Can eternity be explained?

[placebofactor]

The difficulties science has explaining how life began reminds me of a person who wears glasses, pushes them to the top of his forehead, and ten minutes later is going nuts trying to locate them. Concerning life and how it began should be obvious that there has to be an architect, a designer, a first cause, and life is the effect of that first cause. What stumps most people, both highly educated and uneducated, is the word “eternal” as in an eternal being. A concept so far above our understanding, only by faith can we trust it, and never understand it.

Science fumbling for answers while the truth rests plainly above its own eyes. It captures the irony of a discipline that can split atoms and map galaxies, yet stumbles over the most foundational question: why is there anything at all?

The concept of an eternal being, uncaused, unbounded, outside of time, is not just intellectually challenging; it’s existentially humbling. It confronts the limits of human reason and forces a choice: either dismiss the mystery or bow before it.

Science excels in many fields. It can describe effects, such as gravity curves space, that DNA encodes life, and that light bends around stars. But it falters when asked about first causes: Why does gravity exist? Why is DNA structured to preserve life? And why is there a universe at all?
The deeper science goes, the more it relies on unprovable axioms, constants, laws, and probabilities that are accepted because they work, not because they explain.

The word eternal is where logic hits a wall. We think in terms of beginnings and endings, measure everything by time, decay, and change, but eternity is outside of all that, no beginning, no end, no succession of moments. Scripture doesn’t try to explain eternity, it declares it:

Psalms 90:2, “From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”
Jesus said, Revelation 22:13, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.”
Jesus also said, John 8:58, “Before Abraham was, I am”

These are ontological claims. These verses assert that God is, not because He began, but because He always was. So why does it stump the educated and uneducated alike? Because eternity defies empirical testing. Eternity cannot be measured, it defies philosophical containment, it cannot be defined, and we cannot grasp it, so we’re left with faith, not blind faith, but a reasoned trust in a reality that transcends comprehension.
Hebrews 11:3, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God.”

[Consocius]

Any opinions from men that contradicts God's written Word, I may know why they are held but God's words is of much priority.

Yes, the Word is the priority. But the explanation, if it is truly explaining the Word of God, is also from the Lord. So, one needs to make sure that his understanding of the Word, if his understanding is from "his flesh and blood" is not contradicting the explanation of others, where the passages are rightly collated, and it is show how the spirit stands in the context of the spiritual sense.

For apart from the spirit, how would you undestand many proverbs of the Lord in the Gospel?

Have you gotten rid of the riches according to the letter?
Became enuch to become blessed, as Origen did?
Gave up on your life?
Hated your father and mother?

Do not forget that God hates hypocrisy.

[Capbook]

Yes, the Word is the priority. But the explanation, if it is truly explaining the Word of God, is also from the Lord. So, one needs to make sure that his understanding of the Word, if his understanding is from "his flesh and blood" is not contradicting the explanation of others, where the passages are rightly collated, and it is show how the spirit stands in the context of the spiritual sense.

Yes, may we know what or where in the Word of God the explanation abide to?

For apart from the spirit, how would you undestand many proverbs of the Lord in the Gospel?

I prefer to understand or interpret the Scripture to Scripture to avoid man's own interpretation.

Have you gotten rid of the riches according to the letter?

I believe wealth is not bad, what bad is the love of wealth.

Became enuch to become blessed, as Origen did?

I believe to serve God is a blessing, either eunuch or not.

Gave up on your life?

Yes, as Christian, we are supposed to give our life to Him as he gave His life for us.(1Thes 4:14)

Hated your father and mother?

God said we have to honor them, just not above to God.

Do not forget that God hates hypocrisy.

Yes, as a professed Christian, a follower of Christ, we should have to follow Christ in faith.

[Consocius]

Became enuch to become blessed, as Origen did?

I believe to serve God is a blessing, either eunuch or not.

Gave up on your life?

Yes, as Christian, we are supposed to give our life to Him as he gave His life for us.(1Thes 4:14)

Hated your father and mother?

God said we have to honor them, just not above to God.

Do not forget that God hates hypocrisy.

Yes, as a professed Christian, a follower of Christ, we should have to follow Christ in faith.

If you follow the Word of God as you read it, then apparently you have to become enuch, denounce all riches, give up on your life literally, and then also hate father and mother literally.

So, if you want to be honest, you have to think and behave honestly, without cunning and deceit. Or otherwise acknowledge that you lack the true understanding of the Word, and honestly search for the true explanation.

[myth-one.com]

Have you gotten rid of the riches according to the letter?
Became enuch to become blessed, as Origen did?

That sounds rather harsh.

They probably meant "unique"!

[Capbook]

Became enuch to become blessed, as Origen did?

I believe to serve God is a blessing, either eunuch or not.

Gave up on your life?

Yes, as Christian, we are supposed to give our life to Him as he gave His life for us.(1Thes 4:14)

Hated your father and mother?

God said we have to honor them, just not above to God.

Do not forget that God hates hypocrisy.

Yes, as a professed Christian, a follower of Christ, we should have to follow Christ in faith.

If you follow the Word of God as you read it, then apparently you have to become enuch, denounce all riches, give up on your life literally, and then also hate father and mother literally.

So, if you want to be honest, you have to think and behave honestly, without cunning and deceit. Or otherwise acknowledge that you lack the true understanding of the Word, and honestly search for the true explanation.

Consocius, our salvation is by God's grace through our faith and not by our good works.
Not by becoming an eunuch, denouncing all riches and etc.
That is my understanding of the gospel, or else you have another gospel Consocius.

[Consocius]

Consocius, our salvation is by God's grace through our faith and not by our good works.
Not by becoming an eunuch, denouncing all riches and etc.
That is my understanding of the gospel, or else you have another gospel Consocius.

Well, since you appear to be not interesting in understanding, or otherwise believe your understanding the same as the meaning of the Gospel, I do not see any use in further communication. Yet I wish you all the best in your christian life, provided you look to the Lord God Jesus Christ and shun evils as sins against God.

[Consocius]

That sounds rather harsh.
They probably meant "unique"!

There is another view. The Word is not the word of men, but the Word of God, and so essentially it speaks of the spiritual matters.

[Capbook]

Consocius, our salvation is by God's grace through our faith and not by our good works.
Not by becoming an eunuch, denouncing all riches and etc.
That is my understanding of the gospel, or else you have another gospel Consocius.

Well, since you appear to be not interesting in understanding, or otherwise believe your understanding the same as the meaning of the Gospel, I do not see any use in further communication. Yet I wish you all the best in your christian life, provided you look to the Lord God Jesus Christ and shun evils as sins against God.

Wishing you also all the best in your Christian life Consocius, as I notice Eph 2:8-10 have less weight of your concern.
Shalom.

[BruceLeiter]

[Replying to Consocius in post #4]

@Consocius, when you talk about "dics," I assume that you mean "dictionaries." However, there is a huge difference between secular dictionaries and Bible lexicons. They both define words, but the latter ones define them according to their usages within the Bible, whereas secular ones define words by their usages in human culture. That's a huge difference.

It seems to me that when we look at the Bible's words, we should define them the ways they are used in the Bible itself, because it is all God's inspired Word, don't you think?

[Consocius]

[Replying to Consocius in post #4]

@Consocius, when you talk about "dics," I assume that you mean "dictionaries." However, there is a huge difference between secular dictionaries and Bible lexicons. They both define words, but the latter ones define them according to their usages within the Bible, whereas secular ones define words by their usages in human culture. That's a huge difference.

It seems to me that when we look at the Bible's words, we should define them the ways they are used in the Bible itself, because it is all God's inspired Word, don't you think?

Yes, I mean various dictionaries. They are usually very useful. But the wisdom of the Word is not limited to those. As you may see, in reading the various proverbs and prophecies, it is not the dictionaries which reveal you the true meanings of those, but the Lord. Also, taking into account that the Lord inflows into men not only immediately via the Word, but also mediately, so some teachings/explanations of the Word can be given via others. Thus, most folks read the Word not directly, but via the doctrinals of their teachers, thus the Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants, as well as the various others, tend to read it in the light of their doctrines, and if those doctrines are never compared with the Word, from the Lord God Jesus Christ, out of the affection for truth for the sake of truth and for the sake of serving others, and also eternal life, then a man can just continue read the Word/Bible in the same light, which can be even fallacious, or obscure, if not actually darkness, so he is simply remaniing in his tradition, no matter how it is called, and is just repeating the stuff that he uncriticially absorbed earlier.

But if he is interested in the truth, then he is interested in the comparison of the teachings of his own, or absorbed from others passively, or the one that he encounters, with the Word, to see if that doctrine truly explains the Word, not only its letter, but also its spirit, and the explanation of the spirit/spiritual sense is the most challenging thing, and yet without it not many things can be seen in their applications, direct application to one's spiritual life, from the Old Testament, for the Word speaks in such a language/terms which are different, as to their interiors, from the common worldly terms. But to find out the exact true, not fancied/invented/arbitrary explanation, is the challenge. But who would care about it, if it does not provide glory, reputation, and gain nowadays.