THE ETERNITY OF GOD

Francisco Lacueva Pages. 82-84

4. God is eternal
Just as the immensity of God is related to space, eternity is related to time. We could define
eternity as "an indivisible present that lasts forever." As an attribute of God, identified with His
Infinite Being, we can describe it as "the perfect and simultaneously total possession - without
beginning, without end and without mutation - of the infinite divine life", following the famous
definition of Boethius.
Being "beings-in-time", we cannot conceive eternity and we imagine it as a time without
beginning or end. Aristotle defined time as “numbering of movement according to a before and
after.” Heidegger identifies time with relative being. Time, in truth, is only a conventional
measure to express the perpetual evolution of things, whose existence flows "like the waters of
rivers that end up in the sea." Therefore, the Hebrew language has no present. And very much
because the present does not exist for us as something indivisible, but rather it is a constant
flight; "a-ho-ra" consists of three syllables that cannot be said at the same time. That's why we
say: how time flies! However, we are the ones who suffer the wear and tear of existing. And we
have no logic when we say: "I am fifty years old", when we no longer have those fifty years,
because we have spent them, and no one knows how many years they have left...
On the contrary, the eternity of God is a perpetual and full present that encompasses,
surpasses and coexists with all times, like the center of a circle where all imaginable radii that
start, inward, from the points converge simultaneously - mathematically infinite—of a sphere.
Given the impossibility of adequately expressing the eternity of God in human language, the
Hebrew Bible tells us that God is "from everlasting to everlasting."2* The Greek of the New
Testament presents him as "he who is and who was." and that is to come" (vg, Rev. 1:8), where
eternity is attributed to Jesus Christ, breaking it down into three times (cf. also Hebr. 13:8:
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.") Judas (v. 25, in the Greek text)
attributes to God "glory, greatness, strength and authority before the 25th century (aion) and
now and for all ages." (v. also Prov. 8:22 et seq.; 1st Cor. 2:7; Eph. 1:4; 3:21; 1st Tim. 1:17; 6:16;
Apoc. 15:8.)
Eternity and time relate to each other according to their respective characteristics. Therefore,
eternity coexists with all times simultaneously, while times coexist with eternity successively,
since a time "all at once" would no longer be time. This explains why God, keeping everything
present, can distinguish the past as past and the future as future. It is as if a person, from the
top of a tower, continually watches a procession pass by, while those passing by only see those
immediately in front and behind.

Charles Ryrie Page 16

Absolute attributes include those that belong to the essence of God when considered by
themselves (eternity, infinity).
b. Eternity
1. The meaning. The attribute of eternity means that God exists without time limit, His
existence extends without time limit back and forth (according to our concept of time) without
any interruption or limitation caused by the occurrence of events. Uniting all these ideas,
Berkhof defines the attribute of eternity as “that perfection of God by which He rises above all
temporal limits and all the succession of moments, and possesses the whole of His existence in
an indivisible present.” ” (L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology: published by TELL)

Eternity and God's own existence are interrelated concepts. Some theologies use the word
“aseity” to denote self-existence; ie, God depends on Himself. If God exists without a time
limit, then He never came into existence nor was He ever brought into existence. He is self-
existent without time limit.

2. The Scriptures. God's eternality is reflected in Psalm 90:2, “from everlasting to everlasting”
(which is equivalent to “from everlasting to everlasting” or “without beginning or end” as
translated in some versions) and in Genesis 21:33 where El Olam, the Eternal God, comes from
an original expression that means “the God of eternity.”

3. Question mark. What relationship does God have with the succession of events? As an
eternal Being He sees the past and the future as clearly as the present; Furthermore, He must
see them with the inclusion of the succession of events, and yet He is in no way limited by that
succession. An illustration of this is found in the heavenly scene of Revelation 6:9–11, where
the Lord answers the question of the martyrs as to how long it would be before they would be
vindicated by telling them to wait until certain events occurred on earth. .

4. A consequence. A consoling consequence of God's eternity is the certainty that God has
never ceased and will never cease to exist; therefore, His providential control that sustains all
things and all events is guaranteed.

PAUL WASHER PAGES. 27-29

God is Eternal
One of the most amazing attributes of God and one of the many that distinguish Him from
creation is His eternal existence – He is without beginning and without end. There was no time
when He did not exist and there will never be a time when His existence will cease. He is
before all things and will remain when all things have passed away. God's eternity does not
simply mean that He has existed and will exist an infinite number of years, but that He is
above time and age, always existing and never changing. No other person or created thing
shares this attribute with Him. We are for a moment, but He is forever. We were caused by
Him, but He was not caused by anyone. We depend on Him for our existence, but He does not
depend on anyone. Our earthly existence passes like an hourglass, but He remains. He was
God, is God, and will forever be God.

1. In the Scriptures, a person's name has great significance in that it reveals something about
his character. What are the names given to God in the following Scriptures and what do they
teach us about His eternity?
a. I S __________ He who S_________ (Exodus 3:14). The idea communicated in this
statement is that existence is an attribute of the very nature of God. Unlike man, God does not
have to decide or make an effort to exist. He simply is.
b. The God E___________ (Isaiah 40:28). The word can be translated “endless.” With
Regarding God, the word not only refers to the future, but also to the past. God will not only
remain forever, but He has also existed forever.

c. The A________________ From d__________ (Daniel 7:9). When used with

In reference to man, the phrase generally denotes anxiety and weakness of mind and body.
When used with reference to God, the phrase denotes the greatness, splendor, power, and
wisdom of Him, which was before the foundation of the world and will continue when the
world ceases to exist.
d. The A_____________ and the O_____________ (Revelation 1:8). The first and last
letter of the Greek alphabet. It is a colorful way to communicate that God is first and last (see
Isaiah 44:6). He is before all things and will remain when all other things cease to exist.
2. Having considered the Names of God that speak of His eternal nature, we will now consider
some of the most important statements in Scripture. What do the following Scriptures teach us
about the eternal nature of God and His relationship with His creation? How do they
demonstrate His greatness? Job 36:26; Psalm 90:2; Psalm 90:4, II Peter 3:8.
3. God is eternal, without beginning or end. What are the implications of His eternity for all
creation, and especially for God's people? What do the following Scriptures teach us? Write
your thoughts. to. The Kingdom of God is Eternal: Jeremiah 10:10; Psalm 145:13; Psalm 45:6.
b. The Word of God is Eternal: Isaiah 40:6-8; see also I Peter 1:24-25; c. God's Salvation and
Care are Eternal: Deuteronomy 33:27; Psalm 48:14; Psalm 102:27-28; Isaiah 26:3-4; Isaiah
40:28-31; Matthew 28:20 .
4. What should be our response to the truth of God's eternity? What should be our attitude
and how should we live before Him? What do the following Scriptures teach us? I Chronicles
16:36; Daniel 4:34; I Timothy 1:17.
Wayne Grudem Pgs. 294-300
3. Eternity. The eternity of God can be defined as follows: God has no beginning, no end, no
succession of moments in his own being, and he sees all time with the same lucidity, however
God sees events in time and acts in time .
This doctrine is sometimes called the doctrine of the infinity of God with respect to time. To be
"infinite" is to be unlimited, and this doctrine teaches that time does not limit God.
This doctrine is also related to the immutability of God. If it is true that God does not change,
we must say that time does not change God; it does not alter his being, perfections, purposes
or promises. But that means that time does not alter the knowledge of God, for example. God
never learns new things or forgets anything, because that would mean a change in His perfect
knowledge. This also implies that the passage of time neither increases nor decreases the
knowledge of God; he knows all things past, present and future, and he knows them with equal
lucidity.
a. God is eternal in his being. The fact that God has no beginning or end is seen in Psalm 90:2:
"From before the mountains arose and before you created the earth and the world, from
ancient times to the last times, you are God." So Similarly, in Job 36:26, Elihu says of God:
"The number of his years is countless!"
The eternity of God is also suggested by passages that speak of the fact that God always is or
always exists. "I am the Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was and who is to come, the
Almighty" (Rev 1:8; cf. 4:8).13
This is also indicated by Jesus' bold use of the present tense verb implying continued present
existence when he answered his Jewish adversaries: "Before Abraham was born, I am!" (John
8:58). This statement itself is an explicit affirmation of God's name, "I AM THAT I AM," from
Exodus 3:14, a name that also suggests a continuous present existence: God is the eternal "I
AM," the eternally existing one. .
The fact that God never came into existence can also be concluded from the fact that God
created all things, and that he himself is immaterial spirit. Before God made the universe there
was no matter, but then he created everything (Gen 1:1; Jn 1:3; 1 Cor 8:6; Col 1:16; Heb 1:2).
The study of physics tells us that matter, and time and space, must all occur together; If there
is no matter, there can be no space or time either. Thus, before God created the universe, there
was no "time," at least not in the sense of a succession of moments one after another.
Therefore, when God created the universe, he also created time. When God began to create the
universe, time began, and there began to be a succession of moments and events one after
another.14 But before there was a universe, and before there was time, God always existed,
without beginning, and without being affected by time. Time, therefore, has no existence in
itself, but, like the rest of creation, depends on the eternal being and power of God to keep it in
existence.
The above Bible passages and the fact that God always existed before time existed combine to
tell us that God's being does not have a succession of moments or progress from one state of
existence to another. For God, his entire existence is always in some way "present,"15 although
we must admit that the idea is difficult for us to understand, because it is a different kind of
existence than the one we experience.
b. God always sees everything with the same lucidity. In a certain sense it is easier for us to
understand that God always sees everything with the same lucidity. We read in Psalm 90:4: “A
thousand years to you are like yesterday, which is past; "It's like a few hours of the night."
Sometimes it is difficult for us to remember events that occurred several weeks ago, or several
months ago, or several years ago. We remember more recent events more vividly, and the
clarity of our memory fades as time passes. Even if it were possible for us to live "a thousand
years," we would remember very few events from a hundred years earlier, and the clarity of
that memory would be very diffuse. But here the Bible tells us that God sees a thousand years
"as yesterday." He can remember all the events of a thousand years ago at least as clearly as we
remember the events of "yesterday." Furthermore, for him a thousand years are "one of the
watches of the night" (RVR 1960), a period of three or four hours during which the sentinel
stands guard. Such a short period of time would pass quickly and all events would be easily
remembered. Yet this is how a thousand years seem to God.
When we realize that the phrase "a thousand years" does not imply that God forgets after
eleven hundred or twelve hundred years, but rather expresses the longest time we can imagine,
it becomes evident that God views all past history with great clarity and vivid form; All the time
since creation is for God as if it had just happened. It will always remain equally clear in your
consciousness throughout the millions of years of future eternity.
In the New Testament, Peter tells us that "with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a
thousand years is like one day" (2 Pet 3:8). The second half of this statement had already been
made in Psalm 90, but the first part introduces an additional consideration: "One day is like a
thousand years"; That is, any day from God's perspective appears to last "a thousand years"; It
is as if that day never ends, but is always happening. Again, since "a thousand years" in
figurative language means "as long a time as we can imagine," or "all of history," we can say
that according to this verse any day for God seems to be present in his consciousness forever. .
Taking these two considerations together we can say the following: in God's perspective, any
extremely long period of time is as if it had just happened; and any very short period of time
(such as a day) appears to God to last forever; It never ceases to be the "present" in your
consciousness. So God sees and knows all past, present and future events with equal lucidity.
This should never make us think that God does not see events in time and does not act in time
(see below), but precisely the opposite: God is the eternal Lord and sovereign over history, and
he sees it more clearly and acts more decisively. than anyone. But, having said that, we must
still affirm that these verses speak of God's relationship with time in a way that we neither
know nor can experience. God experiences time not simply as a patient persistence through
eons of infinite duration, but has a qualitatively different experience of time than ours. This fits
well with the idea that in his own being God is eternal; it does not experience a succession of
moments. This has been the dominant concept in Christian orthodoxy throughout church
history, although it has faced frequent challenges, and even today many theologians still deny
it.16
We can illustrate God's relationship with time as in Figure 11.1. This diagram is intended to
show that God created time and is Lord of time. Therefore he can see all events in time with
equal vividness, and at the same time he also sees events in time and acts in time.
The diagram also anticipates the next consideration, since it indicates that God knows the facts
of the future, including the infinitely long eternal future. Regarding the future, God frequently
states through the Old Testament prophets that he alone is the one who knows and can declare
future events. «Who predicted this long ago, who declared it from ancient times? Didn't I, the
Lord, do it? Outside of me there is no other God; Just God and Savior, there is none besides
me” (Is 45:21). Similarly, we read:
«I am God, and there is no one else, I am God, and there is no one equal to me. I announce the
end from the beginning; from ancient times, what is to come. I say: My purpose will be
fulfilled, and I will do everything I desire. (Isa 46:9-10).
So God is somehow above time and can see it as present in your consciousness. Although the
analogy is not perfect, we can think of the moment when we start reading a long novel. Before
returning it to the shelf, we can quickly flip through its pages once more, bringing to mind the
many events that occurred in that novel. For a brief moment things that have happened over a
long period of time seem to be "present" in our minds. Perhaps this is tenuously analogous to
God's experience of seeing all of history as the present in his consciousness.
c. God sees events in time and acts in time. However, once all this has been said it is
necessary to guard against misunderstanding by completing the definition of God's eternity:
"However, God sees events in time and acts in time," Paul writes: "But when it was fulfilled
term, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to rescue those who were under
the law" (Gal.4:4-5). God clearly observed and knew exactly the consequence of what was
happening in creation as events occurred over time. We could say that God observed the
progress of time as various events occurred within his creation. Then, at the precise moment,
“when the deadline was fulfilled,” God sent his Son into the world.
It is evident throughout the Bible that God acts within time and acts differently at different
moments in time. For example, Paul told the men of Athens: “God overlooked those times of
such ignorance, but now commands everyone everywhere to repent. He has set a day when he
will judge the world with righteousness, through the man whom he has appointed…” (Acts
17:30-31). This statement includes a description of a previous way in which God acted, a
present way of acting of God, and a future activity that He will perform, all in time.
Certainly, the repeated emphasis in the Old Testament prophets on God's ability to predict the
future forces us to realize that God predicts his actions at one point in time and then performs
them at a later point in time; and on a larger scale, the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation
is God's own record of how He has acted over time to give redemption to His people. We must,
therefore, affirm that God has no succession of moments in his own being, and sees all history
with equal vividness, and that he sees in his creation the development of events through time
and acts differently at different points. in the time; In short, he is the Lord who created time
and who governs it and uses it for his own purposes. God can act in time because he is Lord of
time.17 He uses it to show his glory. In fact, it often pleases God to keep his promises and
perform his works of redemption over a period of time so that we can more easily see and
appreciate his great wisdom, his patience, his faithfulness, his lordship over all that we do.
happens, and even its immutability and eternity.
d. We will always exist in time. Will we participate in God's eternity? Specifically, will
time still exist in the new heaven and new earth to come? Some have thought not. In fact, there
is a well-known hymn that in English says: "When the trumpet of the Lord sounds, and time is
no more..."; and we read in the Bible: "The city does not need the sun or the moon to
illuminate it, because the glory of God illuminates it, and the Lamb is its light... there will be no
night there" (Rev 21:23, 25; cf. 22:5).
However, it is not correct to say that heaven will be "timeless," or without the presence of time
or the passage of time. Rather, because we are finite creatures we will necessarily experience
events one after another. Even the passage that talks about there being no night in heaven also
mentions the fact that the kings of the earth will bring to the heavenly city “all the riches and
honor of the nations” (Rev 21:26). We are told regarding the light of the heavenly city that "the
nations will walk in the light of the city" (Rev 21:24). These activities of bringing things to the
heavenly city and walking in the light of the heavenly city imply that events occur one after
another. Something is outside the heavenly city, and then at a later point in time it is part of
the glory and honor of the nations that is brought to the heavenly city. To cast one's crown
before the throne of God (Rev 4:10) requires that at one moment the person has a crown and
at a later time that crown be cast before the throne. Singing a new song of praise before God in
heaven requires that one word be sung after another. Furthermore, the "tree of life" in the
heavenly city is said to "produce twelve crops a year, one a month" (Rev 22:2), implying the
regular passage of time and the succession of events in the time.18
Therefore, in heaven there will still be a succession of moments one after another and things
happening one after another. We will experience eternal life not as an exact duplication of
God's attribute of eternity, but rather as a duration of time that never ends; We, as God's
people, will experience fullness of joy in the presence of God for all eternity; not in the sense
that we will no longer experience time, but in the sense that our life with it will last forever:
“There will be no more night; They will not need light from a lamp or from the sun, for the
Lord God will enlighten them. And they will reign forever and ever” (Rev 22:5).

Lewy Sperry Chafer pp. 223-225

4. ETERNITY. Through the word eternity the relationship that God maintains with duration is
expressed. God, being the Author of time, is not conditioned to it in any way. He is free to act
in relation to time, he is equally free to act outside of its limitations. Acting within time He said
to Abraham: "Is there anything difficult for God? At the appointed time I will return to you,
and according to the time of life, Sarah will have a son" (Gen. 18: 14). And again: "But when
the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman and born under
the law" (Gal. 4:4). The word eternity is used in two ways: (1) to describe that which is already
of eternity past, or that belongs to eternity future. Creation has no part in eternity past, since it
had a beginning. On the other hand, both men and angels have a certain relationship with
future eternity, since they will never cease to exist. (2) Eternity is the most appropriate way to
describe the concept of what is eternal. It is in this aspect of eternity that God is designated as
the "eternal God." He is from eternity and to eternity. The problem as to how time is disposed
of in eternity is beyond the understanding of the finite mind. Likewise, it is of little
consequence to speculate as to how and in what manner time began and what, if so, will cause
its end. The pure idea of eternity is too broad for human thought. In relation to that obvious
truth, Dr. Samuel Harris has written the following:

"The eternal Being exists without beginning or end. Existence limited by time must have a
beginning and can have an end. A limited being has no guarantee that it will exist forever. Its
existence can be terminated by the power on which it depends. Those limitations do not exist
in God. In relation to these, no difficulties arise.
Another limitation of being in time is that its existence is transitional through a succession of
events. This usually causes more difficulty. The following statement, so far as it goes, seems to
give us true meaning. God as absolute Spirit exists independently of time. Time, with the
universe conditioned by it, depends on Him. By acting in time, God remains, through all his
successions and changes, immutable and always the same. He is not in the chain of causes and
effects. He does not exist in transition through successive forms of being. In his being and in
his essential attributes as a personal Spirit, he is immutably the same, the Eternal from whom
all successions of events proceed and by comparison with whom the invariable criterion of
succession is possible. He is the I AM. Even in our own being we find an analogy regarding
this. Every personal being persists in having identity, while it is subject to successive acts and
changes. A man, in the image of God in his rational and free personality, is also an I AM; He
remains the same person, unchanged in his personality and essential attributes, through all the
transitions and changes of his life. Matter is in a state of constant change and fluidity. But this
still gives us a weak analogy. We are forced to think about unchanging atoms that are
unaffected by all the shocks and movements of this energetic action since the world was
created. God is invariable and eternal not only in his being and in his essential attributes, but
also in the fullness of his knowledge, without increase or decrease, and therefore without
succession. But just as God's absence of limitations in time does not prohibit his presence or
his action in time, in the same way it does not prohibit his knowledge of the distinctions of
time or of events as present, God; 61 sees in this the map or plan of everything that is being
carried out progressively over time. But he sees the difference between a being that exists in
time and another seen only ideally that will exist in the distant future or that has existed in the
past and no longer exists. If he didn't know this he would be limited in time. Not only would
He be incapable of acting in it, but also of seeing through it. But his Reason is an open eye,
seeing all that is, has been, or will be, and seeing it in its relation to time as measured by
events... God's purpose in realizing this master plan in the finite universe in the forms of time
and space is an unchanging and eternal plan. Although magnetizing and always active in the
universe, He is leading it progressively through His action within time. And His love. that
constitutes His character, is an eternal and unchanging love that He is continually and
progressively expressing in all His actions of creation, preservation, providence and
redemption.

The result we have arrived at is, not an eternity as time without measure, but the immutable
and eternal God who exists in all time and who is progressively revealing himself in the
universe as he exists in time. God is the I AM. The universe is what it comes to be. God is
eternal. The universe is God's progressive and never-completed revelation in time and space.
God's eternity is related to his self-sufficiency. He has no cause. Therefore, he cannot have a
beginning. He transcends the entire chain of causes and effects. Therefore, He can never cease
to exist." God the Creator and Lord of All, I, 123·124.

FÉLIX MUÑÓZ: BIBLICAL, SYSTEMATIC AND EXPOSITIVE THEOLOGY. P. 73

Eternity: Without beginning, without end and without time, that does not mean that time is
unreal to Him. God recognizes the succession of each event since He himself is the one who
gave, gives and will give course to each story, therefore, the past, present and future are always
his present. Genesis 21:33: when saying “everlasting God” the same as in hb. “El Olam” means
“the God of eternity”, this word refers to something unattainable by the human mind, it
emphatically exposes its essence as “always God” to refer to a totality or fullness of its being.
Psalms 90:2. This psalm is the oldest of all. Moses, its author, recognizes divine authority here.
In it the divine self-existence is expressed before everything formed by its power, the word
used here for “century” is “olam”, it expresses outside of mind and time, it comes from “alam”
which is “ hidden from the human eye”, this shows that before the manifestation of the created
and everything that can be understood by the human mind He has always been God, this
encompasses a totality in any sphere of the created and uncreated, since God He does not
depend on absolutely anyone or anything other than Himself.

PAUL HOFF PAGES. 219-220

b) God is eternal. Every being and object in the world of time and space has had a cause and a
beginning. But God has had no beginning, no period of growth, no old age, no extinction. It is the
uncaused cause of all existence and has no beginning or end. Regarding time and space, God is infinite
(transcends it). Scripture speaks of the "eternal God" who is "the refuge" of his people (Deut. 33:27), the
"King of the ages" (1 Tim. 1:17), God “from ever to ever” (Ps 90:2, BJ); "he who dwells in eternity" (Is.
57:15) and the "Alpha and Omega" (Rev. 1:8).
Although we know that God is not subject to the limitations of time, we recognize that time is his
creation. God fills space and time with his presence, sustains it and gives it purpose and value. It does
not cancel time but fulfills it. On the other hand, there are some theologians who tend to think that "God
includes time within himself while still remaining eternal."8 However, this is a tendency to reduce God
to temporality. The truth is that God is timeless.
God is also the Lord of history because this is the product of his planning in eternity, his creative design,
providential preservation and common grace. "When the fullness of the time had come, God sent his
Son" (Gal.4:4). Time has meaning to the eternal God because Christ died on the cross on Friday and
was resurrected on Sunday morning. The risen Lord said to his disciples: "I am with you always, to the
end of the world" (Mt. 28:20). Therefore, the believer can confidently confess: "My times are in your
hand" (Ps. 31: 15). We conclude with a quote from the theologian G. R. Lewis:

In Christianity, then, eternity does not mean without limitation of time, rather the eternal consists of a
characteristic of the living God, who is present in all times and places, creating and sustaining the world
of time and space, and carrying out his purposes. redeemers in the fulfillment of time.9

SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, THE BEING AND DOING OF GOD PAGES. 223-224

8. The Eternity of God
In the Scriptures we find three types of beings:
a) Those who had a beginning and will have an end. Like all animals, volatile birds, land
animals, fish, sea monsters, or small insects. Everyone had a beginning and will have an end.
b) Those who had a beginning, but will be without end. Like angels and the souls of men,
which are eternal from their existence forward.
c) He who is without beginning, and will be without end. This cannot be said of any created
creature, we can only say it of God. He is from eternity to eternity.

Eternity is duration without beginning or end, without before or after, that is, a present now.
The essence of eternity is the absolute lack of succession. Eternity is permanent, while time is a
measure of motion. Eternity is everything at the same time. The river is an image of time
passing, the sea is the image of still eternity. In Psalm 2:7, it is said: “Today I have begotten
you” the Father does not beget the Son in time, it speaks of eternal generation, and it is
described with a present “today” the past and the future are excluded. .

God is eternal in relation to time. It has existed from eternity, and will exist until eternity. The
past, present and future are present to God. He has everything in front of him, and sees
everything at the same time.
The Holy Scriptures testify to the eternity of God. In Ps 90:2 it is clearly expressed that God
had no beginning or end: “Before the mountains were, and were, and formed the earth and the
world, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God” other translations change. “age” for
“eternity” Genesis 21:33 speaks of the “eternal God” Isaiah 57:12 “He who dwells in eternity.”
About eternity Augustine said: "The world was made not in time, but with time. There is no
point in the question: Why did creation occur at one time, when it could have occurred earlier?
Or another question: What was God doing before creation? These questions presuppose an
independent time in which God created, a time before time; on the other hand, creation did
not occur before time, but God gave both the world and time."

SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY GEERHARDUS VOS PAGES 13, 17,

God's eternity says more than the simple fact that He has no beginning or end. He also affirms
that for Him everything is an indivisible present, etc.
God's eternity says much more than the simple fact that He maintains an infinite relationship
with time. He claims that He is absolutely exalted above him. It is clear that in man there is no
shadow or trace of this. The eternity of God is truly incommunicable, not only in degree, but
also in principle.
23. What is the eternity of God?
That attribute of God by which He is exalted above all the limitations of time and all the
succession of time, and in a single indivisible present possesses the content of His life perfectly
(and as such is the cause of time).

24. How many concepts of eternity are there?

Two:
a) A more popular concept: eternity as time without beginning or end.
b) The most abstract and most precisely defined concept: eternity is something that is above
time and completely different from time.
c) Both are inseparable and serve to complement each other. According to the first, time itself
would be the original and eternity only an extension of time. If we take the latter to an
extreme, we make the pantheistic error of affirming that time is only an alteration of eternity.
But both exist, eternity in God, time in the world. Scripture contains both descriptions of
eternity: Psalms 102:12; 90:2, 4; 2 Peter 3:8.
25. What question is being asked here?
How can God have knowledge of temporal things without, with this knowledge, time, so to
speak, penetrating God's thought and therefore his entire being? In other words: how does
God relate to time?
26. What should be the answer to this?
a) That we cannot follow those who deny the real existence of time and space and think that
they are mere subjective ways that man has of representing things. This is what Kant and many
others do. Time and space are objective and real.
b) That it is difficult to decide whether time and space are independent entities or modes of
existence, whether they are relations of things to each other, or a completely different kind of
reality, or something about which we cannot say anything more. These questions belong to the
realm of metaphysics. God's Word gives no further explanation.
c) That time and space as realities are also realities for God, whose existence He knows.
d) That, despite everything, there continues to be a great difference between the relationship
we maintain with these realities and the one that God maintains with those same realities.
Time and space are not only real outside of us, but they are also created in our minds as forms
of representation, so that our inner life is governed by them and we cannot get rid of them. We
can only see in space and think in time. For God it is completely different. His divine life does
not develop nor exist in those forms. He is exalted above them and that simple fact makes his
eternity his omnipresence. He knows that the finite exists in time and space, but he does not
know or see it temporally or spatially.
19
27. Is it correct to say that everything that “happens” takes place in time and that therefore the
passage of time must also occur in God? No, because we know that causing and being caused
(therefore, a real event) occur outside of time, that is, in the generation of the Son and the
expiration of the Holy Spirit.

JOHN MACARTHUR PAGES. 226-229

God's perfections are active. All of God's perfections are completely active in their essence. God
is never passive or inactive in any aspect of his essence. If all of God's perfections are not
constantly and completely active in his essence, God is not actively God in any aspect, because
a certain aspect of his essence is not active and his other perfections lack a necessary divine
completeness and complement. All the attributes of God must be perfectly active in their
essence.
ETERNITY
God perfectly transcends any limitation of time, so that he has no beginning or end, nor does
he experience his being or his awareness of any other reality in a succession of moments. In
other words, in his experience of himself and all reality outside of Him, God is not limited by
moments of time.
Biblical evidence. The following list presents biblical proof of God's eternity:
1. He is both the first and the last (Is. 41:4; Ap. 1:8).
2. He existed before creation (Gen. 1:1; Jn. 1:1; 17:5, 24).
3. He will remain forever (Ps. 102:26-27).
4. He is God from eternity to eternity (Ps. 90:2; 93:2).
5. The number of his years is unsearchable (Job 36:26).
6. For Him, a thousand years are as one day, because of His immediate experience of all time
(Ps. 90:4; 2 P. 3:8).
7. He is the eternal God (Isa. 40:28).
8. He inhabits eternity (Isa. 57:15).
9. He lives forever (Deut. 32:40; Ap. 10:6; 15:7).
10. He is incorruptible and immortal (Rom. 1:23; 1 Ti. 6:16).
11. He was, is, and is to come, all at the same time (Ex. 3:14; Ap. 1:4, 8).
12. His purpose is eternal (Eph. 3:11).
13. He is the eternal King (1 Tim. 1:17).
14. He existed and acted “before eternal times” (2 Tim. 1:9; Tit. 1:2).
The essence of God as “timeless.” Something important regarding the
eternity of God is to elucidate whether God exists only in passing moments
of time or also outside the succession of moments of time. Is God “eternal,”
timeless in his inner life, or is his existence temporal, only within moments
of time?
God is in time, since he interacts with his creation and his creatures
moment by moment. But God must transcend time, or he would be limited
by it. In other words, God's eternity means that He is distinct from time,
although not totally separate from it, but present (immanent) in every
moment, controlling it for His purposes and glory. The biblical statement:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1)
indicates that God existed before the “beginning,” when “the first day”
began (Gen. 1:5). God existed before the first moment of the “first day” of all
reality outside of himself. Therefore, God's existence is outside the limits of
time. In fact, since God began “the beginning” through his creative action,
he is the creator of time and, by his power, sustains it in its entirety and in
each of its moments. God is completely present in each moment of time,
and knows its totality and its succession of moments. However, He is never
subject to time, but rather makes it His servant to reveal His perfections.
In his essence, God exists in an eternal “present.” He is always with “the
first” of time and with “the last” of time (Is. 41:4; cf. 44:6). God intended to
impart saving grace to his chosen people “before eternal times” (2 Tim. 1:9;
Tit. 1:2), so he acted before the first moment of time. God exists consciously
outside of moments of time.
God is not confined or conditioned by limits or spaces of time (see Ps. 90:1-
4; 2 P. 3:8). God is both the beginning and the end, and remains so after the
beginning has ended and before the end has begun. In His essence, God
encompasses both the beginning and the end, He consciously experiences
both, and these are “present” realities for Him. And since the expression
“the beginning and the end” (Rev. 21:6; 22:13) is possibly a merism (a
literary device that expresses a complete series of elements, mentioning
only those that mark the opposite limits of the whole), God controls each
moment as “present” realities that he consciously experiences. Gods . And it
is before the beginning of time, before the first moment of “eternity.” God in
his essence never begins to be. It never becomes.
Argument from the omniscience of God. All of God's perfections are
consistent with the affirmation that He exists without a succession of
moments in the experience of his being and his awareness of any other
reality. For example, God is omniscient, or all-knowing, so that his
knowledge encompasses all events as equally real. Thus, since his
perfections are his essence, in his experience of his essence as such, there is
no past, present or future. Although God experiences the succession of time
(both because He created this succession and because God the Son
experiences it in a special way through the incarnation), and although His
thought has a logical structure (which includes premises and conclusions);
However, His experience of succession does not control, confine or
condition His existence and life so that He only exists in moments of time.
Everything is perceived and experienced as an “eternal now.”
Argument from the immensity and omnipresence of God. God
transcends all limitations of space. He exists outside of physical space and
yet he is present in every point of it and experiences it with his entire being.
So it must exist outside moments of time or else it would be confined within
space since space only exists at one moment in time.
Argument from the immutability of God. Since God's essence cannot
change, He must not be conditioned by changing time. If God only exists at
each moment, he must begin to exist at each successive moment: a
conclusion that contradicts his immutability.
Argument from the independence of God. Since the essence of God
does not depend on anything to exist, but is, rather, the source of all
existence, He cannot depend on moments of time to be. Because if God only
exists moment by moment, then it depends on the existence of each
moment.
Argument from the omnipotence of God. Since God has active power
over all things, to be omnipotent he must exercise his power in the future
and in the past. If it exists only in this moment, it then has no real power in
past and future moments.
The immensity, immutability, independence, omnipotence, omnipresence
and omniscience of God are compromised by the point of view of
“successive moments.” If God only existed moment to moment, his
existence would effectively end in one moment and begin in the next. On
the other hand, it would not have control over the change of moments, but
would be conditioned by them. Furthermore, it would not transcend time
and space, since it would be confined to the current moment and its sole
action in space as it exists at the current moment. Finally, although he
could govern current events to bring them inflexibly towards the final
consummation of his plan, in the present he would not actually control the
events of the future, since such events have not yet occurred. Therefore,
taking into account the different considerations above, it is necessary to see
God as someone who exists inside and outside of time. The “successive”
view does not conform to the revelation that God imparts to us in the
Scriptures.
LUIS BERKOF PAGES. 55-56
HIS ETERNITY
Infinity or Infinity in relation to time is called eternity. The way the Bible describes God's
eternity is simply to say that his duration spans endless ages. Ps 90:2; 102:12; Eph. 3: 21. We
must remember, however, that in speaking this way, the Bible uses popular language, not that
of philosophy. Generally, we conceive of God's eternity in the same way, that is, as infinite
duration extended both into the past and into the future. But that is only a popular and
symbolic way of representing what in reality transcends time and essentially differs from it.
Eternity in the strict sense of the word is ascribed to that which transcends all temporal
limitations. That this applies to God in that sense is what II Peter 3:8 at least declares. "Time,"
says Dr. Orr, "strictly has to do with the world of objects that exist in succession. God fills time;
It is in every part of it, but its eternity, however, is not this existing in time. Eternity is, rather,
what contrasts with time."28 Our existence is divided by days, weeks, months and years; not
the existence of God. Our life is divided into past, present and future; but in the life of God
there is no such division. He is the eternal "I am." His eternity can be defined as that divine
perfection through which He rises above all temporal limitations (all successions of moments)
and enjoys the fullness of His existence in an indivisible present. The relationship of Eternity
to time constitutes one of the most difficult problems of philosophy and theology, perhaps
impossible to solve in our present conditions.

REFORMED SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY JOEL BEEKE PAGES. 707-716

Problems of time and eternity
The classical doctrine of divine eternity has been criticized by some modern theologians and
philosophers, 1 including some Reformed and evangelical scholars. 2 The question is not
whether God had a beginning or will have an end, which all Christians deny, but whether God
transcends time or is a temporal or time-limited deity, that is, someone who lives in the
movement of time like us. . Thomas Morris explains this latter view: "God's existence is
temporally infinite in duration, unlimited in the past and the future," but, "God exists in time."
A view of God as temporal, but without beginning or end, is sometimes given the label
everlasting . However, this word is not particularly useful as a term of distinction (literally, it
is an intensive form of Latin semper , "eternal", meaning "forever eternal"). Patristic and
medieval theologians used it in various ways, 4 including as a synonym for the timelessness of
God, for necessarily true propositions, 5 or creatures with a beginning but no end. 6 All
Christians can affirm that God is everlasting in a certain sense; The term is used in the Vulgate
translation of Isaiah 40:28, which speaks of the "everlasting God" ( Deus sempiternus ).
Therefore, we will not use the term, but will refer to this view as the doctrine of a temporal
God, that is, a God who exists in and under time.
While the question of whether God transcends the succession of time may seem obscure and
speculative, our answer to it has important implications for the entire doctrine of God. Carl
Henry said that teachers of divine temporality "do more than simply reconstruct a particular
perfection of the biblical God; what they do is substitute a deity very different from the God of
orthodox theism." 7 This is the conscious agenda of many scholars, including the process
theologians Henry apparently had in mind. Others sincerely wish to maintain the orthodox
Christian doctrine of God, but their teaching on this point has a tendency to disentangle the
classical Christian distinction between Creator and creature. 8 Michael Horton says: "The
everlasting view necessarily holds that there is at least one point at which the being of God is
univocal with the being of the creature: that is, with respect to time. In this view, God may
have more[time], but he does not transcend the record of this creature." 9 In light of the
importance of this doctrine, we will highlight some of the criticisms of God's transcendence
over time and we will try to answer them.

Biblical Terminology

First, someone might object that the Bible does not have eternal eternity language. The words
translated "everlasting" and "everlasting" in the Bible do not refer to a state of timelessness,
but rather to extended periods of time.
The most common Hebrew words translated "eternal" ( 'olam and ' ad ) may refer to a long
duration of time (Job 20:4; Amos 9:11), such as the duration of the covenant of circumcision
(Genesis 17:13) or the age of the hills and
mountains (49:26; Deuteronomy 33:15). The Greek noun ( aiōn) that appears in the expression
"forever" is correctly translated in some cases as "age," as in a long period of time. 10 Oscar
Cullmann said: "It is not time and eternity that are opposed, but limited time and unlimited
and endless time." 11 Thus, we are told that God's eternity simply means that he has always
been and will continue through all ages.

In response, we recognize that there are a variety of meanings for each biblical term for time
and eternity, as Orthodox Reformed theologians have also recognized. 12 However, a
theological argument cannot be constructed on the basis of selective word studies. 13 As James
Barr (1924-2006) said, words often have more than one meaning. It is a confusion of
categories to identify a word with a concept, such as the concept of aiōn, and then limit that
concept to one of the senses of that word, that is, a long period of time. 14 Our understanding
of biblical truth must arise not only from the words used in Scripture, but also from the
teachings communicated by those words.

The same words can be used by men and God in different

senses that fit their nature. For example, the Scriptures teach us that at the resurrection,
Christians "will put on immortality[ athanasia ]" (1 Cor. 15:53-54). However, Paul elsewhere
says that God "has only immortality[ athanasia ]" (1 Tim. 6:16). The same word can be applied
to human immortality in one sense and to divine immortality in another sense, unique to God.
15 The same thing happens in eternity, where the term translated "eternal" ( 'olam ) may refer
to an "age" of time, but is applied to God as "eternal king" in a unique way that distinguishes
the Creator from all. the other beings (Jer. 10:10-11). This is not so much a theological doctrine
as a linguistic observation. Barr noted that Plato used aiōn "not only for a timeless eternity but
also for a limited temporal period." 16 If such variety existed in Plato's use of language, why
not in the Bible as well?

Pagan Philosophy
Second, a person might object that the eternity of God is a pagan idea derived from Platonic
philosophy. 17 Plato said that time is a "moving image of eternity," while no "was" or "will be"
can be attributed to eternity, but only "is." 18 Philo also saw eternity as an invisible reality
outside of time, "the model and archetype of time." 19
In response, we note that the orthodox doctrine of the eternal God is very different from
Plato's speculations about the eternal forms, which he described as abstract ideas, the
invisible, eternal and immutable essences of the good, the beautiful and other qualities. 20 The
eternal forms are not the Creator; rather, they are the immutable models that the framer of the
world used as a model. 21 This is not at all the classical Christian doctrine of God. We could
equally accuse the doctrine of a temporal God of deriving from Aristotelian philosophy, which
conceived of eternity as that which has no beginning or end, but always includes movement
and change. 22 However, such accusations are not helpful, because neither our view of God
nor that of our Christian critics is the same as that taught by the pagan Greek philosophers.
A related criticism is that divine timelessness implies that time is unreal, a changing shadow of
immutable reality, as Plato suggested in his allegory of the cave. 23 However, when we speak of
God's timelessness, we do not mean that time is not real to God any more than we would say
that creation is not real to him. Henry wrote: "Evangelical orthodoxy affirms that God has vital
and stable personal relationships with the entire space-time universe; it repudiates the idea
that time is an illusion, and declares time, rather, a divine creation." 24 Robert Culver said that
although God himself has no succession in time, since God knows his creation, time is "as real
to God as it is to us." 25

Biblical History
Third, someone might object that the Bible has no doctrine of everlasting eternity. Instead, the
Bible is a book of history, of time and chronology, of seasons and ages. This is how it
represents God. Nicholas Wolterstorff says, "God has a history, and in this history there are
changes in God's actions, responses, and knowledge." 26
In response, we argue that the Bible's historical narrative has a concept of eternal eternity,
because Genesis 1 indicates that time began at creation. 27 The opening phrase of the Bible,
"In the beginning," introduces God's creation of the entire universe in its most basic structures.
An early structure made by God is the sequence of light and darkness, day and night: "And the
evening and the morning were the first day" (Genesis 1:5), literally, "day one" ( yom 'ekhad ).
As the narrative continues, we read about the second day, the third day, and so on. The most
natural reading of Genesis 1 is that there was no temporal sequence before God's act of
creation. That means that God created time. Or perhaps time is not so much a created entity as
a finite, created quality or mode of existence. 28 Either way, time is part of the finite, created
order, not the infinite divine nature of the Creator. 29 Augustine said that God did not create
the world "in time," that is, in an already existing flow of time, but "with time," so that time
began with the creation of the universe. 30
Belief in a temporal God without beginning or end poses a curious problem, since it implies
that God waited an infinitely long time before making the world. This problem is related to the
traversal of a true infinity. 31 Theologians such as John Philoponus (c. 490-c. 570) in the 6th
century and Bonaventure in the 13th argued that it is impossible to traverse an infinite series,
and therefore the world must have had a beginning. This also raises questions about the
viability of a beginningless temporal God. It could be answered that there were no events or
activities in the existence of the temporal God before creation, and therefore there were no
infinite series. If that were the case, then it would seem that God existed for countless ages in a
lifeless manner. 32
There is a better solution to the problem of eternity past. Augustine considered the questions
of what God was doing before creating the world and why he did not make the world before,
but only after infinite ages had passed. Augustine responded that the questions arise from a
misunderstanding of time. Before creation "time was not" and, therefore, there was no
moment in time in which God had not created anything, for when he created the world he
"made time itself." 33
The Bible looks back to the creation of the world as the beginning of time, but not the
beginning of God or his plan. Paul says that God predetermined the "wisdom" of the gospel
"before the ages" (1 Cor. 2:7 ESV; Greek, pro tōn aiōnōn). God saves us in time because he
determined "before the ages" (2 Tim. 1:9 ESV), literally "before the world began" ( pro
chronōn aiōnōn), that he would give us grace in Christ. The same phrase appears in Titus 1:2,
another statement of God's purpose to give eternal life to sinners. These expressions are
coordinated with references to God's plans in Christ before "the foundation of the world." 34
Therefore, the Bible describes creation as the beginning of time with its successive ages, before
which only the triune God existed.
However, does the beginning of time at creation necessarily imply that God is eternally
eternal? William Lane Craig proposes that God was eternal when he existed in solitude, but
that he became temporal at creation through
through its relationship with the world. 35 However, the idea that God changes from the
eternal to the temporal is incoherent and unstable, because if he is timeless, then he is
immutable. 36 In other words, Craig attributes to God a kind of timeless eternity that comes to
an end at a given moment, but how can something timeless have an end, and that in time?
Therefore, we conclude that time began when God created the world, which implies that God
always transcends time.

The Temporal Activity of God

Fourth, a person might object that the God of the Bible is a temporal agent, that is, one who
operates in time. 37 If God were eternal, then the Bible could not speak of him acting in time,
as when he called Abraham, or centuries later when he led Israel through the Red Sea. 38 The
Bible uses "before" and "after" language for God's relationship to temporal events (Psalm 90:2;
Jeremiah 1:5; 12:15), which would have "zero meaning" if God were eternal. 39
In response, we recognize that it cannot be denied that the Bible presents God as present and
active in time. We are not arguing, and nor did Reformed Orthodox theologians, for "a
doctrine that the eternal is unrelated to time and incapable of dealing with events."
temporal as temporal," as Richard Muller incisively observed. 40 On the contrary, time could
not exist without the eternity of God, and the flow of history depends at all times on the eternal
God. 41 Although we cannot fully understand how a God eternal could act on things in time,
our lack of understanding does not mean that it is not so: who can understand the creation of
the world from nothing?
The Bible also reveals God as active in time but transcending time. Just as God's way of
knowing is qualitatively different from man's, so God's way of being is qualitatively different
from man's life in time: "Have you eyes of flesh? Or do you see as man sees? Are your days like
the days of man? Are your years like the days of men?" (Job 10:4-5). As we noted earlier,
Psalms 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8 teach us that God is not limited by the linear progress of time
through the years of history. Creatures move through time day by day, but God accesses long
ages at once (a thousand years are like one day) and attends to short times with epic leisure
(one day is like a thousand years). Consequently, Christ says: "Before Abraham was," not "I
was," but "I am," indicating that he transcends time itself with its distinctions between past
and present, for he is the independent "I AM." and eternal (Jn 8:58), the God who said to
Moses: "I AM WHO I AM" (Ex. 3:14), or, as the Septuagint put it, "I am he who is" (egō eimi
ho ōn). It is, said John Preston, "as if to say, that there is no time past, present, or to come with
me." 42

God's relationships

Fifth, someone might object that God is relational, not timelessly transcendent and incapable
of relationships. If God is outside of time, they claim, it is impossible to conceive of him having
meaningful relationships with us in time. Either it must undergo some change when those in
relation to it change - which implies that it is in time - or it exists in absolute isolation. 43
The objection that an eternal God is not a personal God does not embrace the biblical
combination of God's transcendence and immanence. 44 We see both in Isaiah 57:15, a text
that makes special reference to God's eternity: "For thus says the Most High and Sublime who
dwells in eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with who also has a
contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the hearts of the
contrite." The phrase "high and high" ( ram veniss'a ) appears earlier in Isaiah's vision of
divine holiness (6:1), and thus identifies God as the Holy One whose glory sets him apart from
all creation, including the angels. 45 This God is said to dwell in a high place and in eternity.
Preston said that in this scripture, "eternity is compared to a house or room, into which no one
can enter but God himself, for he alone is high and excellent; all creatures are excluded from
this room." 46 Thomas Goodwin said: "He dwells, that is, possesses the whole continually
................................................................................. From eternity to eternity is but one
complete and individual house for all of it to fill, which is the fullness of being in the intensity
of perfection. And therefore enjoy all the blessing in an instant." 47 Isaiah 57:15 distinguishes
God from all creatures. Isaiah had written that men are inhabitants of the earth and dust (18:3;
26:19), but God is the inhabitant of eternity. John Oswalt comments: "God is not part of this
world, neither in time ( eternally ) nor in space ( high and holy place )." 48 However, God's
eternity does not remove Him from time, but rather magnifies the wonder of His grace because
the transcendent and eternal God dwells with repentance to revive them in the time of their
brokenness. God is not bound by time, but He lovingly reaches out to believers in their darkest
times to sustain them. He who is eternal vivacity revives your hearts.
The parallel of God's eternity with his immensity helps us recognize both the transcendence
and immanence of God with respect to time. 49 The immensity of God means that he
transcends all spatial limitations and places, and yet is fully present at every point in space (1
Kings 8:27; Jeremiah 23:23-24). God's eternity means that he transcends all temporal
limitations and places, and yet is fully present at every point in time, manifesting his special
presence at particular moments in the most personal way. The biblical language of God's being
before or after certain times no more contradicts his absolute transcendence in time than the
language of his being "near" or "far" to certain places contradicts his immensity and
omnipresence (Jeremiah 23:23). All biblical language of God is analogical. Some theologians
argue that God's transcendence and immanence present two ways in which God's being is
related to time: he is said to be both timeless and temporal. 50 Like process theology, this
vision posits two poles in God; but unlike process theology, it affirms God's sovereignty over
creation. In this view, God took on new properties when he created the world, but in contrast
to Craig's view, he did not cease to be timeless but also embraced temporal properties as the
covenant God in relation to his creation. 51 John Frame says that God, in his covenant
presence, "can feel with human beings the flow of time from one moment to the next." 52
Frame explains: "God is not simply like an agent in time; he is really in time, changing as
others change. And we should not say that its timeless and unchanging existence is more real
than its changing existence in time." 53
In response to this proposal, we affirm the special presence of God with his people in all his
personal love and compassion, but we deny that God exists in two ways. Such a doctrine
radically undermines the unity of God. It postulates a change in God's being when he created
the world, but God does not change. God's role as Creator is not as a creature. In a strange way,
this view teaches an incarnation before the incarnation: God is said to have embraced finite,
creaturely qualities when he created the world. However, the biblical doctrine of the
incarnation carefully distinguishes the two united but distinct natures of Christ: he is fully God
and fully human, without mixture or confusion. Paul Helm says: "The analogy with the
incarnation is not apt, because Christ is double in nature, but the immanence of God is not a
nature of God together with his transcendence." 54

The Personality of God

Sixth, a person might object that God's eternity makes it impossible for him to be personal.
The Orthodox view of eternal eternity teaches that God dwells in an eternal "now" with no past
or future. 55 Consequently, God must be frozen, trapped in a moment without the ability to
think, feel, choose, speak, or act. 56
In response, we say that eternity only seems to compromise God's personal nature when we
unwittingly import concepts of finite time into infinite eternity. We sympathize with the
description of God's eternity as an infinite "now," because we must speak of God in human
terms, "according to our apprehension," as Thomas Aquinas said. 57 However, if taken too far,
visualizing eternity as a complete "now" can lead to the misunderstanding that deity is a static,
impersonal principle. Such a conclusion is not the biblical and orthodox doctrine of the living
God. 58 We should not impose all the implications that arise from the temporal idea
of "now" about God's eternity to conceive it "as an eternally static and immobile moment of
time," according to Herman Bavinck, but to think of God's eternity as his "fullness of being."
Eternity is better than "the abundant and exuberant life of the cheerful worker, for whom time
barely exists and the days fly by." 59 The eternity of God is not a mere denial of time, but the
affirmation of his infinitely full life. All finite activity of creatures in history depends on and
reveals the eternal and abundant life of God, who creates, sustains, and governs the world
according to his will. 60 Different Moments in Time
Seventh, someone might object that God's eternity makes all times equal. If God is eternal,
then everything is simultaneous with God. This implies that all events must be truly
simultaneous with each other. 61 This would destroy the sequential story and the personal
interactions in it.
In response, we say again that we should not import time concepts such as simultaneity into
eternity. Eternity is not all time contracted to a single point in time . 62 Helm writes, The idea
of divine timelessness is only incoherent in this sense if timeless eternity is supposed to be a
kind of time, which has a kind of eternal duration, a duration that could be simultaneous with
some event occurring in the truly temporary time. But there is no compelling reason to think
that everlasting eternity is a kind of time, or that it has aspects of duration, as will be seen. To
say that everything is present to God is not to assume that everything is temporally present to
God, that God has an experience of everything that happens at once. 63
If God is eternal, then temporal concepts apply to him by analogy or do not apply at all. Here
we must also humble ourselves before the incomprehension of God.
We return to Job 36:26: "Behold, God is great, and we do not know him, nor can the number
of his years be searched." God's infinity with respect to time reminds us that his greatness is
beyond our understanding. John Owen said: "We are from yesterday, we change every
moment, and we leave our station tomorrow. God remains the same, he was before the world
was, from eternity....................................................................................... The whole duration of
the world, from the beginning to the end, takes up no space in this eternity of God." 64 We
must not let our little minds judge the Word of God as if the infinite God were subject to our
analysis. Rather, we are to receive all that the Word reveals: that God is both eternal and
personal, transcendent and immanent, exalted in nature and close in activity. Ours is not to
judge, but to praise: "Remember to praise his work, of which men have sung" (v. 24 ESV). 65

SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY NORMAN GEISLER PAGES. 90-

The Eternity of Yods
Another battlefront in the current debate over the nature of God is the traditional attribute of
eternity (or non-temporality). Classical theism affirms that God is above and beyond time.
Again, God has no past, present or future; He simply has an enduring eternal present. This
attribute of non-temporality is unanimously rejected by contemporary process thinking, both
within and outside of evangelicalism.
DEFINITION OF ETERNALITY
For traditional theism, eternity does not mean beginningless time or endless time. An infinite
number of moments is impossible: if an infinite number of moments occurred before today,
then today would never have come, since it is impossible to traverse an infinite number of
moments (however, time up to today has been traversed).
There is no end to an infinity, but today is the end of all previous moments. Today it has
arrived; Therefore, an infinite number of moments could not have occurred before today.
Eternity means non-temporality or timelessness.
THE BIBLICAL BASIS FOR THE ETERNALITY OF GOD
From beginning to end, the Bible declares that God is beyond time. That God existed beyond
time is clear from the first verse: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”
(Gen. 1: 1). Since time does not begin until the universe does, this places God beyond time. In
fact, according to Hebrews, God created time: "In these last days he has spoken to us by his
Son... through whom he framed the ages" (Heb. 1:2 Rotterdam ). The word ages (GK: aionos )
is not a reference to the material nature of the universe (Greek: kosmos ), but to its temporal
unfoldings. In Exodus 3:14, God told Moses, "I am who I am." In contrast to many
contemporary linguists (who are greatly influenced by process thinking), this is best taken as a
reference to the self-existence of God. Jesus sanctioned this meaning when he said, “Before
Abraham was born, I am!” (John 8:58). It would not have made sense to say, "Before Abraham
was born, I will become what I will be," as many modern-day scholars would like to translate
Exodus 3:14. As the Self-existing before anything else existed, God is prior to time (not
temporal). Psalm 90:2 says, "Before the mountains were born or you made the earth and the
world grow, from everlasting to everlasting you are God."
Isaiah 57:15 states, "For this is what the high and lifted up says: He who lives forever..." In 1
Corinthians 2:7 it says, "We speak of the secret wisdom of God, a wisdom that has been hidden
and intended by God." for our glory before time began.” In Jesus' great high priest's prayer in
John 17:5, He declared, “Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory that I had with you
before the world began.” Before the world began is before time began; Thus, Jesus is
proclaiming the eternity of God.
Paul spoke of "this grace [which] was given to us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time"
(2 Tim. 1: 9). He also spoke of "the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised
before the beginning of time" (Titus 1:2). The word time (Gk: chronos) is time as we experience
it; that is, a succession of changing moments that form a past, a present and a future. It is said
that Christ is before all this; He is literally eternal (not temporal); He brought the temporal
world into existence (John 1:3; Col. 1:16). Hebrews 1:2 informs us that "he spoke to us by his
Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe" (lit: “he
framed the ages”). Jude 25 proclaims the eternity of God with these words: "To the glory of
God, our only Lord, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forever!"
(Emphasis added).
God not only created the ages, but He also was before the ages. Being ahead of time and having
made time is not being on time. Therefore, the Bible teaches that it was not a creation in time,
but a creation of time that God accomplished in the beginning. The Creator of time cannot be
more temporal than the Creator of contingent can be contingent or the Creator of an effect can
be an effect Himself.

THE THEOLOGICAL BASIS FOR THE ETERNALITY OF GOD

God's eternity can be inferred from various other attributes. These include His immutability,
infinity, pure reality and necessity. Time involves characteristics that are incompatible with
these attributes.
Eternity follows from immutability
God is an immutable Being (see under the main headings above), and an immutable Being
cannot change. Whatever changes in time, because time is a measurement based on change.
Therefore, God cannot be in time; If it were, then it would be changing.
Eternity continues from infinity
Furthermore, God is an infinite being, and an infinite being has no limits. A temporal being
has limits; It is limited by time. Therefore, God cannot be a temporal being, he must be non-
temporal.
Eternity follows from pure reality
God is pure reality; as such, it has no potentiality. Whatever is temporary has potentiality;
thus, God is not temporal; If He were, then He would also have potentiality, which a Being of
pure reality does not have. So, unlike time, God has no past or future, only a present: He is an
eternal Now. Consequently, God does not foresee the future; He simply sees the future in his
eternal present (or Now).
Eternity follows from necessity
A necessary Being has no possibility (potentiality) in its being of not existing. What has no
potential in your being cannot change. Time implies change; It follows, therefore, that a
necessary Being cannot be temporal, it must be eternal.

THE HISTORICAL BASIS FOR THE ETERNALITY OF GOD From the earliest times,
the Fathers of the church have been virtually unanimous in their declaration that God is a
timeless Being. This is evident in their writings as well as their creeds.
The patristic vision of the eternity of God
Irenaeus
Irenaeus said, "Seek Him who is above times, Him who has no times" (SVIE, 3 in Roberts and
Donaldson, ANF, 1).
Clement of Alexandria (150 AD) C.-215)
Clement said: "God has no beginning, and produces both the beginning and the end" (S, 5.14).
Tertullian (c. 155 – c. 225)
Tertullian referred to the eternity of God in his discussion of fasting: “If the eternal God does
not hunger, as he testifies through Isaiah [40:28, 70], this will be the time for man to be equal
to God.” , when he lives. without food” (OF, 8.6).
Peter, bishop of Alexandria (d. 311)
Peter said, “For then, as they say, our eternal God also, the Maker and Creator of all things,
framed all things” (Tertullian, DE in Roberts and Donaldson, ANF, IV).Furthermore, several
are often made prayers of thanksgiving, prayers for the dead and other forms of prayer to God,
addressing Him as the "eternal God" (CHA, 8.2.5, 8.2.9, 8.2.12, 8.3.20, 8.3.22, 8.4.38). Peter
added, Since this [eternity] is the property of God, it will belong only to God, whose ownership
is, of course, on this basis, that if it can be attributed to any other being, it will no longer be the
property of God, but will belong, together with Him, to that being also to whom it is attributed,
(in Tertullian, AH, 3 in Roberts and Donaldson, ANF, III)
Dionysius the Great (c. 200-264)
Dionysus taught, Now this... "I am" [ego eimi, in John 8:58] expresses His eternal subsistence.
For if He is the reflection of eternal light, He must also be eternal Himself... God is eternal
light, without beginning or end. And along with Him is reflection, also beginningless, and
eternal. The Father, then, being eternal, the Son is also eternal, being light of light; and if God
is the light, Christ is the reflection. (DO 8)
Alcuin (c. 732–804)
Alcuin wrote that the Word of God, which "is consistent with God the Father, was before all
time" (in Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea, John 11).
Cyril of Jerusalem (c. 315 – c. 387)
Cyril said: “God is alone, alone unbegotten, without beginning, change or variation; nor
begotten of another, nor have another to succeed him in his life; who neither began to live in
time, nor ever ends” (CL, 2.7, 4.4). The fact that God is outside of time and is the Creator of
this puts these Fathers in a straight line with the testimony we have seen in the Hebrew
Scriptures. Cyril reasoned about Christ, He has two fathers: one, David, according to the flesh,
and one, God, his Father in a divine way. As the Son of David, he is subject to time,
manipulation and genealogical descent; but as the Son according to the Godhead, He is subject
neither to time nor place, nor to genealogical ancestry: to His generation, whom God will
declare is a spirit. “[For] the Son himself says of the Father: The Lord said to me: You are my
Son, today I have begotten you. Now this day today is not recent, but eternal: a day without
time today, before all ages. From the womb, before the morning star, I have begotten you"
(First catechetical conference of Our Holy Father Cyril, 11.5 in Schaff, NPNF, 2, 7.208).

Ignatius (AD 110)

Ignatius declared that Jesus Christ, as the only begotten Son and Word, existed "before time
began, but then also became man, from Mary the virgin." “The Word became flesh.” Being
incorporeal, He was in the body; being impassive, he was in a passible body; being immortal,
he was in a mortal body; Being life, he submitted to corruption, in order to free our souls from
death and corruption. Ignatius went on to say that the Son of God "was begotten before time
began, and established all things according to the will of the Father" (TE, 7).
Hilary of Potiers (c. 315 – c. 367)
Hilary stated: His [Christ's] nature forbids us to say that He always began to be, because His
birth is beyond the beginnings of time. But while we confess to him that he existed before all
ages, we do not hesitate to pronounce him born in eternal eternity, because we believe in his
birth, although we know that he never had a beginning. (OT, 9.57 in Schaff, NPNF, 2:9) Hilary
added: "What is created...is created in the beginning...[but] the Word was what it is, and is not
limited by any time, nor it begins there, since it was not made at the beginning, but was" (ibid.,
100.13 in ibid.).
John Chrysostom (347–407)
Speaking of Christ with respect to John 1:1, Chrysostom said: But are not "facts" and "were"
completely different? For just as the word, when spoken of man, means only the present, but
when applied to God, what always and eternally is; so also, predicated of our nature, it means
the past, but predicated of God. , eternity (in Thomas Aquinas, CA, John, 7).

The medieval view of the eternity of God.

From the fourth century to the thirteenth century (and beyond), there was virtually unanimous
consent about the nature of God as a timeless being. Augustine set the stage with his extensive
references to the eternity of God.
Agustin
According to Augustine, God possesses eternity because he possesses aseity (self-existence).
"What is it '? What is eternal... But what is that 'which is', except he who, when he sent Moses,
said to him: I am who I am (Ex. 3:14)? ”(EBP, 121.5). “God always is, nor has been nor is nor is,
nor is, nor has been, but as he never will be; so it never was” (OT, 14.15).
Regarding how God relates to time, Augustine stated: The distinguishing mark between time
and eternity is that the former does not exist without some movement and change, while in the
latter there is no change at all. Now, since God, in whose eternity there is absolutely no change,
is the creator and ruler of time, I do not see how we can say that He created the world after a
space of time has elapsed unless we also admit that previously some creature had existed
whose movements would mark the course of time. (CG, 11.6) God did not create in time, for
there was no moment before creating a changing world. His act was not a creation in time, but
a creation of time. Augustine declared: The world was made not in time but in time. For, what
is done in time is done after one period of time and before another, that is, after a past and
before a future time. But time could not have passed, since nothing was created by means of
whose movements and time of change could be measured, (ibid., 11.6)

God's eternity is qualitatively different from time:

In the Eternal nothing happens, but everything is present; but no time is completely present;
and let him see that...both the past and the future are created and emanate from that which is
ever present. (C, 11.11)
What God does in time he willed from eternity:

You call us, therefore, to understand the Word, God with you, God, which is spoken eternally,
and therefore all things are spoken eternally. Because what was spoken was not finished, and
another was spoken until everyone spoke; But all things at the same time and forever.
Otherwise we have time and change, and not true eternity nor true immortality, (ibid., 11.7)
Thus, God created time from eternity. Augustine asked,
Whence can the innumerable ages pass that You did not make, since You are the Author and
Creator of all ages? Or what times should be those that were not created by you? Or how they
should have happened if they had not been? [But] if before heaven and earth there was no
time, why is it asked: What did you do then? Because there was no "then" when time wasn't.
(ibid., 11.13)
Temporal creation "is compatible with the immutability of God's decision. That being so, they
should also believe that the world could be made in time without God having to change the
eternal decision of His will” (CG, 11.4). As the Creator of time, God existed beyond time, but
not in time. Augustine wrote: Nor does time precede time; otherwise you wouldn't precede
yourself all the time. But in the excellence of ever-present eternity You precedest all past times,
and survivest all future times [So,] it is foolish for them to conceive of a past time in which
God was unoccupied, for the simple reason that there was no such thing as the time before the
universe was made, (ibid., 11.5 )
Furthermore, according to Augustine, God does not see things in time... God declared: “O man,
what my Scripture says, I say; and yet, that speaks in time; but time does not refer to My Word,
because My Word exists in the same eternity with myself... And so, when you see those things
in time, I don't see them in time; as when you speak them on time, I do not speak them on
time” (C, 13.29).
Furthermore, the knowledge of God is independent of time:
Nor does his attention go from one thought to another, because his knowledge encompasses
everything in a single spiritual intuition. His knowledge of what happens in time, like His
movement of what changes with time, is completely independent of time... He could not have
been such a perfect Creator without such perfect knowledge that nothing could be added to
him by seeing what he created. . (GC, 11.21)
Anselm
Anselm argued, It is evident that this supreme substance has neither beginning nor end; which
has no past, no future, no temporal, that is, a transitory present in which we live; since its age,
or eternity, which is nothing other than itself, is immutable and without parts. (SABW, 83)
Therefore, “He exists before all things and transcends all things.”......................... The eternity
of God is present in conjunction with him: while other things do not yet have that part of their
eternity which must yet be and no longer have that part which is past” (ibid., 26). God "does
not exist finitely, in some place or time, he must exist everywhere and always, that is, in every
place and at every moment" (ibid., 73).
For Anselm, True eternity belongs only to that substance which alone, as we have proven, was
not created, but is the creator, since true eternity is conceived free from the limitations of the
beginning and the end; and this has been shown to be consistent with the nature of an
uncreated being, from the very fact that all such have been created from nothing, (ibid., 83).
Furthermore, what God knows is eternally known:
This is true whether God's will and cause are understood in terms of the immutable present of
eternity or in terms of the temporal order. According to the above, nothing is past or future,
but everything exists together without any change. (TIR, 159)
For “all things are always present to Him, and therefore He has no foreknowledge of future
things, but knowledge of present things” (TFE, 185). God's present is like our past: In this
sense, the temporal past is more like the eternal present than the temporal present. For what is
temporally past can never be non-past, just as what is eternally present can never be non-
present; but all things present in time that pass away with time do not become present. (TIR,
162) What is more, The existence of a thing in time is so different from its existence in eternity
that at a given moment something may not be present in the time that it is present in eternity,
or something may not be present in time that is present in eternity, or something can be past
in time without being past in eternity, or it can be future in time without being future in
eternity. [So] when we realize this, we have no basis for denying that something can be
mutable in time and at the same time immutable in eternity, (ibid., 163).
God sees all time at once: "This is due to the very nature of eternity, which encompasses all
time and everything that exists at any moment" (ibid., 164). “For yesterday and today and
tomorrow do not exist, except in time; But you, although nothing exists without you,
nevertheless do not exist in space or time, but all things exist in you” (SABW, 25).
As one age of time contains all temporal things, so your eternity contains even the ages of time.
And these are indeed one era, because of their indivisible unity; But ages, due to their infinite
measurability. (ibid., 27)
Thomas Aquinas
Aquinas stated that “eternity is nothing more than God himself. Therefore, God is not called
eternal, as if somehow measured; but the idea of measurement is taken according to the
understanding of our mind alone” (ST, la.10.2). “Eternity, truly and properly called, is only in
God, because eternity continues in immutability; As it appears from the first article. But only
God is immutable” (ibid.).
Aquinas offered several arguments in support of this conclusion. The first argument is the
following: everything that exists in time can be calculated according to its before and after.
However, an immutable being has no before or after; It's always the same. Consequently, God
must be timeless.
Time is the duration characterized by substantial (e.g., burning of wood) and accidental
changes; aeviternity (or aevum) is the duration characterized by accidental changes (for
example, angels can increase in knowledge by divine infusion, and have changes as to choice,
intelligence, affections and places (ST, la.10.6, body), but with there are no substantial changes
in aeviternity (angels are immutable in their level of grace and charity). What is true of angels
is also true of the elect in heaven. Again, time is defined as a measurement in terms of before
and after. God has neither before nor after, since He is immutable. It follows, then, that it must
be timeless, since if it were in time, it could be measured according to a before and after, which
implies a change.
Furthermore, everything that is in time has a succession of one state after another. From this,
Aquinas concluded that everything that is immutable is not temporal. This argument
emphasizes another aspect of time: everything that is temporal has successive states, one after
the other. But as an immutable being, God does not have changing states, one after another;
therefore, God cannot be temporal.
In short, total immutability necessarily implies eternity (ibid., La.10.2), since any change that
is substantially made is in time and can be calculated according to previous and subsequent
values. What does not change cannot be in time, since it does not have different states by
which before and after can be calculated; They are all the same, it never changes. Therefore,
what does not change is not temporary; God is eternal.
Not only is God eternal, but He alone is eternal (ibid., La.10.3). The reason for this is that only
God is essentially immutable, since all creatures can cease to exist. But, as we have seen,
eternity necessarily follows from immutability, and from this, God alone is essentially eternal.
Aquinas (ibid., La.10.4) distinguishes eternity from endless time for several reasons (see
Geisler, TAEA, chapter 8).

First, that which is essentially whole is essentially different from that which has parts. Eternity
differs from time in this way (eternity is a Now; time has from time to time); Therefore,
eternity is essentially different from time. In other words, God's eternity is not divided;
everything is present to Him in His eternal Now. Therefore, it must be essentially different
from time, which comes only one moment at a time. Second, endless time is not eternity; It's
just more time. Eternity differs in kind from time; that is, it differs essentially, not simply
accidentally, from time. Endless time differs only accidentally from time because it is only an
elongation of time. Since endless time is simply time, just a little more, eternity must differ
from it essentially. To put it another way, more of the same is essentially the same; therefore,
endless time does not essentially differ from time.
Third, an eternal being cannot change, while time implies a change by which before and after
measurements can be made. Thus, an eternal being, such as God, cannot change. In other
words, (1) Anything that can be calculated according to before and after is not eternal.
(2) Endless time can be calculated according to the notes before and after.
(3) Therefore, endless time is not the same as eternity.
The eternal does not change, but what can be calculated before and after has changed. It
follows, then, that the eternal cannot be an endless time. It must be something qualitatively
different, not just different in quantity.
Fourth, Aquinas argued that there is a crucial difference in the "now" of time and the "now" of
eternity (ibid., La.10.4, ad. 2). The Now of time is mobile, but the Now of eternity is not.
Eternity is not moveable in any way; Therefore, the Now of eternity is not the same as the Now
of time. The eternal Now is immutable, while the now of time is constantly changing. There is
only an analogy between time and eternity, not an identity. God's Now has no past or future;
time is now God is pure act (reality) as such, not measured by any potentiality. Angels are acts
received in pure forms that receive their actuality entirely from creation. Man is the act that is
received in the form/matter (soul/body) that progressively receives its actuality. In short, God
really endures, but He endures as pure reality. Since He has no potential, He cannot endure
progressively. He endures in a much higher way.
Another way to understand the difference between eternity and God's time is to recognize that
time is an accidental change, not a substantial change. A substantial change is a change in
what something is, an accidental change is a change in what something has. Aquinas noted
that time is an accidental change, and only humanity, not God or angels, has accidental
change. So only humanity is in time. Angels undergo substantial changes (creation), but this
does not imply time. The only mode of being that existed before the angels began was an
eternal mode (God).
A substantial change (for men or angels) is not a change in time, since no substantial change
has a before and after in time. Eternity is one pole, and time the other. Therefore, a substantial
change for man is a change in or out of time, but not a change in time. God cannot change
substantially or accidentally. Since He is a necessary Being, He cannot come out of existence.
Since He is a simple being, He has no accidents. Therefore, God cannot be temporal in any
way, since time implies change.

The Reformers on the Eternity of God.

The reformers are consistent with the views of previous Orthodox theologians. They insisted
that God is beyond time and does not experience sequential changes.
martin luther
Luther explained that God does not count time sequentially or consecutively, one year before
another: God captures everything in one moment, the beginning, the middle and the end of the
entire human race and of all time. And what we consider and measure according to the
sequence of time as a very long and extended plug line, He sees in its entirety, as if united in a
ball. And so, both the life and death of the last and the first human being are no more separate
for Him than a single moment. (WLS, 542)
He added, Look crosswise at a long tree lying in front of you. Then you can bring both ends
into your vision range at once. You can't do this if you look at it long. For our reason, we can
look at time only according to its duration (nach der Lange). We must count year after year
from Adam to the last day of history. But for God everything is in one point. (W.L., 542)
John Calvin
Calvin compared such a vision to that of the biblical story on which "the faith of the Church
could rest without seeking any other God than the one whom Moses presents as the Creator
and Architect of the world." Then he said that this story can be contrasted. with the fables of
the ancient world "as a means of giving a clearer manifestation of the eternity of God in
contrast to the birth of creation, and therefore inspiring us with greater admiration" (ICR,
1.14.1). He added, We necessarily understand that the Word was begotten by the Father before
all ages. [The apostles] tell us that the worlds were created by the Son, and that he upholds all
things by his powerful word (Heb. 1: 2 ). For here we see that the word is used for the assent or
command of the Son, who is himself the eternal and essential Word of the Father. (ibid., 1.13.7)

Post-Reformation Theologians on the Eternity of God

Just in the modern world, the traditional view of God's eternity prevailed. This is true from the
Reformers to the rise of process theology in the twentieth century. In fact, most great
theologians have understood that God's eternity and his immutability went hand in hand. No
significant break in this position is observable until the introduction of process theology by
Alfred North Whitehead.
Jacob Arminius
Arminius wrote: "So that which man is called in time, was predestined from all eternity to be
called, and to be called in that state, time, place and manner, and with that efficacy, in and
with the which was predestined." "[Eph. 3:5, 6, 9–11; James 1:17, 18; 2 Tim. 1:9] (D, 16.15). He
added evidence from Acts 15:18 and Ephesians 1:4 that God's decrees are from the beginning
of the world. "If it were otherwise, God could be accused of mutability" (ibid.).

Francisco Turretin
Turretin said: The infinity of God follows his simplicity and is equally diffused through the
other attributes of God, and therefore the divine nature is conceived as free of all limits in
imperfection: as to the essence (due to incomprehensibility) and as to duration (for eternity)
and As for circumscription, in reference to place (for immensity). (IET, 1.3.8.1) He believed
that the concept of eternity is related to the immensity of the Being of God: After the infinity of
God with respect to essence, the same must be considered with respect to place and time by the
which is considered as not circumscribed by any limit (aperigraptos) of place or time. The first
is called immensity, the last eternity, (ibid., 1.3.9.1) He added: "We hold that God is free from
any difference of time, and no less of succession than of beginning and end" (ibid., 1.3.10.1).
Elsewhere he elaborated: The eternity of God cannot have succession, because his essence,
with which one is truly identified, admits none. This is so both because it is perfectly simple
and immutable (and therefore rejects the change of ex in the latter, of past in the present, of
the current in the future, which succession implies), and because it is impossible to measure,
as being the first and independent. However, what continues by succession can be measured in
some way, (ibid., 1.3.10.5)
jonathan edwards
Edwards stated,
Corollary 1. How impossible it is for the world to exist from Eternity, without a mind.
Corollary 2. Since it is so, and Absolute Nothing is such a terrible contradiction; therefore we
learn the necessity of the Eternal Existence of an all-encompassing Mind; and that it is the
complication of all contradictions to deny such a mind. (NM, 28) Elsewhere, he added. For it is
evident, both from Scripture and from reason, that God is infinitely, eternally, unchangeably,
and independently glorious and happy: that he can neither benefit nor receive anything from
the creature nor be subject to any suffering or diminution. Of his glory and happiness, of any
other being. (EWGCW on WJE, 97)
John Wesley
Wesley believed that God is eternal. As we have seen, he wrote: “At night I published the great
decree of God, eternal, immutable” ( CW , 336).
Stephen Charnock
He [God] neither began with the beginning of time, nor will he expire with the end of time; It
did not begin when it was made known to our fathers, but its being does precede the creation
of the world, before a created being was formed and established at any time. (EAG, 1: 278) His
eternity is evident, from the name that God gives to himself [Ex. 3:14 ]: “And God said to
Moses, I am who I am; Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: It is I who sent you. “This is
the name by which he is distinguished from all creatures; I Am is his proper name. This
description, in the present tense, shows that its essence does not know the past or the future; If
it were so, it would be intimate that it was no longer what it once was; If it were so, it would be
intimate that it was not yet what it will be; but I am ; I am the only being, the root of all beings;
therefore, it is at the greatest distance from non-being, and that is eternal, (ibid., 1: 287)
Promote, Eternity is a perpetual duration, which has no beginning or end; so much time. It is
said that these things are times that have a beginning, grow gradually, have a succession of
parts; eternity is contrary to time, and therefore is a permanent and immutable state; a perfect
possession of life without any variation; It comprises in itself all the years, all the ages, all the
periods of ages; It never begins, endures after every duration of time, and never ceases; It has
been much longer than before the beginning: time supposes something before it; but there can
be nothing before eternity; it was not then eternity, (ibid., 1: 279–80)
OBJECTIONS TO THE ETERNITY OF GOD
Virtually all objections directed against God's eternal eternity are similar to those directed
against His immutability (see under main headings above); The heart of the objections against
God in relation to time is that an immutable Being cannot relate to a changing world. However,
time is a calculation based on change; Therefore, if God can relate to a changing world, He
would not have any problems related to a temporal world, which is a world of change.
However, a few more objections can be discussed at this point.
First objection : based on the creation of a temporal world Among other things, all forms of
theism believe "that God has the power to intervene in the world, interrupting (if necessary)
the normal causal sequences" (Pinnock, OG, 109 ).But if God can act in time, then, neotheists
argue, God must be temporal, since everything that acts in the temporal world is part of the
temporal process, and the temporal process involves a past, a present, and a time. future.
When God acted to bring Israel out of Egypt, there was a time before and a time after that act
of redemption. Therefore, God is tainted with time by the very fact that he acts in time.
Response to Objection One
First, it should be noted that there is a difference between saying that God created time and
that He is the Creator of time. There was no time before God made the world temporal; Time
began with its creation. God "framed the ages" (Heb. 1:2 Rotherdam; cf. John 17:5), so God
was ontologically prior to time, but not chronologically prior. Therefore, this is not an
impediment to God's creation in a world in time without itself being temporal. No temporal
continuum existed before He created the world; therefore, it was not necessary for Him to
choose a moment in time to create. Rather, from all eternity, God chose to create the temporal
continuum itself, which has a beginning. It is also worth noting that it is equally incoherent to
speak of God being eternal before creation and temporal after creation. 2 For a theist, creating
the world does not change the nature of God. The world is not created ex deo ("outside of
God"); That is pantheism. And for theism, the world is created ex nihilo ("out of nothing").
Consequently, God does not change "internally", that is, in his essence, creating something
else. The only thing that changes is "external", the world's relationship with him. Before
creation, the world had no relationship with God, since it did not exist. At creation and after,
God became “Creator” for the first time. (It is not possible for God to be a Creator until he
creates something.) Before creation, He was God, but not the Creator. That is, at creation, God
gained a new relationship, but not new attributes. He did not change in his essence, but in his
external activity. There is no change in what God is, but in what He has done. The change is
only in the effect, not in the Cause (God), since He caused from eternity everything that was
later to be realized in time. Failure to make this distinction leads to the neotheistic confusion
of speaking of God changing in His non-essential nature. Furthermore, this objection makes
the same errors that were noted in the previous answer. Acting in time is supposed to be
temporal. It does not prove that the actor is temporary; only that his actions are temporary.
Classical theists do not deny that God's actions are temporal, they only insist that God's
attributes are not temporal. God cannot have a "non-essential" nature. "Non-essential" means
something that God has but does not need to have. "Nature" is what is essential to a thing. For
example, human nature is essential to humans; Without it we would not be human. So a non-
essential nature is a contradiction in terms. Since nature means essence, it would be a non-
essential essence, which does not make sense. To put the point another way, even neotheists
recognize that there is a real difference between an uncreated Creator and a created world. One
has no beginning and the other has no beginning. One has no temporal starting point, and the
other does not. Likewise, classical theists insist that God is beyond time, even though he made
time. This shouldn't be difficult to understand. After all, every creator is beyond his creation in
the same way that an artist is beyond his painting or a composer is beyond his composition. As
Stephen Charnock put it, The eternity of this decreed [creation] did not bring the world into
existence and was actually created from eternity; so God immutably decreed that the world
thus created should continue during that time; The decree is immutable if the world perishes
at that time, and it would not be immutable if the world lasted beyond that time which God has
fixed for the duration of the same... While there is a change in the effects, there is no change in
the effect. God's will]. (EAG, 1:328)
Objection two: based on the notion that statements cannot be made about a non-temporal
God It is argued that references cannot be made from our temporal perspective to a non-
temporal Being:
(1) All statements made by a temporal being are temporary;
(2) But God is not temporal;
(3) Therefore, none of our statements about God can really apply to him. (However, we do
believe that statements can be made about God, such as those in both special revelation [the
Bible] and general revelation—Rom 1:19-20; Acts 14:17 See Volume 1, Chapter 4. .)
Response to Objection Two
This objection fails to see that it is not really an argument against all talk about God, but only
against talking about Him in temporal terms. Of course, a non-temporal Being cannot properly
be referred to in temporal terms. Nor can an uncreated Being be referred to in terms
appropriate only to a creature. But the objector believes that one can speak of the Creator in
some terms. So instead of eliminating all conversation with God, an analogous conversation
with God is required (see Volume 1, chapter 9). Temporal language does not fit a non-temporal
being. But it does not follow from this that any language is appropriately used of a non-
temporal God.
It is true that temporal statements cannot be applied to God univocally. If they could, then God
would have to be non-temporal. On the other hand, if we are not willing to accept totally (self-
defeating) agnostic statements that no one can apply to an eternal God (including this
statement), then we have to accept some kind of analogy. This is precisely what classical theists
argue, namely, that all limited and limited temporal conditions must be removed from a term
before it is applied to God. Therefore, if we say that God is good, he cannot be good in any
temporal or changing sense of the term; It can only be eternal and immutable.
Objection three: based on the incarnation
The Bible declares that Jesus is God (Col. 2:9; Heb. 1:8) and that He entered this temporal
world (John 1:14; 1 Tim. 3:16). By simple logic it seems to follow that in Christ, God lived a
temporal life: to deny this seems to be a denial of the deity of Christ. But this would mean that
God is a temporary being, here the Creator became part of His creation. Therefore, it appears
that God's incarnation in human flesh is evidence that God, at least in Christ, became a
temporal being. In fact, the premises appear to be true (according to orthodox Christianity),
and the conclusion is validly drawn from them:
(1) God became human in the incarnation of Christ.
(2) Human beings are by nature temporary beings.
(3) Therefore, God by nature became a temporal being in the Incarnation.
Response to Objection Three
Persuasive as this argument may seem, it is based on an unorthodox assumption, namely, that
the divine nature became human in the Incarnation. The Eternal did not become temporal, nor
did the divine nature become human in the Incarnation any more than the human nature
became divine. In fact, this is the Monophysite heresy condemned at the Council of Chalcedon
in the AD. 454: It is a confusion of the two natures of Christ. In the Incarnation, the divine
nature did not become a human nature or vice versa. Rather, the divine person, the second
person of the Trinity, became human; that is, He assumed a human nature in addition to His
divine nature. Note carefully the words of Scripture: "The Word was God... The Word became
flesh and made His home among us” (John 1:1, 14, emphasis added). It does not say that God
became flesh. It is as impossible for God to become a man as it is for an infinite to become
finite or uncreated to be created. As Athanasius (c. 293–373), the Incarnation was not the
subtraction of Deity, but the addition of humanity. God the Son did not change his divine
nature; rather, he added a different human nature to it. So the plausibility of the neotheist's
argument is based on heresy. Once one rejects Monophysite-type error, this argument against
God's immutability collapses.

CONCLUSION
God's immutability and eternity are firmly based on Scripture, church history, and sound
reasoning. Contemporary attempts to undermine these fundamental teachings about God have
not made their case. Aside from the fallacious procedure of taking anthropomorphism literally,
there is no biblical support for a changing God. On the contrary, there are numerous claims
that God cannot and will not change. Furthermore, throughout the history of the Christian
church up to modern times, one looks in vain for any major Orthodox teacher who claimed
that God can change in his nature. In fact, there are strong biblical, philosophical, and
historical arguments for God's pure actuality, simplicity, necessity, infinity, and perfection that
God is immutable and eternal by nature.

WAYNE
(2) In relation to time, God
it is eternal. Exodus 15:18; Deuteronomy 33:27; Nehemiah 9:5; Psalms 90:2; Jeremiah 10:10;
Rev.ocalypse 4:8-10. It has existed from eternity, and will exist until eternity. The past, present
and future are the present for your mind. Because he is eternal, he is immutable, "Jesus Christ
is the same yesterday, today, and forever." This is a comforting truth for the believer, who can
rest confident in the truth that "the eternal God is your refuge, and here below are eternal
arms." Dt.teronomy 33:27.

SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY 4 VOLUMES IN I, J. Oliver Buswell PAGES 24-25

IV. ETERNAL IN ITS BEING
The biblical writers explicitly teach and continually presume that God's being is eternal, both
in the past and in the future. God has always existed and always will exist: he never began to
be, he will never cease to be.
TO. «Logical necessity»
It will be necessary to begin with two negative considerations to show affirmatively what we
understand by the eternal being of God. First, we have to reject the idea of a logically necessary
being in Kant's sense. Thinkers before Kant from Anselm to Leibnitz worked with the idea of a
Supreme Being that exists by logical necessity. There was a persistent effort to "prove" the
existence of God, in the sense that geometry students demonstrate that the three angles of a
triangle equal two right angles. If only we could find some logical process that would give us
the conclusion "God exists," and face the world with a QED! (which has been demonstrated),
our position would be impregnable! This idea was especially strong, and still is, among
rationalist idealists. Now, since the only necessity known to logic is the negative law of
contradictions, the definition of "necessary being" in the logical sense of the expression is, "a
being, the denial of whose existence would be a self-contradiction" (or a palpable and evident
contradiction). In explaining the cosmological argument, Kant shows that "... whatever
concept I suppose of a thing, I find that I can never represent its existence as absolutely
necessary, ... I cannot, however, think of a single thing as necessary in itself." .». 1 On this point
the argument of 1 Manuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason; Transcendental dialectics and
transcendental methodology, 2 vols., trans. José Rovira Armengol (Buenos Aires, Argentina:
Editorial Losada, 1973), 2:264.
Nature and attributes of God / 25 Kant is conclusive. Saying that God does not exist is a lie, but
it is not a manifest contradiction. The existence of God is a fact for which we have good and
sufficient evidence in his works, but basing his existence on the abstract laws of logic is a
mistake. Abstract logic cannot establish the existence of any substantive entity. At a recent
conference of Christian professors and students of philosophy, it was admitted that there is no
basis for the use of the term "necessary being" in the Kantian sense of logical necessity; but,
nevertheless, there was a strong tendency on the part of various philosophical theological
components to cling to the expression "being necessary." "Cosmic necessity" replaced "logical
necessity" in several places in the discussion.
Although I have much sympathy for the seriousness of those who adhere to the expression
"necessary being", I must testify that for me, cosmic necessity, as used by those who defend the
concept of necessity, is nothing more than a posteriori necessity. The pattern of the argument
is: "If B, C, and D exist, they necessarily exist as effects of which A is the cause." In other
words, the cosmic necessity argument is actually an effect-to-cause argument. If the expression
"being necessary" has value in this sense, very good; but it must be understood that this is not
the historical meaning of the phrase. To say in popular language that God is not a necessary
being would give a false impression to the popular mind. In popular language "necessary"
means "necessary for"; God is necessary for the salvation of my soul. He is necessary for our
understanding of the cosmic process, etc. It should be understood that my rejection of the
phrase "being necessary" is strictly limited to the objection to the concept of logical necessity.

CHARLES HODGE P. 314-

§6. The eternity.
TO. The Scriptural Doctrine.
The infinity of God in relation to space is his immensity or omnipresence. In relation to
duration, it is its eternity. Just as He is free from the limitations of space, so He is exalted
above all the limitations of time. Just as He is no more in one place than in another, so He is
no more in existence during one period of duration than in another. For Him there is no
distinction between the present, the past and the future; all things are equally and always
present to Him. For Him duration is an eternal now. This is the popular and scriptural position
regarding the eternity of God. "Before the mountains arose and you formed the earth and the
world, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God" (Ps 90:2). «From the beginning you
founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will
remain; and all of them will grow old like a garment; You will change them like a garment, and
they will be changed; but you are the same, and your years will not end” (Ps 102:25-27). He is
“the High and Lofty One, who dwells in eternity” (Hos 57:15). "I am the first, and I am the last,
and besides me there is no God" (Is 44:6). "A thousand years in your sight are like yesterday,
which is past" (Ps 90:4). “With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years
is like one day” (2 Pet 3:8). He is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever” (Heb 13:8). God
is “He who is [who always is] and who was and who is to come” (Rev 1:4). Throughout the
Bible he is called the eternal God, the only one who possesses immortality. His primary
revelation to the covenant people was the “I Am.”
What is taught in this and similar passages is, first, that God is without beginning of years nor
end of days. He is, and always has been, and always will be; and, second, that for Him there is
neither past nor future; that the past and the future are always and equally present to Him.

Philosophical perspective.
... We get our idea of eternity from our idea of time. We are conscious of existence in space,
and we are conscious of prolonged or continued existence. The ideas of space and duration are
necessarily given in the consciousness of continued existence. We also see that events follow
one another, that they occur with separations of more or less long duration, just as bodies are
separated by a more or less large interval of space. Therefore, we do not know, either by our
consciousness or by experience, of any type of duration that is not successive. Instead of
saying, as is commonly said, that time is duration measured by succession, which implies that
duration is antecedent to that by which it is measured and independent of it, some maintain
that duration is inconceivable and impossible. without succession. Just as space is defined as
"negation between the limit lines of forms", so it is said of time that it is "a negation between
the limit points of movement." Or, in other words, that time is "the interval that a moving body
marks in its transit from one point in space to another."4 Therefore, if there were no shaped
bodies, there would be no space; and if there is no movement, there is no time. «If all things
were annihilated, time, as well as space, would be annihilated, because time depends on space.
If all things were annihilated, there could be no transitions, no successions of one object with
respect to another, because there would be no object in being: everything would be perfect
emptiness, nothingness, absence of being. In a total annihilation, there could not even be
space-time.5 ... [Based on this], God, therefore, if he is a person, a thinking Being, could not be
timeless: there would have to be a succession; one thought or state has to follow another. It is
said that to deny this is to deny the personality of God. Therefore, the sentence of the
scholastics - that it is a persistent and immobile Now - is thus repudiated.
However, there are two senses in which succession in God is denied. The first refers to external
events. These are always present in the mind of God. He contemplates them in all their
relationships. whether causal or chronological. He sees how they follow each other in time, as
we see a military parade, being able to see everything at a single glance. In this perhaps there is
nothing that transcends our understanding in an absolute way. The second aspect of the
question has to do with the relationship of succession of God's thoughts and acts. When we
ignore, it is wise to remain silent. We have no right to affirm or deny, when we cannot know
what our affirmation or denial may involve or imply. We know that God is constantly
producing new effects, effects that succeed one another over time. But we do not know that
these effects are due to successive exercises of divine efficiency. Of course, it is
incomprehensible to us how it could be otherwise. The miracles of Christ were due to the
immediate exercise of divine efficiency. We speak words to which we cannot assign meaning
when we say that these effects were due not to a contemporary act or volition of the divine
mind, but to an eternal act, if such a phrase is not a solecism. In the same way we are confused
when we are told that our prayers are not heard and answered in time - that God is timeless -
that what He does in listening to and responding to our prayers, and in His daily providence,
He does from eternity. It is true that God is subject to all limitations of personality, if any. But
inasmuch as such limitations are the conditions of his being a person and not a mere
involuntary force, they are the conditions of his infinite perfection. As constant thinking and
activity is involved in the very nature of a spirit, this must belong to God; and to the extent that
thinking and acting involve succession, the succession must belong to God. There are
mysteries related to chronological succession, in nature, that we cannot explain. We know that
in dreams months can be compressed into a few moments, and a few moments can expand
into months, as far as our consciousness is concerned. We know that it often happens to those
approaching death that the entire past becomes instantly present. If God had constituted us in
such a way that the memory was as vivid as the present consciousness, there would be no past
for us, so far as our personal existence is concerned. It is not impossible that in the afterlife
memory becomes the consciousness of the past; that everything we ever thought, felt or did, is
always present in the mind; May everything written on this table be indelible If we are
unable to understand ourselves, we should not expect to be able to understand God. Whether
we can understand how there can be succession in the thoughts of Him who dwells in eternity
or not, we must not deny, to overcome the difficulty, that He God is an intelligent Being, that
He really thinks and feels. God is a person, and everything that personality implies must be
true of Him.
34