The Eternal is Transfinite, transcending the divisions of time in its vertical dimension. The Eternal Now thus begins and ends in the Absolute, as the union of the Alpha and Omega Points of evolution and involution, as Oneness and Wholeness, directly experienced as the Immortal Ground of Being.
As the etymology indicates, Life, as the vital force, is ever present, as the creative upwards movement in the Eternal Now, a concept unknown to materialistic, mechanistic science.
In conventional dictionary definitions, the Eternal refers to an everlasting or universal spirit, as represented by God.
In contrast, eternity is infinite time, as the extremes of the horizontal number line, without limit. Eternity is only imaginable as the infinity of infinities, beyond direct human experience.
Middle English, from Old French eternel ‘eternal’, from Late Latin aeternalis, from Latin aeternus ‘of an age, lasting, enduring, permanent, everlasting, endless’, from aevum ‘eternity’, from Greek aiōn ‘age, vital force’, from PIE base *aiw- ‘vital force’.