Church fathers on time in eternity
i’m giving a message at my church on time in about a month. When i was looking into how the church fathers viewed time i was surprised to read that many viewed the timeline of eternity contrary to what i’ve often heard. Rather than an arrow pointing it would be something more like a dot. i’ve attached an illustration i drew based on what i read. For Augustine, eternity is a state where all moments are immediately accessible to God, existing simultaneously in a single, unified "now." Everything is whole and complete without beginning or end. i input a handful of different writings in GPT and asked for a summation and got this: “For the Church Fathers, eternity is not merely an endless timeline or a cycle; it’s more like a divine state where time itself is transcended. They emphasized that eternity is accessible only to God, and humanity's eventual participation in it would mean entering a realm where the limitations of time no longer apply, experiencing a fullness and immediacy of life that earthly time cannot provide.” Beatific vision In the illustration i made you can see the view i’m traditionally used to on top and what i feel like the fathers are expressing on the bottom. This was my attempt at least lol