Eternity Unveiled: The “Now” That Does Not Pass Away

What is Eternity? Most people misunderstand the word eternity simply to mean “a long, long, time.” But that is not what is meant by the word. Saint Augustine defined eternity as such, “Eternity is the now that does not pass away.” In his article titled "Eternity is Not A Long Time, it is All Time", Monsignor Charles Pope further clarifies what eternity actually means with an illustration. He states "Eternity is the past, present and future all being experienced at once., The time (on a clock says that it) is 1:15 in the afternoon. That means that 10:00 AM is in the past and 6:00 PM is in the future. But consider the dot at the center of the clock and see that, at that spot, 10 AM, 1:15 PM, and 6 PM are all the same, they are equally present to the dot in the center. In fact every possible time that can be registered on the outer edges of the clock is equally present to the center dot. At the center dot there is no substantial difference to any outer edge time indication. There is no future, no past, all is present, all is equally accessible to the center dot. This is eternity,". Moreover, this 'theological' definition of eternity is far from being merely an abstract construct that has no correspondence to the physical world, but finds support from one of our most powerful theories in science, namely Special Relativity. In special relativity, at the speed of light time does not pass. To grasp time not passing at the speed of light more easily, imagine moving away from the face of a clock at the speed of light. Would not the hands on the clock stay stationary as you moved away from the face of the clock at the speed of light? Moving away from the face of a clock at the speed of light happens to be the exact same ‘thought experiment’ that gave Einstein his breakthrough insight into special relativity. And this 'timeless existence' for light has been scientifically confirmed. As Dr. Richard Swenson stated in his book "More Than Meets The Eye", "The laws of relativity have changed timeless existence from a theological claim to a physical reality. Light, you see, is outside of time, a fact of nature proven in thousands of experiments at hundreds of universities. I don’t pretend to know how tomorrow can exist simultaneously with today and yesterday. But at the speed of light they actually and rigorously do. Time does not pass." In fact in March of 1955, a month before he passed way, Einstein himself wrote that, "For those of us who believe in physics, the distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion, however tenacious this illusion may be." Moreover, besides special relativity, this 'timeless existence', and or 'timeless eternity', also finds validation from people who have had near death experiences. As Kimberly Clark Sharp stated "Earthly time has no meaning in the spirit realm. There is no concept of before or after. Everything - past, present, future - exists simultaneously." And as John Star stated, "There is no way to tell whether minutes, hours or years go by. Existence is the only reality and it is inseparable from the eternal now." And as Mickey Robinson stated "in the spiritual plane, there is no such thing as time." That people who have had deep near death experiences would testify to existing in a 'timeless eternity', an ‘eternal now’ that fits hand in glove with what we now know to be true from special relativity, is fairly powerful evidence that their Near Death testimonies must be true and that they are accurately describing the physical reality of a eternal heavenly dimension that exists above this temporal realm.