The latter is a more accurate description. There was a good Futurama episode that illustrated it well. But you and I and all mankind will be dead long enough before to make it rather academic.
I prefer to think that time is a spatial dimension, and that we all abide eternally as 4 dimensional objects, experiencing our own creation. No heaven, no hell, except inasmuch as the eternal form that I create each day is painful or joyful... but, no ending, either.
I think of the universe as an object of finite mass/energy whose least complex state is the singularity, the thing that banged big, and our universe is one of many possible permutations. There are some that erupt out briefly, simple, not formed to sustain much complexity, and others as complex as this, and more.
There are natural forces pushing us out, and others drawing us in, and their tension makes form possible.
We're alive. We're part of the natural forces creating complexity, and were not alone, life is in fact spontaneously created by the laws of the multiverse.
Thats where morality comes from, and beauty, and everything decent. Our push to make this universe as complex as we can, because its beautiful.
And people, in their teeming masses of billions, their 4d shapes spiraling around this stone like ribbons, are more beautiful than a sparsely populated stone.
Anyone who wants to cut that short is on the winning side in the end, but I want to try and set the stage for trillions someday, and fuck the opposed.