In reading biblical prophecies about the end times—particularly in books like Daniel, Matthew 24, and Revelation—it's clear that major events such as the final judgment, the defeat of Satan, and the creation of a new heaven and new earth are prophesied. But does the Bible actually predict the end of time itself, or is it more accurate to say it describes the end of evil and the restoration of righteousness? Do any Christian traditions interpret these eschatological passages as pointing to a timeless eternity after judgment, or is time understood to continue in a renewed creation? Relevant passages might include Revelation 21–22, 1 Corinthians 15:24–28, and others.

### Introduction The Law of Moses/Torah of Moses are a body of commandments and laws which were given to the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai by God. Observant Jews continue to follow these laws as understood through rabbinic traditions and interpretations, while most major Christian denominations more or less do not. The Old Testament/Hebrew Bible contains many scriptures which seem to indicate that the Mosaic law is eternal and uses the same word used elsewhere that describes God being eternal: **Exodus 31:16–17 (NRSV)** indicates observance of the Sabbath is an eternal activity: > Therefore the Israelites shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a **perpetual covenant**. It is a sign **forever** between me and the Israelites that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. **Leviticus 16:29-34** indicates Yom Kippur should be observed forever: > This shall be a statute to you **forever**: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall humble yourselves ... This shall be an **everlasting statute** for you, to make atonement for the Israelites once in the year for all their sins. And Moses did as the Lord had commanded him. **Deuteronomy 29:29** seems to indicate that all the words of the law should be followed for all time by the children of Israel: > The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and to our children **forever**, to observe all the words of this law. **Jeremiah 31:31** makes a promise that the Jews will have the Mosaic law written on their heart in the future: > The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: **I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts**, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more. ### Question Do Christians believe that the Hebrew Bible prophesied that the commandments it called eternal would one day end? Is there an Old Testament basis for believing observance of the Mosaic law would not be forever? Views from all denominations welcome.

Revelation 1:8 and 4:8 describe God as the one "*who was, and is, and is to come*", a phrase emphasizing His eternal nature and unchanging presence across time. In contrast, Revelation 17:8 speaks of the beast (often interpreted as representing the devil or a satanic figure), saying it "*was, and is not, and is to come,*" which appears to mimic God’s description but with a distorted twist. **What attribute of God is being emphasized through this triadic formula?** And how does the similar but corrupted version applied to the beast expose the devil's nature as unstable, temporal, or counterfeit? Is this a deliberate contrast showing God's immutability and sovereignty versus the devil's impermanence or false imitation of divine authority?

For those that maintain that the soul is not destroyed in the lake of fire, but instead results in eternal suffering, how then do you interpret death being cast into the flames? Revelation 20:14 (NASB) > Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. Is "Death" merely tormented or is it truly destroyed? What would it even mean for death to suffer?

Saint John spoke under the influence of the Holy Spirit and wrote the following words that have echoed through the millenia. *John 3:16* >For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life Those words mean that God has given the human race two options:- 1. Accept Jesus and **live forever** 2. Reject Jesus and **perish** My focus is on the word _perish_, it means _destruction_, which suggests the meaning that unbelievers and sinners will ultimately be destroyed in hell. Jesus supported this belief with this statement. *Mathew 10:28* >Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. That implies that the flesh and the inner man or the soul will both be destroyed in the lake of fire and that there is no eternal suffering for condemned men save for the devil and his angels, for God is just. The measurement for punishing eternal beings is not equal to the measurement for punishing mortal beings, why is it then that some men suffer forever when scripture is clearly opposed to that belief?

If this is so... how do we arrive at today? Without a starting point, time cannot begin to move forward and we would never come to exist. An eternal future is possible but an eternal past is not. There has to be an original creator. Also... are the LDS actually worshipping a created being who was once a regular man? Are other worlds without sin or do they have their own form of Jesus? Or did their man-god find another way to deal with sin and the cross isn't necessary as we would like to think?

How can time not exist before creation? For God to exist for infinite time before creation, there had to have been some kind of time or time-like object causing -infinity to turn into the time of creation. Wouldn't God have created time before time so there was still time before creation but it may have had different properties? Because eternity into the future is always described as infinite time in the future, but infinite time into the future can't actually happen technically and only approaching the infinite future can happen but never reaching it. So kind of like on a coordinate plane for e-x, where the coordinate plane tries to approach zero but it never actually is able to reach zero unless a value of infinity is placed in the value of x, which can't be shown on a coordinate plane. So is it kind of like the graph that I described in that eternity can never be reached and it doesn't exist at least in the future side, and eternity in the past does exist and has to exist? So does ever-increasing finite time give the illusion of eternity?

For background, this is related to other questions about whether God may have changed in the past. It is often touted that God preceded all creation, and some even say that He is able to violate causality because in some ostensible sense He "is" causality itself and "created time". For those who believe that the Genesis account (or anything else) implies that God participated in essentially just one creation, and who use the nature of God as the Creator as proof that He always existed as an Omnipotent Being, does that not result in a contradiction? If not, why not? If God suddenly decided to create one day (at the "beginning") but didn't before then, is that not proof that God changed? What was He doing for all eternity before He created anything? What caused Him to decide that, after an eternity of not creating anything, He would begin to be a Creator?

What is the Biblical basis for eternity lacking change? i.e, that God is immutable and views all time simultaneously. Boethius defines eternity as "simultaneously full and perfect possession of interminable life" What parts of the Bible support this understanding?

I often hear references to the "uncreated God", citing passages such as Psalm 90:2 "from everlasting to everlasting you are God". What is the specific meaning of the word "create" in the above phrase, according to various denominations that employ it (or attempt to refute it)? What is an overview of doctrines held by the various denominations about the meaning of this phrase? Does the word "create" in this context have an unambiguous, rigorous and identifiable meaning according to such doctrines, or is it assumed the hearer automatically knows what specifically it is and isn't intended to mean? What is that meaning? Bonus: How does this relate to the meaning of the word "create" used in Genesis 1:1?

I often hear that God caused time to exist, or created time. But causality is relatable to us as a temporal concept, at least in the sense that it requires strict ordering; nothing caused can logically precede its cause (otherwise we could never prove for example that God is Supreme because of His power to cause anything, if causation is meaningless or without order or hierarchy). Time certainly teaches us this and causality is an attribute of time--but perhaps causality is not unique to time? It must be so if time was indeed "caused". Therefore no definition of "eternal" may ignore causality, eternity itself providing for and always being consistent with causality; causality necessarily transcends "time" as we know it, because "time" as we know it was at least purportedly "caused". Further compounding the subject is the fact that time is not always a singleton nor is it always referred to with the definite article in Scripture; it may be used in an apparent singleton sense as in Revelation 10:6 ("there should be time no longer"), but in other places the indefinite article is used, "a time", as in Ecclesiastes 3 . Given that there are multiple "times" in God's purview and appointed by Him to His creations, what sense are we to make, Scripturally, from the assertion that God created time, if the causal aspect is discounted? For example there is no verse in any translation I am aware of that states that God "created time" or that He "caused causality to exist", since the latter would require circular definition. One could purport that God is able to make no sense or have His attributes be circularly defined, but that would make Him unknowable (and void of virtue), contradicting John 17:3. Therefore what is causality, or eternity for that matter, according to the Scriptures? How do time, eternity and causality relate, according to the Scriptures? Is there any inherent attribute of time, if causality is not unique to time?

I say ‘gods’ because of the LDS doctrine of the plurality of gods. They believe in more than one God. I’ve now become confused with an LDS answer to this recent question, asking how the LDS view of ‘eternity’ is unique. https://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/90047/how-is-the-lds-view-of-eternity-unique The chosen answer eventually admits that, “we know from President Snow that our Father had a beginning”. Please read the whole of the official LDS link here to see that this is official LDS doctrine: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1982/02/i-have-a-question/is-president-snows-statement-as-man-now-is-god-once-was-as-god-now-is-man-may-be-accepted-as-official-doctrine?lang=eng I understand that this Father in heaven is called Jehovah. See this official LDS link: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/gs/jehovah?lang=eng&letter=j “Jehovah - It denotes “the eternal I AM.” Jehovah is the premortal Jesus Christ and came to earth as a son of Mary (Mosiah 3:8; 15:1; 3 Ne. 15:1–5).” But this is confusing because this Jehovah (who later became the man, Jesus) is said to have been born as a spirit baby to the god Elohim and his spirit wife. He is said to be their firstborn offspring, one of many. “God the Son: The God known as Jehovah is the Son, Jesus Christ… he is the eldest of the spirit children of Elohim… it was actually Jesus who was the Creator under the direction of God the Father.” Jesus Christ: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/gs/jesus-christ?lang=eng Jehovah: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/gs/jehovah?lang=eng&letter=j This means that the LDS Father had a beginning, a starting point in time, and so did his father, Elohim, and so did all the other gods going back and back and back – into eternity? **How can one who calls himself “the eternal I AM” have a starting point in time, requiring a superior being to birth him, and that his creator also had to be birthed,** *ad infinitum?* Surely any such one would have to say “I ***became*** the eternal I AM” (once he was created, with ‘eternal’ only meaning from that time on into the eternal future)? The answer I refer to clearly shows that the LDS view of “eternity” only means from the point of time of that being’s creation, going on into an eternal future. ***I’m not asking about that***. My confusion is that ***if they say Jehovah is “the eternal I AM” but he was created by Elohim, and Elohim likewise was created by a previous god, then there cannot be any god (in their estimation) who claims to be the eternal, self-existent One, without beginning or end.*** **Is that actually true, or have I misunderstood? Or do they say that Elohim is the eternal, uncreated, self-existent One?** **EDIT CORRECTION** I misunderstood when I said (above) that *the LDS Father in heaven is called Jehovah.* Join JBH on Codidact pointed that out in his comment below. Also, depperm said in his answer here, “Jesus/Jehovah and Elohim are eternal”. Then Hold to the Rod said in his answer to another LDS Q – “Latter-day Saints believe that Jehovah is not the name of God the Father, but rather is the pre-mortal name of Jesus… God as a title, not a personal name” Then from the official LDS site, https://abn.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/godhead?lang=eng “We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.. These three beings make up the Godhead… They acknowledge the Father as the ultimate object of their worship,” So LDSs pray to Elohim in the name of the one he birthed as a spirit (Jehovah), who later he created as the man, Jesus. **The LDS worship Elohim, who – to them – is the heavenly Father**. I’ve finally got it!

From this answer I gather that LDS teaches that all beings are eternal and that by eternal it is not meant existing timelessly beginning at some point but, rather, not actually having any starting point. Indeed the answer asserts that the first "stage" in the existence of every person (and also every God) is that of "intelligences". An intelligence then becomes a spirit being (the manner of this transformation is unrevealed) and a spirit being is embodied in flesh at mortal birth, lives on after mortal death, and has the opportunity to be exalted to Godhood. The "intelligence" is asserted to be uncreated and self-existent. This related question indicates that the LDS view of the Genesis account is that God did not create matter in the beginning but, rather, organized already existing matter. I have not ascertained if this pre-existing matter is self-existent. It is clear, however, that LDS teaches it was not created ... at least not by the God of Genesis. Given that LDS teaches that all beings are self-existent (not created) and that matter was not created (at least not by the God revealed in Scripture), how does LDS interpret Colossians 1:16 which appears to clearly state that there is not anything anywhere that the God of Genesis did not create? > For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him Colossians 1:16 

I know that many verses can be cited to argue for Jesus' pre-mortal existence (e.g. [here](https://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/80957/what-is-the-biblical-basis-for-jesus-pre-incarnate-existence)) . I'm also perfectly aware that a [question asking for the biblical basis for Jesus being God incarnate](https://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/78/what-is-the-biblical-basis-for-jesus-being-god-incarnate) has already been asked. However, I want to defend the validity of this question on the grounds of the following reasons: 1. Pre-mortal existence does not logically entail *eternal* pre-existence. In principle, if the only thing we know about a being is that it had a pre-mortal existence, then we cannot rule out *a priori* the possibility that that being could still have had a beginning in the past, either recently or a long time ago (e.g. see [the viewpoint of Jehovah's Witnesses on the nature of Jesus](https://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/75149/what-is-the-biblical-basis-for-jesus-christ-being-a-created-being-according-to-j)) . 2. Eternal pre-existence does not logically entail being God (or does it?). In addition to being eternal, a being needs to be omniscient, omnipotent, and many other things to be regarded as God. So I don't see the two as equivalent statements, although I acknowledge that there is a clear overlap. Having presented my reasons for asking the question, I ask: What is the biblical basis for Jesus having eternal pre-existence? Are there passages in Scripture that strongly suggest that Jesus never had a beginning in time?

Non-regret sinners will spend a whole eternity in hell. Will Lucifer get the same destiny as well?

I recently asked a [question](https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/59617/where-their-worm-does-not-die-and-the-fire-is-not-quenched-is-jesus-des) on the hermeneutics site with the intention of letting people share their exegetical takes on the words of Jesus found in Mark 9:47-49, where he said: > 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes **to be thrown into hell**, 48 **‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’** 49 For everyone will be salted with fire. [ESV] As I imagined would be the case, the topic turned out to be quite controversial: some people understand Jesus' description to be literal and others to be figurative. I would like to know if this controversy also existed in the early days of the church. What were the early church's views regarding the eternal fate of the damned? Did early Christians believe in a literal hell of fire to which the damned would be cast to receive the eternal punishment for their sins?

I have a question regarding the "properties" of heaven. As far as I understand heaven is place outside of space and time. I imagine it like this since it is the only way i can make sense of eternity. However if we believe in resurrection, then it we will have our bodies which are material. If we are alive then our hears will beat. If there is a beat then time must exist since a beat represents a change between 2 instants. How does Catholic doctrine reconcile this (possible) paradox?

I'm quite familiar with the fact that God himself is outside of time, this is very easy to show through scripture. However it seems to be an increasingly popular conception that there is no time in heaven as well. For example, in [this answer](https://christianity.stackexchange.com/a/5926/155) about saints. (Probably not the best example, but readily available.) I'm quite certain that time works differently there as we have many examples from scripture where future and past events in heaven are participated in. But a lot of people are explaining it in a way that makes man eternal (not just living forever but, existing eternally as God does in every time frame). I have also heard some Mormons say they were always taught man will become eternal too (don't know if this is official, just what I have heard some say). This seems to me to create a problem with the fact that Satan was supposed to have been cast out of heaven, but by necessity is still in heaven if there is, in fact, no time. Even if we dismiss the depictions in scripture of time passing in heaven as metaphorical, in order to help us understand certain things. How widespread is this doctrine and where did it originate? Does any whole tradition hold this view, or is it simply a failure of individuals to communicate their meaning?

The Catholic Church professes a belief in the existence of limbo. Although the doctrine on this subject has not yet been defined, does the Catholic Church believe that it is eternal?

What is the Biblical basis for believing that an existence in hell will be appreciably different in quality for each individual - i.e quality or grades of hell? Do proponents of this idea get support from Jesus meting out a lesser punishment for the ignorant slave?