CHRISTIAN
DOCTRINES
What We Believe
and Why
Eternality (God and Time)
• Definition: “God has no beginning, end, or
succession of moments in his own being,
and he sees all time equally vividly, yet God
sees events in time and acts in time.”
Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 168
• Two aspects
 Outside time (i.e., timelessness)
 Within time
 God exists and operates in both aspects
God Outside Time
• In his own being, God is timeless
• God transcends time
 He is without beginning of end
Psalm 90:2
Before the mountains were born Or You
gave birth to the earth and the world, Even
from everlasting to everlasting, You are
God.
God Outside Time
Revelation 1:8
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the
Lord God, “who is and who was and who
is to come, the Almighty.”
 God always exists without change
Exodus 3:14
God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and
He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of
Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
God Outside Time
John 8:58
Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to
you, before Abraham was born, I am.”
 God preceded all creation, including time
John 1:3
All things came into being through Him,
and apart from Him nothing came into
being that has come into being.
God Outside Time
Colossians 1:16
For by Him all things were created, both in
the heavens and on earth, visible and
invisible, whether thrones or dominions or
rulers or authorities-- all things have been
created through Him and for Him.
God Outside Time
• God, as timeless, exists in an “eternal
present”
 He doesn’t see all moments as if they are
in the present
 Means he transcends time
 The concept is beyond man
 God sees all moments of time with equal
vividness
God Outside Time
Psalm 90:4
For a thousand years in Your sight Are like
yesterday when it passes by, Or as a watch
in the night.
2 Peter 3:8
But do not let this one fact escape your
notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day
is like a thousand years, and a thousand
years like one day.
God Outside Time
 Wherein we don’t clearly remember the
past, God perfectly sees all moments with
equal clarity
 God sees every detail of every moment
with greater vividness than we see the
present moment
God Within Time
• God transcends time, but he also exists
and acts within time
• He sees events and moments as they
occur and acts within each moment
God Within Time
Galatians 4:4-5
But when the fullness of the time came, God
sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born
under the Law, so that He might redeem
those who were under the Law, that we
might receive the adoption as sons.
God Within Time
• God’s actions may be different at different
moments
 Does not reveal now / reveals later
 Punishes now / does not punish later
 Permits activities now / does not permit
them later
God Within Time
Exodus 6:2-3
God spoke further to Moses and said to
him, “I am the LORD; and I appeared to
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God
Almighty, but by My name, LORD, I did not
make Myself known to them.
God Within Time
Romans 3:24-26
being justified as a gift by His grace
through the redemption which is in Christ
Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a
propitiation in His blood through faith. This
was to demonstrate His righteousness,
because in the forbearance of God He
passed over the sins previously
committed; for the demonstration, I say,
God Within Time
Romans 3:24-26
of His righteousness at the present time,
so that He would be just and the justifier of
the one who has faith in Jesus.
God Within Time
Revelation 6:9-10
When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw
underneath the altar the souls of those
who had been slain because of the word
of God, and because of the testimony
which they had maintained; and they cried
out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O
Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from
judging and avenging our blood on those
who dwell on the earth?”
God Within Time
Hebrews 10:8-9
After saying above, “SACRIFICES AND
OFFERINGS AND WHOLE BURNT
OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN
YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, NOR HAVE
YOU TAKEN PLEASURE in them” (which
are offered according to the Law), then He
said, “BEHOLD, I HAVE COME TO DO
YOUR WILL.” He takes away the first in
order to establish the second.
God Within Time
• God’s knowledge of moments and events is
always perfect
• God’s actions and timing are always perfect
Man and Eternity
• We will always exist within time (i.e.,
succession of moments)
• As finite beings, infinite timelessness is
beyond us, limited only to God
• We may experience it differently than we do
now, but we will exist within time
Man and Eternity
Revelation 22:2, 5
[He showed me a river] in the middle of its
street. On either side of the river was the
tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit,
yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves
of the tree were for the healing of the
nations. . . . And there will no longer be any
night;
Man and Eternity
Revelation 22:2, 5
and they will not have need of the light of a
lamp nor the light of the sun, because the
Lord God will illumine them; and they will
reign forever and ever.