IMO, I don't see that as the same thing. I see a difference between the universe always existing and a cyclical sort of thing.
And yet, Scripture posits that very sort of thing, although not a matter of cycles.....
2 Peter 3:8-13 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Revelation 21:1-4 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Interesting concepts for fishermen from 2,000 years ago. Kind of makes you wonder how they conceived of it.
Unless they were told.
Careful now, if you expose Thales Melitus to any more new thoughts it might cause it to recoil with the excuse that it is all the imaginings of later day heretics, mistakenly assigned to the first generation of Christian authors/disciples. That is a favorite of the latter day heretics ...
As I said I have much to ponder.
I may not be around much. My company was just hired to deal with a situation and i don't know when I will have time for the net.