What Is Time?

by Betty Jackson

With the beginning of the new year, many reflect upon bringing more order, self-discipline and spirituality into their lives. Seriously considering how to use our time should bring the realization that we are responsible for using it wisely.

On the other hand, it is amusing to read the atheists’ pontification on the topic of time. Sean Carroll, a “theorist physicist at Cal Tech” has a quest to explain time (http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/what-is-time/). As he puzzles over this theme, he wonders why the Big Bang began with such “exquisite order” only to deteriorate thereafter. Mr. Carroll claims that the Big Bang occurred 13.7 billion years ago. Others speculate that the universe is between 15 to 20 billion years old. In defense of evolutionary ideas, George Wald wrote, “Time is in fact the hero of the plot. ... What we regard as impossible on the basis of human experience is meaningless here. Given so much time, the ‘impossible’ becomes possible, the possible probable, and the probable virtually certain. One has only to wait: time itself performs the miracles” (The Origin of Life, Scientific American, August 1954, p.48).

In reality the evolutionists do not have the amount of time they claim. Their dating methods are filled with assumptions.* Creative power is not resident in time. If there ever was a time when nothing existed, nothing would now exist. The eternal Creator created everything in six days. (Exodus 20:11).

What then is time? Time has been described as a parenthesis within eternity. (Wayne Jackson. The Biblical Concept of Time. https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/437-biblical-concept-of-time-the.) It has a beginning and an end (Gen. 1:1; 1 Cor. 15:24). It is part of the physical world in which we live, marked by sunrise and sunset, the moon’s orbit, and Earth’s orbit around the sun each year. Within time, through providential and supernatural means, the plan of redemption was gradually revealed, then brought to fruition. At just the right time, baby Jesus was born according to the prophecies of the Old Testament (Isa. 7:14; Dan. 2:44, 9:23-27; Gal. 4:4-5); and when the appointed day came, the church burst into existence (Acts 2). We sing the lyrics written by Philip Doddridge, “Happy day, happy day, when Jesus washed my sins away.” Because of the love of God and Christ’s determination to carry out the plan at Calvary, we can rejoice! 

With this new year, let us consider another part of the hymn:

“O happy day, that fixed my choice 

On Thee, my Savior and my God!

Well may this glowing heart rejoice,

And tell its raptures all abroad.

Let us remember the day we made that choice to fix our lives on being obedient servants to an Almighty, loving Father and our Brother, the King of Kings (Heb. 2:11; Rev. 19:16). If we have failed to make that decision, we must understand that time is of the essence! There is a deadline.

Human experience has demonstrated the truth of the Scriptures that our life span on average is 70 years (Ps. 90:10). To the young, that seems like a long time. For the 70 year old, it isn’t very long! In reality, life is like “a vapor that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away” (Jas. 4:14). There is little time to prepare for our life’s end.

While the evolutionist vainly busies himself looking for the time he believes exists to prove his case, we must spend our time being productive for eternity. Paul urges us to live wisely “redeeming the time, for the days are evil” (Gal. 5:15-16). “The Christian must cherish every opportunity for good, buying them up like precious commodities” (Wayne Jackson. A New Testament Commentary. 2011. Christian Courier Publications: Stockton CA.) Time is a consumable. Once used, it cannot be reused!

We have “only a little while to walk in the light and joy of the loving service of Christ the Lord” (Burton Coffman. Coffman’s Commentary on the Bible.(cf. http://www.studylight.org/com/bcc/view.cgi?bk=48&ch=5).

The evolutionists squander their short lives, looking for historical time that doesn’t exist. We can be just as careless by wasting our precious hours day by day. As we meditate on resolutions, let us truly vow to use our time for the Lord and his cause, “telling its raptures abroad” to the lost and dying world.

References:

*Jackson, Wayne. Age of the Earth.  https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/7-age-of-the-earth-the

*Miller, Jeff. Don't AssumeToo Much, Not All Assumptions in Science Are Bad. http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=9&article=1686

https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/461-did-isaiah-prophesy-the-virgin-birth-of-christ; 

https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/1243-how-can-the-church-be-the-fulfillment-of-daniel-2-44; 

https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/14-daniels-prophecy-of-the-seventy-weeks)

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