What can we learn from scripture about God Almighty’s view of eternity?

I hope that his will at least make for some further examination. This little bit is woefully incomplete, but may still generate additional relevant conversation.

Starting in Genesis we find that He created man from the dust of the earth and breathed life into him and he became a living soul.

Gen. 2:7 Then the LORD God formed man of ^adust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and ^bman became a living ¹being.

1Cor. 15:45 So also it is written, “The first ^aMAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL.” The ^blast Adam became a ^clife-giving spirit.

Man was set in a the garden of Eden where there was the ‘tree of Life’. As we know Adam sinned and was barred from the tree of life. God revealed something to us then when he took action that prevented Adam from gaining immortality in a sinful evil state. That thought was abhorrent to God. His fate was rather to die and not have immortality.

Gen. 3:22   Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of ^aUs, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from ^bthe tree of life, and eat, and live forever” —

From here let’s look at Noah and the flood account. From this we can learn something further. What was God’s solution? It was to cleanse or blot out the evil and start from scratch with a new earth and its inhabitants.

Gen. 6:6 ^aThe LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was ^bgrieved ¹in His heart. ⁷ The LORD said, “^aI will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land,

Let’s move forward to some verses in the NT.

Paul wrote to Timothy to instruct him, thus and to the Ephesians.

2Tim. 1:9 who has ^asaved us and ^bcalled us with a holy ^ccalling, ^dnot according to our works, but according to His own ^bpurpose and grace which was granted us in ^eChrist Jesus from ^fall eternity,

Eph. 1:9 He ^1amade known to us the mystery of His will, ^baccording to His ²kind intention which He ^cpurposed in Him ¹⁰ with a view to an administration ¹suitable to ^athe fullness of the times, that is, ^bthe summing up of all things in Christ, things ²in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him

In Timothy, we see clearly that God’s plan of and for Christ was from eternity past and in Ephesians we see something of what this looks like in eternity future.

All things, in the end, will be summed up ‘In Christ’. This is very important. All things!

God’s view of eternity does not include evil. Evil and death that comes from it will be blotted out so that what is left is ‘In Christ’ and of Christ.

We need to consider this. How can all things be summed up in Christ and yet there be a place in eternity where sin, evil, torment and remembrance of those things be present?

God did not want Adam living forever in a sinful state. Evil cannot live forever in God’s eternity.

This is why God became flesh and paid the price in full and redeemed the creation from all of the affects of rebellion.

What is Life? What is Eternal Life? There is only one and that is God and Christ Life.

John 3:36 “He who ^abelieves in the Son has eternal life; but he who ^bdoes not ¹obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

John 5:26 “For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He ^agave to the Son also to have life in Himself;

1John 5:11 And the testimony is this, that God has given us ^aeternal life, and ^bthis life is in His Son.

God did not allow Adam to eat of Christ and thus live forever in an evil state.

So, if we are to accept a place in eternity where evil exists without ceasing what we have is a duality that includes both evil and that which is ‘Christ and God all in all’.

1Cor. 15:27 For ^aHE HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET. But when He says, “^bAll things are put in subjection,” it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. ²⁸ When ^aall things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that ^bGod may be all in all.

We are examining two disparate views of eternity.

One that includes evil in the form of eternally suffering beings along with ‘all things summed up in Christ’ and one that has ‘all things summed up in Christ’.

How does the one reconcile with the other.

Are all things ‘summed up in Christ’ in God’s eternity or not? This is a straight forward question and must be dealt with.