Eternity: Noun — infinite or unending time.
Ever all time perpetuity. A state to which time has no application; timelessness. e.g. “the encounter between time and eternity.”
In Theology : Endless life after death. “immortal souls destined for eternity”.

“He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.” Ecclesiastes 3:11 emphasis added.

There are times when a person may consider the length of their life upon this earth.

They may ponder how long they may live and think back on all of the events that have happened to them. I believe we all do this at times, and yet there are moments when I consider the time frame of the life that I am now living compared to the length of time in eternity.

Of course even the consideration of eternity is a concept almost beyond our comprehension, because everything in our existence is measured by the length of a day, a week, a month, a year, and so on. Our entire lives are made up of schedules and time frames.

When one begins to set their mind upon the prospect of eternity we very quickly begin to see that the very concept of it transcends our ability to grasp it.

We are told that God is eternal and that there is no beginning nor end to Him. And yet even as our finite minds strain to understand this, we wonder how there could not be a beginning to something nor even an end.

We are a people who are born at a certain time and then we die at the end of our days. A tree is planted with a seed and it grows into a great oak and then it finally dies and withers away after many years and seasons.

Our very existence is ruled by clocks and seasons as is our very history as a people. We get up in the morning looking at our clocks or phones and begin the day as we see the sun rise in the east.

We go to bed as the day is done with the moon and stars shining forth in the heavens above. Everything in life seems to show forth a beginning and an end and so it has ever been since the very existence of man that began thousands of years ago.

We see the seasons begin and end again each year. One can examine the rings found within a tree to determine how long that tree has existed.

We can’t really measure the age of the mountains and hills around us unless we begin to dig and unearth the layers of rock and debris that are buried there deep within.

We are told that within parts of Iceland that one can determine many ages past of the earth by examining the rocks there. Also two great continental plates, the Eurasian and the North American tectonic plates, can be seen on land there.

We know from science that our universe contains billions upon trillions of stars and other heavenly bodies in it that go on and on to infinitum with no seeming end.

One would consider that our universe is like a huge circle that has no end or beginning, and yet one cannot be certain of its shape.

The very notion that the universe and everything in it just “happened” by chance with no intelligent mind behind it seems preposterous and senseless. And even with the concept of a “big bang” phenomena, I don’t believe for a minute that this just happened.

Even as this event is proposed to have happened some 14 billion years ago time and space and eternity existed before this. There is simply no random explanation to the origin and dynamic understanding of how the universe and everything in it unfolded.

We know from Genesis of how the universe and everything in it was created.

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” Genesis 1:1-6.

And yet I don’t believe that we should throw science out the window, for where would we be without the history and understanding that Copernicus and Newton gave us?

Many of the great scientists and theorists of our age are coming to an understanding that indeed there is a God that has and is involved in our universe. These are now seeing how many of the scientific laws have their origin and placement through the Almighty.

Many years ago when I had first become a Spirit-filled Christian, I remember traveling west from my home town in Kansas.

I was leaving a Bible Study where several of us had come together to meet in a farm home a few miles out in the country.

As I was driving and looking at the surrounding landscape, I noticed the sky as it turned a pale pink and orange, with blended cerulean blue and grayish tones in it.

It was late fall and my thoughts were steered towards eternity for some reason, because I knew that my home was there. And yet, it wasn’t really a thought at all; it was a realization, it was a sense of time itself.

I saw myself in the reality of the framework of eternity.

I knew in the existence of eternity and had framed its parameters within my own mind and limited understanding.

But I was caught-up, as it was, in seeing that my present moment in time somehow had blended into the everlasting. I knew that I was to live forever, and that reality struck me with such a force that there was no denying it.

We are told in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that God has “set eternity in our hearts”.

We have this assurance that eternity is set there and we believe it. But to experience it “now” is quite different. We are told that we have this “hope” and that God has set aside a place for us.

But what I’m trying to get at is that our time now that we are living in is like a road that travels off into eternity.

We are on that road now; it is never-ending. Yes, death will overtake us at some time, unless we are of those who will live and see The LORD return during our life time.

Now we have a foretaste of what is to come, and yet we need not wait, for now is eternity. Now time in our limited way of understanding it, will not end, but will blend into the realm of timelessness.

God as we know lives beyond time and space. He sees the past, the present, and the future all at once. He knew us from the beginning. He knows our future. He knows what will unfold as his prophetic time table opens up more and more.

We are spirits living within this framework of flesh and blood. Our spirits are what is eternal, for we are made in the image of God.

Either way, we will live in eternity, whether it is with The LORD or away from his presence for eternity.

Eternity is defined as infinite or unending time. It is a state to which time has no application.

It is timelessness. Some label it as “endless life after death,” and yet, what I am saying here is that we are now on that endless road.

 

Selah,
~ Stephen Hanson

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Stephen Hanson of In His Truth Ministries came to the LORD is a special way in 1975 and has prophesied regularly since.  In these end-time birthing pangs we are reminded that judgment must first begin with the household of God.  Will we be prepared and ready?