Until the early twentieth century, time was assumed to be absolute. There was one universal clock; everyone, everywhere, agreed on what time it was. Einstein’s special relativity (1905) and general relativity (1915) destroyed that assumption. Time, it turns out, runs differently for different observers depending on their motion and their position in a gravitational field.
This is not a thought experiment; it is engineering. Your GPS satellites have to be corrected for relativistic effects every day, or your phone’s location would drift by several miles within hours. The clocks on those satellites tick faster than the clocks on the ground — by approximately 38 microseconds per day — because they are in weaker gravity. Time is real, but it is not absolute. It is a dimension woven into the same fabric as the three spatial dimensions, a fabric Einstein called spacetime.
If time itself is a created dimension — part of the structure of the universe rather than an absolute background against which the universe runs — then time itself began at the Big Bang. Augustine had said as much, fifteen hundred years earlier. God did not create the universe in time; he created time with the universe. God is therefore not in time at all. He is on the outside of every clock. Scripture has been telling us this from Moses to John.
Τάδε λέγει Κύριος ὁ Ὕψιστος, ὁ ἐν ὑψηλοῖς κατοικῶν τὸν αἰῶνα, Ἅγιος ἐν ἁγίοις ὄνομα αὐτῷ…For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit.’
ὅτι χίλια ἔτη ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς σου ὡς ἡ ἡμέρα ἡ ἐχθὲς ἥτις διῆλθε, καὶ φυλακὴ ἐν νυκτί.For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.
Ἓν δὲ τοῦτο μὴ λανθανέτω ὑμᾶς, ἀγαπητοί, ὅτι μία ἡμέρα παρὰ Κυρίῳ ὡς χίλια ἔτη, καὶ χίλια ἔτη ὡς ἡμέρα μία.But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
εἶπεν αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς· ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, πρὶν Ἀβραὰμ γενέσθαι ἐγὼ εἰμί.Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.’
ἐγώ εἰμι τὸ Α καὶ τὸ Ω, ἀρχὴ καὶ τέλος, λέγει Κύριος ὁ Θεός, ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὁ ἐρχόμενος, ὁ παντοκράτωρ.I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.
13καὶ εἶπε Μωυσῆς πρὸς τὸν Θεόν… τί ἐρῶ πρὸς αὐτούς; 14καὶ εἶπεν ὁ Θεὸς πρὸς Μωυσῆν λέγων· ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν· καὶ εἶπεν· οὕτως ἐρεῖς τοῖς υἱοῖς Ἰσραήλ· ὁ ὢν ἀπέσταλκέ με πρὸς ὑμᾶς.13Then Moses said to God… ‘what shall I say to them?’ 14God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ And he said, ‘Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you.’
τῷ δὲ βασιλεῖ τῶν αἰώνων, ἀφθάρτῳ, ἀοράτῳ, μόνῳ σοφῷ Θεῷ, τιμὴ καὶ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων· ἀμήν.To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς χθὲς καὶ σήμερον ὁ αὐτὸς καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας.Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
‘I AM’ in Greek — The Tense That Has No Tense (Continued)
When Moses asks God for his name at the burning bush, God answers ehyeh asher ehyeh, which the Septuagint translates ego eimi ho on — I am the one who is. The verb has no past, no future, no tense at all in the ordinary sense. It is pure present being. A thousand years later Jesus picks up the same name in John 8:58 (before Abraham was, I AM) and his hearers pick up stones. They understand exactly what he is claiming. The name I AM is the divine signature of the One who stands outside the clock. Hebrews 13:8 carries the same name forward: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever — not because he doesn’t change with time, but because, for him, there is no with time. He is the King of the ages (1 Tim 1:17), not the king within them.
Augustine Knew
In Confessions Book XI, Augustine wrestled with the question, What was God doing before he created the world? His answer is one of the most important sentences in theology: the question is malformed, because «before» presupposes time, and time itself is a creature. God did not exist in time before he created. God created time. Fifteen centuries later, Einstein’s general relativity made the same point in equations: time is part of the structure of the universe, not an independent backdrop. Augustine got there first — by attending closely to the doctrine of creation.
I AM — The Tense That Has No Tense
When Jesus says before Abraham was, I am, he deliberately collapses the past tense Abraham would have occupied (genes-thai, «to come to be») with the present tense reserved for God (ego eimi, «I AM» — the divine name from Exodus 3:14). The Jewish hearers understood exactly what he was claiming and picked up stones to kill him. Jesus is saying: I do not live on the timeline you live on. I am the one whose name is «I AM» — the eternal present. Revelation 1:8 says the same thing in different words: the one who is and who was and who is to come. Three tenses, one being.
Living Inside a Created Clock
If time is part of the created order, then God’s promises about the future are not predictions made from inside the timeline (he might be wrong) but reports from outside the timeline (he cannot be wrong). His «forever» is not a very long time; it is not time at all. Eternity is not «time stretched out forever.» It is the fullness of being God who does not have to wait for anything. When scripture says God has loved you with an everlasting love (Jer 31:3), it is not saying the love started a very long time ago. It is saying the love does not have a starting moment at all, because God does not have starting moments.
Pleasant Springs Church — Discipleship School