later. He can neither be subjected to measuring or counting in his duration. A thousand years are
to him as a day. He is the eternal I AM (John 8:58). God’s eternity, accordingly, should be thought
rather as an eternal present without past or future. “To God all things are present. Your today is
eternity. Eternity itself is the substance of God, which has in it nothing that is changeable.”56
Concerning God’s eternity Boethius stated that “God comprehends and at the same time
possesses a complete fullness of endless life.”57 And Thomas described this eternity “as a complete
and at the same time a full possession of endless life.”58 And so speak all the theologians, not only
the Roman Catholic but the Lutheran and the Reformed as well.59
Nevertheless, God’s eternity should not for that reason be conceived as an eternally static,
immobile moment of time. On the contrary: it is identical with God’s being and hence with his
fullness of being. Not only is God eternal; he is his own eternity.60 A true analogy of it is not the
contentless existence of a person for whom, as a result of idleness or boredom, grief or fear, the
minutes seem like hours and the days do not go but creep. The analogy lies rather in the abundant
and exuberant life of the cheerful laborer, for whom time barely exists and days fly by. From this
perspective there is truth in the assertion that in hell there is no eternity but only time, and that
the more a creature resembles God and is his image, the more he or she will rise above the
imperfections of time and approach eternity.61 Hence, God’s eternity does not stand, abstract and
transcendent, above time, but is present and immanent in every moment of time. There is indeed
an essential difference between eternity and time, but there is also an analogy and kinship
between them so that the former can indwell and work in the latter. Time is a concomitant of
created existence. It is not self-originated. Eternal time, a time without beginning, is not
conceivable. God, the eternal One, is the only absolute cause of time. In and by itself time cannot
exist or endure: it is a continuous becoming and must rest in immutable being. It is God who by
his eternal power sustains time, both in its entirety and in each separate moment of it. God
pervades time and every moment of time with his eternity. In every second throbs the heartbeat
of eternity. Hence, God maintains a definite relation to time, entering into it with his eternity.
Also, for him time is objective. In his eternal consciousness he knows time as a whole as well as
the succession of all its moments. But this fact does not make him temporal, that is, subject to
time, measure, or number. He remains eternal and inhabits eternity, but uses time with a view to
manifesting his eternal thoughts and perfections. He makes time subservient to eternity and thus
proves himself to be the King of the ages (1 Tim. 1:17).
Omnipresence
[195] Infinity in the sense of not being confined by space is synonymous with God’s omnipresence.
This attribute too is most vividly represented in Scripture. God is the creator, and all that exists
is and remains his in an absolute sense. He is the Lord, the possessor of heaven and earth (Gen.
14:19, 22 kjv; Deut. 10:14), exalted above all creatures, also above all space. Heaven and earth
cannot contain him, how much less an earthly temple (1 Kings 8:27; 2 Chron. 2:6; Isa. 66:1; Acts
