Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “He has made everything beautiful (or appropriate) in its time. He has also set (to give or put) eternity in the human heart but people cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”

What does this passage of scripture mean, He has placed eternity in men’s hearts? The amplified Bible says He “planted eternity [as a sense of divine purpose] in the human heart [ a mysterious longing which nothing under the sun can satisfy except God].” The brackets means the translators inserted it for better understanding for readers.

Our spirits, our inner person, comes from God. We are tri-part beings. We are spirit, we have a soul, and we live in a physical body.

Eternity is in the spiritual realm. There is more beyond us, more than just this earth. So we are born into the Earth in a fleshly body, but attached to eternity by virtue of this spirit in us that is connected to the spiritual realm. When Adam and Eve made the choice to disobey God, they placed the entire creation and the whole human race under the dominion of another spirit, one that was not looking to do us any good. The evil one became the ruler of the spirits of men. They were born under his bondage. And as long as he could convince them to live their own way and that their way was wonderful, they would never seek the true God. 

In our day, one example of the devil’s work is this: think about the women celebrating the fact that a mother and nurse strangled her three children…that is how far away from God a portion of our society has gone. There are women who actually believe and are celebrating the fact that this mother murdered her children. Something is wrong in the minds of people to think this is something to celebrate. We have become at least partially, a culture that does not value life, even that of our children.

So we are born with under the bondage of sin with no choice in the matter because of Adam’s sin. We all come into this world in darkness of mind and under the domain of the evil one.

But our unrenewed spirit is still connected to eternity and the unseen world on the dark side. Much like the undying lands that Frodo and Gandolf and the others went to in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I see that trip as a picture of eternity. So whether we’re renewed or not renewed or have become a new species of man through salvation, we are still connected to eternity. It is by virtue of the spirit that dwells within us that is part of our human existence. Some may term it as personality, but the personality is ruled by the spirit that every person has, whether for good or evil. Adam and Eve had relationship with God until they disobeyed the one thing He told them not to do. They lost fellowship with Him at that point, but He covered their sin. Don’t forget, Jesus said to the religious folks of His day, you are of your father the devil, telling them what spirit they served, and it was not God.

The unrenewed human being is connected to eternity but has not accepted the rescue that was provided by God. This is the only means of escape from bondage to the evil spirits and darkness, and it is through his Son Jesus Christ. It is God’s desire that no one be in bondage, and He provided the way out Himself. Without the rescue, men go into eternity in darkness and under the delusion of the devil. They will be separated from God forever. Can anyone really want that?

Once a person comes under the Lordship and the kingdom of Jesus Christ they become a new person, a new species if you will. They come into the kingdom of light which was always God‘s intention from the beginning. It was why he created Adam and Eve…to establish the kingdom of God through men on planet earth. The pair made a wrong choice and gave away their authority to the domain of the evil one.  

In spite of that, God knew man could not rescue himself, and brought salvation Himself to disobedient men! “He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor; therefore, his own arm brought salvation for him and his own righteousness it sustained him.” Isaiah 59:16. You can trust a God like that. Man lives life dissatisfied, missing something, until he connects with his Creator

“For He knows our frame; He is mindful that we are dust.” Berean Standard Bible