earth, before eternity.
The quote from Genesis 8:22 is from the Noahic Covenant and refers to the Age of Man.
And the one from Rev. 5:22 takes place in Heaven just after the Rapture of the Church before the Great Tribulation has even begun.
In summary there is no description of eternity in the Bible, but the use of the word itself implies an absence of time. And how can God or man be ageless except in the absence of time?
