Program / Course 8: God, Trinity, and Creation / Lesson 2.3
What you will learn
- Distinguish the two main views of divine eternity: timelessness and everlastingness.
- State Boethius’s definition of eternity and explain how Augustine and Aquinas used it.
- Describe the main arguments for and against a timeless God, including the question of how a timeless God acts in time.
- Recognize how the Incarnation affects the debate.
The big idea
Everyone who believes in God agrees that God has no beginning and no end. They disagree about what that means. On one view, God is timeless: God is outside the sequence of past, present and future and possesses the whole of life at once. On the other, God is everlasting: God exists through all time without beginning or end, experiencing it as it comes. Each view has strong biblical, philosophical and practical arguments, and both are held by serious Christian thinkers.
Key terms
- Eternity
- A word used in two senses: timeless existence outside time, or endless existence within time. The sense must be specified.
- Timelessness
- The view that God is not in time, so that there is no before or after in God’s own life.
- Everlastingness
- The view that God exists through all of time, with no beginning or end, and experiences events in order.
- Tenses
- Past, present and future. A key question is whether these are real features of the world or only of how people think.
- Eternalism and presentism
- Two philosophical views of time. Eternalism says past, present and future are equally real. Presentism says only the present is real.
- Aeon
- A Greek word often translated age or eternity, used in the Bible in phrases like from age to age. Its meaning varies.
- Boethius
- A Roman philosopher and Christian who died around 524. He wrote the definition of eternity most often quoted in the Middle Ages.
- Omnitemporal
- Present at every time. Some writers use it for a God who is in all of time without being limited by it.
Background
The Bible speaks of God’s eternity in more than one way. Psalm 90:2 says that before the mountains were brought forth, from everlasting to everlasting, God is God. Psalm 90:4 says a thousand years in his sight are as yesterday when it is past. Revelation 1:8 calls him the one who is, and was, and is to come. Second Peter 3:8 says one day is with the Lord as a thousand years. Some readers take such texts to point toward God being outside time. Others take them as describing endless duration.
The early Christian writers had to deal with Greek philosophy, in which the divine was often thought to be changeless and so beyond time. Augustine argued in Confessions Book XI that God made time along with the world, and that there was no time before creation. He wrote that God’s years do not come and go but stand all at once. Boethius, in The Consolation of Philosophy, defined eternity as the whole, simultaneous and perfect possession of unending life. Aquinas and the medieval schools adopted this.
In the twentieth century many philosophers and theologians, including Nicholas Wolterstorff and, in a different way, Alan Padgett, argued that a timeless God cannot act or know in time. Others, such as Eleonore Stump and Norman Kretzmann, defended timelessness vigorously. The Reformation confessions say little on the technical question, so Protestants are free to take either position. The question is open in every tradition, though the classical view has stronger official support in Catholic and Orthodox theology.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: Two pictures
Imagine time as a line, with the past behind, the present at a point, and the future ahead. The everlasting view places God on the line, living through all of it without a first moment or a last. God remembers the past, acts in the present and anticipates the future. This is easy to picture and matches many biblical narratives.
The timeless view places God outside the line altogether, in the way an author is outside the story he writes. The author sees every scene of the story at once, and each scene is present to him. A common comparison is that of a person standing on a mountain who sees the whole road at once while the travelers on the road see only a stretch. Timelessness is claimed to be a better fit with a God who is the cause of time and who does not change.
Step 2: Arguments for timelessness
First, God is immutable and simple, and temporal existence involves change, since each moment is different from the last. Second, God created the world, and if time is part of the created order, God created time and so cannot be bounded by it. Augustine argued that time began with creation, so asking what God did before creation asks about a time that did not exist. Third, God’s knowledge of the future seems easier to explain if God sees all of time at once, a point examined in the next lesson. Fourth, the full life of God does not lose anything, so nothing about the past is ever gone and nothing about the future is lacking.
A philosophical argument from the theory of relativity is sometimes made as well. In Einstein’s physics, there is no single universal present moment, so some say that God’s present cannot be the same as ours. Others reply that this is a dispute within physics and cannot decide a theological question, and that a God who made time could still stand in a special relation to it.
Step 3: Arguments for everlastingness
First, Scripture presents God acting in sequence: he speaks, then Israel responds, then God answers. If God is wholly outside time, it is hard to see how a timeless God can hear a prayer made today and answer it tomorrow. Defenders of timelessness reply that God from eternity wills the whole sequence, including the prayer and its answer. Critics reply that this makes the response a pretense.
Second, a living God seems to need to experience events as they happen. A being that has no before and after might seem frozen. Third, the Incarnation suggests that the Son entered time and lived through it, so that time is no stranger to God. Fourth, a timeless God would know the date of an event but not what is happening now, since there is no now for God. Timelessness defenders say God knows all events with their dates and that this is a fuller knowledge than knowing only the present.
Step 4: Middle positions and the Incarnation
Some writers hold that God is timeless without creation and takes on time when the world begins. William Lane Craig defends a form of this. Others, such as Wolterstorff, say that God is everlasting simply. Others, in the Eastern tradition, say that God’s life is not measured by time but is present to every moment through the divine energies.
The Incarnation presses the question. The eternal Son became a man who lived from birth to death. The councils say that the Son did not cease to be God. Most classical writers say that the Son in his divine nature remains eternal and in his human nature lives in time. Critics find this hard to picture, and defenders find it a mystery that the faith asks believers to affirm.
- When I pray, do I imagine God listening in time with me, or outside time hearing everything at once?
- What does it mean for a person to have all of their life at once?
- Does the idea of God as author of time help or trouble me?
- Which biblical texts support each view, and which seem to cut against it?
- If God answers prayer from eternity, does the prayer still matter?
- How does the Incarnation change how I think of God and time?
Examples
The author and the story
A novelist writes a book in which a character waits for a letter. The character experiences waiting, day by day. The author, outside the story, knows the whole of it and can turn to any page. Timelessness defenders use this picture to show how God can be present to every event at once while creatures live through them in order.
The everlasting friend
A friend sits with a sick person through a long night, hearing each cry as it comes and responding. Everlastingness defenders say this is how God’s care looks in the Bible. Timelessness defenders say that God’s presence to each moment is complete, not a succession of arrivals.
Before creation
Someone asks what God was doing before he made the world. Augustine reports the joke that God was preparing hell for those who ask, but he rejects it. His real answer is that time itself began with creation, so there was no before.
Different perspectives
Catholic
Catholic teaching has followed Boethius and Aquinas in treating God as timeless. Aquinas holds that God knows all events as present, because God’s eternity touches every time. This is the standard view in Catholic theology, though not a defined dogma, and some modern Catholic theologians prefer other formulations.
Orthodox
Orthodox theology teaches that God is beyond time and creates time. The divine liturgy speaks of the age to come as a sharing in God’s life. Eastern writers, such as Maximus the Confessor, treat time as a created dimension in which God is known by his energies, not as a line in which God is placed.
Protestant
Calvin and the Reformed tradition spoke of God’s eternal decree, and most older Protestant writers assumed timelessness. Modern Protestants are divided. Many evangelical and analytic philosophers, such as Wolterstorff, defend everlastingness, while others defend timelessness and appeal to the older Reformed writers.
Philosophical and scientific views
Some philosophers of time argue that the best account of time is eternalism, which fits easily with a timeless view of God. Others argue for presentism, which fits better with a God who experiences moments in order. Scientists and philosophers of science disagree about what physics shows. No decisive result has emerged.
Why it matters
The way a person pictures God and time shapes how they pray, how they think about answered prayer and how they understand the future. It also determines whether the classical attributes of simplicity and immutability can be kept. Knowing both pictures, and the real strengths of each, helps a reader avoid assuming one is obviously right and prepares for the next lesson on God’s knowledge and human freedom.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: Eternal always means timeless.
Correction: The word is used in both senses. In English translations of the Bible, forever and everlasting often translate Hebrew and Greek words that mean a very long age, and scholars debate how far they imply timelessness.
Misunderstanding: A timeless God cannot do anything in the world.
Correction: Defenders reply that a timeless God can will effects that occur at various times, as a timeless cause can have temporal effects. Critics find this hard to make sense of, but the claim is not simply self-contradictory.
Misunderstanding: Everlastingness means God is limited by time.
Correction: Not necessarily. Defenders hold that God is Lord of time, who made it, and who is never late or hurried. The difference is that God lives through events in order.
Misunderstanding: The Bible clearly teaches timelessness.
Correction: It does not state it in terms. Texts like Psalm 90 and 2 Peter 3:8 can be read either way. Timelessness is an inference from several claims, and that inference is exactly what is debated.
Knowledge check
What is the difference between timelessness and everlastingness?
Timelessness says God is outside the sequence of past, present and future and has no before or after in his own life. Everlastingness says God exists through all time without beginning or end, living through events as they happen. Both hold that God has no beginning and no end.
How did Boethius define eternity?
He defined eternity as the whole, simultaneous and perfect possession of unending life. The definition was used by Aquinas and the medieval schools. It means that God does not lose the past or lack the future, but possesses the full life of God at once.
Give one argument for timelessness and one for everlastingness.
For timelessness: God created time, is immutable and cannot be bounded by what he made. For everlastingness: Scripture shows God acting and responding in sequence, and it is hard to see how a being outside time can hear a prayer today and answer it tomorrow.
How does the Incarnation bear on the question?
The eternal Son lived a human life from birth to death. Classical writers say that in his divine nature he remains eternal and in his human nature he lived in time. Some say this supports a God who enters time. Others say it is a mystery that does not decide the question.
Think it through
- Which picture, the author outside the story or the friend within it, feels closer to your experience of prayer?
- How would a timeless God read Psalm 90 differently from an everlasting one?
- Does the idea that time is created make God feel nearer or farther from you?
Independent assignment
Augustine on time
In your own notebook, write about 450 words. Read Book XI, chapters 10 to 14 of Augustine’s Confessions. Summarize his answer to the question of what God was doing before creation. Then say which of the two views of eternity his answer supports, and name one objection a defender of everlastingness would raise. Do not send this to anyone.
Further study
- Augustine of Hippo, Confessions Read Book XI on time and eternity.
- Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae Read Part I, Question 10, on the eternity of God.
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Divine Simplicity See how the closely related doctrine of simplicity bears on timelessness.
- Alvin Plantinga, Warranted Christian Belief Read selectively for a modern philosophical treatment of belief in God.
- Psalm 90:2 From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
- 2 Peter 3:8 One day is with the Lord as a thousand years.
- Revelation 1:8 Which is, and which was, and which is to come.
- John 8:58 Before Abraham was, I am.