What's the Deal
with Eternal Reality?
by Peter Lundell
If we think past the economy, celebrity gossip, today’s schedule, our problems, and retirement planning, we can ask infinitely more important questions that profoundly affect us. One I ask is: What is eternal reality?
The answer can branch a thousand different ways. But if we call the original cause of all existence “Creator,” or in spiritual terms “God,” we can reasonably say that the one we call God is the final existence beyond what we see or experience.
Reality would be God plus all of Creation. We can only see the physical, earthly part of creation. And sometimes reality is contrary to what our brains perceive.
Eternal reality can then be thought of as:
•All that exists before, during, and after our earthly life is over, that which is of supreme validity. In our earthly existence we do not see this with the physical eye.
•The greatest possible identity or measure of that which is actual or true—beyond our culture or environment, and beyond our easy answers.
•God, and by extension, that which relates directly to God.
Why is Eternal Reality Important?
Think about the most important questions you can ask. Though “Where’s the restroom?” can be temporarily important, most of your questions will probably go beyond daily routines, perhaps touch questions of life and death, suffering and injustice, meaning and purpose. If you think about the most important things you do with the life you live, they’ll probably have something to do with how they influence other people and how they influence the eternity you spend after your earthly life is over.
Then if you look at how a lot of people tend not to ask questions beyond “Where’s the restroom?” you might wonder at the willful ignorance that many maintain throughout their lives. And if you consider the quest for money, power, prestige, sex, fun, you might wonder the same thing again. People conduct their lives as if they’ll get out alive.
We won’t.
Among the most important things a person can do is pursue what is ultimately true, purposeful, and real. Not only will it make a difference in the eternity we spend, it will also influence, even define, how we live our lives on earth.
The idea of ultimate reality may be pursued in many different ways, for example, religion, science, philosophy, meditation, art, experiences, worship, and prayer.
Postmodernism typically denies that an ultimate, eternal reality or truth even exists. Everything is socially constructed and relative. But postmodernism offers no alternative—like someone who takes your house apart because the house is imperfect then leaves you homeless and walks away. As a worldview paradigm postmodernism implodes into its own lack of coherency and sustainability.
I’m not going to argue for modernism either. It has its own set of flaws rooted in the pride of thinking we can know anything absolutely (absolute truth is different from knowing it absolutely). It also assumes we can categorize everything, while on further realization we find much that defies what we think we know. It’s like someone looking into a clouded mirror and claiming to see clearly. The ancient writer Apostle Paul understood this (1 Corinthians 13:12).
Rather, beyond all our “isms” lies something that is essentially out of reach as long as we are limited to our four-dimensional space/time existence.
Thankfully “out of reach” does not mean out of contact. We are not locked out of that which lies beyond us, whether physical or non-physical. I am convinced that, to some degree, we can all connect with eternal reality.
In the following articles I express why I am convinced that eternal (and ultimate) reality has everything to do with what we call “God.” And I am convinced that the Judeo-Christian understanding of God is the only one that is textually authentic, archeologically validated, philosophically consistent, and scientifically compatible. Bear with me and you’ll see what I mean.
Eternal reality interfaces with us on earth in many different ways. The following articles, which are presently in developmental stage, explore them.
9/1/01