Time in Eternity
It is difficult for us to imagine the redeemed world promised in scripture. One common conception of the new earth, built on the truth that we will be with God for eternity, is that upon our resurrection we shall transcend time, being taken up into an eternity devoid of the experience of the temporal. While it is easy to see how this conclusion has grown to popularity, it fails to account for the nature of time as a creation, and our relation to it.
Augustine, in Book XI of his Confessions, embarks on an investigation of time. He begins by asking the question: what was God doing before he created the heavens and the earth? Instead of seeking an answer to the question directly, as one might expect, Augustine interrogates the question itself, finding its foundational premise faulty.
The faulty premise assumes the existence of time prior to creation. Augustine rejects the existence of time before creation because time itself is a creation (Augustine 228-229). Augustine illustrates this point by contemplating the very first moment of creation, recorded in Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (ESV). How did God do this? Not with any physical tool or material, in the way that a human craftsman would, for that would mean something created existed before creation. Instead, Augustine concludes, God must have spoken creation into existence (224-225).
This however, leaves Augustine with a new problem. How could God speak before time was created? Speaking requires time, because in speech, the sounds we utter change. Even to say a one syllable word requires a moment of time, and usually several sounds. Therefore, God could not have spoken as he did at the baptism of His Son: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased (Mat. 3:17) (225).
The solution Augustine proposes is that God speaks creation into existence, not by a series of created words, but rather by his uncreated and eternal Word, who is revealed in John 1. “That Word is spoken eternally, and by it all things are uttered eternally” (226).
Yet, not everything which comes to exist in time comes to exist at the same time. Moses came to exist before Augustine, who came to exist before us. Augustine explains this by writing: “everything which begins to be and ceases to be begins and ends its existence at that moment when, in the eternal reason when nothing begins or ends, it is known that it is right for it to begin and end” (226). Thus, the eternal reason, the Word, knows from the beginning everything which will come to pass, but only enacts it in time, to our perception, when He sees fit.
This brings Augustine to an important—and much more complicated question. What exactly is time (230)? We all instinctively understand time. We know that there were things once present that are now past, and things will come which aren’t here yet. We perceive that time passes, and we make this perception by observing change (231). How long does a day last? A day lasts roughly the amount of time from one sunrise to the next—a measurement of change (238).
This is not, admittedly, a definition of time. Augustine struggles with defining time for many more pages, but ultimately throws his hands up, marveling at the mysteries of God’s creation (244-245). That said, his words have granted us valuable insight into what may await us in the new creation.
God stands outside of time. For him, all of what human’s experience as history rests laid out before him. This is because God, being immutable, does not experience change. God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow because such categories have no hold on him (Mal. 3:6, Heb. 18:8). This truth is summarized in God’s name, given to Moses from the burning bush: “I Am” (Exod. 3:14).
Yet time is an inherent reality for humans. It must be because we are physical, space-inhabiting creatures. And wherever there is a physical creation, there must also be time. This is because, as Augustine points out, time is measured by change, and change is certain for physical creatures. Have you taken a step? That’s a change indicative of time. Has your heart beat? Your hair grown? Your voice spoken? Change.
Thus, because we know from scripture that we await a bodily resurrection on a physical new earth, it is perfectly reasonable to expect that we will experience time in the glory which is to come. The difference between now and then lies in that time, like all other parts of creation, will be redeemed. We will no longer equate the passing of time with the nearing of our death or the degradation of our bodies. What we will equate it with instead brings us back to the difficulty of imagining the glory which awaits us. But surely, in God’s providence and goodness, time, along with our bodies and all creation, will be glorified and made new, giving us yet another reason to cry “thanks be to God, Alleluia, Alleluia.”
Augustine. Confessions. Translated by Henry Chadwick. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.