GOD S RELATIONSHIP TO TIME Charles Eben Drost HT501 Dr. Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen Research Paper May 17, 2016 2016
Drost 1 INTRODUCTION What is God s relationship to time? It must be admitted up front that this is a difficult question. While there are narratives and principles in Scripture that give us necessary conceptual boundaries and guidelines, the Bible doesn t seem to give us a systematic answer. In the words of Paul Helm, the data of Scripture underdetermine the issues raised by later controversies about God and time. 1 In seeking an answer, we are forced to move beyond scriptural exegesis and search for further clarification in the realms of philosophy, theology, and science. But here, unsurprisingly, things can become dauntingly complex, and experts aren t always in agreement over the most fundamental issues involved. It is tempting to throw in the towel, and leave this question unanswered until the eschaton. Yet it is my contention that it is important to at least try to explain God s relationship to time, for at least two reasons: First, it is an opportunity for theology to meaningfully engage with the wider culture. The success of recent movies like Interstellar and The Theory of Everything reminds us that people are interested in questions about time and cosmology (and perhaps wondering if the idea of a creator of time and space is even necessary anymore 2 ). Theology needs to address the relevant issues intelligibly if it wants to be taken seriously. And second, within the church, very basic questions about the spiritual life are affected by how we view God s relationship with time. For example, what would it mean to spend time with a timeless God? Or could a God who wasn t strictly timeless also be omniscient? In this essay, I will explore how God relates to time. This essay will argue that, while there is truth in the traditional Christian claim that God transcends time, this should not 1 Paul Helm, Divine Timeless Eternity. In God &Time, edited by Gregory E. Ganssle, 28-60. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001), 32 2 William Lane Craig, Time and Eternity: Exploring God s Relationship to Time. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001), 22
Drost 2 be taken to mean that God is strictly timeless. Rather, in light of his close relationship with his creation, God experiences time in a meaningful way, and looks forward to the future with us. In laying out my case, I will first survey some relevant Biblical materials, and bring them into dialogue with philosophy, theology, and science. Second, I will give my own constructive account of God s relationship time, and explore a few significant implications for Christian witness and practice. I. BIBLICAL GUIDELINES 1. God is Eternal The Bible states unequivocally that God is eternal. A few examples will suffice: God inhabits eternity (Isa. 57:15, NRSV), and is from everlasting to everlasting (Ps. 90:2). What does God s eternality entail? At the very least, it is clear that God has no beginning or end, in contrast to his creation, which is subject to entropy and decay (Ps. 102:25-27). Whether God s eternality entails more is another question. Lesslie Newbigin cites Oscar Cullman, who he says has shown that in the Bible eternity is really infinite time and not a different sort of existence from the point of view of which time is not successive but simultaneous. 3 Wolfhart Pannenberg similarly notes that Hebrew has no other term for eternity than unlimited duration, whether past or future, but also concludes that God s eternality means that distance in time is of no significance to him. 4 In other words, all moments are simultaneous to God. 2. God the Creator The Bible is also clear that God is the creator of all things (John 1:3). But we can ask, is 3 Lesslie Newbigin, The Household of God. (New York, NY: Friendship Press, 1954), 135 4 Wolfhart Pannenberg, Systematic Theology. Vol. 1. Translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley. (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1991), 401
Drost 3 time one of the things that God created? Is it a metaphysical entity in itself, or simply a measurement of movement or sequentiality? 5 A way to answer this question is to discern whether or not we have good reasons to believe that time began at some point. Einstein discovered a closer relationship between space and time than previously had been understood; they exist inseparably on a space-time continuum. This may suggest that time began along with the physical universe. According to William Lane Craig, certain Biblical passages also suggest the same thing. 6 For example, Jude 25 uses the language of before all time, perhaps suggesting that before creation, there was no time. Of course, here we are running into the limits of language, since it is hard to conceive of something before time. The word before generally denotes temporality. Does it make sense to speak of a time before time? I see at least two possible explanations for this kind of language in Jude 25. On the one hand, it could just be a way of referring to a time before time as we know it - to a time before the creation of the physical universe. In this scenario, time would have always existed. One could argue for this position by considering the inner life of the Trinity: Because the life of the Trinity is dynamic, and has always involved the giving and receiving of love and joy, it would seem that time existed prior to the creation. Time would just be a measurement of the movement within the divine life. On the other hand, there could also be a kind of non-temporal before proper to God, as Paul Helm explains (with Biblical passages like Jude 25 in mind): He exists before the universe, I argue, rather in the way the queen exists before the prime minster, age comes before beauty, or duty comes before pleasure. These befores are not temporal befores ; they are another kind of priority, betokening a constitutional or hierarchical or normative arrangement. There was no time 5 Richard J. Plantinga, Thomas R. Thompson, and Matthew D. Lundeberg. An Introduction to Christian Theology. (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 107 6 Craig, Time and Eternity, 17-20
Drost 4 when the Creator was not, any more than there was a time when the creation was not. And yet the Creator exists before the creation. 7 An important concept in Trinitarian theology lends credibility to Helm s idea: the doctrine of the eternal generation of the Son. Though the Father generates the Son, orthodox theology still insists there was never a time in which the Father existed without the Son. Miroslav Volf represents Trinitarian orthodoxy when he says the constitution of the persons and their relations are, of course, not to be conceived as two temporally sequential steps, but rather as two dimensions of the eternal life of the triune God. 8 3. God Relates to His Creation Another important piece of Biblical evidence involves how God relates to his creation. In the Scriptural narrative, God is working out his purposes within history, and is actively engaged in the affairs of the world (unlike the deist god of the Enlightenment). This is supremely attested to in the incarnation. Donald Bloesch captures the sweep of Biblical revelation when he says History is not a picture in the mind of God (as in idealistic philosophy) but a reality that God creates outside himself and with which he engages in real relations. 9 An important question to ask is: Would it be possible for a God who is unaffected by time to engage in real relations with his temporal creation? 10 Aquinas basically said no, and concluded that God doesn t really relate to his creation. His relations to his creation are merely conceptual. 11 However, we have good reasons to reject some of the basic assumptions of classical theism that influenced Aquinas perspective, such as 7 Helm, 52 8 Miroslav Volf, After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity. (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1998), 216-217 9 Donald Bloesch, Christian Foundations. Vol. 3, God the Almighty: Power, Wisdom, Holiness, Love. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1995), 253 10 Real relations, in my opinion, would involve God being affected by His creation. For example, God could suffer because of His creation s brokenness and rebellion. 11 Helm, 48
Drost 5 the idea that God is impassible, unable to suffer. Moltmann reminds us that A God who cannot suffer is poorer than any man. For a God who is incapable of suffering is a being who cannot be involved. 12 The next question is, if Moltmann is right and God does relate to his temporal creation, must God also be temporal in some sense of the word? This is the position of William Lane Craig, who argues that by virtue of his creating a temporal world, God comes into a relation with that world the moment it springs into being. Thus even if it is not the case that God is temporal prior to his creation of the world, he undergoes an extrinsic change at the moment of creation which draws him into time in virtue of his real relationship to the world. 13 4. God of Hope The Bible teaches that in some some real sense, the future has broken into the present. Ephesians 1:14 talks about the Spirit being given as a deposit to believers, anticipating and guaranteeing the believer s future inheritance. Believers are already raised with Christ in the heavenly places (Col. 3:1). This sense of anticipation is central to Lesslie Newbigin s ecclesiological vision in his book The Household of God, and some of his insights are helpful for our discussion here. Newbigin notes that in some sense, eternal life [is] already a possession of the believer. 14 This would suggest that God has some kind of access to the future, and can take things from the future and give them to us here in the present. Nevertheless, in Newbigin s perspective, the future is from God s point of view, if one may put it so still to come, after the end of this present age. 15 How does Newbigin reconcile the idea that God has access to the 12 Richard Bauckham, The Theology of Jürgen Moltmann. (London: T&T Clark, 1995), 49 13 William Lane Craig, Timelessness and Omnitemporality. In God &Time, edited by Gregory E. Ganssle, 129-160. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001), 141 14 Newbigin, 135 15 Ibid., 135
Drost 6 future, and yet the future is still to come even for him? Following an insight of Edwyn Bevan, he suggests that our clue to understanding this is the tension in scripture between God s continuing work and his Sabbath rest: Time is the form of God s working and eternity the form of His rest. Both are equally real. Neither is mere illusion... We must believe that in the depths of his infinite being God is already at rest, for He already grasps, so to say, the end. We know that a mature and integrated human person can combine a vast output of labor with a deep inner rest; indeed the one is the condition of the other. We see it supremely in our Lord Himself. Yet this is not the motionless rest of supratemporal eternity in the light of which all time is illusion, the repose of the Vedantin who has reached the motionless center of all things and can therefore leave the cosmic wheel to go on spinning endlessly and aimlessly round him. It is a rest which is held in tension with ceaseless labor, and the name of that tension is hope. 16 In Newbigin s thought, God s access to the future seems to be a function of his foreknowledge of the future, and since God s foreknowledge is based on God's omnipotence, 17 his foreknowledge is perfect and therefore what God foresees has its own kind of reality already. But still, God does not transcend [time] in such wise that its successiveness is seen by Him as simultaneity. 18 The present is still present, and the future is still the future. Bloesch makes a similar point: God has theoretical knowledge of the future before it happens but not experiential knowledge. 19 Craig similarly argues that God s knowledge of the future is conceptual rather than perceptual. 20 II. PROPOSALS Having surveyed some of the important Biblical materials and introduced some of the theological, philosophical and scientific themes related to our topic, I now am going to move on 16 Ibid., 136 17 Bloesch, God the Almighty, 116 18 Newbigin, 136 19 Donald Bloesch, Christian Foundations. Vol. 4, Jesus Christ: Savior & Lord. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1997), 172 20 Craig, Time and Eternity, 264
Drost 7 and propose what seem to me to be some healthy ways of thinking about God s relationship to time, and a few relevant implications for Christian worship and witness. 1. Eternality does not mean Strict Timelessness To me, it seems there is truth in the classic Christian intuition that God transcends time in some way, and experiences it differently than us (Ps. 90:4). But I also feel that there is a profound truth in the basic intuition that God is involved in world history, and relates to us in a real way. This should give us pause before we refer to God as timeless. Whatever questions may arise from affirming some kind of temporality in God, I feel that rejecting all temporality would make the Biblical narrative incoherent. 2. God Created Time It is probable, in my opinion, that God created time. This idea seems to fit with some important intuitions of modern science, and the way the church has traditionally understood the creation to be ex nihilo. This would also fit the intuition that God stands above time in some way. Although there is glorious movement in the life of the immanent Trinity, we have grounds for believing that this movement may not be temporal. The idea of the eternal generation of the Son is important in this regard. Nevertheless, one may at least wish to speak of something analogous to time in the divine life. Kevin Vanhoozer may be right when he suggests time is in some way the creaturely analogy of the Creator s form of being-in-communicative-act. 21 The idea that time has a beginning also supports something like Big Bang cosmology. Fortunately, Big Bang cosmology is a coherent model that makes sense in light of entropy and other things we know to be true. 22 Nevertheless, I would also like to suggest that Christian 21 Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Remythologizing Theology: Divine Action, Passion, and Authorship. (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 322 22 Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, A Constructive Christian Theology for the Pluralistic World. Vol. 3, Creation and Humanity. (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2015), 124
Drost 8 theology need not put all its eggs in the Big Bang basket. 23 Even if Big Bang cosmology seems to make good sense, the scientific community is still dealing with some ambiguities and internal disagreements about relevant issues, and there are disagreements among Christian philosophers and theologians about the nature of time and God s relationship to it. This is an area we stand to learn more about. In the meantime, we in the church should be aware of the Big Bang s limited value as an apologetic tool, and not be overly anxious about how some scientists like Stephen Hawking are postulating a universe without a temporal beginning. 24 Aquinas, while fully affirming the idea that creation was created ex nihilo, actually thought that the universe could have been infinitely old and still have been created out of nothing by God. 25 In this scenario, God would exist before creation ontologically rather than temporally. As was noted earlier, Trinitarian theology adds some credibility to this idea. 3. Omniscience It goes without saying that how we understand God s omniscience has a significant effect on our Christian lives. Unlike Open Theists and the more radical Process Theologians, I am comfortable affirming that God s omniscience includes a comprehensive knowledge of the future. But traditionally, God s foreknowledge has been explained by the idea that God exists totally outside of time. What if we find it necessary to revise that idea, as I have here? If the future is really still future to God in some sense, how do we explain omniscience? At present, I believe that the best way to explain omniscience is to connect God s omniscience with his omnipotence 26 and omnipresence. 27 God knows the future because he 23 See Kärkkäinen s discussion in Creation, 125 24 Craig, Time and Eternity, 22. Hawking is not alone. See also: Zyga, Lisa. 2015. No Big Bang? Quantum equation predicts universe has no beginning. Phys.Org, February 9. Accessed May 11, 2016. http://phys.org/news/2015-02-big-quantum-equation-universe.html 25 Gregory E. Ganssle, ed. God & Time. Four Views. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001), 16 26 Bloesch, God the Almighty, 116 27 Kärkkäinen, 367-368
Drost 9 knows everything in the present perfectly, and with that knowledge is sovereignly able to carry his creation into the future he desires and envisions. While explaining the mystery of providence is beyond the scope of this paper (or any paper!), I will at least suggest that Kärkkäinen s use of key Molinist insights guided by a solid pneumatological-trinitarian framework 28 gives us a helpful starting point that avoids determinism. David Fergusson similarly notes where providence works by influence, this engagement should not be underestimated. If God s Spirit is both omnipresent and possesses the fullest possible knowledge of the creation, then the scope for exercising influence is extensive. In this respect, the perceived weakening of God by revisionary theories of providence may be more apparent than real. 29 4. The Incarnation was not Plan-B My take on God s relationship with time suggests that the incarnation can t have simply been a plan B after Adam and Eve fell. Rather, Jesus Christ has always existed in the mind of God, even if the historical Jesus of Nazareth hasn t always existed. Oliver Crip affirms this in his theology of Christ s pre-existence. He says there is a sense in which the Word is eternally God Incarnate, but qualifies this by saying that nevertheless, this does not mean that the human being, Jesus of Nazareth, is eternal, nor does it mean that Jesus of Nazareth had no beginning in time. 30. Knowing this helps us be better understand the Biblical narrative, and better appreciate the special relationship we have with Christ, whose image we are destined to be conformed to (Rom. 8:29). 5. Eucharist Lastly, my understanding of God s relationship to time sheds light on the 28 Ibid, 367 29 David Ferguson, Divine Providence and Action In God s Life in Trinity, edited by Miroslav Volf and Michael Welker, 153-165. (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2006), 165 30 Oliver Crisp, Robert Jenson on the Pre-Existence of Christ. Modern Theology 23, no. 1. (January 2007): 29
Drost 10 Christian practice and understanding of the Eucharist. The Eucharist is a great place to see and experience how God transcends time but is also intimately involved in it. When Jesus instituted the Eucharist, he said do this in remembrance (anamnesis) of me (Luke 22:19). The Greek word anamnesis is not just a simple cognitive remembering, but a kind of remembering which brings the power of something that happened in the past into the present. This demonstrates how God transcends time- he is able to bring a past reality into the present during the Eucharistic gathering. But while highlighting God s transcendence of time, this equally highlights how important and unrepeatable the historical act of Christ s self sacrifice is. God worked definitively within history to save us. It is finished (John 19:30) surely refers to something new in God s life, and that statement loses some of its force if we think all moments are experienced simultaneously by God (even if they are conceived simultaneously). The Eucharist is also eschatological, and a foretaste of the heavenly banquet. This again shows how God can transcend time and bring something from the future into the present. The epiclesis, or invocation of the Holy Spirit in the Eucharistic liturgy, is important in this regard, since the Holy Spirit is the arabon, the pledge of the coming kingdom (2 Cor. 1:22). And yet since this pledge is only a foretaste, it reminds us that the future is still in the future, and history has not reached its goal. In taking communion we proclaim the Lord s death until he comes (1 Cor. 11:26). Surely God stands with us looking forward to the glorious future when he makes all things new (Rev. 21:5). And surely this future will involve something new even for God. III. CONCLUSION As creatures, we don t have a God s point of view perspective. So the question of how God relates to time is a difficult one. But the one who has set eternity in the human heart (Eccles. 3:11, NIV) has given us reliable guidelines, which help us give some tentative answers.
Drost 11 We know that God transcends time, but is also intimately involved with his creation, and experiences time in a meaningful way. Knowing this helps us better appreciate who God is, and who he is for us. It also helps us witness to the world and engage with others in meaningful dialogue.
Drost 12 BIBLIOGRAPHY Bauckham, Richard. The Theology of Jürgen Moltmann. London: T&T Clark, 1995. Bloesch, Donald. Christian Foundations. Vol. 3, God the Almighty: Power, Wisdom, Holiness, Love. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1995. Bloesch, Donald. Christian Foundations. Vol. 4, Jesus Christ: Savior & Lord. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1997. Craig, William Lane. Time and Eternity: Exploring God s Relationship to Time. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001. Craig, William Lane. Timelessness and Omnitemporality. In God &Time, edited by Gregory E. Ganssle, 129-160. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001. Crisp, Oliver. Robert Jenson on the Pre-Existence of Christ. Modern Theology 23, no. 1. (January 2007): 27-45 Ferguson, David. Divine Providence and Action In God s Life in Trinity, edited by Miroslav Volf and Michael Welker, 153-165. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2006. Ganssle, Gregory E., ed. God & Time. Four Views. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001. Helm, Paul. Divine Timeless Eternity. In God &Time, edited by Gregory E. Ganssle, 28-60. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001. Kärkkäinen, Veli-Matti. A Constructive Christian Theology for the Pluralistic World. Vol. 3, Creation and Humanity. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2015. Newbigin, Lesslie. The Household of God. New York, NY: Friendship Press, 1954 Pannenberg, Wolfhart. Systematic Theology. Vol. 1. Translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1991. Plantinga, Richard J., Thomas R. Thompson, and Matthew D. Lundeberg. An Introduction to Christian Theology. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Vanhoozer, Kevin J. Remythologizing Theology: Divine Action, Passion, and Authorship. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Volf, Miroslav. After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1998. Zyga, Lisa. 2015. No Big Bang? Quantum equation predicts universe has no beginning. Phys.Org, February 9. Accessed May 11, 2016. http://phys.org/news/2015-02-bigquantum-equation-universe.html