What is your view on time?

The subject of time is not so easy. We have difficulty conceiving of existence outside of time. Some might say that there is no existence outside of time.

To make matters more complex, what applies to time might also apply to dimension.

How you interpret Romans 8:38-39 is a factor:

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Since things present and things to come suggest time, and since height and depth are also mentioned as part of all creation (therefore created), some suggest that time and space/dimension are created entities that have not always existed.

How do you conceive of time? Is it a dimension? An absolute? Is time affected by the fall? Does it vary from location to location, based, perhaps, upon gravity?

Feel free to vote without opining, but if you have pondered this subject, your comments are especially appreciated.

I think the subject of time and the Bible doesn’t get enough air time, partly because it is such a stretch to accept things we cannot necessarily imagine.

Poll Results

What is your view on time?

1. Time has always been and is not created. Votes: 1
2. Time is a created entity and will one day cease. Votes: 6
3. Time is a created entity that will never cease. Votes: 5
4. Time and events occur at once from God’s perspective, but we experience them in a sequence we know as time. Votes: 2
5. I have been contemplating this subject and have yet to arrive at a conclusion. Votes: 5
6. Choice 4 with one other (perhaps 2 or 3 or even 1) Votes: 8
7. Time as we understand it is somewhat of an illusion; not only does God experience it at once, it is all at once. Votes: 0
8. Other Votes: 0
9. What kind of nut would ask this question? Votes: 1

(Migrated poll)

N/A
0% (0 votes)
Total votes: 0

Discussion

I didn’t vote for it, but #7 is an interesting idea.

Here’s a bit of how I reason about time:

  • Time is what distinguishes one state of a changeable quality from another state, when it has changed.
  • There can be no change of any kind without time.
  • In the world of Revelation 22, there is change.
  • Therefore, in the eternal state, there is time.

Along the same lines, at the very least, there was time from the moment God said “let there be light.”

(The immutability of God is an interesting puzzle. He does not change — He has told us so (Mal. 3:6, James 1:17) — but this characteristic of not changing can’t mean “doesn’t change in any way at all.” God is described in Scripture as doing things “before” and “after” (e.g. Psalm 50:21, Acts 17:30). So, in relation to creatures bound to time, He Himself experiences time, and therefore, change, in some sense. Even in the act of thinking, there is a beginning and end to the thought. Something changes. The thing that changes needn’t be physical, but we would need a word for what distinguishes a thought’s beginning from it’s middle and end. The word we have is “time.”)

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.

I agree. I thought over 7 for a while before going with 6. It seems to represent more of an Augustinian perspective, if I’m not wrong. I stop short because it seems just a bit too speculative. And I definitely agree that we’ll always be time-bound creatures. I suspect it’s in the nature of being creatures. Only God can be truly, timelessly eternal.

The fact that the Bible presents God as doing things before or after could very well be a figure of speech in the anthropapetheia or condescension family. God speaking to us in human terms. Much like the Lord “forgetting” our iniquities or “regretting” that He made man, or “relenting,” or Moses talking God out of destroying Israel or the Lord’s arm or eyes or ears.

I am not saying that it is condescension, just that it well could be. To put it simply, if time was an illusion and things happened all at once — or if time were a created entity that ended with the eternal state, the Bible would still present matters to us as it does.

"The Midrash Detective"

It has to be more than anthropomorphism, for multiple reasons. God’s actions in Scripture are in relation to creatures that exist in space-time. Those actions must therefore occur in space-time. Second, consider the incarnation. Unless we’re prepared to say that God was “always” incarnate in the second person of the trinity, there was a time when He was not incarnate, and now there is a time when He is. Third, if we say God has no experience of time in any sense, then He does not act at all. Action is change from not doing something to doing something. Doing something is, itself, a time-related phenomenon because the “something” being done begins and ends.

I’m prepared to say that God experiences time in some very different ways from us mortals, but also see no way to avoid saying that He also experiences time as we do.

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.

I’ll get back to this question when I have more time …

Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.