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 9:41 may apply. “Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you would have no sin: but since you say, We see; your sin remains.” In other words, those who admit their own ignorance, those who say, “I do not know if God used evolution or not” are simply ignorant. And, their ignorance may be forgiven. However, those who claim to know that evolution is true, and for that reason reject what the Bible plainly says, are philosophers, not Christians. And, every contrived explanation that they devise in order to get around what the Book of Genesis plainly says is just as much man-made religion as the Koran or the book of Mormon. They may accept much of what the Bible says, but the fact that they reject part of it tells us that the Bible is not their authority. For that reason, they are not true disciples of Jesus Christ (John 10:27).

          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”.