How can God be eternal....?

Question

Time is a property of our universe. They say God is eternal but then turn around and say he exists outside of time and space. Well the concept of an eternity requires time. If God exists outside of time, then an eternity is an inappropriate term for God's living conditions. Without time, you simply do not have an eternity.

Answer 1

not true if u interpret eternity as infinity ..besides eternity would be the same no matter what ur perspective of time is ..

Answer 2

Quite frankly we don't understand any concept of what time was like before sin, or after sin is gone. Time could simply be a temporary measuring device we use until sin is destroyed. Like a clock counting down. Therefore it is easy to see how God's existence can be completely independent of that clock. Your "question" is just arguing over semantics. I do believe that God exists outside of whatever time and space box we try and put Him in. When we view Him relative to our little clock, we say He is eternal. When we try and think about how that is possible, we come to the conclusion that time and space don't limit Him. He created those things. All that is really important is that He is the I AM.

Answer 3

God lives in His own planet in the spiritual world, where there is eternal existence of transcendental time, who is ever present and without past or future and hence is not subject to the quality of passing away even for the space of half a moment. That realm is known as Goloka only to a very few self-realized souls in this world.

Answer 4

What is time? who do you think invited the counting of time? Humans did. our small mind cant even begin to comprehend eternity. Do you think God had a watch on when he created this world ? How do you know when the universe started were you here?when did time start ? a million year' ago maybe a billion or a 100 trillion years ago? when will time stop? in 100 year's a 1000, 100,000? you don't know and no one on earth knows that so how can you say there is no eternity. Time will stop for you when you die, does that mean all time stops. Think about it.

Answer 5

The concept of eternity does NOT require time...we require time and thus can't conceive of something that is timeless. Eternity doesn't have a beginning or an end, it just is...time can't possibly have meaning in eternity just as finite concepts can't apply to infinity. You can remove an infinite number of items from an infinite set and still have an infinite number of items left in the set...measurement of those items, be it numbers, marbles or time doesn't have any impact on the set for no many how many you count, a infinite number remain.

Answer 6

Here is the best answear that I can give you. GOD created space so space can not contain him and he invented time so time can not contain him.

Whether or not something exists does not depend on whether or not it can be described. If something exists, it exists independently of someone's ability to describe it. That is the nature of existence; that is, things exist whether or not someone knows it exists, let alone accurately describe its existence. Furthermore, something that exists is not limited in existence by the inability of someone to accurately describe its existence. For example, there are galaxies and phenomenon within galaxies that have not yet been discovered. But this does not mean that they do not exist since we cannot describe knowledgeably, sufficiently, or accurately.
We know that things exist which are difficult to adequately describe. A rainbow is another good example. A verbal description of a rainbow cannot compare to actually seeing one. By default, the description is inadequate as compared to the reality of eyewitness encounter. But, that does not mean that rainbows do not exist because we cannot adequately describe them with words.
As far as God is concerned. God can be described, though not perfectly. He can be sufficiently described so that we can gain an understanding of His nature, greatness, and differences from ourselves. Though we will always fall short when trying to describe an infinite being, we can still say enough about Him to convey who and what He is so that the concept of God can be communicated. We can say that He is infinite, gracious, loving, all knowing, all-powerful, all present, holy, pure, righteous, that he is not flesh and bones, the only uncaused and infinitely eternal being in existence, etc. Though we may not be able to perfectly describe Him we can describe Him by listing His attributes and qualities. Attributes and qualities reflect the nature of the thing described. Therefore, we can describe God and our insufficiency to adequately describe Him in certain areas does not diminish His existence nor mean that He does not exist. It simply means that He is great.

Answer 7

Saying that God is eternal is just a way for us time-oriented humans to wrap our mind around the fact that God is outside of time and space.

Answer 8

False eternity and time are separate.Theres no time in eternity;there is in the physical universe

Eternity has no limits;the universe does have limits

So God lives in eternity not in the physical universe constrained by time and other limits.

Answer 9

Where in the Bible does it use the words "God is eternal"? I think this is a construct people made up to try to describe him to the best of their abilities. No use playing semantic games to try to prove God doesn't exist since they're the ones we made up.

Answer 10

Right. God's eternity is defined in temporal terms. God had no beginning and has no end; that is only called "eternal" in reference to time.

Once we don't need time anymore, ostensibly in heaven, the concept "eternity" will be meaningless.

Answer 11

Hmmm... All you need to do to resolve your problem is redefine eternity. It is not an existence with plenty of time, but one in which there is no time. God's existence cannot be limited to any particular dimension, as He has created them all and is separate from His creation.