Time is not a flow, but a dimension.
In September 2002 a special issue of Scientific American magazine addressed the physics and philosophy of time. One article written by Dr. Paul Davies was entitled “That Mysterious Flow.” Davies is an Australian theoretical physicist and a gifted expositor of complex scientific concepts for the lay audience. In that article Davies joins Einstein and the ancient commentators that I referenced in post #3 of this series. Time is a mystery for most people because it seems to be what it is not. It seems to flow, but physicists do not view time as a flow, a fact that is readily apparent from a sampling of Davies’ statements in the article.
Davies begins with his thoughts on the common sense human perception of time.
“From the fixed past to the tangible present to the undecided future, it feels as though time flows inexorably on. But that is an illusion.”
Einstein agreed with Davies, noting that,
“The past, present and future are only illusions, even if stubborn ones.”
But if the flow of time is illusory, then there must be a view of time that is accurate and not an illusion. Davies observes that although the nature of time is beyond full human comprehension, the physicist regards time as a dimension.
“To be perfectly honest, neither scientists nor philosophers really know what time is or why it exists. The best thing they can say is that time is an extra dimension akin (but not identical) to space.”
Davies’ unpretentious assessment is that people, who are caught up in the temporal environment and perspective, are limited in their ability to understand the true nature of time. But if time is a dimension, as physicists believe, then it is part of the creation, like the three dimensions of space and the mass of material objects that fill that space. In other words, time was created by God out of eternity, and “began to flow” at the instant of creation.
Two more of Davies’ observations about the physics of time are pertinent to understanding the temporal and eternal perspectives in the Bible.
- “In daily life we divide time into three parts: past, present and future. The grammatical structure of language revolves around this fundamental distinction.”
- “Nothing in known physics corresponds to the passage of time. Indeed, physicists insist that time doesn’t flow at all; it merely is.”
The first statement is common knowledge, but less well understood is the fact that it is also a critical principle for those who read and study the Bible. God’s word is necessarily given to people in language, and that language is part and parcel of common human experience. That experience includes the universal human perspective within the context of time. People communicate in language, comprehend in language, and think in language. And language is indelibly imprinted with time’s dimension. But the grammar of language is inextricably linked with an illusory notion of time, which is that time flows and is an absolute frame of reference reaching from an irretrievable past through an evanescent present to an intangible future. Past, present, and future are key and integral components of the grammar of language, just as they are central to the illusory notion of time as a steady invariant background flow in which all objects and events occur.
Some theologians have argued that God does not know the future, because it hasn’t happened yet. Others think that God “foreknows” the future, because the Bible says that God “foreknows” people and events that are in the future. But if God “foreknows,’ this very statement of His foreknowledge implies that he exists and operates in time just as we do; hence from his perspective within time he must have some miraculous crystal ball allowing him to know before (in time but ahead of the appointed time) what will happen in the future, even though it has not happened. At least this is a reasonable assumption as we understand the Biblical language in some contexts (Romans 8:29; 11:2).
But if something has not yet happened, how can it be known with any technique? For God to “foreknow” something in the future in a way that is not merely an educated guess or fatalistic determinism, something must have happened, and God in his personal experience must be personally familiar with it. This suggests that God is in our future, as well as in our past and present. Such a conclusion is reinforced in other passages of the Bible, where the clear implication of the text is that God is not caught up in time as we are. God’s very name, I AM, is in the continuous present tense (Exodus 3:14), which Jesus uses in a confounding defiance of ordinary human grammar (John 8:58).
John 8:56-58 “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.”
The Bible also proclaims that God is at the beginning and end of everything all at once (Genesis 1:1; John 1:1-3; Revelation 1:8, 17, 18). Certainly this is the case if time, as physicists think, is merely a component or dimension of the creation. For it would be illogical to understand God as being confined or limited by something that he created. But if God is outside of His temporal creation, in which we live and have our temporal being, then His so-called “foreknowledge” is simply the present tense of his omniscience, not a mechanistic prescription in advance of what must occur independent of the will or choice of human beings. If I may state it differently, God knows what we chose, but does not dictate what we must choose in the future.
The two options—that God is confined in time and somehow foreknows what will happen in the future OR that God creates time as part of the world that he makes and is continuously present over and around it—are mutually exclusive! A further problem with the first option is that if God is limited by time, then his power and knowledge are limited. Such a notion conflicts with God’s attributes of omnipotence and omniscience. Furthermore, if God is confined in time, then he cannot be omnipresent, which is another of his attributes. This is so because in order to be omnipresent, God must be everywhere and “everywhen!” (See “The Truth About God” under the Home tab of this blog).
Two examples of God’s foreknowledge are found in Romans 8:29 and 11:2, where the Greek word translated “foreknow” is proginosko, the word from which our English language derives the familiar medical term, “prognosis.” It seems as if God has a crystal ball or high tech device that allows Him to peer into the future to know what will happen, but has not yet happened, and that while He foreknows, He is not present at the foreknown event. If this is the case, how can Jesus say that He is the first and the last, the beginning and the end? (Revelation 22:13) Or that “before Abraham was born, I am.” (John 8:58)?
Another way to explain this linguistic difficulty is to make God a perfect statistician who is able to comprehend all the possible outcomes of present circumstances and extrapolate to select the one real future outcome according to pure determinism of mechanical cause and effect. Such a view stumbles into the philosophy of determinism or fatalism where everything, everyone, and every event, are determined by past things, persons, and events. The Bible knows nothing of such deterministic fatalism. The Bible encourages people to choose and to change.
(Deu 30:19) “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants,
The words in the above cited passages from Romans 8 and 11 are time-encrusted grammar, so that it seems to the reader, who is focused on the temporal bias, that God is bound in and subject to time, just as we humans are. Certainly this is the case if God must foreknow what will take place and who will be saved.
But Davies second statement about time approximates a biblical revelation of God which defies our temporal understanding. According to Davies time does not flow from past to present to future, but time just is (present tense). In the Bible God names himself to Moses in similar temporally bizarre language.
(Exodus 3:14) God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
In other words, God says, “Moses, I just IS.” Elsewhere God reveals himself to the chronologically challenged in more familiar time-bound grammar,
(Revelation 1:4) John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne,
and then, almost immediately, shifts back into the eternal perception with its continuous ongoing present tense of existence.
(Revelation 1:8) “I Am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Jesus describes himself in similar time-defying language.
(Revelation 1:17b) . . . And He [Jesus] placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I Am the first and the last,
(John 8:58) Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I Am.”
In the last verse, Jesus mingles the temporal and eternal perspectives shifting effortlessly from temporal past to eternal present.
Unlike any other religious text, the Bible presents an intersection of time and eternity, which is mystifying and confounding when viewed simply from a temporal perspective. This is why the Apostle Paul must explain,
(1 Corinthians 2:6-9) Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but just as it is written, “THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND WHICH HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.”
Unlike any other religious text, the Bible claims that eternal God, Jesus Christ, entered into human time and human flesh in order to accomplish rapprochement between God and man and to make propitiation to Almighty God for the offenses of all men. This unique biblical drama between eternal and temporal persons must be understood from both eternal and temporal perspectives in order to appreciate its singular reality according to the amazing nature and grace of God. We must not allow our present moment time bound language and grammar to confuse us regarding God’s revelation of His eternal truth.
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