I am a planner and organizer by nature. Whether I am solving a day-to-day problem or reaching for a dream, I like to fully understand the challenge ahead of me, jot down information and thoughts, plan the solution, and then execute it. Part of the faith journey God has led me on over the past few years has involved learning to trust him instead of leaning on my own understanding. Proverbs 3:5–6 has come up many times in my thoughts and my prayer life, especially when I’ve sought my preferred logical way forward, with the steps of the staircase ahead of me clearly illuminated. God has lovingly and patiently been teaching me to place my trust in Him above my logical understanding on the hierarchy of evidence.

I feel similarly about God’s relationship to time: I do not claim to have a complete, neatly tied-up explanation of how he relates to time, and I’m okay with that. But for those who are beginning to dig deeper on this topic, here are a few fundamentals to get you going as you read further:

Human perspectives on time

Robert Falconer[1] begins his SATS symposium by describing the basics of the metaphysics of time.

The A-theory versus the B-theory

The A-theory of time recognizes the three tenses of the past, the present, and the future, and describes change in relation to these. The B-theory of time describes change in terms of a before–after relationship, where “now” isn’t special; it’s simply where we are. In general, lay people use the A-theory (or a version thereof) while philosophers use the B-theory.

Dynamic time

Falconer also touches on the idea of dynamic time: how time changes depending on gravity, mass, and altitude; heat; speed; and metabolism and size. He explains how different things experience time differently and poses a question regarding our experience of time in the afterlife.

A few key definitions and theories regarding God and time

In the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Gregory E. Ganssle[2] describes a few of the existing theories about how God relates to time.

God is everlasting, but experiences temporal succession

According to Ganssle, this is the predominant view today. God did not begin to exist and he will never cease to exist—he is everlasting. But he also experiences events in succession and his dealings with his creation occur at particular points in time.

God is timeless

God is outside of time and relates to our temporal events in one timeless “now.” He hears and answers prayers across centuries all at the same “time.”

In-between views

There are some in-between views that blend these concepts, namely:

  • God exists in his own version of time: his own time is temporal, but he relates to ours all at once.
  • God is “omnitemporal”: our time is physical, but God’s is metaphysical with no intrinsic measure.
  • God became temporal when he created time: time came into existence with creation and God’s relationship to it changed, therefore God is temporal in some way.

What does the Bible say?

Whenever we are grappling with a question, we should seek God’s truth and read what his word says about the matter. The Bible tells us a few things about God and time:

God created time

Genesis 1:1 (ESV) says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” God created everything that came into existence, including space and time.

God has no beginning and no end

Several times in the Bible, God is referred to using the present form of the verb, “to be,” suggesting he persists with no beginning and no end:

  • Psalm 90:2 (NLT, emphasis added) says, “Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, from beginning to end, you are”
  • In Exodus 3:14, God refers to himself as “I am” when Moses asks what name he should give the people of Israel when they ask who sent him.

Psalm 102:27 (ESV) reinforces this: “[B]ut you are the same, and your years have no end.”

God experiences time differently

Psalm 90:4 describes how a period of time we experience as a thousand years is like a day to God.

God exists outside of time

Titus 1:2 (NIV) describes how God promised us the hope of eternal life “before the beginning of time.”

God exists throughout all forms of time

Revelation 4:8 (NLT, emphasis added) describes how God is exalted throughout time as we know it: “Each of these living beings had six wings, and their wings were covered all over with eyes, inside and out. Day after day and night after night they keep on saying, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty—the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come.’”

God can manipulate time

In Isaiah 38:4–8, when Hezekiah fell ill and asked God to remember his devotion to the Lord, God’s answer to his prayer included adding 15 years to his life, and the sign of this promise was that God would turn back time, making “the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.” (Isaiah 38:7 NIV)

Falconer’s proposal

Falconer[3] proposes that God fills all moments and movements of time with his divine presence, pointing out the implications of this when it comes to death and the afterlife, prayer, and God’s omniscience.

Additional reading

As you explore this topic, you may find the following reading list helpful:

  • Embodied Afterlife: The Hope of an Immediate Resurrection by Robert Falconer
  • The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli
  • Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
  • God, Eternity, and the Nature of Time by Alan G. Padgett
  • Time and Eternity: Exploring God’s Relationship to Time by William L. Craig

I am comfortable in my limited understanding of how God relates to time; but I also value an enquiring mind, and I am confident God does too. May God bring wisdom, peace, and understanding as you dig deeper and prayerfully seek to know him better.

[1] Rob Falconer, “God and time,” Accessed September 14, 2024, SATS YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB35_7WDzsU.

[2] G.E. Ganssle, “God and time,” Accessed September 14, 2024, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, https://iep.utm.edu/god-time/.

[3] Falconer, “God and Time.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB35_7WDzsU.