Sunday, April 12, 2015

Does Anybody Really Know What Time it is? Part 1


Genesis 1:12-15 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so.

You probably recognize the title as that great old hit song by Chicago Transit Authority in their debut album and leads to the age old question of: “What is time?” In an interesting article on time and history from a Judeo-Christian perspective by Pastor Robert Charles Sproul states that without matter and space/motion, we have no way to measure the passing of time. Time is always in motion and it can never be stopped. Like a second hand on a clock, it approaches the future minute at 12, is present for a second at 12, and then is in the past as the in approaches the next minute. As the old axiom declares: “Time marches on”. From the Bible passage above, we see that God created time and therefore, everything in creation is subject to time. Time changes: hours, days, seasons and years change. Everything in creation is mutable in the process of generation and aging … from beginning to end. God and God alone is eternal and immutable.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.”

Martin Heidegger wrote: We say that times are changing. That doesn't mean that time itself changes. There are still sixty second in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour, and 24 hours in a day. But cultures are constantly shifting in patterns, in their moral values, and in their commitments. In your life, you have most likely witnessed dramatic changes in the culture. For example, there have been radical changes in sexual behavior, drug use, sanctity of marriage, clean-wholesome speech, and the sanctity of life, where moral relativism has became the norm in our secular culture in search of “why am I here? And What is my purpose?”. The knowledge explosion and technical advances by the advent of the computer have also altered our daily lives.

We shall finish this thought-provoking look at precious "time" on tomorrow's post.
In Christ, Brian


No comments: