God’s Timeless Infinite Continuum
Don’t you just hate it when you run out of time? You’re right in the middle of something – and suddenly, time’s up! You’re sitting at a signal rushing to send the text – and suddenly the light turns green. Gotta’ go now! The dinner party is so fine, but it’s late, and everyone has to go to work early tomorrow. Time to go. Bummer. We were having such a fine time.
Time is relentless. Nothing stops it. Sometimes you can feel like…
…time is racing – like when you are the quarterback (or maybe just on the couch!), the ball’s in your hands, you need 30 yards, it’s the 4th quarter, your team is 6 points behind, and there’s only 30 seconds on the clock!
…time is slow – like when you’re 33 minutes into a 90 minute presentation, sitting in an upright, rigid chair, it’s muggy in the room, and you don’t get credit until role-call at the end!
…time is boring – like when you have to be here, it’s not fun, you wish you could leave, but you can’t!
…time is frustrating – like when you’ve got 3 more things you’ve got to do before dinner, without fail, traffic is insane, your gas is on empty, you’re in the fast lane, a huge rental moving truck to your right won’t let you over, you’re 100 miles from home, and the catered dinner party starts in just under… 92 minutes from now!
…time is free – like when school just ended at 12 noon, and summer break is on! Yahooo!
…time is just right – like, it couldn’t get better: my mug is full, jacuzzi steam’s lofting up into my face, the ocean view… awesome, and I’m not alone. I’m feelin’ g-o-o-d!
…time is punishing – like: Mommy put me on “time-out”.
…time is rewarding – like: 4th game stage, I just made it into the zone! Got 60 seconds added to my video time!
…time is precious – like when I held my first baby in my hands – just 30 seconds from the womb!
…time is relentless. It never gives up, never waits for you. It’s always taking away time when you want it – or piling it on when you want it to stop!
Time is not forever
But time is not forever. We each will have time end.
Time’s up! My last breath will stop, and time will be no more, for me. I will pass in a flash from time – to eternity, where time will be no more. Same for you.
Right now, however, in the present, we are in a dimension of time. But there is a dimension right there next to you, which we cannot see – which measures not by the passing of time. The next dimension we will go to – is timeless. God has revealed to us many glimpses into eternity and His plan of the ages.
He made known to us
the mystery of His will,
according to His kind intention
which He purposed in Him
with a view to an administration
suitable to the fullness of the times,
that is, the summing up of all things
in Christ,
things in the heavens and things on the earth.
– Ephesians 1:9-10
The Bible is full of God’s revelations about time, timelessness, eternity, and infinity. Scientists know so very little about all that. Many like to expound about it, but they share mere conjectures and guesses (“theories”), postulating this and that and the other thing, mainly in ignorance.
“Time” – as it really is. A concept of time….
The time it takes to go from earth to God’s presence – is instant. There is no waiting around in the next dimension for earth time to finish, no midway point of gathering, no Purgatory. It will be an instantaneous experience for all mankind that ever lived.
At the moment of death, our soul instantly leaves our earthly body, and instantly we are “on the other side”. This is shown to us by the statement Jesus made to the thief hanging on the cross beside Him: “…today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” He did not say, “After earth is done, and all of the rest of history is completed….” He said “today”. He was to hang on the cross until dead, and then immediately transfer to Paradise.
That day is coming for each one of us. If we do as the thief did, we too will instantly be with Christ in Paradise. It happens when we die, and it will be instant – on that very day. (1 Corinthians 15:52)
[See: Thief On The Cross, from Luke 23:39-43, and in the article: That Moment In Time.]
This “instant transfer to Heaven without waiting” is perhaps hard to grasp because our concept of time might not be aligned correctly with what God has actually put into place.
At least two dimensions exist currently:
- We are in the earth’s dimension of time and space, where time is relentless.
- God and His Heaven, and His angels – are in heaven’s dimension of a Timeless Infinite Continuum.
Earth’s time is contained totally within our dimension, outside the Timeless Infinite Continuum of heaven.
- Earth time: It’s like a spinning toy top, thrown into play with a string, which spins intensely but then loses it’s momentum and stops, all within a few seconds – for the one who threw the top into play. Time on the top is different. All of time on the top went by in “top time” perspective. Just so with earth: all of time, all of history, goes by for us slowly, year after ear ,but for God – earth’s history flashes, and ends — and we all then step into eternity together (technically not at the same “time”, since time will be no more.)
escape your notice, beloved,
one day
is like a thousand years,
and a thousand years
like one day.
–2 Peter 3:8
- Earth time is seen by God as happening all at once, because He is timeless. So all of earth history, contained within “a time frame”, happens within time. As each person dies, from Adam and Eve — to the last one, they step out of time, setting foot together into God’s Timeless Infinite Continuum. Since Heaven is not regulated by time, the passage of time on earth is a separate event.
- We will all step out of time together – into God’s presence, with no “time lag”, no waiting for the rest of history to finish. When I die, I will perhaps look to my left and see my Dad… and Adam and Eve, and look to my right, and see those who died after me, those who went through the Tribulation period — but we are all looking at each other at the same instant, having just arrived together from the “earth time” dimension – to the “timeless dimension” of heaven.
- All of earth time, all it’s history, all it’s total population over the centuries – all happens within earth’s time dimension, and is over instantly – from God’s perspective, so that all humankind steps into the Heavens together.
That is why Jesus was able to say, “…today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” All that is happening on earth, from beginning to the end, is contained within our dimension of time.
“Lord, make me to know my end
And what is the extent of my days;
Let me know how transient I am.
5 “Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths,
And my lifetime as nothing in Your sight;
Surely every man at his best is a mere breath.
– Psalm 39:4-5
“The first things have passed away.”
– Revelation 21:4
Some day this first phase, our times, will come to an end. In a flash it will “have passed away”, and we will enter another dimension – the Timeless Infinite Continuum on the other side of our present reality.
There is no way we can fully comprehend timelessness and dimensions now existing side-by-side! Too much for me. But we know the Bible says that on That Day all humankind will become immortal, never to die again.
The Bible teaches that all mankind will be in one state or another (of only 2) when God draws “The first things” to an end:
1. No “Good” of God.
If we die in our sin, we keep our sin, and we then begin a life totally separated from God, separated from His goodness, existing without any goodness. I do not want any part in this! How about you?
2. Only the “Good” of God.
If we die in Christ, born again by the Spirit, we have no sin (counted against us), and we then begin life in God’s own Timeless Infinite Continuum. In His “Paradise” time will be no more.
As His born again followers we will live forever, experiencing only the good of God. Once we leave this earthly sphere, we will never again suffer, never again have pain, never again feel sorrow, never have anything happen to be sad about or mourn about.
Right now here on earth, it is absolutely false and absurd to say this, but, arriving in Heaven, THEN we can say truly —
“It’s all good” – forever! Hallelujah.
“and He
will wipe away
every tear from their eyes;
and there will no longer be
any death;
there will no longer be
any mourning, or crying, or pain;
the first things have passed away.”
– Revelation 21:4
I can hardly wait for “the first things” to pass away! There is much more to come.
NOTES:
Timeless: not affected by time
Infinite: immeasurably or inconceivably great or extensive
Continuum: a range or series of things that are slightly different from each other and that exist between two different possibilities
*See the Britannica.com Encyclopedia article about continuum
FOR MORE:
Well put Keith.
My dad was agnostic. I asked him, well what do you think about the concept of the Infinite? He never answered – but I know he accepted it. When my mom was dying she had a brief moment of lucidity and we had a great conversation. She said, “what comes next, of course there really is no beginning or end” I sat amazed, and said, “you’re right”. I loved them both.