Eternity In John Aquinas And The Unocence Of God

Before one can discuss the eternity of God, he or she must understand what “eternity” means, but that also requires approaching it from the understanding of time. Aquinas argues that time refers to change in that it is the “numbering of before and after in change.” However, Aquinas is cautious to not place eternity as being somewhere. He is willing to connect eternity with time by declaring that anything that exists within eternity has neither a beginning nor an end. Eternity actually exists as an instantaneous whole. Then Aquinas faces the question of whether or not God is eternal. If God is “in” eternity, then it seems to contain Him and scripture uses the present, past, and future tenses when it is talking about God. Aquinas points out that God’s eternity follows from the fact that He is completely unchangeable. He claims that “God is his own eternity” and that “eternity and God are the same thing,” for eternity is what God is by His immutability. Also, when using temporal language about God, we acknowledge that God’s eternity holds all that is in time. Later, Aquinas observes that the basic difference between tme and eternity is that time measures change and eternity measures the permanent unchangeable existence. So, if God is eternal then He has no cause. Everything that has a beginning is caused, but God has no beginning. In John 8:58, Jesus states, “I tell you before Abraham was, I am.” He uses the present indicative active of “to be,” which means that what is true of Him before is true of Him today, that He does not have change from eternity past into eternity future. Also, in Acts 15:18 Paul declares that “Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world (from eternity).” This eternality suggests His omnis...

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...er happens all at once so He does not know things ahead of time. Aquinas also states that one premise is vague between the necessity of consequence and the necessity of the consequent. For example, it is necessary that if God foreknows that A will crash his bike, then A will crash His bike. Or if God foreknows that A will crash his bike, then it is a necessary truth that A will crash his bike. However, just because God knows a proposition, it does not immediately follow that the proposition is a necessary truth. Another discussion regarding omniscience and eternality is that of God’s immutability. Some have argued that being omniscient requires knowing different things at different times, therefore it is incompatible with immutability. This forms an objection to classical theism, which claims that omniscience and immutability are both foundational attributes of God.