Critically assess the traditional Christian concept of God being eternal

Although there are many criticisms over the idea of God being eternal the first criticism is that God knowing all time simultaneously is incoherent. Anthony Kelly famously argued that the notion of all time being simultaneously present to God is incoherent because if all times is simultaneously present to God the meaning of the word simultaneous entails that all of time is happening in the same moment. Richard Swinburne also famously followed the criticism stating that he could not make sense of talk of all the events being simultaneously present to God. However on the other hand Paul Helm has suggested that talk of God being eternal doesn’t involve the reductio ad absurdum suggested by Kenny and Swinburne because Helm argues that the eternal God is timeless and acts eternally.

The second criticism is that How can God be personal and act in creation if he is eternal. The bible implies that God is personal and acts in creation. For example God responded to the Iseralties prayer for freedom from slavery in Egypt and God intervenes to help Joshua in the battle at Ai and Jericho. These suggest that God is personal and acts in time, therefore can’t be eternal because if something is eternal it is outside of time. Although on the other hand God is not human so what he can do should not be reflected by what people can do. Language that suggest God is acting personally in the bible reflects the experience of people in past times who described their encounters with God using personal language.

The third criticism is that how can God love his people and respond to them; love involves a two-way process and ability to respond. If God is eternal how can God love his people and respond to them. In the bible God responds to people in need out of love.  Another idea is that if God is eternal then how can he respond to everybody’s prayers. Aquinas believed that prayer is the act of being aware of God’s activity in the world, either directly or through others; it is not about making requests. Maurice Wiles believed that the universe is part of God’s ongoing creative activity; God is always acting- there is no selective response by God, since this would imply God is partial and capricious.

For God to be eternal there is implications of the idea of God being the creator, as God cannot change God is eternally the creator, God does not think about creating and then create. Instead its God’s nature to be the creator. Thomas Aquinas stated that God knows all of the creation precisely because God is eternally the creator and sustains creation in existence.

In conclusion a way around the problems of having an ‘eternal’ God is surely to believe that God is everlasting, meaning that God will always exist and always has existed (no beginning or end) but time passes for God. This was argued by Richard Swinburne whom believed the idea of events happening simultaneously can not be made sense of, however an everlasting God makes sense and fits more satisfactorily with the God that is revealed in the Bible.