Time & Eternity

John Kennedy (1819-1884)

But time is not, as we usually think of it, a line extending between, and separating, two eternities. It is rather an arc projected from (in order to return into) the one eternity which is the duration of Jehovah’s being and is the sphere of His presence. That arc is the duration of the product of God’s power in creation and the appointed season of His providence bearing on the earth and its inhabitants. How solemn is our position thus always near eternity and always about to enter eternity! But how sweetly overwhelming it is to think that out of all eternity, filled with the presence of Jehovah the Son, the glory of the wondrous love of Christ shines out upon the Church on earth.

(From: “The Saviour” )

George Swinnock (1627-1673)

God is an eternal being, and none is eternal but he. Time, which hath a beginning and end, is compatible to men, and other visible creatures in this world. Æviternity, which hath a beginning and no end, is compatible to good and evil angels, and to the souls of men; but eternity, which hath no beginning, succession or end, belongs only to God.

1. God hath no beginning: he who ‘in the beginning created the heavens and earth,’ could have no beginning himself. Gen. i. 1. ‘Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world; from everlasting to everlasting thou art God,’ Ps. xc. 2. God is eternal a parte ante, and puzzleth most enlarged understanding to conceive his duration. ‘Behold he is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out,’ Job xxxvi. 26; Ps. xciii. 2.

2. God hath no succession in his duration; he dwelleth in one indivisible point of eternity; he is what he is in one infinite moment of being; his duration knoweth nothing of former or latter, past or to come; his essence is not bounded by those hedges, but he enjoyeth his whole eternity every moment; hence he is said to ‘inhabit eternity,’ to be fixed always in eternity, Isa. lvii. 15. Time is nunc fluens, but eternity is nunc stans: ‘One day with him is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day,’ 2 Pet. iii. 8. He inhabits a million of years in a moment, and each moment to him is as a million of years. He hath not the least added to his duration since the world was, though it hath been near six thousand years: it is not proper to say of him, he was, for none of his duration is ever to come; but he is, his full eternity is always present, hence his name is I Am, Exod. iii. 14. Not I was, or shall be; and Christ tells the Jews, ‘Before Abraham was, I Am,’ John viii. 58. It seems false grammar, but it is the most proper true divinity. Indeed, had Adam been then alive, it had been proper for him to have said, before Abraham was, I was; or if an angel had spoken, it had been proper for him to have said, before Abraham was, I was; because men and angels enjoy their being by piecemeals, now a little and then a little, somewhat of their duration is gone, and somewhat to come; but it was most proper for him that was God to say, before Abraham was, I Am, because his duration is without all succession, the whole of it is ever present. The psalmist further clears this, ‘Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee,’ Ps. ii. 7; which words are interpreted of the eternal generation of the Son of God before all worlds, and also of his resurrection in time, which was to be some hundreds of years after, as the apostle either expounds it, or alludes to it, Acts xiii. 33. But it is all one, for both are to-day; that which was from eternity, and that which was to be many hundred of years after, are both with him present this day.

Past or future is all present this day; that was not past to God which never had beginning, his son’s eternal generation; nor was that to come to God which was always before him, his son’s temporal resurrection. It is still, ‘This day have I begotten thee;’ millions of years, yea, of ages, add not the least moment to his duration.

3. God hath no ending: as he is from, so he is to everlasting, Ps. xc. 2. ‘Without beginning or end of days,’ Ps. cii. 27. ‘But thou art the same, and thy years never end.’ O what an excellent being is this eternal being! ‘He only hath immortality,’ 1 Tim. vi. 16. And he is eternity itself, 1 Sam. xv. 29. Æternitas Israelis, Jun. The eternity of Israel cannot lie.

But are men or angels comparable to God in this? Surely no. As for man, he is a bird of time, here to-day and gone to-morrow, Job xiv. 1. Of few days: ‘As for man, his days are as grass,’ Ps. ciii. 15; now flourishing, but quickly perishing.

Man hath a beginning, succession, and ending. There was a time when man was not; man enjoyeth his time by parts and parcels, and man ere long shall be no more. All men in this are alike, high or low, good or bad. There is a vast difference between God and all men in their duration. ‘Are thy days as the days of man? are thy years as man’s years?’ Job x. 5. No, in no respect. Man’s days begin, succeed, and end; not so God’s days. Well might David say, though he had lived as long as Methuselah, ‘Mine age is nothing unto thee,’ Ps. xxxix. 5. And truly as men are far from being comparable to God, so are angels. Angels had a beginning, Col. i. 16. Angels have a succession in their duration; they enjoy part to-day, part to-morrow, part the next day; every moment addeth to their duration; what is past they do not enjoy, nor what is to come, but only what is present; and thus it is also with souls of saints in heaven.

(From: “Works”)