How my theory of eternity explains Biblical conundrums :-)
1) Us on the Cross
Several places in Scripture (Romans 6 comes to mind) state that we died with Christ. How is that possible? God is God, and He can do anything, of course. But there is, most probably, a deeper reality - in God's reality as I see it, Jesus is "right now" on the Cross. And experiencing Heaven with us believers. And creating the world. And creating me. And everything in between. So in God's reality, He takes three year old me, praying the sinner's prayer, on that "today" and places me (spiritually) within Christ as He died, on that "today" and both todays are a singular TODAY for God... so it's easier than us doing two things at once, in our singular today! :)
By the same token, God takes my sins today and places them today onto Jesus who dies for them today and is raised today... a little mind-boggling, isn't it?? :)
2) Eternal Death/Payment for sin past, present, future
We know and we preach that offense against eternal God merits eternal death in Hell. Solid Biblical principle. Yet we believe that Jesus could spend three days in Hell and pay the price of eternity for us all? If God worked like that, Jesus wouldn't have had to go to the Cross - surely there would have been an easier way to make "full atonement"!
Or perhaps three days was (is) eternity...
If Jesus/God is experiencing every day of what we call "eternity past" "history" and "eternity future" "right now" ...though the benefit of such language is small... that means that Jesus is still in Hell, paying the eternal penalty for sin. Or even if, as many believe, Jesus did not actually descend into Hell, He still experienced Hell - the unmitigated wrath of God that ravaged Him on the Cross, experienced for all eternity...
and consider this: either way, it is true that if God did not consciously at every moment sustain the universe with the 'word of His power,' we would not exist. Not that we would all die, but that we would cease to exist, or never have existed! Or He could choose to make the plan of salvation evaporate so thoroughly that there would be no trace of it left in a world that would be then inexorably broken. Yet He consciously chooses to sustain the whole world AND the whole plan of salvation though His only gain is pain! (if anything*)
3) Today in Paradise.
This is a pretty simple corollary to #2. Jesus could well say to the thief whom He was crucified with "Today you will be with Me in Paradise" ...because He was. What is "today"? ;)
4) What happens when we die?
We enter some sort of eternity. I doubt the "full version" as God experiences - finite minds could not grasp such infinity, I doubt - but there will be a sense, I believe, in which we will become more like God in our concept and experience of time. More pertinently, I believe that the norm is for saints to enter Heaven immediately, and the permanently fallen to enter Hell immediately. Undoubtedly this is preceded by some knowledge of that position being correct, whether or not that is the Great White Throne Judgment or not, or if that all happens "at once" in an "eternal present"... who on this Earth can say? :)
4) Thousand years = a day
"A thousand years in your sight is like a day when it is gone, or like a watch in the night" - Ps 90, I believe - "A day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day" ...in other words, God exists outside of time... precisely :)
5) Prayer
This is an interesting one. Prayer is a difficult thing - one of those predestination/free will conundrums. God acts, to some measure, according to our prayers. And yet, of course, He is sovereign, and acts completely and solely according to His will.
So every day is the same "present" for God, right? So it's entirely possible that God chooses to act in the "past" based on our prayers in the "present" or even in the "future" (and of course, even our prayers are ordained by Him, though not in a way that discredits our responsibility to choose to pray....) I listened to a sermon once in which the pastor stated, rather offhand, that he thought it perfectly acceptable to pray 'retroactively' - in his case, to pray that someone who had already died would have become a Christian before his death. Though I personally probably wouldn't spend a lot of time on that sort of prayer, it is a fascinating idea!
*Whenever we speak of God's creation of the world (or His plan of salvation, or His election of certain individuals), we inevitably fall into some statement of God needing something - even as we attempt to affirm His self-sufficiency! His glory needed no greater display than to Himself. His love required no fuller expression than among His persons. He did not need to be Creator in order to 'prove' Himself creative. He had absolutely nothing to gain by creating the world. By enacting salvation. By anything He does. He simply does it because He has, in His sovereign will, chosen to do it. Because He has, in His perfect wisdom, chosen to love us. All He has to 'gain' is pain, when by His choice He walks with us through our valleys. Yet He continues to do so!
"Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
For who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has become His counselor?
Or who has first given to Him
And it shall be repaid to him?
Or who has become His counselor?
Or who has first given to Him
And it shall be repaid to him?
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