Is God outside of time? Someone recently told me that they believe that God is not outside of time but rather in an infinite number of dimensions of time. But I have a prblem with that. It seems that to place God in any sort of dimension at all would be to constrain Him. To be in any number of space dimensions would be constraining. To be in any number of time dimensions would be constraining. Infinite is still a number. To deal with dimensions is to deal with movement. Does God move through time even if in an infinite number of directions and dimensions? Something tells me no. Dimensions were created and the Creator cannot be a part of them. Or were they created?
The problem with having an intuative mind instead of an analytical one is that things like this are difficult for me to analyze. My brain tells me that I am right but its difficult to tell why. Maybe someone with a diferent way of thinking could give this a little critical thought as well and tell me what they think. Everyone tell me what you think.
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Or is He? Motion involves dimensions.
In C.S. Lewis' book, Out of the Silent Planet, he brings out the idea that angels are in constant motion.
But not God.
No, I dont think God is in motion. That would confine Him to dimensions. And if you are everywhere at once does that not by definition deny movement? Movement is going from one place to another. If you are simultainously in all places at once then movement is be definition immpossible.
Precisely, what is a 'dimension?' We use the word to refer to physical dimensions but also to levels of perception or perhaps manners in which a matter may be approached or comprehended.
Certainly, God can never be restricted by space (i.e., to have to move from place to place), except when He was incarnated, for His omipresence eliminates such a possibility. Furthermore, I believe that God's omniscience would remove the possibility of His being within time, for is not time what keeps us from knowing the future? Would not the attribute of omniscience indicate that God is without time?
Uh, that double comment thing was on purpose of course (cough), just sort of to make my point you know.
I thought I would post a section of Lewis' book Mere Christianity called "Time and Beyond Time." It may be helpful in answering Jonathan's questions. Lewis writes: "Our life comes to us moment by moment. One moment disappears before the next comes along: and there is room for very little in each. That is what Time is like. And of course you and I tend to take it for granted that this Time series – this arrangement of past, present and future – is not simply the way life comes to us but the way all things really exist. We tend to assume that the whole universe and God Himself are always moving on from past to future as we do…
Almost certainly God is not in Time. His life does not consist of moments following one another. If a million people are praying to Him at ten-thirty tonight, He need not listen to them all in that one little snippet which we call ten-thirty. Ten-thirty – and every other moment from the beginning of the world – is always the present for Him…
That is difficult, I know. Let me try to give something, not the same, but a bit like it. Suppose I am writing a novel. I write “Mary laid down her work; next moment came a knock at the door!” For Mary who has to live in the imaginary time of my story there is no interval between putting down the work and hearing the knock. But I, who am Mary’s maker, do not live in that imaginary time at all. Between writing the first half of that sentence and the second, I might sit down for three hours and think steadily about Mary. I could think about Mary as if she were the only character in the book and for as long as I pleased, and the hours I spent in doing so would not appear in Mary’s time (the time inside the story) at all.
This is not a perfect illustration, of course. But it may give just a glimpse of what I believe to be the truth. God is not hurried along in the Time-stream of this universe any more than an author is hurried along in the imaginary time of own novel…
The way in which my illustration breaks down is this. In it the author gets out of one time-series (that of the novel) only by going into another Time-series (the real one). But God, I believe, does not live in a Time-series at all…Then he continues to address a more specific matter: "…But if he knows I am going to do so-and-so, how can I be free to do otherwise? Well, here once again, the difficulty comes from thinking that God is progressing along the Time-series like us: the only difference being that He can see ahead and we cannot. Well, if that were true, if God foresaw our acts, it would be very hard to understand how we could be free not to do them. But suppose God is outside and above the Time-line. In that case, what we call ‘tomorrow’ is visible to Him in just the same way as what we call ‘today.’ All days are ‘Now’ for Him. He does not remember you doing things yesterday; He simply sees you doing them, because, though you have lost yesterday, He has not. He does not ‘foresee’ you doing things tomorrow; He simply sees you doing them: because, though tomorrow is not yet there for you, it is for Him. You never supposed that your actions at this moment were any less free because God knows what you are doing. Well, He knows your tomorrow’s actions in just the same way – because He is already in tomorrow and can simply watch you…"Please excuse the length, but I thought it worth posting.
yeah I think that expresses it exactly. I dont think i was so much asking questions as putting my thoughts on "paper" and putting some questions in there to get others to think.
Did you type all that in? While your at it you might go ahead and tell me which member of my family you are. =D
I am Jo.
And, yeh, I typed it in.
wooooow
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