Time Is God's Creation And Tool ...

 

(I’m catholic) How can god have an infinite past? If the past was infinite wouldn’t existence cease to exist? Shouldn’t there be a beginning point?

Karl Broberg, Blogger/Bible teacher (10+ yrs), researcher, life coach

Answered 10h ago

“Every house is built by someone; God is the builder of everything” (cf. Heb. 3:4).

There is only a beginning point to all things that exist in time itself—the time-space continuum. NB: if everything has a beginning, nothing would exist—something must be eternal; namely, God by definition. But time had a beginning according to science and even the Bible (cf. 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 1:2). Read A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking.

Time is the corollary of space and matter and doesn’t exist independently of them. No existence of matter means no time. Creation was the beginning of matter and space and therefore time. Some call this the big bang, which is highly regarded by cosmologists, astrologers, and astrophysicists today.

Just because we have a beginning point at creation, we must not jump to the conclusion everything had a beginning (out of nothing, nothing comes). Then there would be a time when nothing existed. By definition, God has no beginning and according to the Bible, He has no beginning and no end the Alpha and the Omega.

His name is I AM meaning He is complete in Himself and just is in Himself and needs no one or nothing else to exist (cf. Acts 17:25).   Theologians call this the self-existence or aseity of God.  He is the eternal I AM who changes not (with time or anything else according to Malachi 3:6). If He had a beginning, He could not be God, but be the slave to time as we are. as an effect or needing something.

If time were infinite with no beginning, we would not be able to arrive at “today”; you cannot cross an infinite amount of time in a definite period. But God is eternal with no cause and not defined by time, space, or matter. God is not defined, limited, nor confined to time. The only way you can be eternal is to have no cause and not be the effect of anything.

The universe had a cause because it’s an event: all events have causes. Everything that begins to exist, an event, namely here the universe, has a cause. But God is the “uncaused cause” or First Cause (how Aristotle described God).   Uncaused causes can exist in logic but not uncaused effects or events. All causes have effects but nothing can be its own cause or cause nor create itself.

Before creation or the big bang, only God existed because He is outside the time-space continuum. The Bible clearly begins: “In the beginning God ….” That is the beginning point, not a way to begin a narrative but necessary for the narrative; i.e.,  not “In the beginning matter/energy.” There’s no other rational way to begin reality. The first verse of the Bible tells of the beginning point: Creation. Genesis means “beginning.”

Does Jesus Need Credentials?...

 Jesus was well-known in Judea but especially in Capernaum and Nazareth where the ministry got off to a start and onto its feet as the first HQ.  His reputation preceded Him! He needed no introduction or publicity agent!   Fame was something that traveled fast in those days as the common folk spread the word, especially that there was a prophet in the nation, maybe even the Prophet that is to come.  Even today, people don't regard Him as Jesus the Great but simply Jesus.  He has no equal, neither predecessor nor successor.

John was His forerunner and character reference so to speak and he was the most highly regarded man in the land at the time, so much that the Pharisees dare not interfere with him, for the people loved him and respected his preaching the baptism of repentance. But Jesus needed no letter of recommendation or to refer to credentials as a way to impress Himself on others. His miracles spoke for themselves. 

What kind of credentials were these then? They consisted of perfect morality and keeping to a faultless degree every point of the Law of Moses, the Torah. No one could genuinely find fault in Him and He asked the Jewish leaders to accuse Him of sin with conviction and they failed; the only charge that could tick before the Sanhedrin was that He was an insurrection threat to Rome. Jesus was so holy that it made everyone who knew Him realized their own faults, shortcomings, and sins; Peter said, "Depart from me O Lord, for I am a sinful man!"  Now, normally familiarity breeds contempt but not in His case!  He could not have been anything but perfect to fulfill the Law and only one sin would have disqualified Him from being our Savior 

Another credential was His works, so ass to say that we should believe on account of the sake of the works alone, that they were of the Father.  He did many signs, wonders, and miracles that elicited faith in some and skepticism and cynicism in others; He had enemies because of the truths He spoke. He never footnoted His sayings but spoke directly as God Himself.  He spoke nothing but the truth but didn't say that He knew the truth or would say it or found it, but that He is the truth (cf. John 14:6); He didn't speak by authority, but with authority "as one who had authority" (cf. Mark 1:22; Matt. 7:29)! His word was binding, authoritative, and final.  He had and was the last word! 

Now, His miracles were not helter-skelter or for no reason scattered in the narrative, but God had a purpose for each of them and without them, the story wouldn't be the same and Christ would be but a footnote in history  If we remove the miracles from Christ then He is nothing and the faith is disemboweled and neutered. Other faiths remain intact even without the miracles--they are unnecessary for the religion. Jesus never did anything for selfish or self-serving reasons, but as acts of compassion and often to be object lessons to His sermons or sayings--no showy or biggie miracles!  

Now, Jesus had many character witnesses, and even if we look at His enemies (the witness of an enemy has a lot of weight in a court of law due to no personal gain by it), we learn quite a deal because they have no agenda or motive to lie about Him; they would unwittingly tell the truth. For instance, Judas said he had betrayed innocent blood, the soldier at the crucifixion called Him an innocent man or even the Son of God, Pontius Pilate said he found no fault in Him, even King Herod was unwilling to convict Him. When at the trial, they found no legitimate witnesses to tell the truth but they contradicted each other--they had to resort to getting a confession and self-condemnation which was illegal.  

But the biggest credential of Christ was His resurrection (cf. Romans 1:4; Acts 17:31), the final sign to a wicked generation.  He prophesied this and rose on the third day to prove His vindication for us and to give us hope of a resurrection, which doctrine had been vague to the Jews. The cornerstone of our faith is the historical truth of the resurrection and this is arguably the most attested fact in antiquity.  Either it's the most astounding fact in history or the biggest, cruelest hoax ever perpetrated according to Josh  MacDowell. If we remove this miracle then our faith is futile and we have no reason to trust Christ and we are indeed the most miserable of all men and most to be pitied (cf. 1 Cor. 15:14). 

But all this is only consistent with who Jesus claimed to be!  Most people mocked at having virgin births like Alexander the Great and Buddha, but if you lived the life of Jesus, you'd take it more seriously.  He claimed to be the Son of God, the Judge of mankind, the Lord of the Sabbath, to be without sin, and many more direct or indirect claims of deity.  Even though He mostly spoke in figures so speech, He didn't always beat around the bush though. His claims were consistent with His character.  Claims in themselves are not proof but in this case, they are consistent. Some cults teach that Jesus never claimed to be God, but Scripture makes it clear that He knew His mission and kept a low profile for that reason when they tried to kill him.

He made the most outstanding and bold claims and man since, or before ever did--even though the Caesars claimed deity, they didn't go this far! But He didn't go around bluntly announcing He was God, for His time had not come and he was looking for faith, not some who would believe had they had enough "evidence." It was obvious to the Pharisees just who Christ claimed to be and they plotted to kill Him for this reason. Jesus had to be both God to fulfill the Law and bear our sins, and man to relate to us as our Mediator. He must be the Go-between, the Daysman.   Soli Deo Gloria! 

The Bible's Limits

 The Bible covers over 10,000 events from some 1118 chapters from some 40 authors and cannot describe or depict all that happened. John said that if all the events of Christ’s life were written down, the world could not contain the books that would be written. But the Bible in Deut. 29:29 says that God has secrets and Scripture is not meant to tell us everything, only what we need to know or what God wants us to know. The rest is none of our business!

The Qualification For Heaven

"Indeed it is the straightedge of the Law that shows us how crooked we really are," (cf. Romans 3:20, Phillips).  The law measures us, it doesn't save us!  

 The chief qualification, it is said, to enter heaven, is to admit or realize you are not qualified; to see how you fall short and are not self-righteous in your own eyes, justifying yourself or minimizing your sin.  We all tend to justify ourselves.    For we cannot know how sinful we are till we try to stop sinning, and we cannot stop sinning!  Then we realize we are slaves to sin! You don't know your enslavement to sin till you try to give it up, and you have to give it up to realize your slavery.  It's like the smoker that thinks he can overcome and kick the habit till he tries to do and realizes he cannot of his own willpower. 

Salvation must be solely the gift of God, and not of our own works or merit thinking we deserve it because of what we've done in our own right.  We are never good enough to be saved, but bad enough to need salvation.  Gifting means grace and that's part of the formula of the Reformers: by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, by the authority of Scripture alone, and to God alone be the glory: the Five Only's (sola gratia, sola fide, soli Christo, sola Scriptura, soli Gloria Deo).  

We must not add merit to grace, works to faith or tradition, or church authority to the rule of our faith--the Bible alone. And we must not pat ourselves on the back in congrats but give God sole glory.  The summation of Reformed theology can be summed up in Jonah 2:9 saying, "Salvation is of the LORD."  That means not of us and the Lord, nor of us alone, but of God alone!  We didn't cooperate even just like at our first birth; therefore, it's called monergistic (one-sided), not synergistic (cooperative). 

In salvation, we must confess and recognize our sin (nature) as well as our sins. This is hardly mentioned in churches today because it's such a killjoy word! We must be saved from what we are (in a state of sin and rebellion or depravity) and justified and forgiven for our sins (our transgressions). As believers, we must realize we are still sinners, though we are justified (cf. Gal. 2:17). We can never achieve entire sanctification or perfectionism (cf. Prov. 20:9) as some denominations teach but we can progress in our power over sin and not let any certain sin dominate us (cf. Psalm 119:133; 19:13; 18:23; Romans 6:14; 1 Cor.6:12)  We are not to be controlled by any sin and to have power and victory over them and not let them have dominion over us.  This can be a pet sin (cf. Heb. 12:1) or one that easily besets us and our secret sins. or we may be known by as the Bible says that for sure our sins "will find [us] out." (cf. Numbers 32:23).  

In repentance, and we must realize that repentance and faith are linked (cf. Acts 20:21) and go hand in hand can be seen as the flipside of each other. There can be no genuine repentance without saving faith! Sometimes we may wonder if our faith is strong enough and not realize our repentance is not thorough enough. God doesn't make us righteous, not even in the eyes of the world, but reckons or considers us righteous--we are declared righteous. Our righteousness is completed in heaven only. Christians just recognize, acknowledge, and know their sins and are not blind to them like the infidel and we confess them and don't attempt to justify ourselves. But there is no condemnation for the believer in Christ, and he shall not come into judgment (cf. Romans 8:1; John 5:24).  

Whenever we sin, we have an Advocate to make intercession (cf. Heb. 7:25). We have admitted our spiritual bankruptcy before God, emptied ourselves of our self-righteousness, and come clean with God with nothing to hide. We realize God doesn't grade on a curve and all are sinners and we are no better than others:  We don't play the "let's compare game." (cf. 2 Cor. 10:12).  We don't have any credentials to boast of but must plead the merits of the blood of Christ shed on our behalf.  

Salvation goes to the lowest bidder as Paul saw himself as the "chief of sinners," and John Bunyan wrote his testimony in Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, not to the one with the highest spiritual pedigree or credentials or best resume: We have nothing to offer but brokenness and strife, a contrite and penitent heart.  This is the catch-22:  To be good we must realize how bad we are; to see how bad we are, we must try to be good.  

Don't think of sins as God not wanting you to enjoy life and He's a cosmic killjoy spoiling it all, but God didn't design us for sin and He knows what's best for us emotionally and spiritually and for our own good--if we had our own way--and sin is doing your own thing and your way, not God's--then we'd surely mess up our lives and our souls; if God ever said, "Okay, have it your way!" we ruin it for ourselves and lose our happiness that is only possible through knowing Him as Augustine said, "Our souls are restless till they find their rest in God."    Soli Deo Gloria!