A subject that has always “stretched my mind” is to try to model or understand …
How does God interact with Time?
– Is He “outside of time” and can look down at a timeline of history and choose to insert Himself in the Past, Present or Future?
– Or is time linear, and only goes in one direction where God can remember the Past, live in the Present and think or plan for the future?
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This question has implications for prophecy … for example, has God already seen what will happen in the future? (so he can go back in time and have men write prophecy into scripture?) … or does He simply have the power to bring about anything he desires to occur in the future? (eg Mat 17:27 Jesus sends Peter to go catch a fish knowing it will have the correct coin in its mouth to pay the Temple Tax for Jesus & Peter). Was Jesus “aware” of the fish being around that had swallowed the coin? Was God able to see that Peter (in the future) will catch “that fish”? Or did God simply wait until a fish was caught and “zap” a coin into its mouth? (If so, it might have been “simpler” to zap a coin into Peter’s pocket!)
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The Question of Time also comes up in discussions of Free Will. Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac and was only stopped when God said “Now I Know” (that Abraham would obey). This implies God did not “know” 5 minutes earlier. (ie God couldn’t or wouldn’t peak into the future to see what would happen).
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Here are excellent messages from 3 ministers to help us understand How God interacts with Time … with some scriptures that might provide us hints … or even strong conclusions!
- Pastor Adrian Davis – Matter Matters! (Audio)
- Pastor Vance Stinson – Is the Future Settled? (Video)
- Pastor Ron Dart – The God of Time (Pdf)
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