Understanding Time and Space from a Biblical Perspective

SPEAKER 01 : 0:00

Greetings to the brightest audience in the country and welcome to Theology Thursday. I’m Nicole McBurney. Every weekday we bring you the news of the day, the culture, and science from a Christian worldview. But today, join me and Pastor Bob Enyart as we explore the source of our Christian worldview, the Bible.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:15

We continue today in Genesis 2, verse 2, but first we’ll do a brief review of some of the issues we hit last class. We talked about overpopulation. The bottom line, we saw the more the merrier. The world is not overpopulated. God’s command to fill the earth was repeated even after Noah’s flood, be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth. We listed some of the nice places in the world and some of the lousy places, and we looked at their population density. And we saw the general rule of thumb is the more people per square mile, the nicer the place, the higher the standard of living, the longer people live. That standard of living means, one of the things it means is how long do people live? When your standard of living deteriorates, then people die younger, among other problems. But so when the liberals complained, oh, the only reason we wanted to fight against Saddam Hussein was because our standard of living would decrease because he stole the oil from Kuwait. No kidding. Right, exactly. I want my children to live long and happy lives and to be prosperous. I don’t want their stress to increase because their bills are higher and they’re making less money and there’s not as much medical care available and they can’t vacation to have a nice family life and reduce stress. No, I want my family to have a high standard of living. So if some thug around the world robs from us or our friends, then we do have the right to go and try to make it right and to undo that. So anyway, places that have a high population density, people per square mile, tend to have high standard of living. Better literacy rates, for example. They live longer. They’re happier than people where there are very few people per square mile, than places where there are few. And we gave examples, and I’ll repeat five of them. Nice places and lousy. Nice Belgium, 850 people per square mile. Lousy Bolivia, 17. Nice, England, 600 people per square mile. Lousy, Central African Republic, 12 people per square mile. Nice, Germany, almost 600 people per square mile. Lousy, the Congo, 17. Nice, Italy, 500 people per square mile. Lousy, Libya, six. Nice, Japan, 830 people per square mile. Lousy, Namibia, four. Big difference, huh? Would you rather live in Tokyo or Namibia? I’d go with Tokyo. Pretty expensive, but I’d still prefer it. Now, I stopped this list with Japan for a word on the populations of Far Eastern countries. When we hear about overpopulation, you always hear about a billion Chinese and all the people in India, 700 million people in India. And just the statements in and of themselves tend to be racist. Look, there are too many little Chinese people running around on the earth. We’ve got to do something about it. There are too many Indians. That’s what the liberals are saying when they say that there’s too many people in the world. Look at all the Chinese. Well, I guess if we could get rid of half the Chinese, the liberals would be happy, wouldn’t they? And so Jacques Cousteau says something like, we need to eliminate 350,000 people per day. He says, it’s a terrible thing to say, but it’s even worse not to say it. That was quoted in a United Nations publication, UNESCO Courier, some years back. So they’re talking about eliminating people. Well, these Far Eastern countries like Taiwan, China, Japan, think of India. We’re told that China and India are overpopulated. China has about 315 people per square mile. India, 700 people per square mile. Now, of the three countries with Japan, which has a higher standard of living? Japan does, yet at 830 people, it’s way more dense than China or India. And what if we look at Taiwan, the island off the coast of mainland China that has become its own nation, and the communists in Red China are angry and they want it back, and Taiwan is saying, hey, we’ve got freedom here. We don’t want your communism. Well, Taiwan has the highest standard of living of probably any Far Eastern nation, and they have 1,500 people per square mile. And it’s a large country with a lot of people. So it’s triple the population of mainland China with a much higher prosperity level. So you see the lie of the liberals? People are assets, not liabilities. As long as you give them the freedom to produce, they will. Socialists and communists, however, they see people as so many helpless dependence mouths that need to be fed. That’s what the Nazis called people useless eaters. If there was a handicapped person, that was a useless eater. What did Margaret Sanger, who was the founder of Planned Parenthood, they want to eliminate people, right? Abort, euthanize as many as possible. Margaret Sanger calculated the cost to the state of New York. In one of her two books, I forget which, she wrote Pivot of Civilization and Women and the New Race. I think it was Pivot of Civilization. She calculated the cost to the state of New York of all the blind, deaf, dumb, and mute. And she said these handicapped people, and she listed those, she said they are the dead weight of human waste. And they’re costing the state of New York, I think back then she calculated $15 million a year, what a waste of money. That’s what liberals, and Planned Parenthood gives awards every year in Margaret Sanger’s name, the Margaret Sanger Award. And she hated blacks. She had the Negro Project for getting rid of blacks, reducing their population. So to liberals, they’re useless eaters, people are. If they don’t need you, then you’re a waste, and they’d rather do away with you if possible. But the overpopulation myth is a lie. A few hundred years ago, famine was rampant in North America. A lot of American Indians would die of hunger. How much has the population increased? 1,000-fold? And now we can feed most of the left-wing world. right here from this country. As Proverbs 14, 28 says, in the multitude of people is the king’s honor, but in the lack of people is the destruction of the prince. A brief note on diet and ranching. Last week, we talked about originally men and animals were vegetarians, but recall that Abel was a keeper of sheep. So if they were vegetarians, perhaps he kept sheep for wool, for clothing, and for leather from their skin. But also they used animals like sheep to sacrifice to God, as we know. And then we mentioned Jabal in Genesis 4.20, who introduced cattle raising. And so we just question whether or not man began to disobey God in that area also. God had said, eat only vegetables, fruits, herbs, grains, and perhaps they started eating meat, but we don’t know. I just wanted to clarify that issue. And now go to two other issues that we brought up last week, time and the laws of science, the natural laws, those two issues. Notice that God had finished his creation, Genesis 2.1, thus the heavens and the earth and all the host of them were finished. Now, in which verse in the creation account does it say that God created time? Where is it? Well, we pointed out last week that the Bible doesn’t say that. The creation account, it says that God created space, created matter, light, and life, But it doesn’t say he created time. And that would go well with space, right? Time, space, it’s about time, it’s about space. Time, space, it would fit, light. But no, it doesn’t say that. It also doesn’t say that God created the laws. I think there are countless misunderstandings about time when we discuss time. And it seems to be… very relevant to our existence, though it’s a part of our, it’s a part of our existence. So let’s think through it a bit. Whenever we speak of time, we should never confuse time with the measurement of time. That happens frequently and it drives me absolutely bonkers. It frustrates me to no end. I’ll get into a conversation with very intelligent people and I’ll, and I’ll ask, we’ll talk about time. And did time always exist? And you know what invariably people say to me? I mean, for 20 years, I’ve heard this. They say, well, when God created the heavens and the earth, that was the first day and the first year. That’s when the days and the year started. So that’s when time must have started. I say, what does the measurement of time have to do with time itself? They’re two different things. If nobody kept track of days and years, but we were all living, we’d still have time. It’s like if you ask somebody, did space, distance, length always exist? And they said, well, when was a ruler first created? Well, the first ruler was in 840 AD. Well, that’s when space was created. That’s so dumb. That’s silly. When was the first clock created? Well, that was when time was created by the Swiss, the Swiss created time. No. So that’s just, it’s just the confusion, clouded thinking. So let’s not confuse the measuring of time with time itself, a sequence of events, of a sequence of thoughts, a sequence of anything, a sequence of circumstances. Let’s also talk about time flowing. People often talk about the flow of time, the river of time, and we’re in time and flowing right along. And we discuss time as flowing forward, right? That normally time is flowing forward and we’re moving forward in time. But even at that level, just trying to get an analogy or a picture of time in our minds, I think we even get that wrong. If the future is forward and the past is backward, then which way does time flow? Does it flow forward or backward? Well, it would flow backward. Think about that. Think about something that’s in the future. Let’s say Hillary Clinton’s downfall. That’s in the future. Where will it flow? Further into the future? No. It’ll eventually become the present. And we will see her downfall. And then it’ll be in the past. And gradually it will recede into the distant past. Until there’ll be a time when people will forget what her name was. Electric cheers. Picture tomorrow’s newspaper riding in a wave of time. Tomorrow’s newspaper. Right now, it’s in the future. Tomorrow, it’ll be in the present. The day after, it’ll be in the past. So tomorrow’s paper. It’s tomorrow’s paper, then it’ll be today’s paper, then it’ll be yesterday’s paper. So if anything, time flows backwards. Big deal. It doesn’t really matter. But what I want to point out is that I think when we talk about time and think about time, we don’t put much effort into it to try to think clearly about it. And I believe that we should. So let’s think now about God and time. God and time. For those who have studied with us for a while, you know that we share from the Bible that God is a living God. not a static or dead God, as the idols were, but a living God in that God changes greatly. Now, I know it’s a cliche. Christians say God does not change. In fact, the Bible says in three places that God does not change. However, that means his righteous character. His righteousness is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His holiness changes not. And with God, there is no turning toward wickedness. Yet he himself changes greatly. For God the Son became flesh. He emptied himself. He humbled himself. Is that a change? For God to empty himself, is that a change or not a change? That’s a huge change. God humbled himself. God is a spirit, yet the son became flesh. Was he always flesh? No. Did he truly become flesh? Yes. Not only that, he was tempted so that he could better help us when we’re tempted. And he became sin for us when he learned obedience to the point of death on the cross. The Bible says he became sin. He became a curse for us. He was separated from the Father. He died. Yet he was justified in the Spirit, it says in 1 Timothy 3.16. He was raised from the dead, reunited with the Father. He is no longer a sin or a curse. Today he is righteous. These things are major changes. Major changes. Do we need to use obscure verses to teach that Christ, that God changes? No. All you have to do is hear the gospel. And if someone tells you the gospel and you think about it, you say, wow, look at how God changed. God became flesh for me, the incarnation. And then he took on my sin. And then he overcame sin and death and rose from the dead. god went through incredible pain and difficulty for us and that all involved change the same is true with god existing in time and not existing in an eternal now an eternal present we’re told by christians that for us time is like being in a parade or watching a parade from the side of the street and all you could see is one float go by at a time But for God, he’s up on top of a building, and he sees the whole parade at once. That’s what they say for God. So all of time, it’s an eternal present with God, an eternal now. There is no past, present, or future. That is mythology. That’s irrational. That’s pagan philosophy. That’s not what the Bible teaches. I’m going to read Hebrews 10, verses 12 and 13. In fact, we’ll look at a few verses in Hebrews 10. And we’ll see the same is true about God and His existence in time as we saw about God changing. You don’t need to go to obscure verses in Nahum. You could just look at the central actions of the Lord on our behalf to see that He lives in time. Hebrews 10. Verse 12 and 13. But this man, speaking of Jesus Christ, of course, verse 10, Jesus Christ, verse 12, but this man, Jesus Christ, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till his enemies are made his footstool. So what does it tell us? That this man, Jesus Christ, after… After he had offered one sacrifice, he was crucified. And then he sat down at the right hand of the Father. Did he sit down before he was crucified or after? After. I mean, this is so petty and juvenile to talk about it, but I want to take the time because the whole Christian church has bought into this pagan philosophical idea that God exists outside of time, that there’s no past, present, or future for God. Well, Jesus Christ was crucified and then he rose from the dead three days later. He didn’t rise from the dead before he was crucified. He was three days in the grave. Then he rose from the dead. And then it was 50 days later before he gave the Holy Spirit. And then he ascended into heaven. And after he had been crucified, he rose. sat down at the right hand of God. And what does the text continue to say in Hebrews 10? From that time, all right, from that time, waiting till his enemies are made his footstool. Has his enemies been made his footstool? Yet. No, not yet. His enemies are on the rampage. And they’re pretty much running the show in America and around the world. Not only that, Satan and his legion are alive and well and functioning on this earth. But there will be a time when they will all be incarcerated. And figuratively speaking, God will make them Christ’s footstool. will step on them they will no longer be free to do their own bidding well is that happened yet no after the crucifixion Christ sat down and from that time he is waiting until these words all show time they also show time he’s waiting It’s a pretty good translation of the Greek verb. He is waiting. From that time, from when he sat down, now he’s waiting until, that’s a good translation too, of that Greek verb. Until this future event occurs. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 9. Then he said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God. He takes away the first that he may establish the second. God took away the old system of sacrifices because now he’s going with Christ as a sacrifice. Now, did he do this? Did he take away the first? Did God do that to establish the second? Are they still both present to God? As far as God is concerned, both are currently in effect. Was this true of God or of men? Well, to men, they continued to offer sacrifices after Christ died. They were still at the temple. This wasn’t true of men. It was true to God. To God. If God is in an eternal now and our past, present, and future are all present to him, then is Christ right now suffering on the cross? Is that happening right now? Is he right now saying, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Is God the Father forsaking his son right now? No, that is absurdity and stupidity and even wickedness for letting pagan philosophy infiltrate the very core issues of what it means to think as a Christian. Jesus said, it is finished. Is it really? Well, not really, because he’s still on the cross. In fact, right now he’s in the garden of Gethsemane praying, Father, if it’s possible, take this cup from me. In fact, he hasn’t even been born yet, so surely it’s not finished yet. But it is finished for us, but not for Zacchaeus who was up in the tree. This is all stupidity. This is true stupidity that began with the ancient Greeks and their conception of God and of time and fate. God does not exist in a mystical, irrational, hypothetical, eternal now, which contains all of our moments simultaneously. What did we read in Genesis 1-1? God created the heavens and the earth. And then in verse 3, it was on day one still, it says, then God said, let there be light. Did he say let there be light before he made the heavens and the earth? Well, it says then he said. Or did he do them simultaneously? Verse 2, day 2 and verse 6. Then God said, let there be a sky. Then day 3, verse 9. Then God said, let the waters under the sky be gathered in one place. Did he gather the waters under the sky before he made the sky? Or did he do it all at the same time? I think if we get to heaven, if some Christians ask God about… god are you in time did you do all these things simultaneously what would he say i think he’d be frustrated with them and he’d say can’t you read what does it say look it says right there first i did this then i did this that then i did that christians say there’s no time in heaven and we’ve talked about this in the rapture when we’ve had our rapture study We know the Christian hymn, when the roll was called up yonder. How many by show of hands, how many know that hymn or have heard it? When the roll was called up yonder, 70%. When the roll was called up yonder and time shall be no more, right? Am I making that up? No. Every mainline church in the country practically has sung that hymn. when the role is called up yonder and time shall be no more, we were told in many different ways as Christians, when we go to heaven, there won’t be any more time. There is no time in heaven because there is no time for God and heaven is where God is. Well, revelation eight, one that’s in heaven, by the way, the book of revelation, John is brought to heaven in a vision or however, and it says that there was silence in heaven for about a half an hour. And that’s what it says. Now, somebody could say, well, it doesn’t mean that, but I’d rather go with what it says, unless there’s a real reason that we have to say, no, that’s figurative. It doesn’t mean that. Otherwise, generally, you take the Bible literally. Revelation 6.10, the saints who were martyred asked, cry out to God, how long, O Lord, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? So here are the martyrs in heaven. They’re waiting. How long until you do this, God? And God said, don’t worry. It’s all going to happen real soon. There’ll be no longer a delay. Revelation 22, we find out that growing in the river of life, which proceeds from the throne, there was the tree of life, which bears 12 fruit, 12 different kinds of fruit, like apples, oranges, peaches, whatever, bananas. Each one comes ripe each month. so that you can’t go up to the tree and grab a banana and a pomegranate. You can’t do that. You can only grab one or the other because only one would be ripe. You have to wait till the next month and there’ll be the heavens and the earth, right? There’s going to be a new heaven and a new earth. And there’ll be a sun. You won’t need the sun, but it’ll apparently be there, as the Bible says. So the earth will be orbiting around the sun, I imagine. And there’ll be 12 months and seasons, as God said in Genesis 1. And so when you get to the tree of life, you want to pick a fruit, you only get to choose one out of the 12. A year later, you could choose that one again. In the meantime, 11 others would have come ripe. Will there come a time for God when he forgets our sins? Is God aware of the sins of the world? Totally. He says they rise before him as a stench in his nostrils. He can’t stand it. But will he always remember our sins? Or will there come a time when he forgets our sins? Is he in an eternal now? And if so, if he never changes, and therefore, does he always have our sins before him, just as he has had previously? Well, we’re in Hebrews 10, verse 17. Then God adds, “‘Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.'” So there will come a time when God will put our sins out of his mind. Were our sins always in his mind? Well, they weren’t always in the future. Were they always in the past? That gets us into another theological issue that someday, if we ever cover the subject in depth of predestination and free will, we’ll address this head on. But those who say that our sins were always in God’s mind, which is somewhat of a grotesque thought, I think, God doesn’t like. Do you like… stewing over a bunch of wicked and vile acts, looking at it, taking it in, filling yourself with it? No. God doesn’t like it. God doesn’t want to have to be watching a back room in a gay bar for eternity. It’s too vile and disgusting. So there will come a time where God will put that out of his mind. Is he going to put it out of our mind? That’s beside the point. That’s not relevant to the issue. We’re talking about God and time. He says he will not remember it any longer. So there will be a time when God was very aware and cognizant of our sins, and then a time when he forgets about it. He wants to forget about it. He’s not a slave to these bits of information. If he’s sick of them, he could forget it. And that’s what he will do. Now, a God who exists in our ever present now, who cannot change, how can he do that? He can’t do that. He can’t change. Hebrews 10, 18. Now, when there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. What does that mean? There is no longer an offering. That’s talking about the old system of animal sacrifices. Christ has done it once for all. This no longer, is it a no longer for men or a no longer to God? As I just said moments ago, men would still try to offer animal sacrifices. Some today still do. But it’s no longer acceptable to God, to him. He says, for me, it is no longer acceptable. There was a time for me when I accepted this. Now I will not. Hebrews 10, 23. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. For he who promised is faithful. God is faithful. God is trustworthy. He’s consistent. He’s true. Not only now, but in the future. We can trust that when we meet him, he will keep his promise to us. It’s in that way that God does not change. So back in Genesis chapter 2. Verse 1, thus the heavens and the earth and all the hosts of them were finished. And on the seventh day, God ended his work, which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work.

SPEAKER 01 : 28:45

Hey, this is Nicole McBurney jumping into the broadcast. We are out of time for today, so be sure to come back next Thursday to hear the rest of this study. To find other resources and Bible studies, be sure to go to kgov.com. That’s kgov.com.