1st March 2025 question-box

Here’s today’s question:

How does God interact / relate with time? Does it imply determinism? How would you explain it to a non-Christian?

OK, there’s a few parts to that question, but first of all: God’s relation to time. Modern physics suggests that time and space exist together, and I guess that would mean that if space is created by God, then time as we know it is also created. And this seems to fit with what the bible says. Created things exist within the limitations of time, but God the Creator exists outside of the limitations of time. For example: Isaiah 46:10, “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come.” God can speak about every moment in time: past, or present or future.

How would I explain this to a non-Christian? Well perhaps we could imagine the passage of time like King Georges road late in the afternoon. We are on the road, moving along slowly: we’ve only seen the parts of the road we’ve been on, and once we’ve passed those parts, there’s no going back;
and we don’t know what is ahead. However, imagine that someone is up above in the channel 7 helicopter, and as he looks down, he can see all of King Georges road: beginning, middle and end. That’s more like God’s perspective.

However, we need to say a bit more. Here’s the second half of that verse in Isaiah: “I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.” So God is not only an observer in the helicopter, he is also involved at ground level; It’s as if He did the town planning for King Georges rd, and he sold the cars that are driving on it, he operates the traffic lights… and we’ll… he gets to be everywhere: it’s like he is sitting in each and every car and interacting with every driver, so that as each person travels along King Georges road, they get to the destination that he has planned for them.

Does this imply determinism? Well it depends what you mean by determinism. If you mean: “God has a plan and works all things according to the counsel of his will…” Then yes, that is a kind of determinism.

And yet the bible is very clear that it works in such a way that you and I make real choices, we have souls not just algorithms, and so we are responsible for the choices we make. For example: “Mary has chosen what is better” (Luke 10:42); “Do not envy the violent or choose any of their ways” (Proverbs 3:31). So, if you are driving on King Georges road, and you smash into the back of another car, it’s still your fault. On a more positive note, the bible also says: “Choose life, so that you and your children may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19)

And that’s where I’ll leave my answer for now, But next week, I’ll answer another question from the box about predestination, and we can think further about this.

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This question was originally answered in our evening service on 3 November 2024. I’ll aim to post another question and answer next week. You can read about how our question box works here.