Time&Eternity

Biblical and Theological Conceptions of Time 99
God should not be viewed as merely timeless; and, second, the ontological
difference between eternity and time should be interpreted in light of the
eschatological difference between old and new times, and not vice versa. In
light of the eschatological difference, the timeless and temporal eternities of
God are no longer mutually exclusive. Rather, the two should be considered
together, “because God, based on the concrete event of God’s temporal selfrevelation,
is seen in Trinitarian differentiation as Father, Son, and Spirit;
and, correspondingly, God’s relationship to time should also be viewed in a
Trinitarian manner—that is, always different in the horizon of God’s action
of creation, of salvation, and of consummation.” 289 These differences are expressed
as the timeless eternity of God the Creator, the multi-temporal eternity
of the Spirit, and the temporality of the Son.
As Creator, God relates to creation as the divine Other, which, in turn,
means “that God defines Godself as timeless in relation to time, i.e., to the
timeless actualization of certain temporal possibilities.” 290 This describes the
ontological difference between timeless eternity and time. The temporal
eternity of the work of the Spirit is rooted in the intent of the Creator,
namely, that creation exists coram deo, in the presence of the God who remains
nearby. The multiplicity of times that are specific to events in creation
determines the temporal eternity of the work of the Spirit as multitemporality.
Subsequently, the eschatological difference between old and
new times is manifested in the temporality of the Son. Here, God’s eternal
temporality is made known as God’s “timeless readiness to concede time to
creation and to take time for creation eternally and temporally.” 291 Dalferth
thus expresses the same time-eternity understanding of the Incarnation that
we have already seen in a Christmas hymn by Martin Luther. The literal
translation of the stanza reads like this:
The eternal Light enters there,
gives the world a new glow;
it shines in the middle of the night
and makes us children of the light. Kyrieleis. 292
Eternal temporality (eternal Light) enters into time (shines in the
night), which lends that which is located in time something new (makes us
children of the light).
The main thrust of Dalferth’s article is thus a time-eternity conception
marked by a Trinitarian differentiation. This highlights the eschatological
difference between old and new times to the disadvantage of the ontological
difference between time and eternity. Dalferth himself summarizes his solution
as follows: