Re: Time scales

George Murphy (gmurphy@raex.com)
Thu, 16 Dec 1999 09:39:24 -0500

Moorad Alexanian wrote:
>
> Dear Jim,
>
> I tend to agree with you that time being part of the creation may be an
> assumption that man makes. I disagree with you that that assumption does
> not build a coherent worldview. Time is part of the physical universe,
> nothing would make sense if this were otherwise. But God is not part of the
> subject matter of science, therefore God cannot be in time. It is true that
> He can make incursions into His creation, witness Jesus, but Triune God
> cannot be wholly in time. In addition, Christ made all sorts of miracles
> that go contrary with the findings of science. It is true that in science
> when we speak of time invariance we are assuming that time is on an infinite
> scale. All the conservation laws in physics come from invariances under some
> sort of transformation and some of the variables involved are considered to
> be on an infinite scale, e.g., conservation of energy is associated with
> invariance under time translations, etc.

1) There's no _explicit_ statement in Scripture like Augustine's "The world was
not made in time but with time." But the idea that time is a aspect of creation is
important for the biblical view in which what happens in history really matters - to us
& to God. God intended temporal change & history in creating the universe. Our goal is
not to escape from the temporal world (Eliade's "terror of history") or finally to reach
an End Time which is just the same as a Primordial Time: In Rev.21 the "glory and honor
of the nations" - everything good which has been accomplished in history - are brought
into the holy city. & that city is, N.B., one which has come to the renewed earth from
heaven, not vice versa.
2) The Incarnation should be seen as more than an "incursion" into history. It
means that God makes human history and the temporality of creation part of God's own
experience. Thus God has a history - which may include more than the history of our
universe, but not less.
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
gmurphy@raex.com
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/