037. I. Eternity Of God.
I. Eternity Of God.
1. Sense of Divine Eternity.—In its simplest sense, the eternity of God is his existence without beginning or end; in its deepest meaning, his endless existence in absolute unchangeableness of essence or attribute.
Eternity of being must be accepted as a truth, however incomprehensible for thought. The only alternatives are an absolute nihilism or a causeless origination of being in time. Nihilism can never be more than the speculative opinion of a few. Self-consciousness ever gives the reality of self, and is the abiding and effective disproof of nihilism. A causeless origination of being in time is absolutely unthinkable. We must accept the truth of eternal being. Hence the eternity of God encounters no peculiar difficulty; for there is no more perplexity for thought in the eternity of a personal being than in the eternity of matter or physical force. The question arises respecting the relation of God to duration or time. It is really the question whether he exists in duration or in an eternal now. There is no eternal now. The terms are contradictory. The notion of duration is inseparable from the notion of being. Just as the notion of space is inseparable from the notion of body. Being must exist in duration. God is the reality of being, and none the less so because of his personality. The perplexity arises with the divine personality, particularly with the divine omniscience. Can there be mental succession in omniscience? The real question here concerns the personality of God rather than his relation to time. This we have previously considered, with full recognition of its difficulty. We cleave to the reality of personality in God, and could not surrender it for the satisfaction of thought respecting his omniscience, or the consistency of the one with the other. In the previous treatment we could not clear the question of all perplexity, but found no such contrariety between personality and omniscience as to discredit either.
2. Eternity of Original Cause.—Science may find an unbroken succession of physical phenomena, in which each is in turn effect and cause, but it cannot find the initiation of the series in physical causation. In the absence of a personal cause, the only alternatives are an infinite series and an uncaused beginning. Neither is thinkable or possible. Reason requires a sufficient cause for a beginning and for the marvelous aggregate of results. God in personality is the only sufficient cause. He must therefore be an eternal personal existence. This sublime truth is in the opening words of Scripture: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
3. Truth of the Divine Eternity in Scripture.—The Scriptures give frequent and sublime utterance to the divine eternity. Abraham calls upon the name of the everlasting Lord (Genesis 21:33). God proclaims himself the I AM THAT I AM (Exodus 3:14), which embodies the deep truth of his absolute eternity. The same truth is in the sublime words of the psalmist: “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God” (Psalms 40:2). He is the high and lofty One who inhabiteth eternity (Isaiah 57:15); the King eternal (1 Timothy 1:17). The eternity of God is simply the absolute duration of his existence, and in no sense a quality or attribute of his being, just as space is no quality or property of body. We may speak of the spatial properties of matter, but we can only mean such as appear or project in space. But such properties are purely from the nature of matter, and in no sense either constituted or modified by space. Being must exist in duration, because being must abide, and is being only as it abides. But its abiding is purely from its own nature, not from any quality or influence of time. Many forms of existence are temporal, but from their constitution or condition, not from any influence of time. Time is no quality of any existing thing. Eternity is no attribute of God; no quality cither of his essential being or of his personal attributes. His absolute eternity is no less a profound and sublime truth.