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Edward Fudge

TIME AND ETERNITY
A gracEmail subscriber writes: "My question concerns the statement in Revelation 10:6 that "time shall be no more" (KJV), which the NIV translates 'there shall be no more delay.' Is time done away in the future eternal kingdom of God? Do the new creation and the New Jerusalem function beyond the confines of space-time-matter-energy? Will we transcend time in eternity?"

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The New International Version is surely correct in its translation here. This passage says nothing about "time" in eternity, but only that there will be no "delay" in the transpiring scenes of the vision which John is recording in Revelation chapter 10. The question whether there will be "time" in eternity is a philosophical and scientific question, not a biblical question, in my opinion.

Although neither a philosopher nor a scientist, I would ask whether we are not now in "eternity" as well as in "time," in a supra-dimensional way, since earth "time" as we call it, is but a circle drawn over part of a continuing, unending line which extends at either end into "eternity past" and "eternity future." From another standpoint, what we call "time" is but a human construct calculated to express a relationship between space and motion. Unlike trees, giraffes and freckIes, time has no substantive, objective reality apart from human perception of the present order of things. We might wonder, therefore, whether we will have any conception of time in that part of "eternity" which lies beyond the Resurrection.

One thing is sure. We believers shall "ever" be with the Lord. All evil will be annihilated in the Lake of Fire and will never be seen again. Then, in a perfect universe permeated with God's direct and immediate presence, we may expect forever to have the "time" of our lives!

For more on final reward, click here.