It's About Time
A bite-sized lesson in doctrine: 1 Concept, 2 Definitions, 3 Passages...
Welcome back to Theology Thursday!
Here is your bite-sized lesson in orthodox, Biblical doctrine in 3 simple steps:
ONE concept explained
TWO concise definitions that must be kept distinct
THREE Scripture passages to meditate on
Concept: Divine Eternity
God is eternal. Herman Bavinck once wrote, “When applied to time, God’s immutability is called eternity.” We can place God’s eternity under the heading of “Infinite” or being without limits, as well as His unchangeable essence. He is infinite in being and perfection, and when we consider how creatures are subject to or limited by time or a succession of moments, we have to conclude that God, being limitless, does not relate to time the same way we do. Some say he is “outside of time,” but it’s more helpful to say He transcends time, not being bound by it as if to add limits to His being. He created time and space. He never had a beginning and will never have an end. God just is. He is pure being—the word “becoming” which applies to creatures in time, must never be applied to the Creator though He interacts with us in time. This comforts and encourages us as disciples of Christ because we can daily trust in a God whose attributes are as eternal as He is since all His attributes describe His unchanging, undivided essence. We can rest assured that His love is eternal. His goodness is eternal. His mercies never come to an end and are new every morning. As one theologian put it, we can rest assured that “His mercies are ever new because they were never old.”1 As the world around us changes, God remains unaffected by the changes that time ushers in since He is the “everlasting God.”
Definitions/Distinctions
Extrinsic Time: This refers to how time is measured in an overarching sense. It speaks of the standard for measuring time, such as the motion of the earth and other planets around the sun. Like how we use a clock, these measurements aren’t what time really is—they’re just tools we use to keep track of it. God created this way of marking time and it will one day pass away.
Intrinsic Time: This refers to a mode of existence by which things have a past, a present, or a future. This is characteristic of all created, limited beings. This implies development, deterioration, change, and limitations. Therefore, there can be no time in God because from everlasting to everlasting He is who He is.2
Passages
“But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
2 Peter 3:8
“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.”
Isaiah 40:28
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’”
Lamentations 3:22–24
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Renihan, Samuel, God Without Passions, Broken Warf, UK
I’m thankful for Herman Bavinck and Reformed Dogmatics Volume 2 (p. 162) for helping me see this distinction.