God is out of Time

[ccfbob]

Ok, He is eternal ! The reason I write this post is that a Friend asked me about Heaven and Purgatory and the discussion lead to God. I was trying to explain about the “timeless” or “outside of time” aspects of God, Heaven, etc. He did not get it.

Are there any articles out there, or books that are good on this subject. He is not well versed in the Bible and is seeking, so I want to be of service.

Thanks and God’ s Love to all.

 

[drafdog]

Since the concept of time is related to the existence of matter, time is not relevant when discussing God. This concept is beyond the capacity of most people to grasp. I have two college degrees, studied philosophy and theology and it bends my mind when I try to work with it. Don’t try to explain it.
Tell your friend that although human beings believe in time, God does not. He simply ignores it. When you pray that you want something RIGHT NOW, God hears “want something” but not “now.”

Matthew

 

[Newbie2]

Remember the cartoon The Far Side? There’s one where the dog is listening to the owner talk to him, “Ginger, blah blah blah blah blah blah Ginger blah blah blah…”

I get this mental picture of a cartoon of God listening to our prayers and hearing “blah, blah, blah, blah, I want, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, I want, blah, blah blah blah blah I want…”

 

[Fidelis]

The way that I usually explain it is that time is a construct of human beings which by their nature are subject to change and are limited by, among other things, their mortality and inability to be in one place at a time (not being omnipresent, etc.). In other words, the concept of time only exists because we humans need some way to mark our activities or those of nature.

By definition, God has no such limits. His attributes traditionally include those of being omnipotent, omniscient, and immutable (unchanging). If God were limited by time and temporality, he could not possess these attributes, and thus would not be God.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church sections on the nature of God may be helpful to you and your friend.

 

[briang72]

I think time is more like a gift to human beings than it is a “construct of” human beings.

Then God said: “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky, to separate day from night. Let them mark the fixed times, the days and the years”

Genesis 1:14

This also proves that God exists outside of time because He created time. Again, it is very hard for the human brain to grasp such a mystery, but that is part of our faith. We don’t have to understand, we just have to accept. Genesis chapter 1 might help you in explaining this to your friend.

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

Ok, He is eternal ! The reason I write this post is that a Friend asked me about Heaven and Purgatory and the discussion lead to God. I was trying to explain about the “timeless” or “outside of time” aspects of God, Heaven, etc. He did not get it.

Are there any articles out there, or books that are good on this subject. He is not well versed in the Bible and is seeking, so I want to be of service.

Thanks and God’ s Love to all.

Let’s assume you are a Tolkien fanatic (even if you aren’t, bear with me):​

• The Lord of the Rings took 12 years to write
• It takes about a week to read - roughly
• The events in it cover 2-3 years
  The point is, that these three lots of time are separable - as well as being of very different lengths. Characters in the book live in one of those times, the author in another, the readers in another.

What happens in one world or one time, need not affect the time in another. A battle in the book can be interrupted while the author goes to bed; but his going to bed does not mean that the time he stops writing about the battle - 12 hours, say - means that the time & the battle in the story has to stop for 12 hours: his life occupies a different dimension from that of his story. There is a further complication: there can be stories within stories, told by characters in the main story - and there are.

God is like a story-teller, only He is far more creative than any others: so the story is far richer & more complicated. He is the real teller of TLOTR, because He is the Creator of beings such as us men, and of the fictions men make. So He is present in the world of TLOTR, as well as in its author, & its readers. He is, after all, the only God. We cannot be present in a fantasy world, except in our imaginations - God can, & is: His “Imagination” is no different from His Identity: so He is wholly present in all His creation, in many different modes, according to what a creation is: in a stone in one way, in a murderer in another, in a Saint in another.

In the Incarnation, He “writes Himself into” the world we live in; as the Hero (there is no point in writing a story, if you can’t give youself the best part ). So He is both Author, & Starring Character - and the whole point of the story: because Jesus Christ is not merely the Hero - He is the Reason for the story, for the creation of the universe of creatures “both visible & invisible”. The Bible is a very long story, as is the whole of history.

This is an illustration for the notion of God’s relation to time - nothing more. If it’s no help, forget it & find a more helpful one.

Any help to you ?

 

[kotes19]

I think time is more like a gift to human beings than it is a “construct of” human beings.

This also proves that God exists outside of time because He created time. Again, it is very hard for the human brain to grasp such a mystery, but that is part of our faith. We don’t have to understand, we just have to accept. Genesis chapter 1 might help you in explaining this to your friend.

Interesting. So to take this further: when we die and go to the particular judgment. We’re cleared for Heaven but not before we go to purgatory. Then on to Heaven. Would that be instant, in that there’s no time (linear) as we mortals know it?

Since everything is the present moment, won’t we really die and immediately be with Christ at His 2nd coming?

 

[Evan]

In the Incarnation, He “writes Himself into” the world we live in; as the Hero (there is no point in writing a story, if you can’t give youself the best part ). So He is both Author, & Starring Character - and the whole point of the story: because Jesus Christ is not merely the Hero - He is the Reason for the story, for the creation of the universe of creatures “both visible & invisible”. The Bible is a very long story, as is the whole of history.

I think the difficulty here is that you are making God in time, but not our time. God is outside of even ‘God’s Time’. He is unchangeable. It’s easy to understand being outside of time. Just study the mathematics of the Big Bang. When time and space began. Before that, even empty space did not exist, it had not been created. Neither did time. I don’t think a lot of people understand the ‘initial singularity’.