I read an article about time that I think helped me to understand the doctrine and truth of the Triune God in a way that I never have before. This thought came to me at about 5:30 in the morning as I was driving between Twin Falls, and Boise, Idaho. It’s wordy and a little bit of a stretch to wrap my mind around, but here it is anyway. I hope you enjoy it: There are two prevailing theories regarding the roll of time in our universe. The first is that Time is a 4th dimension of space operating much like Height, Depth, and Width. This theory was maybe best summed up by the late 19th century science fiction writer H.G. Wells, who in a collage essay pointed out that in order to find an object on a physical plane you not only need to know where it will be (height, depth, and width) but also when it will be (time). A more modern view of time, though, is that it is not at all like the detentions of space. It is something entirely different in that it is affected by both gravity and the expanding size of our universe (look up time dilation and length contraction). Modern physicists define time as “numerical order of material change.” I’m not scientist, but as I understand it, this means that time cannot be seen or quantified in by a universal standard the way that height, depth, and width, can. Time is the means by which we measure the amount of change that occurs in a given period. But because time is measured by the movement of photons, and the rate at which photons travel is not the same throughout the universe it cannot be called a “real” dimension. So rather than our universe being 4D (height, width, depth, and time) it actually best delineated as 3D+t. Whew! All I want to point out by saying that is that time, like all else in our universe is a created thing. Time came into existence at the moment of the big bang. And nearly all of us believe that the universe was created in a big bang. Most people we talk to are either atheists who believes that Nothing created everything out of nothing; or theists who believes that Something created everything out of nothing. No matter what the details, the origins of it all boil down to these two basic viewpoints. For the purpose of this chapter, I am going to assume that the second is true. Furthermore, I am going to assume that the Theos which made all of this is the God of the Bible. What we’ve just learned in our brief physics lesson is that if the God of the Bible did indeed create the universe, than He created time with it. Read again: Time is a created thing. Therefore, the God who created time exists outside of it. This is true in much the same way as a director existed before creating a motion picture, and though he may appear (or even star) in the movie, he will also exist well after the film has ended. Based on this, lets state one very plane fact. If God exists outside of time, then in no point in time could he have come into existence. One cannot point to a day within history when God began to exist. Living in a place outside of time means that God is ageless. He has so beginning of life, nor end of days. Essentially, he always has existed, and always will exist. In a place without time, something can neither be born, nor cease to be (something cannot exist and not exist all in the same instant). It either is or isn’t… forever in all directions. That is the Biblical definition of an “eternal” God. Since time is a created thing, and we are operating under the assumption that it is God who created it, then anything that we call “true God” must possess this quality of “eternalness.” Follow this logic: If something in an eternal realm does not exist, than it is in fact in a perpetual state of non-existence that spans all of eternity in all directions. On the contrary, something that does exist in an eternal realm would be in a perpetual state of existence that spans eternity in all directions. Since there would be no time to distinguish the moment of non-existence from any moment of existence, an object or person cannot be created or come into being inside of eternity. Their existence would be in conflict with their non-existence. That is why I will say once again that God has always existed as God and will always exist as God. That is also why there can only be one true God (I will get more into that later). This also explains why if God wanted to create something separate from himself – something with an beginning and an end (like us and our universe)- he would have to simultaneously create a framework of time for us to exist (essentially begin and end) in. This line of reasoning creates a problem for some religions including the Latter Days Saints, who believe that the God described in the Bible was born as a man, and became a God, and that we too, having been born men, can become Gods. According to this teaching Jesus himself is also a man who through obedience to his god has become our God. The problem is, as I’ve just shown, that any real God must have the characteristic of being eternal. And nothing eternal can be created or destroyed. Okay then. Let’s image God decided to create something within eternity. It seems only logical that whatever He created would instantly become eternal as well. The existence of this new eternal person would permeate all of eternity in all directions. As previously stated, there would be no time to distinguish the moments of this person’s non-existence from the moments of their existence. Either this person’s simultaneous and eternal existence and non-existence would be in conflict with one another, or one would have to cancel out the other. The non-existence would cancel out the existence in their competition to be the truth of the whole of eternity, or the existence would cause the non-existence to have never have happened at all anywhere in eternity in any direction. In this case, we will assume the latter. That would in fact make the second person in creation just as ageless and eternal as the first. Pare that with the fact that there is neither space nor matter to separate the minds of these two persons. What you are left with are two eternal persons who are in every way indistinct and indistinguishable from one another. Only they would be able perceive their individuality. They would in every way be one yet two in a way that we simply cannot comprehend! One of them would could even described as having been begotten, yet not created by the other! That is exactly the description that we have in the Bible of God the Father and God the Son! MY MIND IS EXPLODING RIGHT NOW! I am too small an intellect to contain such a lofty concept! Just one step further, please: Let us say that one of these two (who are also one) decides to become part of the story of the universe. Let us say that this intellect chooses to inhabit human flesh. So many have a problem with the thought that Jesus could have been in every way the one and only Eternal God of the Universe, yet God still be on His throne in Heaven. They ask how could God have prayed to God and remain God, as Jesus prayed to the Eternal Father? Let me give a simple answer first. No one among us has not had an internal conversation. At times we even disagree with ourselves and have to rationalize within ourselves the right course from the wrong course. If God is real, then it does not strike me as strange that he too would do this, especially when facing something as excruciating at the cross and the weight of the world’s sin. In fact is bears the marks of realism. Also, if Jesus is indeed God in the flesh of man, then he experienced physical stimuli such as hunger, comfort, pain, and even fear. When staring down the barrel of something as terrifying as the cross and bearing the sin of the world, receiving it’s judgment, and encountering the wrath of the almighty, who better for Jesus to turn to than the Father, even if they are one and the same? According to the Bible God swears by His own name, because there is no higher authority. It stands to reason then, that when in need of courage, comfort, and strength, God in flesh would turn to God in eternity. What else would we expect? Should he have turned to his BFF, or any of his friends for that matter? One of the apostles? They didn’t have to courage to watch him hang, let alone enough to courage to supply Jesus with for the hanging itself! Now the complex, melt-my-brain answer. If eternity is as we have described it, than Jesus being on earth for 33 years, in no way means that he was absent from Heaven for that length of time. Let’s remember that there is no time in eternity to distinguish the moment of his leaving in humility from his returning in triumph. God as a human infant, as a pre-teen doing his Father’s work, as a carpenter/ teacher in his early thirties, as frightened yet courageous hero praying in the garden, and as the spotless lamb dying for the sins of the world does not mean that he was not also God on the throne. It only means that He worked Himself into time, much in the same way that an author who writes himself into his own story doesn’t cease to exist behind the pen. The author exists somewhere other and outside of the page. The same is true for my God: Jesus. This thought has been rattling around in my head for several weeks now, taking up more than its fair share of space. I have been worried that if I don’t write it down that it will leak out of my ears and be gone forever. Praise God that it’s finally out.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 23:35:45 +0000