The whole concept of eternity is difficult for us to grasp.  Time has a beginning and an ending.  Being so acquainted with time, we are accustomed to things starting and stopping.  However, eternity is contrary to time.  By definition, eternity is an unchanging duration that has no boundaries. 

The promises and principles in the scriptures are established upon the teaching that God is an eternal being.  He has no beginning and He has no ending.  Eternity is so pervasive in the Bible that we can’t fully understand the scriptures without a concept of an age that never ends.  God’s eternal nature is either assumed, implied or generally taken for granted nearly everywhere in the scripture

The idea of endlessness is to the kingdom of God what carbon is to the kingdom of nature.  Just like carbon is present everywhere in nature and supplies life to living matter, everlastingness is present everywhere in scripture and gives meaning to Christine doctrine. 

Here are just a few examples:

·       God’s love is said to endure forever (Psalms 136).  God could not love forever if eternity ends.

·       God’s covenant with us is everlasting (Genesis 17:7).  God can’t fulfill his everlasting covenant if His time runs out.

·       The Life we have in Christ is eternal (John 17:3).  Life isn’t eternal if it ends in death or non-existence.

·       God’s knowledge is infinite or beyond measure (Psalm 147:5)  If God’s knowledge is infinite then He absolutely knows how to exist forever. 

[We’ll look at this more next week.]

·       God never changes (Malachi 3:6).  If God stopped existing, then that would be a HUGE change in who God is.  That’s a problem because the Bible says that God does not change.  [ We’ll look more at this is a few weeks.]

In fact, I’m not aware of any principle of the Christian faith that would keep its significance if the idea of God’s eternity was extracted from it.

– Pastor Mark