Eternal

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See also Math and the Bible.

Eternal is descriptive of whatever is infinite and unbounded by time or is outside of time and space, of the state of true existence before time began and continuing after time comes to an end, without beginning, without end, a concept introduced by Jesus. God is usually considered eternal in that He has no beginning and no end. Human souls have a starting point but no end, and they are considered to be eternal as well in Christianity.

There are nearly 70 references to "eternal" in the New Testament, but almost no references in the same sense of the word in the Old Testament.

Georg Cantor revolutionized mathematics by inventing Set Theory in order to understand eternity.

Famous film director Woody Allen quipped:^[1]

“

Eternity is a very long time, especially toward the end!

”

Bible references[edit]

Eternal has 60 references in the New Testament (ESV), and one additonal reference to "eternity". Nearly every book refers to it, while the Gospel of John contains by far the most mentions of it (18 times). Interestingly, the Book of Revelation (which some feel was also written by John), refers to it only once.

The Old Testament Hebrew lacked a term identical to "infinity" today, and its term for eternity is עוֹלָם (olam), which Strong's interprets as having the meanings of "long duration, antiquity, futurity."^[2]

See also[edit]

• Entropy
• Heaven
• Infinity
• Infinity denial
• Philosophical naturalism
• Philosophy
• Second Law of Thermodynamics
• Spacetime
• Universe

External links[edit]

• See Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Eternity (plato.stanford)

References[edit]