Time is not Forever

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1

As I stated in my previous post, “God over Time”, I will now discuss the nature of time itself. It’s nature and meaning cannot be ascertained directly from any empirical evidence; therefore we must look at its attributes; by examining what we know and what the scriptures tell us about time, we can learn much about it and how God uses it to our benefit. It is part of the creation of all things. Let’s look at the focus verse which is the very first verse in the very first book of the Scriptures. 

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

This begs the question, the beginning of what? It cannot be the beginning of God since God has no beginning. Also the scriptures state God was there at the beginning. It does not say He came into existence at the beginning. This does not, in and of itself, state time came into existence at this moment. However, let us look at time and see if it makes sense regarding where God dwelled prior to the creation of this physical realm. 

First of all, Isaiah tells us where this place is in which He dwells. 

“For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.” Isaiah 57:15.  

He inhabits eternity. This eludes to the fact eternity is a place devoid of time. Albert Barnes in his commentary on the book of Isaiah states the following regarding this verse, 

“He dwells not only among human beings, but he dwells in eternity – where time is unknown – in a world where succession is not marked – and long before the interminable (having or seeming to have no end) duration was broken in upon by the revolutions of years and days.”

Now, I know what some are thinking. “How can there be a place without time?” With that question, let’s have some fun with theology and science. First, let us look at the existence of God. To do this, I want to discuss the concept of First Cause. Here is an eleven point argument which lays out the necessity of an intelligent first cause, in this discussion, God. I do not remember where I read this, but I found it helpful.

• Time is a continuous sequence of moments.
• It is impossible to traverse an “infinite” series.
• Therefore, the past cannot be an infinite series of moments.
• The universe exists in time; therefore it cannot be infinite.

Next,

• A change requires a cause.
• The beginning of the universe is a change. 
• Therefore the universe has a cause to its existence.
• There must be a first cause to bring about the first change.
• Therefore, there must be a first cause, which is un-created or un-caused in itself.
• There must be a reason for this first cause, outside of the norm, which requires a purpose.
• Therefore, the first cause must be intelligence rather than inanimate.

This argument lays the case for an almighty God, who can create something from nothing. Since He Himself is un-caused, He must be eternal, inherent in the idea of timeless eternity. And since He is eternal, and time cannot be infinite, therefore God must exist outside of time.

Next, let us look at this another way. Let us, just for fun, assume that time is infinite. We know from the above argument that it cannot be, but bear with me on this. Going backwards infinitely in time you will never reach a beginning point. So, if there is no beginning point, any point along the time line is an infinite point from the non-existent beginning. Thus, based on this, no point in time could ever be reached because since each point in time is an infinite point, and infinity cannot be traversed, no point in time could be reached. Now, taking this point to its ultimate conclusion, the time we currently live in cannot exist, and consequently, we cannot exist. However, this is absurd. The fact that we are even thinking about this proves we exist. Remember the famous saying by Rene’ Descartes, ‘Cogito ergo sum’, being translated ‘I think, therefore I am’.

So, as we can clearly see, God must dwell outside of time. This is necessary if He is to be the eternal first cause that He is. Next, there is not a place where God is not. We read in Jeremiah the following.

“Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD.” Jeremiah 23:24.

According to this verse, there is no place in this universe, in all creation, where God cannot be found. Let’s take this one step farther. Is it true then, since time is also part of His creation, that He also fills all time as well? I will say He absolutely does. And because this is true, I postulate time is not a measurement, but a spatial dimension. Moment after moment stacked one point after another. And if time is the fourth dimension, then this makes sense. Let me explain this.

A point is a zero dimensional object. And a one dimensional object is a series of zero dimensional objects, which bring about length or a line, the first dimension. A two dimensional object is a series of one dimensional objects, here being series of lines, bringing and width, otherwise known as a plane. A series of planes make up a three dimensional object, which is length, width and height, otherwise known as space. The fourth dimension is a series of three dimensional objects, or spaces. This is known as space-time. The first three dimensions are physical properties, and the fourth one has to be as well, since it is made up of physical objects. So, if space time is a part of physical existence, then God has to be in every point in time. This idea takes us back to the previous post, because if He is in every point in time, at the same time, this is the reason He can know the end from the beginning, for the future is fixed.

These are interesting things to ponder, but they also help us understand how great our God truly is. He fills all creation, both space and time, and He resides outside of space and time as well. There is truly nowhere we can go where He is not. This gives new meaning to the verse,

“Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,”” Hebrews 13:5.

This can bring much peace and contentment to us who are His followers and can be very disconcerting to those who are not. And because He loves us with perfect love, we should bask in His presence every moment of our lives. In God’s perspective, time is irrelevant. He is subject to nothing, including time. In fact, He fills all space and time, and everything outside of space and time. Oh, what a powerful and mighty God we serve.