My thoughts on eternity:
We will have the mind of Christ, and be new creations. We cannot comprehend what that will actually be like. The concept of being the Body of Christ, will take on a spectacular meaning. If we live and move and have our being in Christ here on earth, the thought of how that will play out in heaven is totally revolutionary, to say the least.
I do think we will be able to go back and forth in time, in eternity. I doubt we will want to go back though, tempting as it might sound now. If we do go back and forth, it will be to learn, I believe. The old will have passed away…we will not want to put old wine into our new wineskins.
It will be comfortable and seem familiar…we were created for eternity with God.
We will be engaged in some way…not endless ‘free time’. We can’t even handle that in our own time frame, much less in eternity.
I would guess, the only thing that we would take with us would be love. What else would be important? Hope and faith would have been fulfilled. The treasures Jesus spoke of, that we have stored in Heaven, would all be of loving, especially when we love our enemies; when we forgave; when we sacrificed for another; when we put God first and then our fellow man/woman, and so on. Love might well be the key to unlock eternity.
Young’s Literal Translation: Matthew 25:31 - 46
31‘And whenever the Son of Man may come in his glory, and all the holy messengers with him, then he shall sit upon a throne of his glory; 32and gathered together before him shall be all the nations, and he shall separate them from one another, as the shepherd doth separate the sheep from the goats, 33and he shall set the sheep indeed on his right hand, and the goats on the left.
34‘Then shall the king say to those on his right hand, Come ye, the blessed of my Father, inherit the reign that hath been prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35for I did hunger, and ye gave me to eat; I did thirst, and ye gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and ye received me; 36naked, and ye put around me; I was infirm, and ye looked after me; in prison I was, and ye came unto me. 37‘Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see thee hungering, and we nourished? or thirsting, and we gave to drink? 38and when did we see thee a stranger, and we received? or naked, and we put around? 39and when did we see thee infirm, or in prison, and we came unto thee? 40‘And the king answering, shall say to them, Verily I say to you, Inasmuch as ye did [it] to one of these my brethren — the least — to me ye did [it].
41Then shall he say also to those on the left hand, Go ye from me, the cursed, to the fire, the age-during, that hath been prepared for the Devil and his messengers; 42for I did hunger, and ye gave me not to eat; I did thirst, and ye gave me not to drink; 43a stranger I was, and ye did not receive me; naked, and ye put not around me; infirm, and in prison, and ye did not look after me. 44‘Then shall they answer, they also, saying, Lord, when did we see thee hungering, or thirsting, or a stranger, or naked, or infirm, or in prison, and we did not minister to thee? 45‘Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say to you, Inasmuch as ye did [it] not to one of these, the least, ye did [it] not to me. 46And these shall go away to punishment age-during, but the righteous to life age-during.’
1 Corinthians 13Young’s Literal Translation (YLT)
13 If with the tongues of men and of messengers I speak, and have not love, I have become brass sounding, or a cymbal tinkling;
2 and if I have prophecy, and know all the secrets, and all the knowledge, and if I have all the faith, so as to remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing;
3 and if I give away to feed others all my goods, and if I give up my body that I may be burned, and have not love, I am profited nothing.
4 The love is long-suffering, it is kind, the love doth not envy, the love doth not vaunt itself, is not puffed up,
5 doth not act unseemly, doth not seek its own things, is not provoked, doth not impute evil,
6 rejoiceth not over the unrighteousness, and rejoiceth with the truth;
7 all things it beareth, all it believeth, all it hopeth, all it endureth.
**8 The love doth never fail; and whether [there be] prophecies, they shall become useless; whether tongues, they shall cease; whether knowledge, it shall become useless;
9 for in part we know, and in part we prophecy;
10 and when that which is perfect may come, then that which [is] in part shall become useless.
11 When I was a babe, as a babe I was speaking, as a babe I was thinking, as a babe I was reasoning, and when I have become a man, I have made useless the things of the babe;
12 for we see now through a mirror obscurely, and then face to face; now I know in part, and then I shall fully know, as also I was known;
13 and now there doth remain faith, hope, love – these three; and the greatest of these [is] love.
**
D.