There are two main ideas about time:
Presentism: the notion is that only the present is real: the past happened, the future will happen, but only the present exists. This is the reality most are used to.
Eternalism: the past, present, and future are all equally real and you could theoretically go between them. This is the stuff of science fiction but Quantum Physics has also suggested the possibility.
To apply Presentism to the Bible leaves the question of how things can be fore ordained or known in advance. On the other hand, if Eternalism, it presents the problem that Jesus is still on the cross and His work is never finished. So which is it and how do we know? What does the bible say about this?
Gen 1:1 – In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Gen 1:5 – And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Time as we know it began here with the first day according to scripture. The passage is clear that there was a beginning and the first day came only with the creation and separation of light and dark.
Gen 8:22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Job 26:10 He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end.
Jer 33:25 Thus saith the LORD; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; 26 Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them.
The Bible has bound time around day and night and Genesis 8:22 says time will exist while the earth remains. In Job we read until the day and night come to an end. If day and night are the defining parts of time, then this means time will also come to an end. The passage in Jeremiah is rhetorical. God is confirming His covenant based on His establishment of the ordinances of heaven and earth, the creation of day and night that He has promised to continue until the end of the earth. It confirms His authority over these things.
Rev 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Rev 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
Rev 21:23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
Rev 21:25 And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.
We see day and night exists until a change in Revelation 21. Old things have passed away, there is a new city of light based on the glory of God and in 25 we are told there is no night. The defining principals of time are changed (sun, moon, night) yet we also see the torment will be day and night for ever in 20:10. The absence of night doesn’t affect verse 10 in that day is now perpetual. This implies a change in time or at least how time is marked, so effectively the end of time as we know it because for us it revolves around day and night.
Moving on, we read:
Heb 1:13 But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?
Heb 10:12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
Heb 10:13 From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.
Jesus is waiting after having endured the cross, paid for our sin debt, died, rose again, and ascended into heaven. Waiting until his enemies are made his footstool which we are told is the end of the present age just prior to the new city. It is not surprising Jesus is waiting as he took on human form and will always have a human nature as well as divine. During the time he is waiting, the earth continues to have day and night. Time has not yet been altered according to the Bible so there are no conflicts here.
Mar 13:32 But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
Only the Father knows the time of the return of Christ at the end this age. It puts distinction between the Father and Son implying some knowledge difference yet clearly indicating the Father knows all. It speaks to Jesus’s humanity as does the fact the he is waiting. Yet we see 2 Pe 3:8 But, 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. Apparently, time is not the same for us as it is for God. He isn’t bound by time.
Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Suddenly, Presentism (the notion that only the present is real) doesn’t quite work. How can God have foreknowledge and there be predestination if only the present exits? The typical answer is “God is outside of that and I don’t know.” And if the notion that past, present, and future are all equally real and you could theoretically go between them (Eternalism), then how could Jesus be waiting and be on the cross when he said “it is finished” and we know Christ died once for sin and no more than once Heb 9:12, 9:28? Neither of the two versions of time by themselves line up with scripture.
As a friend of mine once said, it can be two things. For the most part, the Bible follows the linear approach to time found in Presentism yet always in reference to us. Eternalism, however, fails to account for Jesus completed work on the cross, leaving things in a perpetual state which we know cannot be true either. Scripture shows us two aspects of time. In our present age for people in general, it acts like Presentism. Reading Luk 4:5 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, however, we see Eternalism almost fits. Scripture shows time does in fact have two aspects and both secular views have elements of truth to them. We know from scripture that Jesus died on the cross only once and that he is waiting at the right hand of the Father right now. This tells us that the part of Eternalsim that says time is somehow available for a back to the future experience or that each point of time is occurring simultaneously is wrong, yet all points of time can obviously be seen at once according to Luke.
If Satan could show Jesus all kingdoms in a point in time, it is not a stretch to understand that God sees all time in its entirety. When we read that a day is as a thousand years and vs versa it is a clear indication that time matters little to God. He is simply outside of time altogether which does not imply that all time points are concurrently running but rather a change of perspective.
To gain some insight into how this may work consider an imaginary place called Flat Land. There, Mr. and Mrs. Flat see each other only as a line of varying width and distance. If we were looking at it from our perspective, we could easily see where they are going and where they have been. If we took Mr. Flat out of Flat Land, Mrs. Flat would be astonished as to her, he simply vanished. Equally, if we put him back he would simply appear from no where. We see here that by adding a dimension, we gain tremendous visibility. A higher vantage point, so it were. The idea being that as we move one dimension farther out, our visibility increases. We see things that cannot be seen in lesser dimensions.
The Theory of Relativity says we live in four dimensions. String theory says it’s 10. Four knowable dimensions and six that are curled, 10-33cm. Although not provable, these dimensions are mathematically inferred and used in the world of Quantum Physics. Most of this seems absurd except to suggest that God exhibits traits consistent with being beyond anything we know of. Certainly it would not be strange for Him to be outside of our four physical dimensions resulting in a much broader vantage point. These concepts serve to show us He could easily see all aspects of time without it actually occurring simultaneously. Both Presentism and Eternalism have correct elements expressing this reality but by themselves, both are wrong. In short time is two things or elements of both concepts with some minor corrections.
The double-slit experiment further gives a gimps into this strange world. The experiment seems simple enough: Cut two slits in a sheet of metal and send light through them, first as a constant wave, then in individual particles. What happens, though, is anything but simple. In fact, it’s what started science down the bizarre road of quantum mechanics.
This suggests something very, very weird is going on: The photons seem to “know” where they would go if they were in a wave. It’s as if a theater audience showed up without seat assignments, but each person still knew the exact seat to choose in order to fill the theater correctly. As Popular Mechanics puts it, this means that “all the possible paths of these particles can interfere with each other, even though only one of the possible paths actually happens.” All realities exist at once (a concept known as superposition) until the final result occurs.
This idea not only provides insight into what is happening behind the scenes, but it also lends itself to the concept of free will. All our realities are possible until the final result but God sees them and knows the result just as he knows all things in between. We have free will to choose in this life, yet God already knows the outcome and what those choices will be. Does it matter if we make them? Absolutely – to us it does in this realm as it certainly affects our future much like the results of the experiment. His knowledge however, provides for the fore-ordained and allows Him to reveal what He will yet not violate our ability to choose.
Gods word should always be our basis for truth and reality. Man’s discoveries often show insight into this reality but ultimately scripture must be interpreted by scripture on His word alone. It isn’t our place to have the knowledge of God and as such we do not have all the answers. Psa 139:6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. The Bible has given us enough to understand His nature and His will. More importantly to understand it isn’t His will for man to perish but because of sin causing eternal separation from God, hell is our destination. The good news is that if we believes in Jesus who died on the cross on Calvary to pay for those sins and repent, asking him to cleans us, we are saved. We have God’s word and it clearly tells us Jesus is the only way to salvation. Time, debate, and opinion are of none effect. Authority rests on His word. So regardless how He knows the future, trust in Jesus for your salvation today.