R.C. Sproul: Eternity

I'm going to begin by before I pray to ask you a simple question see if you can answer it where does God live now you I'll tell you where he doesn't live Staten Island you know that well the Bible says he inhabits eternity that's his residence and it's a permanent residence and a mutable residence because he himself is from everlasting to everlasting and that's the theme that we're going to consider briefly now after we pray let's pray our Father and our God eternity and it's realm seems more and more foreign to our understanding and to our experience it's too high it's too holy it's too remote for us to grasp and yet through your goodness and through the sweetness of your plan of redemption you have visited us from that realm and prepared for us a place in that realm and so we ask that you would condescend now to help us understand something of the importance and significance of eternity your place of residence for we ask it in Jesus name Amen they say that Agustin was the greatest theologian of the first millennium of Christian history and perhaps of all time and I have no argument at all with that assessment and we know that of his many works perhaps the one for which he is most famous is that classic work entitled the City of God in which in it he writes in vivid language the stark contrast between the City of God and the city of man well not to be outdone in the middle of the twentieth century a Harvard professor of sociology and theology Harvey Cox wrote a book that was a runaway bestseller entitled not the City of God but the secular City and what he was trying to do was to give us an understanding of the culture in which we live at this time in human history and he spoke about a philosophy called secular ism and in doing so he began first by defining the word secular and looking at its Latin root the word say coulomb from which we get the word secular he pointed out that the secular describes this world not in terms of space but in terms of time the Latin language had two distinct words in fact more than that but two major words for the word earth or world one describes the world in terms of space the other one in terms of time the Latin word for our world in terms of space is the word Mundus from which we have the word mundane and we've already heard today a reference to Athanasius and a mention of what is written on his tombstone Athanasius contra mundum Athanasius against the world their mundus describes the world in terms of this place here on the other hand the word Salem is another word for world but the reference of that word is not to this world in terms of this place or this space but rather in terms of this time or the realm of the temporal and so the term Salem was religiously neutral in its original orientation and functioned just fine in the medieval church where priests were distinguished between those preached priests that were ordained for work in the the realm of the ecclesia mature CH and those who were secular priests those whose job took them outside the doors of the church or of the monastery and they would work among the poor and do other such services simply meaning that they were laboring right now to the needs of people right here perfectly good word but when you take a nice good innocent word and put that ominous suffix on it those three little letters is M everything changes it's one thing to be human it's another thing to embrace humanism it's one thing to be feminine it's another thing to embrace feminism it's one thing to exist it's quite another to embrace existentialism well in the same manner it's perfectly fine to be secular but as soon as we speak about secularism we're now talking about a worldview a philosophy a system of thinking that Harvey Cox said defined what you would call the zeitgeist of 20th century and certainly into the 21st century of America and the Western world as I twice which word comes not from the Latin but from the German means the spirit of the time or the spirit of the age and Harvey Cox is saying we were living in the post Christian era where life is no longer considered in light of the eternal but rather in terms of the secular and the simple cradle of secularism is this that all human life takes place in the here and the now in the realm of the temporal and beyond that they here and the now beyond the temporal there is simply nothing else it's not simply a an epistemological skepticism that says like following Immanuel Kant that by rational inquiry we can't ascend to the realm of metaphysics we can't ascend through the use of theoretical thought into the level of the eternal no secularism says the reason why we can't into the realm of the eternal is because there is no realm of the eternal after the Conti and critique of the classical traditional Christian synthesis many philosophers then opted for various forms of skepticism and cynicism such as atheistic existentialism with its category of nihilism saying that in the final analysis not what there is here is the sneekly there is the nothingness than me Hill there's nobody home up there and so all we have is this world and you only go around once and so you may grab the gussto and embrace a creed that says whoever owns the most toys when he dies wins but he still dies and when he dies the here and the now is over Rudolf Bultmann in the 20th century tried to create a synthesis between existential philosophy and Christianity and said that we need a theology of timelessness again a theology of the hick at nuke the here and the now and forget about any aspirations of eternity and he captured the imagination of New Testament scholars oh all over the world and they have made their influence felt with a vengeance in many of the churches of this day the spirit of our times is the spirit of secularism when you're dead you're dead and that's it there's this time and this time only Harvey Cox went on to say that the shape of America in light of this secularism has been developed by the only homegrown philosophical system that was ever generated in the continental United States and it was the philosophical system known as pragmatism many years ago at Harvard University they had a club on the campus of Harvard University and it was called the metaphysical club and as history would find somewhat ironic during one particular period of Harvard's undergraduate time there were four men who were members of this metaphysical Club and of course the metaphysical Club was a club devoted to the pursuit of the understanding of that realm which exists above and beyond the physical realm the realm of eternity and these four members of the club one and all changed their minds and completely rejected metaphysics entirely Charles Piercy Percy I should say John Dewey William James Oliver Wendell Holmes for guys you won't find any four men who have had more influence on the shaping of American culture than those four men all of whom rejected metaphysics and embrace a kind of philosophy called pragmatism since we can't know ultimate truth and in fact there is no such thing as ultimate truth we have to be practical and define truth in terms of that which works for Dewey it's a way with the model of physical education because the model of classical education was based on the principle of theology as being the queen of the sciences and philosophy her aunt handmaiden and now since we know nothing more significant about theology or philosophy in a metaphysical sense education should be changed for an agenda that is practical and nothing is less practical in the training of our children than the knowledge of God Dewey's influence on the American system of education is immeasurable as James was - psychology as percy was the philosophy and it was the preface to oliver wendell holmes classic work on British common law in which he set forth the idea that we can no longer base law on some kind of super ethical structure of natural law or some kind of supernatural law law must be established on the basis of the common community standards of a given period in a given place and a given time so that the laws of one community can differ from the laws of another community and as long as the majority of the people in that community embrace it that's fine the current vice president of the United States of America when Clarence Thomas was before the permanent Judicial Committee of the United States Senate to be confirmed to his appointment to the Supreme Court entered into an interrogation of Clarence Thomas about natural law and he asked Judge Thomas do you believe in natural law and judge Thomas's response was sort of this way like of course it's built into the Declaration of Independence it's built into the Constitution how can I be a constitutional lawyer and reject natural on senator Biden's and nobody believes in in that anymore that there aren't any law schools to teach natural law yet anything to understanding the consequences of that there's no such thing as objective truth ethics have now been reduced to a matter a matter of preferences and whatever the ruling class prefers that becomes the law the very thing by the way that Karl Marx predicted would take place in Western civilization and the reason for this is that contemporary America and contemporary human beings in the West have been systematically and radically cut off from eternity one brief observation about the philosophy of pragmatism that defines truth as that which works dr. Sproul the Younger earlier spoke Tabitha Lee ology the principle of Telos or purpose and so when somebody says they want to be practical and pragmatic and same thing I've heard professing Christians say that their pragmatist away with them get them out of the church they're poison pragmatism and Christianity are utterly totally and eternally incompatible pregnancy says truth it's not ultimate it's not objective it's what works for me and the basic critique of that philosophy is that it is one of the most impractical philosophies a person can ever embrace why because there is an eternity and there is a God who dwells there who is from everlasting to everlasting and who holds every one of his creatures accountable to himself and will judge every one of us sub-species Aeterna taught us meaning under the species or from the perspective of the eternal now if you embrace pragmatism and define truth is that which works for you today in the hick at nunc in the here and the now and consider not the question of eternity at some point you're going to have to face a judgment from the perspective of eternity jesus warned the people of his own day who were unsuspecting pragmatists by asking them questions like this what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul Jesus was being practical what is the good if it works only for now what good is it if your goals and your plans and your ambitions are accomplished in this world and you lose your soul or what man give Jesus ass in exchange for his soul when you lose eternity when you lose the eternal perspective you lose your soul that's why the great book is so greatly important and why routing and grounding young people in the truth of God that does not pass away that is not merely a preference that will not change in the next election is not achieved by referendum but comes from the mouth of the eternal God who changes not is so critical now when we consider the attribute of God's eternal 'ti we are dealing with one of the most important aspects of God for the cause of apologetics for the defense of the very existence of God himself which is so much under attack in any secular society as we've been told already so brilliantly this day that if you want to change the end of the story you have to change the beginning of the story and the beginning of the story that chokes every pragmatist and every secularists on the face of the earth is the statement in the beginning god if you get rid of that you have no threat from Christianity you can let people enjoy a Christian religion on the reservation like good Little Indians just don't give many fire water and let them say their prayers sing their hens gather together we don't have to burn them at the stake as long as we get rid of that first line in the beginning God as long as we can convince everybody that there is no access to eternity there is of course access to the past and we see paradigms in the world of science change and sometimes change radically if you don't like the contemporary dominating paradigm of the secular scientific world wait 10 years it'll change probably won't take that long a few years ago I saw a copy of my high school physics book it was like reading Looney Tunes it was so antiquated and out-of-date and people would laugh if you would articulate the laws that we were taught about physics I grew up when we were taught that the universe was a closed mechanistic system and anybody who talked about an expanding universe and a Big Bang was considered somewhat on the lunatic fringe now the Big Bang is the order of the day and we can get back to within a kajillion of a nanosecond after creation I had some correspondence with Carl Sagan years ago about the Big Bang I ask them the question that anybody would ask them mister will if all of the matter and energy of the universe were condensed into a point of singularity for all eternity in the state of a Greek WA Librium and a state of organization and the law of inertia was intact that those bodies at rest remain at rest unless acted upon by an outside force and those that are in motion remain emotionless acted upon by not on support I'm very ambivalent about the law of inertia because I love to play golf and the ball sits on the tee and it's not going anywhere until I as an outside force exercise and I hit the ball and I wanted to just keep going as far and far and far as I go but if it weren't for resistance and friction acting upon the flight of my bow I'd hit one drive and it'd still be going forever so far past the hole I couldn't find my way back to putt it and so I Feb and bibbling feelings about the law of inertia but I don't question that it's a law I asked professor of what's-his-name I just mentioned saying in crossing what was it that for all eternity this point of singularity was resting for eternity and then one Thursday afternoon at 5 o'clock it blew up what what what the biggest explosion of all time the explosion that created everything that is right now and I said what was the outside force Carl you nobody said I don't want to go there I said that's a problem you don't want to go there but if you're a scientist you have to go there if you're a truth seeker you have to go there you can't stop on it suit you to stop that's why I say eternity is one of the most powerful persuasive arguments for the existence of God that there can be now I'm going to take a few moments to recapitulate that many of you've heard me do this before but you learn by repetition we heard today what is God we learned today who is God and I have another question I want to ask you and the question is why is God I mean why is there a god now I can give two different answers to that question one of them is so simple it's not just simple it's simplistic and I wouldn't be in defended if you laughed me to scorn when I give you this simple answer the question why is there a God but the second answer to the question why their God is heavy deep complex requires all of the cerebral power that your Creator has given you to experience the depth of it would you like to hear the - is how many would like to hear the two is right here you want simple one for those of you that like the KISS principle keep it simple stupid you know like my friend from Staten Island I mean if this was made for you I go on get out of here ah why is God here's the simple answer ready why not my god I mean it doesn't get any easier than that does it now I bought the hard answer they have you wanted you want that let's do some Long Island here's the heavy one why is there a god why not the answer why is there a God is why not is because the reason there is a god is it because there cannot not be a god the reason why we say why not is that because God cannot not be God say it again that's right you bet preach it don't go back stick with it right alright thank you now what I'd like to do to show you the truth of what I just said that God there cannot not be a God and prove that to you is that I have actually brought not evidence but scientific empirical and formal compelling proof of that assertion today and if you can just wait for three seconds I'll go and get my proof that I could present it to you I'm going to go over here pick this book up it says Trinity hymnal do you see this do you think it's an optical illusion you know when I show it to you will notice that my hands never leave my wrist you tracking with me I mean you believe what you're seeing this is not you're not hallucinating you think there's really a book in my hand huh promise okay how many of you agree there is a book here thank you no I'm not going to use that book that's a cheap way to prove that God cannot not be God let me use something else something more convincing here here it is once and for all settles the issue huh mr. peepers some of you remember jeepers creepers where'd you get those people's gosh oh gee Oh where'd you get those eyes I hear it is compelling absolute not relative proof of the eternal existence of Almighty God now why is that and very simple if these glasses exist if anything exists the book the chair my shoe these glasses then something somewhere somehow exists necessarily now on st. Thomas Aquinas is five cruise to the existence of God I think the one most compelling is the one most people overlook most people jump at the cosmological argument of really they say everything in this universe must have a cause well they get in trouble right away if I say everything has to have a cause I run into the problem that Bertrand Russell into when he read from John Stuart Mill where John Stuart Mill said if it's true that everything has to have a cause then God has to have a cause and we can't use the argument from causality to get back to God as it would just go beyond him so who made God I tell the students to two little boys they were arguing the point and the one little boy said the other one who made the grass and the boy said God made the grass who made the trees God made the trees who made you God made me thank you alright now comes a brilliant question who made God a little boy's hidden God made himself and we say whew what a brilliant little boy this is no foolishness you know God didn't make himself and you know why he didn't make himself because he can't make himself nothing can make itself for something to make itself it has to be before it was what could be more clear than that to say that something existed before it exists is to say that it was and was not at the same time and in the same relationship which violates the most fundamental principle of science the law of non-contradiction he said well God can do anything no he can't lie he can't die can't make himself he can't be God not begot at the same time and in the same relationship nothing can make itself except according to the most brilliant minds of our day the whole universe when the Hubble Telegraph telescope went up listening the radio they get a quote from one of the most prominent physicists in the world and he's quoted on the radios I'm driving down the road 15 to 18 billion years ago the universe exploded into being I almost exploded into non-being when I heard that exploded into being would it explode from you see you scratch these guys and sooner or later all of them come up with some doctrine of self creation they won't call it that they'll call it spontaneous generation like they did in the 18th century enlightenment the French encyclopedias I've told at the National Conference of story above us Stanford Nobel Prize winning physicist who said wrote an essay I read it on never forget it he said the day has come when we can no longer speak about spontaneous generation it's an untenable concept it's something out of nothing now we have to be more judicious more scientific and speak in terms of gradual spontaneous should stop me from lying I mean you talk about mythology you talk about superstition what gradual spontaneous generation that means you can't get something out of nothing quickly you really got to be patient you know for that to happen now you're laughing and you should be laughing because I'm poking fun at some of the most brilliant people in this world who become klutzes when it comes to questions like this ladies and gentlemen if there ever was a time when there was nothing no glasses no hymnals no shoes no people no mountains no oceans nothing absolutely nothing what could there possibly be now nothing but only the craziest people are saying that there's nothing out there it's all an illusion and even those who are having the illusion or an illusion that's why they cart went to such great pains to prove his own existence because he understood if he could prove that anything exists glasses people shoes or books then you must have something it is always existed because there forever there was a time when nothing exists that nothing could possibly exist now you have to have something that is self existent something that is that has the power of being within himself again where Bertrand Russel fell down and Johnson Mill was they lost the game in terms of definition they said if everything has to have a cause then God has a cause and so we don't settle anything no no no the law of causality does not say that everything has to have a cause it says that every effect has to have a cause and it's taught the logical that is that principle is true by definition an effect by definition is something created by a cause and the cause by definition is something that produces an effect and so all you have to do cosmologically is to find something that's uncaused and if you can't find something that's uncaused you can't find the scientific explanation for anything the only alternative well they're two alternatives one are that the glasses are eternal hmm or they're self created which already shown how that's impossible or ultimately they're created by something that is uncaused those are the only options you can look at all the different sophisticated audience you can boil them all down to those three and if anything exists now what Aquinas was getting at is something exists necessarily and what we mean by necessary existence and I'm trying to wrap this up quickly is that that existence is necessary in two ways both ontological E and logically ontological necessary existence means ontology is the study of being and for an ontological necessary being to be it is a being who has the power of being within himself that depends on nothing outside of himself or itself if you will at this point nothing prior to it nothing coming from it and upon which it depends but it is altogether self existent the power of its being is within itself that's unnecessary Bing who is aa logically B who ontological II is and that being cannot not be it's being is eternal and necessary doesn't derive from anything else suffers no contingency or mutation it is what it is eternally and necessarily by virtue of its own being that's why I said why is God why not because one who is eternal self-existent being cannot not be don't you see that that's the ontological necessity the logic necessity is this which I've been trying to show you in the last few minutes that if anything exists now then logic demands somewhere somehow there is a ontological II necessary being otherwise nothing could be without a self existent eternal being all you would have is nothing pure nothingness and what is nothing nothing I can't even say what nothing is because nothing is not nothing is the absolute absence of being but if there's anything if there's something there has to be a necessary being who is eternal and really what that comes down to is this if there is such a thing as a now there must be eternity because without eternity temporality is utterly impossible but since there is a now there is an eternity you know when we started Table Talk Magazine 35 or so years ago I was asked to write a byline in every issue and I chose consciously a title for my article I'm not going to test you to see if you know it but some of you will for 35 years I've been writing an article under the title right now counts forever you see the culture that Harvey Cox described can only say to you right now counts for right now and if all right now counts for is right now then it doesn't count at all because right now is already gone it's gone right now counts forever because there is a forever and because there's a forever everything that we do everything that we experience every pain that we endure every tear that we shed is significant forever and ever and ever let's pray we thank the Avadh that you have created us with eternity in our hearts and there's no escaping it at all because you live and inhabit eternity and you inhabit all that exists we thank thee O God that you are and that you have given us the unspeakable privilege to read your autobiography to study it to understand it so that we can know that our lives matter and count forever amen you

Channel: Reformation Bible College

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Keywords: eternity, eternal, eternality, eternal consequences, all eternity, rc sproul, sproul, right now counts forever, forever, his glory, his children, the children of god, ligonier, ligonier ministries, christian, christianity, jesus, god, christ

Id: ZoP6o_y80Ag

Length: 47min 32sec (2852 seconds)

Published: Fri May 22 2015