Thoughts on Time

Time is a wonder-filled concept. Is God related to it? Is He timeless? What is it? St. Augustine thought it was one of those things that if you didn't ask him about it, he knew what it was; but that if you did ask him, he didn't know. Some have said that it is that thing which keeps everything from happening at once. Does the past still exist, along with the future? Or is the present the only thing that exists? Is there a flow to time? Is time 'out there', interwoven with space, as the Big Bang model theorizes? Or is it just a property of our minds? Is it just a part of our psychology? Kant thought it was a category of thought we imposed on the world. So he would say that time isn't 'out there' in the world. But if God is timeless, it's hard to see how this might mean merely independent of our psychology, which He is. But by that, theologians probably mean He stands outside the flow of time.

Is time-travel possible? What would happen if I went back in time and killed someone? Hitler? Or my grandfather? Would I disappear? Would an alternative universe spontaneously emerge? In Back to the Future, we saw that this could happen. Is there a future to even go to? Some theories of time say no; so, if that's true, time-travel 'forwards' is metaphysically impossible. But those same theorists say the past doesn't exist either. So there's another problem for going backwards as well.

There is Kronos, which is clock-time; and then there's Kairos (part of the name of this blog), which is qualitative time. What does that mean? What does it mean for Christ to say things like 'the fullness of time'? What did Solomon mean when he said that there's a time for war, and a time for peace, etc . . . As opposed to being merely quantitative, this is a spiritual time, the time that seems to have no duration. To give a spatial metaphor, Kronos is like any diameter around a circle; but Kairos gives the circle width and dimension, thus making it a sphere. We speak of the 'time' we had a reunion with a long-lost family member, the 'time' we graduated from College, the 'time' we retired after life-long dedication to a cause, the 'time' for this, or the 'time' for that. This time seems to be a gate through which we get further 'In' life itself; it is a divine hall-way leading to a door, on the other side of which lies Eternity: that door is death. Kronos measures movement toward the future; Kairos measures movement toward 'the Good'.

Can time have thickness? Are there places where time doesn't seem to pass? What happens when we do more than one thing at once? Why do people in Near-Death Experiences see people in Heaven that - at the same time - are old and young? A child will say he saw his grandfather old, middle-aged, and young!

What about our bodies? Right now, we are in time; we grow older, and one day we'll die. Being in time, we are bound to go forward to the future, with the same duration as everything else. But could Spirit be differently related to time? Paul talks about our Spiritual bodies, the architype of which is Christ's resurrection body. Christ 'appeared in a room'; but He could be touched; and yet he also could defy gravity, and ascend upward, until he 'disappeared' somewhere in the atmosphere. Paul said our future bodies would resemble Christ's in terms of these abilities in 1 Corinthians 15. What could all this mean? If we are differently related to time, how are we? Some say our bodies will have the same power as our imagination. In our minds, we can go back in time using our memory. Lewis thinks there might come a time when I can actually take you to a memory in my life; and you can do the same for me. All events will be completely understood; every tear will be wiped away. We might be able to find the 'presence' in the past, in the present. Perhaps this is why movies appeal to us so much. Perhaps we can review our life and the lives of others in terms of a movie directed by no less than God Himself. And just as we can rewind and fastforward on demand, we can do the same with our lives. I don't know how this could be; but it's possible; and it's valid speculation based on inferences from various verses in the Bible.

Could salvation and damnation be retroactive? Retroactive causation is impossible in space/time; but what about in Spirit? Can Spirit change, not events, but the meaning of the events? To the saved, retrospect reveals that they were always in Heaven; and the same for the damned.

How is Heaven and Hell eternal? Is there no time? Perhaps there is: it will be 'sown for a new crop', says Lewis. In Heaven, time will be different; we don't desire timelessness. We don't want to be unclothed, but re-clothed, says Paul. What about Hell? How can we be happy in Heaven if we know people are in Hell? But do Heaven and Hell exist during the same linear time; in Heaven, can we say that the people in Hell are 'now' suffering? Maybe not. There might not be duration; it is often spoken of in its finality. Eternity is not mere endless duration (a growing line: length, not width); it is like a plane, a flat surface, eternally fixed in its rigid shape: just as width isn't more Space, but a different dimension of Space, so eternity isn't More time, but another dimension of time, and so another dimension of existence. And yet both are 'eternal'. Could Heaven and Hell be the same place? The fires of Hell may be the love of God. What is beautiful to one, may be unbearable to the other. William Wallace, who is a savior for the Scots, is a nightmare for the English.

And yet here we are in time . . . As soon as a pleasure consumes us, it is over before we know it. But one day time will be redeemed in Eternity, and we can - without being rushed - bathe in pleasure, enter into it, become one with it.

To be continued . . .