THE CREATOR OF TIME AND SPACE
Some Facts about the God Who Has Revealed
Himself in
Scripture
By Gary Ray Branscome
In the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth.
Genesis 1:1
The first words of Genesis are often only
seen as an introduction to what follows. Now, they do introduce what
follows.
Those words are the introduction not only to the first two chapters of
Genesis,
but to everything else that the Bible says. However, because those
words
introduce what follows, readers often pass over them without grasping
the full
significance of what they say.
In the Hebrew
language the words “heaven and earth” mean “all that exists”, the
entire
universe. In other words, in the beginning God created the
entire
universe. And, the fact that He did not create the sun, moon and stars
until
the fourth day tells us that in the beginning He created space itself.
Space
did not exist until God created it! Furthermore, because time cannot
exist
without space, the beginning spoken of in Genesis 1:1 is the beginning
of both
time and space.
If you find what I have just said hard
to follow, let me explain it this way. For time to exist there must be
a place
where time is passing. If time was not passing anywhere, how could we
say that
it was passing at all? Likewise, if space existed without time there
could be
no movement in it, for movement takes time. And, if no movement was
possible,
how could we say that space exists? The idea of space without movement
seems
absurd, and the idea of time passing without a place to pass seems
equally
absurd. Therefore, it seems obvious that space and time must exist
together.
Consider also this fact:
Time must have
had a beginning point. If it
did not have a beginning point, we could never have arrived at this
point in
time.
If that idea is new to you, if you
think that time has always existed, you
might just assume that no matter how many “billions” or “trillions of
billions”
of years have passed before this point in time, the present is just
where we
are now in time. However, that idea assumes that time had a beginning
point “billions”
or “trillions of billions” of years ago. In reality, if time has truly
existed
from infinity, and you could somehow go back “billions” and even
“trillions of
billions” of years into the past, then the amount
of time that would be still further in
the past would still be infinite. And, if it was infinitely distant in
the
past, then it would take an infinite amount of time for the present to
reach
that point in time, even longer to reach this point in time. And, an
infinite
amount of time means FOREVER.
It would take forever to reach this point in time! And, that is why
time must
have had a beginning point. Otherwise the present could not exist.
In the beginning of
time God created the heaven [i.e. space] and the earth. That, along
with
the details recorded in the rest of the Genesis record, is the profound
truth that
underlies all that we believe. Our God is the creator of both time and
space! And,
the words, “The invisible things of him from the creation of the world
are
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,” tell us
that both
time and space were created to reveal invisible truths about God.
Truths such
as the fact that He is present everywhere, and has no beginning or end.
In short,
our God does not exist somewhere in space. On the contrary, time and
space are
His creations. He exists in another dimension, a spiritual dimension,
which
transcends both space and time. And, because His existence transcends
both space
and time He is not limited by space and time. That may explain why He
is able
to exist as both three and one. It is perfectly reasonable for us to
expect a
being whose very existence transcends space and time to be totally
different
from beings limited by space and time. In fact, it would be
unreasonable to
expect otherwise.
Because time and space were created by
God, they both illustrate His triune nature. Like God, space consists
of three
parts (three dimensions) often spoken of as length, width and height.
Likewise,
time consists of three parts past, present and future. In both cases
the three
are one! In fact, it is impossible for
space to exist
without all three dimensions. Those who want to dispute this may try
to imagine a
two-dimensional existence where everything is as thin as a piece of
paper.
However, they forget that paper has thickness. If you take all of the
thickness
away nothing will remain. Space must exist as both three and one or it
will not
exist at all.
Conclusion
The God of the Bible is the Creator of
the entire universe and everything in it. Moreover, He created all
things in
six days, a little over six-thousand years ago, just as the Bible says. Those who reject this God, those who
have
created for themselves another god, a god that grew up on another
planet, or a
god who used evolution (with all the death and suffering that entails)
to
create life; are worshipping a false god. Am I saying that everyone who
believes in evolution is lost? Not necessarily. Believing in evolution
is a sin
that can be forgiven like any other sin. However, the words of John
Because they have rejected the true
God (the God who created time, space and everything in it in six days),
the
words, “God gave them up to vile affections: for even their women
exchanged the
natural use for that which is contrary to nature,” (Romans 1:26) may
explain
why homosexually is so common in churches that have rejected that God
in favor
of a “god who used evolution”.