God’s relationship to time is highly debated, and God’s relation to time has vexed theologians and philosophers alike. For instance, one theologian, “The relation of eternity to time constitutes one of the most difficult problems in philosophy and theology, perhaps incapable of solution in our present condition.”[1] Does God exist outside of time? Or does he exist in time with the rest of us? We’re unsure. It seems wiser to begin with what we know before entering into the realm of the unknown. Scripture teaches clearly that God has always existed, and he always will. This is called the eternality of God.
Biblical Basis
God existed before creation. The first verse of the Bible states, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1; cf. Jn. 1:1-3; Col. 1:16; Rev. 4:11).
God made plans before creation. He “predestined” his plan “before the ages” (1 Cor. 2:7). God “chose us before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4), and he had a purpose for us “from all eternity” (2 Tim. 1:9).
God experienced love within the Trinity before creation. Jesus prayed, “Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (Jn. 17:5). Later, he prayed, “You loved Me before the foundation of the world” (Jn. 17:24).
God has lived forever, and he will live forever. The first verse of the Bible states, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). Scripture calls God the “Everlasting God” (ʿôlām ʾēl, Gen. 21:33), the “Eternal God” (Deut. 33:27; Rom. 16:26), the “King eternal” (1 Tim. 1:17 NIV), and the “Eternal Father” (Isa. 9:6; cf. Heb. 9:14).
Moses captured the eternality of God when he wrote, “Before the mountains were born or You gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting [ʿôlām], You are God” (Ps. 90:2). The word “everlasting” (ʿôlām) occurs 300 times to “indicate indefinite continuance into the very distant future.”[2] The context, of course, refers to God existing before the mountains were created. So, Moses surely has eternity in mind. Elihu stated, “The number of His years is unsearchable” (Job 36:26). Moreover, God will receive glory through the church “forever and ever” (aiōnos tōn aiōnōn Eph. 3:21).
Is God outside of time?
Some theologians state that “God is beyond time,”[3] or “God somehow stands above time.”[4] Others state that that “time does not apply to him.”[5] Rather, God is outside of time, and he is “equally aware of all points of that order simultaneously.”[6] Brilliant thinkers like Augustine, Anselm, and Aquinas held that God “transcends time, just as he does space, and therefore has his whole life at once.” Consequently, all of the events in time are equally “real to God and thus available for his causal influence at any point in history through a single timeless act.”[7]
This has been compared to a person looking at a parade from 200 feet in the air. From that vantage point, the viewer can see the end from the beginning. Similarly, if God exists outside of time, then he could have a similar “view” of temporal events.
An evaluation of God’s timelessness
While the concept that God currently exists outside of time is a long held and venerated view, with all due respect, we respectfully disagree.
To begin, the Bible doesn’t tell teach us that God currently exists timelessly. To be clear, we are in the realm of philosophical speculation—not biblical revelation. After a long study of the biblical data regarding God’s eternality, Feinberg concludes that “while Scripture affirms divine eternity and teaches that this means unending existence always, we cannot answer from the Bible alone whether God’s eternity is temporal or atemporal in nature.”[8]
It seems reasonable to affirm that God existed timelessly before creation. This is what made it metaphysically possible for God to create the universe: “To be before time and to have made time is not to be in time.”[9] Moreover, we agree that it is incoherent that God could traverse an infinite series of temporal events (see the Kalam Cosmology Argument). Therefore, in our view, God existed timelessly apart from creation. So far so good.
But what about after creation? What about after time began to exist? Before creation, God existed “before all time” (Jude 25). However, after creation, it seems that God entered into time. We hold this view for several reasons.
Reasons that God currently exists in time
First, many “tensed” statements occur in Scripture: “before” or “during” or “after.” There are simply too many examples to count. One example will suffice to make the point, however. In just two verses, Paul references God’s actions in the past, present, and future:
“Having overlooked the times of ignorance [PAST], God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent [PRESENT], because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world [FUTURE]” (Acts 17:30-31).
To repeat, this is just one example. An innumerable amount of examples of “tensed” statements in Scripture could be listed. Indeed, it is difficult to read a chapter of Scripture without seeing “tensed statements” just like these. This implies that God exists temporally with creation. Even if God was “changeless,” he would still be related to changing things, and therefore, there “would exist a before and after in God’s life.”[10]
To explain the “tensed statements” in Scripture (i.e. befores and afters), one philosopher states that we “must accept some form of analogy.”[11] Yet, this seems like a deficient explanation due to the fact that this is not the language of analogy, but the language of actuality. These tensed statements are not analogies; they are grammatical statements that reflect divine reality.
Second, God experiences the passing of time. After all, are we to believe that God the Father is still pouring out his wrath on Jesus at the Cross? Is Jesus still hanging from the Cross, or did he “once for all” at the Cross? (Heb. 7:27; 9:12; 10:10; 1 Pet. 3:18) Is Jesus still suffering, or is it true that “it is finished”? (Jn. 19:30) Is Christ still in the tomb, or did he already rise from the dead? Many examples can be multiplied, but you can see the point: These events imply a “before” and “after” in God’s experience.
Third, if God is “outside of time,” then he wouldn’t know what was happening in time. This argument is complex but very powerful. Our knowledge of the passage of time “locates the knower relative to the present.” However, if God exists in a “timeless eternity,” then “God’s knowledge of the history of the world would be like the knowledge a film producer has of a movie as it lies in the can: he knows what is on every frame, but he has no idea what is now being projected on the screen.” God would still know all truths, but “he would have no idea whether Christ has actually died yet.”[12]
Conclusion. Before the universe existed, God existed timelessly. He existed “before all time” (Jude 25). But after creation, it seems that God entered into time. Moreland and Craig write, “Given that time began to exist, the most plausible view of God’s relationship to time is that he is timeless without creation and temporal subsequent to creation.”[13]
How can God be immutable he if entered into time when creation began?
If God entered into time, does this imply that he changed for the worse? One theologian states that “no change is possible in God, since a change is either for better or for worse.”[14] But we disagree.
If God entered into time, then it’s indisputable that he did indeed change. But entering into time didn’t affect his essential nature (see “Immutability”). Moreover, not all changes are for the better or the worse. This could be an example of changing “horizontally,” rather than changing “vertically.”[15] When someone gets promoted at work, we think of this as a vertical change. But when they simply switch to a different department for the same pay, we consider this a horizontal move—being neither promoted nor demoted. In the same way, by entering into time, God isn’t changing for the better or for the worse. He retains a perfect nature in either a timeless or in a temporal state.
The same could be said for God’s expression of justice or wrath after creation occurred. Before creation, God never expressed wrath, but this doesn’t change his morally perfect nature. His expression of justice results in a change, but not a change for the better or for the worse.
To summarize, did God change when he entered into time? Yes. But does this threaten his immutability? Not at all. Remember, immutability refers to a change in God’s nature or character. However, entering into time doesn’t change God’s essential nature.
Can God time travel?
If our view of time is correct, then even God cannot time travel.[16] This might sound odd to place a limit on God like this. However, in our view, the past doesn’t actually exist, nor does the future. Hence, it is impossible for God to travel to a place that doesn’t exist. This would be a logical contradiction that is equivalent to asking, “Can God create a stone so heavy that even he cannot life it?” In this sense, we are asking, “Can God travel to a time that doesn’t exist?”
In the Marvel movie series, Captain America wakes up in a room after being frozen for 70 years. Everything in the room looks like the 1940s (e.g. the old-time radio is playing a baseball game, the clothing styles match the 1940s, etc.). However, it merely appeared to be the 1940s. Similarly, God could surely rearrange all of the molecules in the universe to make it look like an earlier time or a later one. But this wouldn’t truly be travelling through time. It would be similar to creating a cosmetic set that made it appear to be a different time.
Doesn’t the Bible teach that Jesus was “slain from the foundation of the world”? (Rev. 13:8)
In Revelation, we read, “All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8 KJV). This is, however, a poor translation of the text from the King James Bible. Modern translators note that this prepositional phrase modifies the word “written… in the book of life.” It is true that “in Greek, either interpretation is grammatically acceptable.”[17] However, the context favors the names that are written—not Jesus’ death. Later in Revelation, we read a clear parallel: John refers to those whose names have “not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 17:8).
Jesus didn’t die “once for all” until the Cross occurred in AD 33. This is simple metaphysics: Jesus couldn’t have died before he incarnated and took up the Cross in AD 33. Such a view of time is inconsistent with the so-called “A-Theory of Time,” and should be rejected. Instead, through his foreknowledge, God knew who would come to faith in Christ (Rom. 8:29; 1 Pet. 1:1-2).
If God wasn’t eternal, what implications would this have for our lives?
If God wasn’t eternal, we might think that life would come to an end. Perhaps God would eventually fade out into oblivion like everything else in our immediate experience. If so, this would mean that human life would eventually end as well.
If God wasn’t eternal, we would wonder who created God. Everything that begins to exist must have a cause for its existence. If God began to exist, then we would wonder who caused him. We would rightly think of him as some sort of demigod.
[1] Emphasis his. L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans publishing co., 1938), 60.
[2] Allan A. Macrae, “1631 עלם,” ed. R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1999), 672.
[3] Emphasis mine. Norman L. Geisler, Systematic Theology (Arlington, TX: Bastion Books, 2021), 455.
[4] Emphasis mine. Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994), 171.
[5] Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology., 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1998), 300.
[6] Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology., 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1998), 301.
[7] Moreland and Craig are merely describing this view—not affirming it. J.P. Moreland and William Lane Craig, Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview (2nd ed., Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2017), 1063.
[8] John Feinberg, No One Like Him: The Doctrine of God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001), p.264.
[9] Emphasis mine. Norman L. Geisler, Systematic Theology (Arlington, TX: Bastion Books, 2021), 455.
[10] J.P. Moreland and William Lane Craig, Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview (2nd ed., Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2017), 1064.
[11] Norman L. Geisler, Systematic Theology (Arlington, TX: Bastion Books, 2021), 461.
[12] J.P. Moreland and William Lane Craig, Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview (2nd ed., Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2017), 1066-1067.
[13] J.P. Moreland and William Lane Craig, Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview (2nd ed., Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2017), 1069-1070.
[14] L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans publishing co., 1938), 58.
[15] I am indebted to Moreland and Craig for this distinction. J.P. Moreland and William Lane Craig, Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview (2nd ed., Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2017), 1092.
[16] Feinberg writes, “Some may argue via an appeal to backward causation or to time travel into the past that there is such a power, but it is dubious that this is so. The problem again seems to be one of logical contradiction. Take as an example the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963. For God (or anyone else) to have power to alter the past means that right now, even though Kennedy was assassinated, it is possible that he should not have been assassinated. This is a contradiction, and there is no such power” John Feinberg, No One Like Him: The Doctrine of God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001), p.290.
[17] Alan F. Johnson, “Revelation,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews through Revelation, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 12 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1981), 528.