God Created Time!



Fountain at Castle of Chillon, Switzerland



Stephen Hawking (“widely regarded as the most brilliant theoretical physicist since Einstein”) in his book A Brief History of Time mentions that philosophers like Immanuel Kant made the “unspoken assumption that time continues back forever.” When St. Augustine was asked, “What did God do before He created the universe?” he replied that “time was a property of the universe that God created, and that time did not exist before the beginning of the universe.”

Not to belabour the subject of scientific views of “time”, the September issue of Scientific American had for its cover the words “the end.” And the period at the end was important! Most articles dealt with some aspect of time from its assumed beginning at the “Big Bang”. Then a lead article in this highly scientific and sophisticated (not to say atheistic) magazine posed the question, “Could time end?”

What is this pre-eminent factor that God has created in our lives? It’s almost like a sixth sense, isn’t it? If we lost all sense of touch, hearing, sight, smell and taste, we would still be aware of the passage of time. The world, and we Christian believers too, would often like to slow down or stop the passage of time. C.S.Lewis expresses some of our longings about time:

“This year time’s nature will no more defeat you,

        Nor all the promised moments in their passing cheat you.

“This time they will not lead you round and back

        To Autumn, one year older, by the well-worn track.

“This year, this year, as all these flowers foretell,

        We shall escape the circle and undo the spell.”

But enough of man’s thoughts. Let’s get down to Scripture. In my daily reading, I’ve just come through John 17, with our Lord’s references to the glory He had with the Father “before the world began” and to the love the Father had for Him “before the creation of the world.” (vv.5,24) Expanding on this, the Apostle Paul refers to the glory God has destined for us since “before time began” 1 Cor.2:7; to the grace “given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time”; and to the hope of eternal life which God promised “before the beginning of time.” 2 Tim.1:9 and Titus 1:2. So we must conclude, with Augustine, that God is outside of time.

Our existence relative to the life of God is probably something we will never get our heads around. C.S.Lewis again has an analogy that helps. He supposes an author writing a story. The time-line of the story is completely independent of the author’s time-line. A character in the story may be preparing a cup of tea when the author’s phone rings. He answers the phone, then goes out to lunch. Two hours later he may sit down at his computer and finish preparing the cup of tea in his story. In fact, he can interject himself anywhere in his story. Perhaps God is like that— He is outside our story, can see all details of our story, past, present, and future, and can put Himself anywhere in our story while knowing all of its future as well.

Deep stuff! Creation is complex. Time is complex. But, “by faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” Heb. 11:3 It seems that “time” is part of that creation.

And could time end? For spiritual beings with OUR Lord as Saviour? Never.





Bible Cosmology (1)

For several years now, I’ve been thinking about how the Bible writers viewed this physical world. The most common word to express this branch of knowledge is “cosmology”. By dictionary definition, it is “a branch of astronomy that deals with the origin, structure, and space-time relationships of the universe.” Reaching out over several blogs, I hope to cover the Bible view of the cosmos— its view of “pre-beginnings”, beginnings, heaven, earth, underworld, and endings.

From my vantage point, as I look back on some of the debates I’ve heard over the years, they were really nonsensical, when we take into account the ancient writers’ views of the world. A second problem is that churches sometimes raise particular views of science or technology to the level of dogma. A young person then has to accept it or hit the road. This should not be. A Christian should never become closed-minded about the inter-relationship of science and scripture. The analogy of God’s two books is still appropriate—there is the Book of His Word, namely God’s revelation of Himself to us; and there is the book of nature, namely what we can study and learn about His creation. To the believer, these may seem to conflict at times but we don’t know everything. We should keep working at finding resolutions; it may even be part of our assignment to “subdue the earth”.

To some, this may seem to smack of liberalism. In my defence, what started me on this track was looking at all these Scripture references not as figurative but as literal. A recent book raises the question—or perhaps throws out the challenge— about “how the Bible can present a flat-earth cosmology and yet remain free of error.” Perhaps these blogs will throw some light on the matter.

To my mind all Scripture interlocks—details tie in with one another, they mesh like well-made gears. One example is “The Math of Solomon’s Sea”, shown elsewhere in the blog.

Another interlocking example is the entirety of Psalm 145. This is an acrostic, each verse starting with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. However, in verse 13b, the letter Nun is missing. The NIV rightly restores this verse, saying, “Your dominion endures through all generations.”

Other examples would include all the prophecies of the Messiah. For instance, if the Messiah is David’s son, why does David call him Lord? (Luke 20:41) Another example is the many-dimensional claim by Jesus to Deity when He says,”Before Abraham was, I AM!” (John 8:58)

I’ve tried to take this interlocking view, where supposedly incompatible facts can be resolved, as I look at all the Scripture references I can find that bear in any way on the old writers’ understanding of the universe. Including Old and New Testaments, I found over 200 such references, some clear and unmistakable, some oblique. My purpose is to compare scripture with scripture or, in other words, put them together so they interlock, much as a Sudoku puzzle does.