"I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
But when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for
he will not speak on his own initiative, but whatever he hears he will speak;
and he will disclose to you what is to come" (John 16:12-13).
THE MARCH OF TIME
Second by second, hour to hour
Time moves steadily along
Step by step, unseen Power
Reveals truth in hope and song
Heart to heart, soul to soul
Faith is always moving forward
Word by word, thought by thought
Concealed truth is taught and heard
Month by month, year to year
Time takes its toll on His Story
Piece by piece, in peace and war
The truth of love and hate is seen
Second by second, day to day
Precious time is moving forward
Life to life compassion and grace
Reveal HEAVEN to a dying world
Jeffree7
Oct. 11
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God of the Temporal
Most of us, if we're honest, live by the clock. The alarm sounds and we are
off, watching the minutes slip by. Time-sensitive deadlines drive our days. We
have appointments and meetings, we eat at a certain time, and the day ends by a
certain time. Bound to our timepieces, it often seems our every moment is
synchronized and controlled.
In contrast to the "objective" measures of time marking seconds, minutes, and
hours, there is also a "subjective" experience of time being "fast or slow."
Those of us who are growing older describe our experience of time as passing
by more and more quickly. We feel our vacation time as ephemeral, while our
work week plods slowly by—and yet both are marked by the same objective
measurements of time. How is it that our subjective experience of time is so
different from what our watches and clocks objectively mark out for us, second
by second, hour by hour?
This question of our subjective experience of time is one that the ancient
philosophers and early Christian leaders pondered. Their philosophical and
theological musings bequeathed to us many perplexities regarding the human
experience of time. Saint Augustine, for example, wrestled with the fleeting
character of our human temporal experience. No sooner do we apprehend
the present than it has receded into the past. He wrote, "We cannot rightly
say what time is, except by reason of its impending state of not-being."(1)
Regardless of our perceptual and philosophical difficulties with understanding
the nature of time, what seems most crucial for our lives is the significance of
events that happen in time, moment by moment, hour by hour, and day by day.
Seeking to reclaim this emphasis, theologians have tried to understand the
nature of time by what takes place in time—a narrative of unfolding events.(2)
These theological discussions involve God's engagement with time. Is God a
wholly atemporal being, outside of time and history? Or is God genuinely en-
gaged with time and revealed through an unfolding story of historical disclosure?
The biblical writers give witness to a God who progressively unfolds saving
acts within history. The divine plan of salvation that Christians believe culmi-
nates in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ is called salvation history. God did
not, for example, reveal every aspect of salvation to Abraham or to Moses.
Instead, the biblical writers give witness to the God who works within and
through the temporal events of history to reveal the plan of redemption. We see
this unfolding in God's commissioning of Moses prior to the Exodus: "I appeared
to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty (El Shaddai) but by my name 'the
Lord (Yahweh)' I did not make myself known."(2) Within the long ministry of the
prophets, a God is revealed who gradually discloses what will take place.
Isaiah presents the God who "proclaims to you new things from this time;
even hidden things which you have not known. They are created now, and not
long ago: and before today you have not heard them" (Isaiah 48:6-7).
For Christians, God's decisive revelatory action in time is in the life, death,
and resurrection of Jesus Christ. While there are many glimpses, sign-markers,
and hints pointing towards a messianic redeemer in the Old Testament, ultimately
God chose to enter a particular time as a human being to live life among the
time-bound.
The significance of those time-bound events continues into our time, and indeed
into eternity. And through the unfolding of time, humans can grow in their
understanding of who God is and what God has done through Jesus, the Messiah.
Indeed, as Jesus spoke with his disciples, he suggests that there would be more
to learn and more to reveal through the work of the Holy Spirit: "I have many
more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when the Spirit of
truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own
initiative, but whatever he hears he will speak; and he will disclose to you what is
to come" (italics mine; John 16:12-13).
The witness of Scripture suggests that the events of our lives reveal this
ongoing work of the Spirit. Sometimes, we apprehend the significance of those
events in the present time. Other times, it is only through the lens of hindsight
as events recede into times past that we understand God's action. While time
might move slowly for some or quickly for others, while minutes and seconds
and hours are filled with appointments, meetings, and all the events that make
up our time-bound existence, we would do well to look around to see how the
Spirit of God is working through what might appear to be ordinary events
in the march of time. Indeed, those who follow Jesus ought never to forget
that God entered time to enact the new creation in Christ's resurrection. As we
grow in our understanding of that timeless act, the events of our temporal lives
act as sign-markers for eternity. And while we often see the significance of our
time-bound events "through a mirror darkly," the day will come when "all things
are subjected to Him...that God may be all in all."(4)
Margaret Manning is a member of the speaking and writing team at Ravi Zacharias
International Ministries in Seattle, Washington.
(1) Augustine, Confessions, XI, 14.
(2) Colin Gunton, cited in John Polkinghorne, Exploring Reality: The
Intertwining of Science and Religion, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005), 120.
(3) Exodus 6:2-3, Italics mine.
(4) 1 Corinthians 15:28.
