Is God Temporal or Timeless?

The rationalists would answer that God is timeless; the empiricists, that God is temporal. So, what is the truth?

I think we must first begin by admitting our limitations. If we are yet having difficulty understanding metaphysics, theology is even a more impossible arena, unless, of course, God intervenes to reveal Himself. However, we also know that He only reveals to us in the limits and the terms that are understandable to us. More importantly, the Bible emphasizes on knowing God personally through a loving and obedient faith. But, it doesn't mean that if a question regarding the nature of God arises, we are not required to give an answer. I wish to present some thoughts here.

For a pure rationalist, ultimately, time itself is illusory, as all experience is (as in monism and non-dualism). For a rationalist who accepts divine revelation and the validity of empirical knowledge, God is atemporal or timeless; He is beyond time; He is transcendent to time: however, at the same time, God is also temporal; He is immanent in time as the God who acts in time. Now, by the temporality of God we do not mean the temporality that the theory of relativity talks of; God is Spirit, not matter. By the temporality of God we only mean that our phenomenal talk of God’s acts in the universe are always temporal (Is there any other way to account for events? Yes, there is the tenseless theory of time which implies that God created the whole set of events which are just there—Wait! No, God and the events are all just there (for “God created” assumes the tensed-theory: evidently, the tenseless theory is theologically untenable). At the same time, we will not say that both these concepts of timelessness and temporality define the reality of God. We only say that as far as our rational and empirical understanding (and their limits) is concerned, and as far as the revelation of God is concerned, we cannot but think that God is timeless in His being and also temporal in relation to acts that He does. In that sense, to even say that God created time (conceptual, not the physical time which is relative to created things individually) assumes that He created time in time. But, is it not contradictory to think of divine timelessness and divine temporality at the same time? I think it is not impossible to find an analogy in our experience. For instance, we know that the statement “The sun rises in the east” is true and very practical: people can know where is east by looking where the sun is rising in the morning. Of course, a compass will help us to have more accurate understanding of North or South. But, nevertheless, the idea that the sun rises in the east is not also false, phenomenally speaking. However, in “reality”, the case is that the sun doesn’t rise; it is the earth that rotates on its axis; the sun is static (timeless?), though relatively. And, this knowledge is also useful. Yet, still, there are further theories to explain the earth-sun relationship and our solar system’s relation to the universe. But until this juncture, the statements “The sun rises in the east” and “The sun doesn’t move, but the earth moves” are both true in phenomenal terms. I think that talk of divine temporality is something akin to this (that is with reference to how far our rational-empirical sense is concerned).

Again, we know that God is Spirit, which also means that the laws of relativity don’t have any significance for Him and are external to His being. The empirical view cannot find the timeless view of God intelligible in any empirical terms. There is nothing in experience analogous to atemporality of being. Of course, there are the laws of logic that are considered to be atemporal; however, God is not “laws of logic” or a set of necessary-universal-immutable-atemporal a priori propositions. But, Scriptures tell us that He is Logos who existed in the beginning, the Personal-Creator Logos; thus, conjoining both the idea of personhood and the idea of necessity in Him. I think this could be a good way of talking about Him, though, I must confess, in our present experience, we are still limited in our understanding of God as Spirit. We think that we got some objectivity when we discovered that the earth rotates on its axis and revolves around the sun. But, we know that is only like a second-level objectivity. So, it is safe to conclude that as far as our rational understanding can accept, God is timeless, and as far as our empirical categories permit, God is temporal; yet, we know that God is beyond all this and the perfect vision is still to come; that cannot be without the resurrection.

Still, however, one must be careful to not fall prey to the lure of pragmatic theology.[See Article]. The Bible clearly speaks of God as the Eternal One. The Bible also tells us that God is unchanging and all-knowing (His knowledge of the future being perfect). However, our phenomenal talk of God’s acts in the universe are always temporal.

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Pertinent Discussions
Steve Bishop, God, Time, and Eternity
William Lane Craig, God, Time, and Eternity

Last updated on March 8, 2016

Time Theories and the Limits of Reason

We have earlier noted that the conflict between reason and experience has sometimes led to either reason jettisoning experience or vice versa. Examples of rational cosmologies are non-dualism and monism, if not some form of idealism that denies the reality of empirical perceptions. Examples of empirical theories are anything ranging from pluralistic realism to logical positivism and the like theories that reject the validity of non-empirical postulates.

We also noted that Zeno's paradoxes are epistemic paradoxes of conflict between reason and sense-experience.

Rational Problems:
1. Aristotle's Time Paradox. Regarding Time, he writes in his Physics,
"the following considerations would make one suspect that it either does not exist at all or barely, and in an obscure way. One part of it has been and is not, while the other is going to be and is not yet. Yet time-both infinite time and any time you like to take-is made up of these. One would naturally suppose that what is made up of things which do not exist could have no share in reality."

In other words, Aristotle is stating that something cannot be made up of nothing. But, when one thinks of time, the past is not there and the future is also not there (is still to come); the present itself is gone before we can talk of it; so, if none of its parts can be said to exist at the time they are said to exist, time is made up of non-existent parts; however, non-existent parts make a non-existent thing, something that doesn't exist.

2. John McTaggart's Unreality of Time Argument. In his 1908 essay, "The Unreality of Time", McTaggart argued that time must be unreal. According to him, positions in time, as they appear to us can be identified as either "Past, Present, and Future" (A-Series) or "Earlier and Later" (B-Series). For something to be earlier, it must always exist as earlier. For something to be later, it must always exist as later. Earlier can never become Later since Earlier is always Earlier. But, if this is true, then one event cannot change into another, because M (Earlier) has to be M always and N (Later) has to be N always in their positions in time. However, if one adds the Past-Present-Future order to this, then an event in the future becomes an event in the present and an event in the present becomes an event in the past; thus, one event changes into another. But, the problem is that in order to be able to talk of an event as an event that is present, that will be in the past, and that was in the future, one must already pre-suppose the reality of Past-Present-Future (i.e. the A-Series); otherwise, "will be" and "past" are incompatible, "was" and "future" are incompatible; one can only speak of was (past-tense) and past, is (present-tense) and present, will be (future-tense) and future. In order to say that an event is "present in the present, future in the past, past in the future" one must already presuppose the A-series to account for such speaking; but, this is question begging. However, if the A-Series cannot be established, we have already seen that the B-Series is contrary to our perception of time. To reject the A-Series is to reject the reality of time.

Responses:
B-theorists reject the A-series of Past-Present-Future and, as in eternalism, consider events to just be there without any flow of time or change. Events are fixed as Earlier and Later. The B-theory tries to bridge the rational-empirical chasm by trying to retain immutability at the expense of unity for the sake of pluralistic realism; but, this is half-way logic. This may allow a tense-less universe to exist. Our experience of past-present-future is an illusion; in reality, they say, events just are; they don't happen. While there are some who think that this view has the support of the theory of relativity's rejection of absolute simultaneity (at least, as far as perception is concerned), the theory of relativity doesn't reject the notion of happening; an event is an happening; at least, happenings (motion, shrinking) are presupposed for the theory of relativity to be. But, if an event is a happening, and "happening" implies "change", then B-theory cannot actually talk about events, it must only talk of the universe just there. But, if B-theory cannot talk of events, what is it talking about? One may respond by saying that an event itself is composed of event-parts; however, aren't those event-parts (events in themselves) infinitely divisible into a Former and a Later. In such case, they must still first resolve the mereological paradox: Each part is divided into a former and a later part. Each former and the later part have a former and a later part of their own respectively, and so on ad infinitum. Thus, the size of the part would be zero and unlimited, which is paradoxical. Ted Sider's Stage Theory to explain temporary intrinsics or change tries to resolve the contradiction of stages other than S existing, but S itself possessing the temporal property of "I myself will be bent" (of futurely being bent by virtue of having a temporal counterpart tomorrow that is bent). I don't see how such a property makes S continuous with its supposed other stages. It does not explain how is it that the counterpart is bent "tomorrow". "Will be" of McTaggart's A-series brings us back to his original problem, I think. The B-theory has taken recourse to tenses, which cannot be avoided when one talks of time.

To say, for instance, that one can conceptualize t (e.g. July 12, 2015) is a set of x events, so that if trans-temporal vision was possible one could see x events happening at t is not enough; because, this doesn't repeal the fact of "happening". The only resolve would be to divide t into more parts, and so ad infinitum, in which case, by means of  infinite rationalization of reality, one is logically compelled to deny the authenticity of phenomenal experience. Ultimately, such rationalization will only support some rational cosmology.

The eternalist view may appeal to those who may find in it some sort of explanation of how God knows the future before it has come to pass. But, again that would mean attempting to interpret God in temporally conceptual terms that are disputable. One can say what this may mean from the rational point of view and what it may mean from the empirical point of view, and perhaps use a via negativa method of speech to recognize what foreknowledge is not. However, attempts to logically explain divine foreknowledge would be like attempting to empty an ocean into a small hole. Mathematics may help us arrive at necessary, universal, mathematical principles; but, these mathematical principles are not divine attributes. And,  when it comes to empirical concepts like knowledge, perception is limited by finitude.

Perhaps, among the many purposes of philosophy is also to help us recognize our epistemic limits. In the ultimate sense, temporal beings still don't have the objective vision of what it means to be trans-temporal. Then, how can they make a judgement about the nature of time? The antinomy of temporality is unavoidable. But, this doesn't mean that from their perspective they are not able to tell what at least time is not.

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Check: W. L. Craig on A and B theories
See Also:Space as Non-Reality, Zeno's Arguments

Modified Feb 20, 2016.

Making the Best Use of Time

"Making the best use of the time, because the days are evil." (Eph.5:16, ESV)

Things that Waste Time
1. Godless Mysteries (Acts 1:7). Indulging time in things which are hidden by God is a wastage of time, because no matter how hard one will try, one cannot find out anything that is hidden by God. You cannot hack the secret files of heaven; there are no heaven-leaks. Beware of false teachers and mystery cults!
2. Gainless Controversies (2Tim.2:23; Tit.3:9,10; 1Tim.6:3-5). Do not waste time with someone who is obviously a rebel and has no interest in the truth. Those who are interested in truth will have a heart to listen as well. However, those who are obsessed with rebellion will persist in their folly. The Bible instructs about such, "Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them." (Tit.3:10)
3. Negative People . Don't waste time with negative people who have no faith, are chronic critics, abusers of grace, and scoffers of good. Negative people are like blackholes that absorb everything around and are still never satisfied. They are waterless clouds and wandering stars (Jude 1:12) who only take and have nothing to give in return but negativity. Someone said well that God has made enough in the world to satisfy everyone's need, but not enough to satisfy one man's greed. Greed is a bottomless pit, and those who associate with selfish, greedy, and carnal minded people waste precious time which when lost cannot be regained. Remember, each one of us has only a slice of time allotted in this life; we must watch and use time like nothing else.

Best Employment of Time
1. House of God (Psa.84:10). All time used in the work of Christ and the Father is time sowed into eternity. It has amplified results. Therefore, the psalmist says that one day in God's house is better than 1000 elsewhere. God knows only one place on earth specifically, "the House of God"; every other place is just "elsewhere" compared to it.
2. Meditate on God's Word Day and Night (Psalm 1:2). To meditate doesn't mean to keep reading the Bible all the time. That is impossible; for one has got many other things to do. But, one can meditate upon God's Word day and night. Meditation means to try to recall, to search in our minds, what we have read and heard of God's word. The Holy Spirit will bring to one's mind the truths that one needs for a situation (Jn.16:13); however, that cannot be unless one is fellowshipping with the Spirit all the time by asking questions and searching for truth even while engaged in the daily chores of life. Meditation helps one assimilate God's word by personally tasting each bite of truth as relevant to one's situation. It helps one to apply God's word to one's life situations. When one applies God's word to one's life situations, one experiences divine grace and power.
3. Profitable Labor (Eccl.9:10). There are those who idle away time saying that they have no job to do; they consider themselves unemployed. But, does anyone need to be employed in order to work? The earth is full of works if one has wish to do whatever his hands find to do. The Bible is against wasting time in profitless labor and commands everyone to find something good to do in order to have enough to give to others in need (Eph.4:28; 2Thess.3:10,12).
4. Fellowship Time (Eph.5:16-20). Fellowship time with spiritually minded believers is a time of mutual edification. It is never a wastage. The Bible tells us to not give up meeting together as we see the Day of Christ's return approaching close (Heb.10:25). Fellowship doesn't just mean attending a church service; it means to participate in worship, in singing, in reading, in listening, in praising God, and in sharing one's testimonies, requests, and praying for each other. There is nothing as precious as the sight of God's children getting together and ministering unto the Lord on earth. He says where two or three are gathered in His Name, He is in their midst (Matt.18:20)
5. Sharpening Your Axe (Eccl.10:10). God has created the sabbath for man, so that he will be refreshed for greater impact later on. Rest is instituted by God. Each one of us needs to have a time away from the madding crowd to spend it in self-evaluation, self-improvement, and self-refocusing in the presence of the Lord. But, it's abnormal if one is sharpening his axe for 6 days to use it just for a single day. God ordained 6 days for work and 1 for rest, and rest comes only after work, remember.
6. Giving Time: Service and Money, but more Service. When we give money, we also give time (that was spent to earn that money); however, time itself cannot be substituted with money always. For instance, a father who only gives things and money to his children but has no time to spend with them is not considering that time and money are not the same thing. When we give significant time to someone, we add to their time significance. Sometimes, it may mean helping someone around. Sometimes, it may only mean to spend time by their bed side while they are sick. But, the gift of time out of a spirit of love is a powerful opportunity to tell the world that we are the children of God who, as our Lord, are willing to go out seeking for the one lost sheep than being satisfied with the 99 at home. Someone who gifts time never loses it, because he actually sows it into eternity.

Gift of Time: A Day Doesn't Need To Have Only 24 Hours

Two horses have more horsepower than the sum of both their individual powers put together. This is called the principle of synergy. Similarly, when two people work together on a job, their individual times add up to a greater whole than both of theirs individually. Thus, in a team work, one ends up getting more than 24 hours in his quota. Consequentially, a person in social engagement has more time than those who wish to work in solitude only. Of course, solitude has a place, especially when social engagement can mean destruction of synergy (like in two horses pulling a cart in opposite directions, in which case the single horse would do better than two opposite horses). Proverbs 21:9 says that "It's better to live alone in the corner of an attic than with a quarrelsome wife in a lovely home" (NLT). When a husband and his wife have opposite perspectives and opposite directions, they end up destroying the energy of each other. But, where there is harmony, the overall results are magnificent. Therefore, a couple must work towards each other and for each other as one soul in two bodies, rather than become egotistical and get the ship to nowhere. Harmony is no difficult when both the instruments tune with the Master; and, conforming to Him, they are attuned to each other.

Now, there are also things (or people) that rob and steal time, so that at the end of the day one has had less than 24 hours. We are talking here about "personal time". For instance, when you allow yourself to be part of a futile chatter or a self-pity moaning, you allow yourself being robbed of precious time. Similarly, when someone violently demands your time and takes it, he gets the advantage of it at your loss. In general, one must be careful to assert ownership over one's time, without being selfish about the same. However, there are cases in which bad job-systems rob their workers of their daily quota of time. In other cases, workers are unjust towards their employers by not being faithful in the management of time (a sorry state of some government offices in India). When we make people wait or take more time than we promised we would take, we rob their time.

There are also cases of time wastage, when the daily quota is destroyed by either idling away time or by spending it with wasters. Proverbs 29:3 talks about the person who wastes wealth by hanging around with prostitutes. Wealth wasted is time wasted because it requires time to accumulate wealth.

While idle chatter is a great thief or waster of time, edifying conversations and fellowship help to synergize time, especially when there is mutual sharing so that what each has learnt over time is shared mutually for the benefit of both.

But, there is nothing better than gifting time to others, without expecting anything in return. When we give our time to someone, we lose it for a while, but we gain it in the form of the joy of selfless goodness, and selfless goodness has an infinite value because of God who is the ground and source of it. Therefore, those who do good are given eternal life (Rom.2:7). We are not talking about salvation by works here (the very idea of merit is contrary to faith and love); for, the quality of eternal life of God is sacrificial. God in the eternal Triune Community is self-giving Love. When we give our time to someone who cannot give it back to us in the form of either money or any worldly thing, that is called the sacrifice of time. It may be us serving them in time of their sickness or their weakness or their inability. But, it can also be us serving others in our daily allotment of day, by going the extra mile. There is no limit to the goodness of service when it is done out of love for Jesus. Therefore, the Bible exhorts workers to serve their masters as serving Christ, not with eye service as men-pleasers but as serving Christ (Eph.6:5,6).

I think it was Derek Prince who said that when we give of our wealth to the Lord, we actually give also our time along with the wealth because it equals to that amount of time that needs to be spent (or spent) in order to earn the money. When one gives to a poor person money or help in the form of service, the Bible says, he lends to the Lord (Prov.19:17) because it is God who has created both the rich and the poor, and one shows oneness with God by participating in His works of generosity.

We have a slice of time allotted to us in this journey of life. Let us sow this time into eternity to reap fruits eternal!

Time, Chance, and Eternity

From the Throne with Christ,
From the Citadels of Eternity,
I looked down on the shadows of Time
And was amazed at foolish humanity.
They fret and they fight,
They gamble and concede;
For Time dallies with Chance;
I sided with Eternity.

(Eccl.9:11; Matt.16:26; Col.3:1,2; Jn.6:27)

Sorry, Got No Time To Waste!

The Bible talks straight business; it has no time for dallying about or beating around the bush. When God says something, He means it. He doesn't spice up His talk with jokes and quotes. When God speaks something, He speaks with passion, He pours His heart out, He means business - not a comma or a dot of what He speaks can be changed. His word is exact. God also requires us to take life seriously and delicately.

One of the important things that the Bible requires Christians to observe is the right usage of time. Two times it commands us to redeem time or buy every moment as precious (Eph.5:16; Col.4:5). Time is a significant and valuable possession that God entrusts to man; we are accountable for every single second on the life roll. The Master will return in the appointed time to see if we have made best use of time.

There are a few things that God wants us not to waste our time in. Sin does waste and plunder our time; it robs our life. However, there are people of God who have been delivered from sin who may have gotten entangled in certain practices or situations that are wasting their life. We'll let God's Word tell us what not to waste our time in.

1. DON'T WASTE TIME OVER CONJECTURES ABOUT THE EXACT TIMINGS OF THE SECOND COMING

That was a big issue in the early Church. Some even had gone to extent of saying that the Day of Christ had come, and Paul had to correct that by showing why such views were wrong (2Thess. 2:2-10).

There are many people today who think that to know the exact timing of His coming is a mission mandate. However, Jesus made it very clear that the mission of the Church is not to know "the times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority" (Acts 1:7). In other words, the business of keeping to His timetable belongs to God and He has chosen NOT TO REVEAL it to man. He gives signs of the Second Coming, but He has not specified the date.

On the other hand, what the Church must concentrate on is clearly given:

"You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." (Acts 1:8)

The mission of the Church is to be witness of Christ "to the end of the earth." In modern times, this focus on evangelism and discipleship is being lost and replaced by other programs and non-evangelistic activities. However, the time that Christ has given to the Church is for the sake of witness: for the sake of evangelism and discipleship.

2. DON'T WASTE TIME OVER UNPROFITABLE CONTROVERSIES

It is a sad thing to realize that much of Church time and intellectual energy has been wasted over issues and questions that are either meaningless or unsolvable. I have heard that there were theologians who wasted volumes of pages over the discussion about how many angels could stand upon a pinhead! The Bible commands us to avoid unprofitable and foolish questions.

“Avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife.” (2Tim. 2:23)
“Avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and useless.” (Tit. 3:9)

It is not necessary for the servant of God to answer every question and engage in every so called theological discussion or controversy. Anything that doesn’t promote spiritual love and harmony is not divine; it is sensual, worldly, and demonic (James 3:14,15). Any knowledge that belittles others, humiliates other humans, and gives occasion for false pride or false humility is ungodly and unspiritual. We must avoid such knowledge.

Instead of wasting time over questions or controversies that lead to nothing but strife, we must focus on the communication of God’s wholesome doctrine. Anybody who wastes his time on foolish and ignorant disputes and strivings about the law is like a farmer who is perpetually only trying to clean all the weeds in the world. That is not his job! Instead, he is supposed to concentrate on his own field, to soften its soil, to sow the right seed, water the ground, and enjoy its fruit.

The Bible tells us not to waste our time with people who have a rebellious nature and always try to confront us with foolish reasoning. Their intentions are not pure, and so we must rebuke them, not waste our time with them.

“Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition, knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned.” (Tit. 3:10,11)

“If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a [means of] gain. From such withdraw yourself.” (1 Tim. 6:3-5)

Again, we don’t need to be answering every question of every man. We must be ready to give the reason for the hope that is within us (1Pet. 3:15); but, we must avoid “profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge” (1Tim.6:20). Our main job is to guard what has been entrusted to us (1Tim.6:20) and to teach, with gentleness, God’s sound doctrine (2Tim.1:13; Tit.1:9; 2:1). If we spend more time with the Lord in His Word, we will recognize His voice very well, and the devil’s fake voice won’t be able to deceive us. We don’t need to disprove something in order to prove God. When the light shines, darkness has to recede.

3. DON’T WASTE TIME WITH NEGATIVE PEOPLE

There were times when Jesus put everybody out and only took a few within when He wanted to minister to someone. For instance, when He was on the way to Jairus’ house, some people brought the news that Jairus’ daughter was dead. But, Jesus didn’t agree with the negative information. Negative news couldn’t alter His mission target. Nothing could turn Him back from the course He set Himself upon. He replied, "Don't be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed." (Luke 8:50). His faith and confidence was not shaken by the negative information, because He knew what He was doing and that nothing could waste His time – He didn’t make a mistake when He listened to Jairus and started towards his house. On reaching Jairus’ house, He saw a number of mourning men and women. We have lots of mourners and wailers in society today who only bemoan negatively about everything around and say “It’s hopeless; nothing can be done; these people are like that, they won’t change!” I question them back, “Why do you have to think like that? Why don’t you hope for better things to come?” Jesus told the mourners to stop wailing. “Stop wailing,” He said, “She is not dead but asleep.” However, the mourners only laughed at Him, because the Bible says that they knew “she was dead” (Luke 8:53). Isn’t it ironical that people can be wailing and laughing at the same time – that’s the mark of negativism; it is filled with prideful hopelessness, as if even God cannot change anything! It is filled with scorn and mockery; that’s why the Bible calls that man blessed who doesn’t sit in the seat of the scornful (Psalm 1:1). So, what did Jesus do? The Gospel (Good News) tells us that He put all of them outside (Luke 8:54); then He took the girl by her hand saying “Little girl, arise!” And, immediately, she rose. That is the power of faith in God. Faith is not ambition; faith is being confident of God’s will and being obedient to what He wants us to do in a situation. However, the point I wanted to highlight was that Jesus put all the negative people outside.

The Bible does teach us clearly: “He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.” (Prov. 13:20).

Who are the fools? Proverbs lists many of their qualities like: they slander others (10:18), are right in their own eyes and listen to nobody (12:15), are self-confident (14:16), are intolerant, impatient, and irrational (12:16), are afraid of unreal and fantasized objects (22:13, 26:13), and are lazy and great wasters among many other such self-destructive things (18:9). That’s why it is written, “Let a man meet a bear robbed of her cubs, rather than a fool in his folly.” (Prov.17:12).

One simple definition of negative people would be “those who don’t take God and His promises seriously but are driven by their own prideful thoughts.” Negative people cannot see that God is light; because they are always living in darkness. That is why they cannot experience the fullness of God’s blessings in their lives. It’s like the Pharisees and the Sadducees whose intellectualism clouded their minds from believing in Jesus. Jesus said that the others, who were perhaps not so knowledgeable as these were, were entering the Kingdom of God, because they were passionate and forceful in receiving God’s promises (Matt. 11:12). But, the intellectual Jews only were absolutely negative: they had an excuse for everything, especially for not accepting the word of God. When John the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking, they said “He has a demon”, and when Jesus came drinking and eating, they said He’s “a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” “But” said Jesus, “wisdom is justified by her children” (Matt 11:19). In other words, they were not wise just because they thought they were wise – and they weren’t nice either, just because they thought that they were nice. Jesus didn’t waste His time on them, He only rebuked them; on the other hand, He went to the lowly ones, to the sinners, to those who were searching for Him, to those who had the spirit of acceptance.

He established that principle also for His disciples when He said: “And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet” (Matt.10:14). He helps us to know in the spirit where to draw a line in the ministry of persuasion and reconciliation.

Who is a negative person? A negative person is someone who doesn’t respect you as a person, has a spirit of mockery, is a discourager, doesn’t wish the best for you (doesn’t love his/her neighbor as him/herself), is envious, exerts negative pressure, is compromising, is impatient and tries to win by manipulation and strife and not by wisdom.

We must surround ourselves with wise people: those who fear God and wish to honor Him with their lives, those who are not afraid to obey God, those who have strong faith in the sovereignty and wisdom of God, those who are mature and can discern very well between the right and the wrong, those who love you, wish the best for you, and are happy to see you grow, those who respect the God given vision in your life and are willing to speak into your life. And, you should also be likewise, wise.

4. DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME DOING NOTHING

There is an interesting story in the Old Testament about four lepers who suddenly hit upon this wisdom. Lepers in those days, as we know, were outcastes. They had to live outside the city. Their lives were miserable, having to depend for their daily living on crumbs of waste food thrown out of the city, or perhaps food left by someone’s generous charity. They were the untouchables. But, in the days of these four lepers, there was a great famine in Samaria because of an enemy siege around the city. As a result, food became scarce: “the siege lasted so long that a donkey's head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter of a cab of seed pods for five shekels” (2 Kgs. 6:25). No wonder, to the dismay of the lepers, it was impossible for any kind of food material to get outside the city gates. But, one day they asked one of the most important questions that man had ever asked - I think it was better than Newton’s question about why an apple fell from the tree, because this question saved their lives. They asked, “Why are we sitting here until we die?” (2Kgs. 7:3). So, they weighed the options before them in order to choose the proper course of action that could save their lives.

There were three options: sit there and die, enter the city of famine and die, or go to the Syrians and surrender – if they kill, they die; if they spare, they live. They chose the third option, and we can read the rest of the story in 2 Kings 7 about how they discovered that the Syrian camp was abandoned and God had brought both victory and provision to His people. It all happened because they chose to make the best use of the time that they had before they died; they weighed the options and chose the most appropriate course – often, that is how God leads us on to victory and provision, to the place we need to go. If we sit waiting for a miracle to drop from heaven, it is possible that God can do that, but I don’t think God wants to encourage our laziness and passive inaction. He wants us to be grown-ups, decision-makers, discerners of His will, of His opportunities, and redeemers of time. He wants us to be rulers, not vegetables.

Ecclesiastes 9:10 says, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom” (NIV). Don’t just retire from work. Keep doing something for the Lord, to honor Him. If God thinks you are not fit for any action, He’ll take you away anyway!

Ephesians 4:28 teaches us to work, doing something useful with our hands, so that we may have something to share with those in need. In other words, God wants us to work and be so fruitful that we can be a help to others as well in their need. The Bible warns those who act as if they are very busy; but, they are not busy; just busybodies. It commands such people “to settle down and earn the bread they eat” (2Thess 3:12). It stipulates "If a man will not work, he shall not eat." (2Thess 3:10) and asks us to stay away from those who disregard this instruction (2:14).

The Bible commands: “Six days you shall labor and do all your work” (Exo 20:9), because God is also a working God. If someone has not labored, the term “rest” doesn’t apply to him. What is he resting from? Jesus said, "As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work” (John 9:4). God is interested in action. But, it’s not just about any action. Jesus said to the Church at Ephesus: “repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place -- unless you repent” (Rev. 2:5). Why? Was the Church of Ephesus inactive? Not at all; because, Jesus said to her earlier that He knew her works, her labor, her patience, and that she labored for His name was did not become weary. But, she had left her first works, or the principal works.

Many times a church has lots of activities and works going on, but she misses on the principal works. We’re glad for the apostles. When the problem of food distribution arose in the church (Acts 6), they refused to waste their time over table serving. Why? Was table serving wrong? Not at all; but to depart from their principal responsibility, to steal away time from their principal duty-mandate time and allot that time to something else was uncalled for. So, the apostles decided it well that they would devote themselves to prayer and ministry of the Word – which was their principal course of action. For the distribution service, they appointed deacons. We must understand the value of time in answer to the calling that God has placed over our lives. More importantly, we should not forget that evangelism and discipleship are the principal tasks of the Church. Oswald J. Smith said it well, “The church that does not evangelize will fossilize.”

May the Lord grant us the wisdom to redeem our time and honor God with every single second of our life!

Space as Non-reality: An Alternative to Kant

From Epistemics of Divine Reality (2007) by Domenic Marbaniang

The distinction between a priori and a posteriori knowledge that between analytical and synthetic judgments once established, Kant easily proceeded to show that the quality of a priori did not just belong to analytical judgments but to some synthetic judgments too. Since these synthetic judgments like “2+2=4”, “Every effect has a cause”, and “Bodies occupy space” contained, according to Kant, predicates not contained in the subject, they meant added information; in other words the possession of knowledge a priori. According to Kant, then, these a priori data formed the conditions according to which all other empirical data were interpreted and understood by the mind. The world as one sees or perceives as a result is nothing but what the mind determines it to look as. Space and time are not objective realities but subjective forms of intuition in which all data is arranged by the mind. Thus, the mind is not able to conceive of anything apart from space and time.

But what if space is not a form of intuition but a mere negation of objects? According to this view then, space would mean nothing. Consequently, once one knows what something is, then its negation becomes readily evident. This doesn’t require any a priori knowledge of the negation equaling a synthetic judgment. The negation, in accordance to the rational principle of the exclusive middle, is of analytical nature. Once it is known that A=A and not non-A it immediately follows that something is either A or non-A. In the same manner, once through experience something is known, its negation, namely, nothing also is known.

It can, consequently, be postulated that space is the negation of substance, of reality, of being; thus, space is nothing, unreality, non-being. Consequently, one does not see things in space but things alone and their negation, viz., space. Things do not occupy space. For then, what does space occupy? Things negate space, i.e. nothing. Thus, infinity may be predicated of space in the same manner that infinity is predicated of zero. Once this is established, the question whether the universe is finite or infinite becomes unnecessary; for it is empirically evident that it cannot be materially infinite though it may be spatially infinite. But to say space is infinite is not making a positive assertion of some existent thing but stating a negation. It simply means that things negate space and where there is no thing seen, there is nothing (i.e. space) seen. And nothing (zero) is intensively (by divisibility) and extensively (by multiplicity) infinite. Thus, space can be infinitely divided and multiplied; yet, it amounts to nothing for it is nothing.

In this manner, space ceases to be a subjective condition of perception. It is simply the apprehension of non-reality.

© Domenic Marbaniang, 2007

Also see "Space as Negation of Being"

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Later Quotes & Entries

Nonbeing is one of the most difficult and most discussed concepts. Parmenides tried to remove it as a concept. But in order to do so he had to sacrifice life. Democritus re-stablished it and identified it with empty space, in order to make movement thinkable. (Paul Tillich, The Courage to Be, 32)

March 11, 2016. Excerpts from Albert Einstein, Ideas and Opinions (1954),  360-377

It is indeed an exacting requirement to have at all to ascribe physical reality to space. and especially to empty space. Time and again since remotest times philosophers have resisted such a presumption. Descartes argued somewhat on these lines: space is identical with extension. but extension is connected with bodies; thus there is no space without bodies and hence no empty space. The weakness of this argument lies primarily in what follows. It is certainly true that the concept of extension owes its origin to our experiences of laying out or bringing into contact solid bodies. But from this it cannot be concluded that the concept of extension may not be justified in cases which have not themselves given rise to the formation of this concept. Such an enlargement of concepts can be justified indirectly by its value for the comprehension of empirical results. The assertion that extension is confined to bodies is therefore of itself certainly unfounded. We shall see later. however. that the general theory of relativity confirms Descartes' conception in a roundabout way. What brought Descartes to his seemingly odd view was certainly the feeling that, without compelling necessity, one ought not to ascribe reality to a thing like space, which is not capable of being "directly experienced."
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When a smaller box s is situated, relatively at rest, inside the hollow space of a larger box S, then the hollow space of s is a part of the hollow space of S, and the same "space," which contains both of them, belongs to each of the boxes. When s is in motion with respect to S, however, the concept is less simple. One is then inclined to think that s encloses always the same space, but a variable part of the space S. It then becomes necessary to apportion to each box its particular space, not thought of as bounded, and to assume that these two spaces are in motion with respect to each other.

Before one has become aware of this complication, space appears as an unbounded medium or container in which material objects swim around. But it must now be remembered that there is an infinite number of spaces, which are in motion with respect to each other. The concept of space as something existing objectively and independent of things belongs to pre-scientific thought, but not so the idea of the existence of an infinite number of spaces in motion relatively to each other. This latter idea is indeed logically unavoidable, but is far from having played a considerable role even in scientific thought.
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In the previous paragraphs we have attempted to describe how the concepts space, time, and event can be put psychologically into relation with experiences. Considered logically, they are free creations of the human intelligence, tools of thought, which are to serve the purpose of bringing experiences into relation with each other, so that in this way they can be better surveyed. The attempt to become conscious of the empirical sources of these fundamental concepts should show to what extent we are actually bound to these concepts. In this way we become aware of our freedom, of which, in case of necessity, it is always a difficult matter to make sensible use.
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In accordance with classical mechanics and according to the special theory of relativity, space (space-time) has an existence independent of matter or field. In order to be able to describe at all that which fills up space and is dependent on the coordinates, space-time or the inertial system with its metrical properties must be thought of as existing to start with, for otherwise the description of "that which fills up space" would have no meaning." On the basis of the general theory of relativity, on the other hand, space as opposed to "what fills space," which is dependent on the coordinates, has no separate existence.
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Thus Descartes was not so far from the truth when he believed he must exclude the existence of an empty space. The notion indeed appears absurd, as long as physical reality is seen exclusively in ponderable bodies. It requires the idea of the field as the representative of reality, in combination with the general principle of relativity, to show the true kernel of Descartes' idea; there exists no space "empty of field."