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Ben_Sinner
Guest
If God is outside of time and all powerful, why did it take him 6 days (which is a measure of time) to create the universe?
If God is outside of time and all powerful, why did it take him 6 days (time) to create the universe?
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truetofaith
Guest
God set a model for man to follow in making his work week & rest on the Sabbath.
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Tarpeian_Rock
Guest
C’mon. “Day” is used as a literary device marking an indeterminate period of time, so that mortal, limited mankind can get some grasp of and insight into the Divine creative process. That is, unless one is a fundamentalist and insists these are 24-hour periods.
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Reuben_J
Guest
Creation is at God’s own pleasure not because He cannot do it at any moment He likes.
That I feel should be the biggest message we can take from the Creation because it shows even though He is all-powerful, He takes His time in creating, perhaps showing how much He loves it just like the master artist admiring his work of art masterpieces.
But more so, because He loves them, His creations, that even in His perfect omnipotence, He still wants to do it right.
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godisgood77
Guest
This is not meant to be taken literally
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dallas_r
Guest
Agreed
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Beryllos
Guest
He created things in a sequence which is orderly and beautiful, like music.
Alternatively (or equivalently?), it took God only an instant to create the universe, an instant which some call the Big Bang, and thus began the orderly and beautiful sequence which God intended.
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NeedImprovement
Guest
(Highlights in Tarpeian Rock’s quote mine):
In fact, anyone who insisted these “days” were 24-hour periods, wouldn’t even be a good fundamentalist . . . because fundamentalists* read * their Bibles.
If one had bothered to read even the first Chapter from the book of Genesis - in relation to the question presented in the OP, one would discover that, according to the account in Genesis, strictly speaking, God didn’t actually create the sun or the moon until the “fourth day”.
Which begs the question: How would the first three “days” have been measured ?
A very good point.
In fact, anyone who insisted these “days” were 24-hour periods, wouldn’t even be a good fundamentalist . . . because fundamentalists* read * their Bibles.
If one had bothered to read even the first Chapter from the book of Genesis - in relation to the question presented in the OP, one would discover that, according to the account in Genesis, strictly speaking, God didn’t actually create the sun or the moon until the “fourth day”.
Which begs the question: How would the first three “days” have been measured ?
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Techno2000
Guest
Right it shows how we act just like God when we put together something in sequence .
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De_Maria
Guest
God transcends time. Big difference.
There is a saying, " for God, a thousand years is like a day and a day like a thousand years."
We are in time and experience change. God doesn’t.
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PJM
Guest
That dear friend is a fair question; and the answer is that we DON"T know that it did. [None of us were there]
It may have been 7 seconds, minutes, months, years or centuries as TIME does not exist for God for whom all things are “PRESENT-TIME”
Much of the STORY of creation is allegorical.
What is the lesson for us?
It is that GOD is in charge and that GOD is the CREATOR of the Universe and all that implies.
GBY
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jcrichton
Guest
Hi, Ben!
…could it be that this Revelation is more about how man understand things than about Creation itself?
…consider that on Day One it is Revealed that God Created Light… yet, the sun and the moon were not Created until Day Four.
…also consider that to God a thousand years is but a day; and a day as a thousand years… how many hours does our typical day have, twenty-four? …have you pondered why 24 and not 36? It was the need to tell time using a method of uniformity… God existing outside of time and being Omnipotent does not require anything but His Word: God said, ‘Let there Be Light!’
The “periods” or phases are for our understanding.
…consider too that it was stated, ‘and God Rested;’ yet, we know that Creation is still Unfolding as man makes more and more discoveries and connections… as we find the Universe is still expanding!
So, the concept of Creation in “periods” is for our benefit!
Maran atha!
Angel
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Cirdan_XII
Guest
I don’t object to any of the answers given here, but i do still think there is a deeper level to the question that has not been approached.
If God is outside of time, then he doesn’t really need to do or consider things in sequence. If he does so anyway, he does so for our benefit, to show or teach us something. The concept of cause and effect is transcended when it comes to God’s own affairs. Things have a cause and effect for us, but to God they don’t. This opens up the whole free will discussion which I don’t really want to kick off here. But when God became man, he was bound to the normal flow of time and things did have cause and effect for Jesus. He had to be born, be baptiszed, grow up, become an adult, prepare his ministry, choose his disciples and so on and so forth. But what happens to us when we come to Heaven. Do we cast aside that temporal element and also see the universe as if time does not exist, or do we continue to move within time?
If God is outside of time, then he doesn’t really need to do or consider things in sequence. If he does so anyway, he does so for our benefit, to show or teach us something. The concept of cause and effect is transcended when it comes to God’s own affairs. Things have a cause and effect for us, but to God they don’t. This opens up the whole free will discussion which I don’t really want to kick off here. But when God became man, he was bound to the normal flow of time and things did have cause and effect for Jesus. He had to be born, be baptiszed, grow up, become an adult, prepare his ministry, choose his disciples and so on and so forth. But what happens to us when we come to Heaven. Do we cast aside that temporal element and also see the universe as if time does not exist, or do we continue to move within time?
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grannymh
Guest
Time is God’s gift to us.
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Each human person is worthy of Profound Respect.
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tgGodsway
Guest
If God is outside of time and all powerful, why did it take him 6 days (time) to create the universe?
6 days for man, but still outside of time for God.
6 days for man, but still outside of time for God.
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grannymh
Guest
It is the spiritual world which is most important.
The better question is “What is God’s power in the world of time?”
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ericc
Guest
Are you looking from the angle that God needed time to create? God doesn’t need time but the physical world does. God is telling us that like baking a cake, there is a certain sequence of events and He demoed that process. But could He have just willed it to exist in Day One or a loaf of bread to pop into existence without showing you the baking process? He could but that wouldn’t be educational at all and leave us even more befuddled about the whole creation thing. But you could tell that there is an orderly process in world making and that there is an Intelligent Mind and power behind it. Are there other possible ways to create a world? Possibly but the choice was His.
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Cirdan_XII
Guest
Or maybe the Genesis story is showing us there is a progression of dependency.
Such as, there could not be grass if there was no sea and land, and no stars. But the stars could (and did) exist without the grass.
So things have an order, not just in time but in causality. And you can have no causality without time.
Taking this concept forward, there would be no forgiveness if there hadn’t been sin first. There wouldn’t have been a resurrection if there hadn’t been a downfall first.
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sonofbarry
Guest
This is never a popular opinion, but I’d like to suggest the possibility that God actually exists within time.
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