God – Part Seven
Sometimes a parent will bring a little child up and say, “She has a question to ask you.” The child’s question: “Where did God come from?” No simple question.
We think in straight lines. A day begins and ends. A child is born and an adult dies. We think in beginnings and ends.
Hold up a ring and ask, “Where is the end of this ring?” It has no beginning or ending. So it is with God. He always has been.
Before creation there was no time and at the end of the world time will cease to be. From God’s vantage point in eternity His perspective of everything is always in the present.
The Psalmists framed this for us in these words: “From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God” (Psalm 90:2). Meaning “from vanishing point in times past to vanishing point in the future God always has been and always will be.” Our capacity to think of the beginning and end of time reaches a limit and our capacity to conceive of eternity ends.
Astronomers and physicists are giving us a hint of this by showing there is no time on the cusps of black holes in deep outer space. Near a black hole, the slowing of time is extreme. From the viewpoint of an observer outside the black hole, time stops. For example, an object falling into the hole would appear frozen in time at the edge of the hole.
Einstein’s Theory of Relativity proves time can be made to stop. If a person could travel at the speed of light, time would stop.
An understanding of omniscience (full knowledge of God) would be aided if we had a better understanding of time. John 1:1 opens with the words “In the beginning…” In the Greek text there is no article before “time.” It is simply “In beginning,” meaning there was an occasion when time began. The text literally means “before time began to begin…” Time itself was a part of creation. Christ spoke of a time when the world would and “time” should be no more (Matthew 13:39, 40, 49; 24:3, 31).
In death we move from a sphere where there is time to one where there is no time. There are two regions in this sphere: heaven and hell. God’s grace is at its zenith in that He allows us to decide in which we will spend eternity.
Christ came from the sphere where there was no time, heaven, into our sphere where there is time. He came to give His life that if we will submit and commit to Him as Savior at death we might step into the sphere where there is no time, heaven.
On the cross, by His bountiful grace, He provided for you all that He asks from you. I appeal to you to commit your life to Jesus Christ and receive His wonderful gift of salvation.
It is grace that has given you not only the ability but the responsibility to make a choice that determines your destiny.