On the contrary...
From Merriam-Webster:
1a : having infinite duration : EVERLASTING
eternal damnation
b : of or relating to eternity
c : characterized by abiding fellowship with God
good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
— Mark 10:17 (Revised Standard Version)
2a : continued without intermission : PERPETUAL
an eternal flame
b : seemingly endless
eternal delays
3 archaic : INFERNAL
some eternal villain … devised this slander
— William Shakespeare
4 : valid or existing at all times : TIMELESS
eternal verities
eternal noun
Definition of eternal (Entry 2 of 2)
1 capitalized : GOD sense 1 —used with the
2 : something eternal
abiding, ageless, continuing, dateless, enduring, everlasting, immortal, imperishable, lasting, ongoing, perennial, perpetual, timeless, undying
More Definitions for eternal
eternal adjective
English Language Learners Definition of eternal
: having no beginning and no end in time : lasting forever
: existing at all times : always true or valid
: seeming to last forever
eternal adjective
eter·nal | \ i-ˈtər-nᵊl \
Kids Definition of eternal
1 : lasting forever : having no beginning and no end
2 : continuing without interruption : seeming to last forever
eternal patience |
Eternal doesn't mean "timeless".
It means INFINITE duration.
Timeless is contradictory to infinite duration.
Strong's:
Strong's g166
- Lexical: αἰώνιος
- Transliteration: aiónios
- Part of Speech: Adjective
- Phonetic Spelling: ahee-o'-nee-os
- Definition: age-long, and therefore: practically eternal, unending; partaking of the character of that which lasts for an age, as contrasted with that which is brief and fleeting.
- Origin: From aion; perpetual (also used of past time, or past and future as well).
- Usage: eternal, for ever, everlasting, world (began).
- Translated as (count): eternal (66), an eternal (1), eternally (1), everlasting (1), of eternal (1), of the ages (1). |
Where did you get the idea that "eternal" means "timeless"?
Endless is merely going forward, and Strong’s is limited here. You need to be looking at both aidios and aionios, not just the latter. The former only appears in 2 places in all of scripture, and it’s the key to understanding the latter.
Aidios (eternity) is superordinate to aionios (everlasting). All that is eternal (God) is also aionios, but all that is aionios is not aidios. Aidios determines the quality of everlastingness.
All humans as living souls are everlasting; but not all have the divine quality of eternality determining the quality of their endless duration. This is why the everlastingness of those without Christ is torment. They don’t have God’s divine nature determining the endless durative reality of their existence.
Hey, I’m just trying to help against the Annihilationists. I’m fine if you reject the depths of lexicography.
Aionios is endless ages. That’s a “ray”, in mathematics terms. Aidios is far beyond merely being a line by comparison, even though relative to creation it also can be perceived in that manner.
Eternity is not a time term (or at least it’s demonstrating that the adjectival application comes from beyond time to determine the qualitative relative to time). Everlasting is a time term. Endless is merely a designation of unending time of whatever form.
Eternity is one of God’s incommunicable attributes, and He’s beyond time. Endless duration is a time-based definition.
I’m fine if you don’t accept that. But now you’ve made God of infinite duration subject to time.
So now there’s no distinction whatsoever between Eternity and Aeviternity. Now time is greater than God and He didn’t create any and all forms of time.
Proceed.
(Ask Mr. Religion... Here’s my issue with modernist understandings right here. And current dictionaries even support it with generalities that fail to distinguish the qualitative overarching distinctions between aidios and aionios, which is horrific.)
opcorn: