13th October, 2011

LLOYD HARKNESS

Eternity, the word, has a separate and distinct meaning for Australians. Written in fireworks on the Sydney Harbour Bridge for the 2000 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, eternity was once again being acknowledged as part of Sydney’s history.

Arthur Stace, a bum and petty criminal turned Christian, wrote 'eternity' over 500,000 times, in chalk, on the city’s streets throughout 37 years of penmanship.

A MAN WITH A MESSAGE: A replica of Arthur Stace's beautiful Copperplate writing in Town Hall Square, Sydney. PICTURE: Wikipedia "If we think of time in a linear sense, where time is an endless piece of string, then we probably have no concerns with the blessings of following Christ but we could well be a little unsettled with the idea being equally applied to judgement and punishment."

A mystique grew around eternity partly because its author remained anonymous for an extended period, partly because of the diligence and copperplate penmanship of the writing, and partly because the word itself is a sermon that can fire our imaginations.

Arthur found a faith based in things eternal when on his own he had trouble changing things temporal.

No discussion of this word should strip any of its significance and power regarding those things referred to in the New Testament as eternal, not just out of respect for Arthur but for all our sakes.

Eternity references God and what belongs to and is of Him. God is the eternal One. He is the I Am, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. And His salvation plan for humanity was and is written in eternity.

There are serious serious repercussions for rejecting or accepting God’s salvation plan, for choosing to walk away from or to follow Jesus. When Jesus said count the cost before you decide He was not only referring to possible persecution for being a disciple. Counting the cost also involves eternity.

Eternity is applied to the Gospel and Christ’s kingdom, our redemption and inheritance, our hope and salvation, and our dwelling place and future glory.

These things are spoken of as being eternal but having entered time to bring about their fulfilment.

Judgement, destruction, fire and punishment are similarly tagged as being part of His eternal plan. The punishments for the unfaithful sit alongside the blessings for the faithful and befit God and His loving redemptive personage.

If we think of time in a linear sense, where time is an endless piece of string, then we probably have no concerns with the blessings of following Christ but we could well be a little unsettled with the idea being equally applied to judgement and punishment.

So what does aionios, the Greek word translated eternity, mean. This adjective refers to a ver,y very long time. It is about time where there is no seeable horizon and, even more than that, it is about being above and beyond time (timelessness). Eternity is not simply an indefinite continuance, a lasting forever, but it is about contrast. It is about eternity in contrast to time; it is about God in contrast to man, it is the unchangeable things of God in contrast to the wilfulness and inconsistency of man. Aionios establishes things which are in the realm of God and which stand in stark contrast to the realm of man.

Eternity is an indeterminable frame of time but to say eternity simply means to last forever under-represents how aionios was used.

Eternity when referencing the Gospel and Christ’s kingdom, our redemption and inheritance, our hope and salvation, our dwelling place and future glory and judgement, destruction, fire and punishment cannot be confined solely to boundless time.

The Great I Am is, was, and always will be. The salvation plan of God is, was, and always will be with all of its ramifications.

When we consider His plan there are references to beginnings and ends in the Bible and so we do have a frame of time, as such. There are horizons which are referred to, although this is largely done with poetic imagery.

Looking back, we have light out of the dark but then dark overtakes the light in the Edenic fall of Adam and Eve. God’s salvation plan commences, in the sense of time entering into its unfolding, as light reclaims darkness’ foothold.

Looking forward, we have mansions prepared by Jesus for the faithful, a new city of God (Heaven’s Jerusalem), a marriage relationship with Christ (in terms of mutuality and intimacy) and also judgement and a lake of fire for those who dismissed Jesus.

These images are sketchy and limited. They are another example of the Apostle Paul’s comment that we see through a dark glass dimly.

So, within eternity what lies beyond the representations we have? How will Christ’s Kingdom, the New Jerusalem, function in eternity? How will the second judgement lake of fire function in eternity? These are interesting questions to ponder but that is about all we can do at present. God would have revealed more on these issues if they were crucial to how we are to live now.

Hamlet said; “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of...” We are hardly dealing with a writer’s gimmick of talking ghosts but this memorable Shakespearean quote could easily apply to the partially revealed things of eternity in the Bible.

So to return to one aspect of God’s salvation plan which sits awkwardly for some Christians - the judgement.

Nowhere in the New Testament is there any indication that those who enter the lake of fire, the place of God’s eternal wrath against sin, emerge from it. Yet ultimately the whole universe will be fulfilled in Jesus. So how will universal reconciliation sit alongside hell in the further unfolding of God’s redemption plan?

Reconciliation and hell are a paradox only partially explained by man’s free will to choose whom He will follow. Everyone will confess that Jesus is Lord, either now or after death before His throne, but despite that confession not everyone will choose to follow Him. It is still the same story despite having now seen Jesus in glory. Hence the second resurrection to judgement before the Great White Throne of God involves sentencing to a jail known as Lake of Fire.

Within this paradox hopefully a clearer construct of what is meant by aionios, the eternal, will be a step into the bigness of God at work. Eternity is that which operates outside the constraints of time. It is the realm of God, of God’s business, of God’s big ideas unfolding. And we mere mortals... well that is all we are without God; knowing in part and seeing in part.

There are some things which are firm and graspable though. Serious repercussions follow being faithful or faithless, with Christ, in a life lived on planet earth.

Hence we are to fight the good fight of faith, endure, labour and remain loyal. Living the life Jesus offers, a born again life of, with and in God, stretches us beyond the here and now through the resurrection and on to heaven with all and whatever that entails.

Jesus remains the postman and the post. He has delivered the Father’s message and He is the message, a message of grace and love to infuse our life and to unite us with Him into eternity.

Eternity is God’s realm. It is where His righteousness, holiness and justice unfold. We could not be in better hands.

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