INTRODUCTION:
TIME & THE UNIVERSE
One might expect a book about the Biblical viewpoint of time and the universe to start with “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” But the story starts long, long, before that. Before there could even be a beginning, and before there was such a thing as a universe, and before there was even time itself, there was God. Just God, in Trinity, apart from time and location. No angels, no mankind, no universe, no time; only God. God is timeless, and does not need time since He has always lived in an “eternal now” apart from time. In fact, God cannot be subject to time and still be God. A central tenet of this book is that time has not existed forever into the past. God created time, therefore it had a beginning, and God is in control of this created thing. However God did not create time until there were creatures who needed it because He never needed time, and still does not need it for Himself.
Other books have been written about time and the universe, but they generally ignore the existence of God. As a result they invent an illusion which makes time the creator instead of God. Time becomes their substitute for God and therefore time is a de facto god worshiped by people with enormous faith, but faith in an impossible illusion. The net result is a godless view of a universe where time simply existed forever and the universe and all in it were created by time, including soulless people who are simply advanced animals. Their theory, simply stated, is that given enough time anything is possible. Such a theory is both illogical and impossible requiring far more faith than believing in God as the true Creator. Their flawed theory ignores the issue that time itself needed to be created by God, along with the universe and two types of creatures with souls. Without God, there would be no time, and without time there would be nothing which could create a godless universe. And there would be no order to it, and also no beauty.
On the other hand, the Biblical view of time and the locations created by God is a true and fantastic story which contains two completely different universes, two restorations of the universes, two sets of sentient beings (those with souls), and multiple Ages of time during which God has different purposes and conditions in store for the souled occupants of the two universes God will have created, one present, and one future. This book will therefore explore how God has divided time into Ages for His purposes.
When God determined to create creatures with souls, those creatures required time, and they also required location. Time allows such creatures to have continuation and live sequentially inside an orderly process, to know their life and actions have meaning because there will be a tomorrow, to learn from the past to have a better future, to have memory of what has been done in the past and take those memories forward in time, to invent and improve because there is a future where such improvements would matter. Taken together, time and the universe enable souled beings to understand where they fit into life regarding sequence of continuation, location, position, and status in the timeline of history, and they also allow them to relate to each other and to God. Without time, souled beings would have no orientation or motivation since they could not even exist, or if at all, only for a fleeting moment, having no past and no future to look forward to. There would be no such thing as progress, improvement, or learning, and therefore no reason to do anything at all since there would be no "tomorrow" or even a next moment and therefore nothing at all would matter. Such creatures could not even survive since survival requires continuation, which requires time. And even if they could survive for a fleeting moment their life would have no higher level meaning or purpose apart from time. They could not even worship God since that requires enough time to first understand and appreciate God, and then express appreciation toward Him. Therefore, before God created souled creatures, He graciously created time. And along with time He created location in the form of a universe and other places which will soon be discussed. These two creations of time and location preceded the creation of the first souled creatures.
Time is a gift from God to His creatures, along with location in a universe. Time and the universe and even heaven were all created together since God did not require time or location, therefore He did not require a heaven to live in when He existed alone in Trinity in His eternal now. Heaven was created along with the original universe as a location for souled beings to locate and orient to God, not for God to live in. God cannot be confined to any location, including heaven. He is not limited by or subject to either time or location. He created both, and therefore both are subject to Him, not vice versa. The Creator did not make Himself a slave to His creation. However, once God had created time He freely and graciously obligated Himself to provide His souled creatures with certain things inside time and in various locations. Therefore God can willingly obligate Himself to act within time, but He does so because He chooses and desires to act in the interests of His created beings because of His love. But He is not otherwise limited by or subject to either time or location including a heaven or a universe. Time depends on God for continuation, which is the fundamental aspect of time, and once time was created it continues forever since souled creatures will live forever – every single one of them. And location is paired with time as another creation necessary for souled creatures, since they must always have both time and a location in order to exist.
This book will use the term “location” in the sense of places created by God for souled creatures to occupy, primarily the universe and heaven, but also several others we will explore. Locations have already changed, and over time some will continue to be added or renovated by God as His plan for souled beings unfolds. Without God, time and location could not and would not exist, and neither existed before God created them.
Some of this information may seem unbelievable, but the Bible reveals many things to us about these subjects and the rest can be deduced by comparing various portions of the Bible. For instance, how could an eternal omniscient God as described in the Bible be subject to time? He cannot be, otherwise He would not know the future. He would be reliant on time to reveal the future just as we mortals are, and that does not describe the God of the Bible. He would not be able to definitively know the future unless He existed outside of time as its creator. And how could both time and God go back eternally into the past? They cannot, otherwise time would be God's equal in the sense of having no beginning. Therefore time cannot be as “ancient” as God. Thus the central basic tenets of this book are: 1) God created time, and 2) God created all locations. The remainder of this book will explain these basic tenets in detail, as this is merely an introduction.
God has provided information in the Bible whereby the more a person understands, the more they are able to understand. Deeper truths depend on understanding more basic truths, and then combining basic truths together into more complex truths. Trying to look for a specific verse here or there is not how God has revealed the deeper mysteries of His wisdom and truth. As with most things in the Bible, God has told us what we need to know, but not everything we want to know. But the Bible has revealed significant information about all of the subjects cited above concerning time, creations, creatures, restorations, and universes, and there is plenty we can know about them. Unraveling these issues is the purpose of this book. Between the things we know explicitly from the Bible there are many other things which can be deciphered to some degree or another, therefore careful and educated interpolation can be useful when it is grounded in enough information from the Bible itself to figure out what lies between. This book will deal with the known, then will use careful interpolation to fill in the gaps where possible and appropriate. However, useless speculation is of no value when trying to ascertain the truth of God’s Word, so it will be avoided. And when theoretical information is occasionally presented for discussion purposes due to inadequate support for a conclusion, the Reader will be kept informed regarding which is which so that you may decide. The truth from God's Word is the important issue, and that is the focus of this book as related to time, the universe, heaven and the other locations God has created or will create in the future.
If a Reader wants to better understand the underlying issue of building truth upon truth, and how the Bible reveals deeper truths, these are explained in detail in another of my books “Exploring Deep Concepts & Mysteries of the Bible” which is available free online if interested. But we will stick to the main subjects of time and location here in this book.
At this point it is useful to insert a timeline of time. Yes, time itself has a timeline. This will help us orient to God's overarching plan for time and how He has arranged time to accommodate His will for the two types of souled creatures He created, namely angels and man.