Confused on いつも　＋　verb~ている


I am reading a book like the bible called the モルモン書 (Book of Mormon) and ran
across something that was a little confusing. In one of Jesus' sermons it has
this sentence:

> ...[partaking of the bread and water] show unto God that you Always remember
> me. (Jesus Speaking)

The Japanese renders this as

> [パンと水を受けることで]あなたがたが、いつも私を **覚えている** ことを神に証明するであろう。

So what is the deal with いつも覚えている？ How can you have "always" next to a verb
conjugation that indicates the action is currently taking place, or will
continue to take place in the future?

I have heard sentences like `he's always eating` rendered as `彼はいつも食べている`, but
I don't get the sense that this will continue in the future. Because Jesus is
speaking about people remembering God in the future, it's always sounded odd
to me. Especially because I don't feel like you can use it in the future
tense. `明日、私はきっとこれを覚えている` also sounds kind of strange to me.




If you are of the LDS (aka Mormon) faith, you will also notice that in the
weekly church meetings, the blessing of the bread and water (specifically the
blessing of the water) also uses the same structure. I've included the direct
quote to show that this is not an isolated usage

> ... **いつも御子を覚えていること** を、永遠の父なるかみよ、あなたに証明して...  
> ... and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they do **always
> remember him** ...

I think that the greater context of this translation is that with regards to
the future, the intention is that the individual who takes the sacrament will
show that they _always be in the state of_ remembering him (Jesus).

For future tense, as you are probably well aware, there isn't a specific
grammar that you can use. Additionally, as [this
source](http://guidetojapanese.org/blog/2008/05/26/actually-japanese-has-
future-tense-kind-of-2/) notes:

> Grammatically, Japanese does not have a future tense in the sense of a verb
> form reserved strictly for the future. However, that’s because the whole
> idea of present tense is ambiguous. It’s more accurate to say there is no
> present tense and the plain form is the future tense in addition to other
> usages. What we commonly think of the present tense as expressing what’s
> happening now is really the present progressive which Japanese clearly has
> in the 「～ている」 form.

* * *

So how is this phrase future tense? The answer all relies on the verb that is
actually happening in the sentence, 証明する.

覚えている is followed by a nominalizer, こと. This turns `remembering` into `the
thing of remembering.` From this point, we can pretty much treat it as a noun,
but the translation can sometimes get sticky.

Now adding on 証明する, we get:

> 覚えていることを証明する  
>  witness that (you) will be in the state of remembering

The action verb is witnessing (証明する).

Adding いつも should be a simple jump to:

> always witness that you will be in the state of remembering.

That sounds a little wordy, so rewording the English:

> witness that you will always remember

Notice that in the English translation, your action is not remember, but
witness. Because of that, the 覚えている in this translation is expected to
continue occur in the future.




If you are of the LDS (aka Mormon) faith, you will also notice that in the
weekly church meetings, the blessing of the bread and water (specifically the
blessing of the water) also uses the same structure. I've included the direct
quote to show that this is not an isolated usage

> ... **いつも御子を覚えていること** を、永遠の父なるかみよ、あなたに証明して...  
> ... and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they do **always
> remember him** ...

I think that the greater context of this translation is that with regards to
the future, the intention is that the individual who takes the sacrament will
show that they _always be in the state of_ remembering him (Jesus).

For future tense, as you are probably well aware, there isn't a specific
grammar that you can use. Additionally, as [this
source](http://guidetojapanese.org/blog/2008/05/26/actually-japanese-has-
future-tense-kind-of-2/) notes:

> Grammatically, Japanese does not have a future tense in the sense of a verb
> form reserved strictly for the future. However, that’s because the whole
> idea of present tense is ambiguous. It’s more accurate to say there is no
> present tense and the plain form is the future tense in addition to other
> usages. What we commonly think of the present tense as expressing what’s
> happening now is really the present progressive which Japanese clearly has
> in the 「～ている」 form.

* * *

So how is this phrase future tense? The answer all relies on the verb that is
actually happening in the sentence, 証明する.

覚えている is followed by a nominalizer, こと. This turns `remembering` into `the
thing of remembering.` From this point, we can pretty much treat it as a noun,
but the translation can sometimes get sticky.

Now adding on 証明する, we get:

> 覚えていることを証明する  
>  witness that (you) will be in the state of remembering

The action verb is witnessing (証明する).

Adding いつも should be a simple jump to:

> always witness that you will be in the state of remembering.

That sounds a little wordy, so rewording the English:

> witness that you will always remember

Notice that in the English translation, your action is not remember, but
witness. Because of that, the 覚えている in this translation is expected to
continue occur in the future.

