"...one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." (2 Peter 3:8 )
Time: Reality or Construct?
Does time exist in reality, or like the internet, is it a construct? Could it simply be an invention of man's imagination adopted for the procurement of power and stability?
The earth and moon have provided man with natural periods from their rotational cycles and he has successfully subdivided these ephemeral giants into pocket-sized chunks of time. Greenwich Mean Time was set up as absolute time to ensure that trains always ran on time. I have bad news for them. They failed!
A wealth of expressions has grown up around time. We talk about killing time, wasting time, that time and tide wait for no man. This suggests time is marching on inexorably and therefore we can't afford to relax for one moment. This means no time for meditation or reflection. No time for nature and the inner peace we so desperately need. The clock has become our god - our master rather than our servant.
Is time necessary?
The above scripture is curious. It appears to be as irrelevant as it is enigmatic. To say that a day is as a thousand years seems to imply that time is non-existent. Perhaps God is really saying "Hey! I don't need time. I'm timeless. I was here before the beginning of time and I shall still be here after the end of it."
Yet other scriptures are so time-oriented. One in particular has been popularised through song:
"To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven." (Ecclesiastes 3:1)
This is popular because it doesn't challenge anyone's comfort zone. It is a metaphor for the zeitgeist principle, the rise and fall of fashion, the vogue of human existence and the changing nature of life on earth. But we are told that God does not change.
Does this mean we have taken on board time as a false god? Have we drifted so far from the original blueprint, the God-given prototype of how we should live our lives? Or is God the real time lord, who can travel through a thousand years in one day?
It's your call!
Wednesday, 12 December 2007
God:The Real Time Lord?
Posted by Richard Webb at 22:17
Labels: God the real time lord, Is time necessary, Reality or construct
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2 comments:
Time is just another construct with which man seeks to create an ordered reality. This he does to try to comfort himself in the face of the unknown, by attempting to define principles of order in a disorderly and unpredictable universe. Natural laws aside, there are many events that defy prediction or principle.
Thanks for the thought-provoking post!
So we invent doctrines, religions, clubs, and lables for each other, so that we can take refuge in the idea of an ordered existence. Which in spite of God, in spite of the need to achieve a Common Good, in spite of nature's laws (which are forever being redefined anyway), order is pretty much an illusion.
Just my opinion....
Thanks for your comments, Lynda.If only I could get my other two readers to write in.
You're right about time as a construct. In effect, we have created our own matrix, a comfort zone of societies which become our criteria for the way we live.
Great comment!
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