Download Audio — File size: 2.10 MB — Duration: 02:18

Faith & Doctrine | Science & Creation | Spirituality & Prayer

What is Time, and how can God be above and outside of time?

Is there a definition of time that makes sense?

Yes.  Time is the measure of movement.  With every movement there is created a before and an after of that movement.

If you go to the store, you can then measure things by what you have done before and after your trip to the store. If you drive to the park, you can then measure things by before and after your trip to the park.

But where there is no movement at all, there is no time.  Thus, if a being could theoretically stand in a room alone and never move, there would be no time -- because there would be no movement at all.  There would be nothing by which one could measure a before and an after.  And since in God there is no movement, there is no time.  God is above and outside of time because He is the first mover who is unmoved.

Since God is the Creator and the first Principle, nothing has existence without Him -- and nothing can move without Him.  Every being that moves in the slightest way is able to move by the power of God.

The entire universe is upheld by God, not as the pantheists say -- that God lives and inheres in everything.  No, but rather that God sustains everything externally by His power, and God empowers everything to have life and movement.  Since God is empowering everything to move that does move, He is the one who is ultimately moving everything.  Nothing can move without God.

God, therefore, knows exactly who and what will move, and exactly how it will move.  He, therefore, knows the future and He is, thus, above and outside of time.  "Before the mountains were made or the earth and the world was formed, from eternity unto eternity, Thou art God." (Psalm 89:2)