A couple months ago I finally decided to give Doctor Who a go, after hearing people rave about it for years. I started with the first episode of the 2005 reboot “Rose”, and since I’m almost done with my third season I think it would be fair to say I’m hooked.

Last my wife and I watched an episode where the Doctor travels one hundred trillion years into the future, and it struck me that I’ve never imagined such a date before.

I’ve imagined billions of years, though only in abstract discussions about the age of the earth or universe. But trillions? Never.

This of course led to an interesting thought experiment.

If the Christian hope is not some sort of static Platonic existence in heaven – but is instead the Second Advent and the restoration of heaven and earth, what about time?

If death is no more and the curse is lifted, would we live to one hundred trillion years and beyond?

What does that even mean, really?

Even if we posit that we won’t age, time would still pass. So, once all things are set right what comes next?

Now I’m not suggesting the Bible gives us much indication of what a post-redemption existence might hold. And maybe that’s part of the point, we live in a world stained by sin, and the fall is so ingrained in us that we cannot imagine a world without it. Or, more precisely, we can imagine the absence of war, famine, injustice, etc. but not all that could take their place.

I know this might sound like pointless speculation, and maybe it is, but I think there is value to such questions. If the Church is going to – rightly I think – reject the Platonic vision of the afterlife in exchange for the Biblical vision of new heaven and new earth, we should think long and hard about what we mean when we say that.

Because the restoration of all things won’t be the end of the story, but only the beginning, and who knows what that story will hold even one hundred trillion years in the future.