Tag Archives: Time

BIBLE QUESTIONS, Blog, GOD

HOW CAN GOD HAVE ALWAYS EXISTED? — BOB PRICHARD

When God called Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage, Moses was afraid.  “And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you” (Exodus 3:13-14). God called Himself “I AM,” indicating His eternal existence. This name implies that God always has been, and always will be. Moses recognized the eternal nature of God in Psalm 90:2: “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”  

Perhaps the greatest difficulty hindering finite man from understanding the eternality of God is that man is a time-bound creature. We are born, we live, and we die. We live exclusively in the duration of time. But God is outside time, and not bound by time at all. Job’s “friend” Elihu said, “Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out” (Job 36:26). The scriptures declare God’s eternality. “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8).  Peter understood that God is not bound by time.  “Beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8). Peter was not giving a mathematical formula that one day equals a thousand years, but he was indicating that God stands above time, and sees it all as present.

“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1). The fact that there is a creation demands that there be a Creator!  The Bible begins with the words, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). He is the Creator. Was He created? If God was created, then there would have to be a greater God Who created God. What greater God would then create that God? Obviously there must be a great “uncaused Cause.” In other words, God is eternal and has always existed, because there is no greater God that could have created Him. The universe is not eternal. Even non-theological theories such as the “big bang” suggest that the universe had a beginning. The scientific evidence suggests that the universe is wearing out, as the third law of thermodynamics demands. Since the universe clearly had a beginning, it had to have someone or something greater than it to begin it. The Bible tells us that the self-existent God created the universe, and revealed Himself to man in Jesus Christ. Christ identified Himself as eternal when he said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). God “hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds” (Hebrews 1:20).

BIBLE QUESTIONS, EXODUS

WHAT DOES THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT MEAN TO CHRISTIANS? — BOB PRICHARD

The fourth commandment says, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:8-11). God gave the Sabbath as a “perpetual covenant” (Exodus 31:17) between the Jews and God. As long as the Jews were a nation, they were to keep the Sabbath. This was not a perpetual covenant with anyone else, however. 

The Sabbath lasted from sunset on Friday until sunset on Saturday. The Jews, especially the Pharisees, treated it very legalistically. They expanded, refined, and codified it until it became an intolerable burden. Jesus fought the popular distortion of the Sabbath by healing on the Sabbath, “For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day” (Matthew 12:8). Jesus kept the Sabbath perfectly, something that no one else ever did. 

This commandment is the only one of the Ten Commandments that Jesus did not repeat for Christians. Jesus kept the Sabbath, but never commanded Christians to keep it. 

Although some try to keep the Sabbath today, none keep it as God commanded it. The Lord commanded that the Sabbath was the day for burnt offerings, and other elements which no one keeps today. Paul says that Christ abolished the law (Ephesians 2:15), and “took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross” (Colossians 2:14). The first covenant was taken away so that the better, new covenant could be established. “But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second” (Hebrews 8:6-7). 

While we are not commanded to keep the Sabbath, there are, however, many eternal principles to be learned from the Sabbath. All Christians should consider their use of time, and the work ethic taught in the commandment, that there are six days in which the servant of God will work. As the wise man Solomon wrote, “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise” (Proverbs 6:6). Paul tried to set a good example for the Thessalonians by working to support himself, giving an example (2 Thessalonians 3:7-12). “For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10). 

Jesus showed the way to use the Sabbath, not by treating it as a day for idleness, but a day for service, a time for bringing blessings to others. The Christian should do no less with every day given to him. All life should be a rest from evil, and days devoted to God. Jesus said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). Every Christian should evaluate his time to see how much is devoted to God, and how much is devoted to self.

CHRISTIAN LIVING

WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH TODAY? — BOB PRICHARD

Tram Sessions, member of the Alabama state legislature, clipped a poem from a magazine and mailed it to University of Alabama Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant. Bryant liked the poem so much that he always carried a copy in his wallet until his death. The poem gives us all something to think about as we begin each new day.

“This is the beginning of a new day.

God has given me this day to use as I will.

I can waste it or use it for good.

What I do today is very important because I am

Exchanging a day of my life for it.

When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever,

Leaving something in its place I have traded for it.

I want it to be a gain, not loss—good, not evil!

Success, not failure in order that I

Shall not forget the price I paid.”

—W. Heartsill Wilson

There is a great emphasis in scripture on today.

Jesus promised the penitent thief, “Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).

“But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 13:13).

 “We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)” (2 Corinthians 6:1-2).

Today will be soon be gone. What will you leave in its place? Why wait to serve and obey Him?

CHRISTIAN LIVING

SEVEN AGES OF MAN — BOB PRICHARD

R. M. Cornelius identifies “Seven Ages of Man”: 

  • 6 weeks—all systems go 
  • 6 years—all systems “No!” 
  • 16 years—all systems know 
  • 26 years—all systems glow 
  • 36 years—all systems owe
  • 56 years—all systems status quo 
  • 76 years—all systems slow 

I do not know about you, but it shocks me to see that I am already firmly entrenched in the fifth age—all systems owe. Where has the time gone? Surely Job knew what he was talking about when he said, “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle” (Job 7:6). 

The most precious commodity we have is not silver or gold, but time. John Randolph reminds us that “time is at once the most valuable and the most perishable of all possessions.” When we squander it on things that do not matter, we are foolish. Paul warns, “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 5:15–17). The days we are living in are evil with sin rampant in our world. Still, Ralph Waldo Emerson said that “this time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.” What we need to help us use our time wisely is a heavenly perspective: “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:1–3). 

What will you do with time? I find Henry Thoreau’s observation thoughtful: “As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.” Will we “injure eternity”? We are each given twenty-four precious hours daily. Whatever age we find ourselves in, whether 6 or 76, we must serve faithfully. —Bob Prichard