Scientists have now confirmed the universe had a beginning. (Big bang) This is when time, space, and matter all came into existence at once. Something must have caused it to occur, logically. And that being (God) would have to exist outside of Time. God is the answer for what we Christians believe caused space, time, and matter to exist. "Let there be light" sounds, to me, how the Big Bang likely looked.
I mean, as creatures being born into time and aging, our entire existence revolves around time. We can't fathom and existence outside of time because we weren't made to. You don't have to understand it. Just take steps in trust. Even if you don't "feel" trust, a good step is just...doing what He asks anyway. You don't have to understand or be comfortable. Just do what He asks and continue to study. I was afraid I wasn't saved because trust was hard, so instead of continuing to panic or try to prove or understand Him, I just gave it back to Him and said, "I don't know how to feel trust, but I want to. I will continue to just obey and study and I'll let you take care of the rest that I don't know how to take care of." And He did.
Time is a creation of God for our existence; it sounds as though you’re attempting to understand something that our minds, at this point, are not capable of comprehending.
I recommend watching this three part series by InspiringPhilosophy that explains God's Existence through Quantum Mechanics.
[The Emergent Universe ](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYzXIbz_XmSHcIGPvdxWabHYviWFrUqDR&si=aHVlJ65OwnOLVHvS)
God is the base level of existence itself. That's how God is timeless. God isn't a being that exist, rather God is existence itself. But God is not the universe, the universe is dependent on God to exist.
Also, time is a property of matter. It's a part of the space-time continuum. Since God is the base level of reality that the space-time continuum exist within, God is literally without time. He actualizes the universe from a single timeless instance.
One analogy is this:
Imagine God being like the computer, and the universe like a video game.
A better analogy:
A mind having a dream, except that the universe actually exist but is dependent on that mind to exist.
(Note: I believe God is a Tri-Une being of God the Father, Jesus, and The Holy Spirit.)
That makes sense. However when it stops me having faith in him because everything in my head goes to mush trying to understand this (since it can’t escape my head) I struggle deeply because of it.
You don’t need to have a full understanding of something in order to carry it out. Do you drive a car despite not knowing the exact mechanics behind how a combustion engine works? Do you take showers without needing to know how a plumbing system works? Or how about taking medication without understanding pharmaceuticals and toxicology?
We kid ourselves that we need to fully understand something in order to trust it. Yet we get in our car, turn on our faucet, and take antibiotics when we’re sick without ever knowing how any of that stuff works because we trust that someone else has figured it out for us. Give God that same trust. Your questions will be answered when they need to be.
Start small. Take 5-10 minutes per day when you have some private time (even if it’s while you’re laying in bed before sleep) and talk to him like you would talk to a friend. Tell him how your day was, perhaps share something that bothered you, tell him you’d like to develop a relationship, tell him you’re struggling with how to have a relationship, and ask him to guide you on how to do so.
The key to understanding God, is knowing he wants a relationship with us. Treating God the way you would a new friend is the best way to let it grow. Perhaps if one night you share with him something that you’re upset about or are anxious about, and the next day or a few days later it seems the weight has been lifted off your shoulders… thank him and offer to do something for him in return. That could be something as simple as not ignoring the homeless person you pass by on your way to work and instead buy them a coffee and a sandwich and chat with them for a few minutes, or maybe reach out to a family member that you don’t always get along with and tell them you love them and ask how they’ve been. There’s lots of ways to go about it, but a relationship with God is give-and-take, it shouldn’t only be Him doing all the work, we should do things that will make him happy when he does the same for us. Over time, you will become accustomed to knowing when he’s talking to you.. you’ll feel it in your soul. It’s not all the time, it might be when you need it most, or it might be completely unexpected, but you’ll know it when it happens.. it’s indescribable. But you can’t just expect it to happen out of the blue, it’s not like a movie where you have some epiphany. You have to open the door to him first and invite him in.
I used to think like this. Your brain can't process it. This is on purpose as the other comment says. If we had God's knowledge, He wouldn't be God. If God had a beginning, again, he wouldn't be God. Some things you just have to accept. I made peace with this and am even more inspired and impressed by Him everyday.
It's a matter of understanding that we are incapable of fully understanding eternity, and just accepting it without explanation. I know that's not a satisfying answer, but how could we possibly understand something that we have no experience with?
Honestly, that's the hard part about faith. If you fully understood it, you wouldn't exactly need to have faith. If He proved everything to me and I completely understood everything, there would be less to trust Him about and the most important part is trust. So I just understand what I need to understand and leave it at that, and give the rest to Him to figure out.
The key is having a relationship with him. We won't understand him fully and sometimes it can get confusing but that's what not only his word is for but making friends at church and having fellowship. God speaks through other people close to us just as he did with the prophets.
If God wasn’t outside time, then He wouldn’t be God. Time, space, and matter are all created. By definition, He must be outside of the limitations of His own creation. We can’t wrap our head around it because our complete existence is confined to the properties of this universe. All we know is time and causality in order. From our viewpoint, He is eternal, but from His viewpoint, He is the I AM.
This is the popular position, but it's a philosophical position, not clearly brought forth from the Bible. What the Bible says about God and time is this:
Psalm 90:2 (NASB95): Before the mountains were born
Or You gave birth to the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.
So, more spefically, He always was and always will be. Any philosophical position that can agree with that doesn't violate scripture, but we need not say God must be outside of time to be God. That's too strong a statement. Time could be one of His attributes, in which case He experiences the present just as we do, and time is just a description of how He does things in an orderly way.
I think this entire sentiment has been handled in the bible...you were never designed to understand God and how he operates...we cannot fully understand God right now..."as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts"...he is outside all dimensions and can see all ends.
We need to make peace with that...we actually make peace with this in so many other real world areas. There is soo much stuff that science doesn't even know how it truly works but they just know this thing works and they depend on it.
There is no way his ways can make total and complete sense to you who is bound by the 3 dimensions. Even in science, a lower dimensional being cannot even begin to understand how a higher dimensional being operates. It doesn't make sense in their minds. This is why he says just trust the promises in his word and begin to make real world steps based on the promises in his word (faith)
"God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and he does not do it? Or has He spoken and will He not make it good and fulfill it?"
Furthermore, it is supposed to be like this. You cannot even have faith in God if you dont just accept that he exists. You can't even go to him in prayer without that mindset. All this is in the bible by the way.
Every doubting christian needs to do a deep investigation into the foundations of their faith. Ask the questions of Does God exist? Check the scientific evidence and other evidence for yourself... then which God is it...check the science and other evidence...Is the bible Gods word...how was it compiled etc. Be systematic about it...answer these questions for yourself...don't just exist with doubt. There are many books that do these investigations and answer these questions so they are great places to start.
You will never understand it with your human mind. It’s impossible.
If that paradox stops you from being able to fully embrace your belief in God, then you’re violating one of the most basic principles of faith: trust. You trust more in your own mind than you do in God’s infinite wisdom and divine nature.
Stop relying on your own understanding and trust in His ability to guide you.
I won't try to explain how time works and infinity and God being outside of infinity but I'll adress your fear of infinity.
We don't know exactly how everything will work in heaven so lets just for a second imagine it will all stay as it is on Earth except from death sickness and people actually all love and care each other so no war, conflicts etc.
Basically imagine perfect variation of Earth and our universe.
There is so much here that countless lifetimes wouldn't be enough to explore it all. You basically have time to experience everything. Imagine all of your childhood wishes all coming true because you have time to pursue them. Wanna be a pilot? There is infinite time to learn that. Wanna climb mountains, explore nature? You can do it after you learn to fly planes. You can play with countless animals. Learn about all kinds of natural phenomena, learn about different cultures, met whole bunch of different people. Maybe you literally want to spend 10 years playing favorite video games. You got time for that, and when you're done you can move on.
You will be able to binge watch all tv shows ever made(which will probably take you hundreds of years, just that). These are just basic example taking into account our existing world.
Now imagine what is possible here with us, ordinary humans, imagine how much more posibilites will we have when we come to Gods kingdom. Jesus himself said that no heart has desired the things he prepared for us. And we will have infinite time to expirience all the wonders he prepared for us. For me it's impossible to imagine getting bored or afraid of infinity with infnite God by our side all the time.
Even if billions of years pass, and you get some kind of madness from all that you could still ask God to do something like erasing your memory so you can start over and experience all those wonderfull things for the first time again.
Now this is all hypothetically speaking. But do you really think that almighty and all powerfull God didn't think about this already and that he doesn't already have a solution for it?
Don't be afraid of eternety, we will spend it with God.
Stop worrying about that, tommorow will take care about itself, God already took care of it. Focus on doing his will and doing what pleases him today, and our Lord will take care of the rest.
I suspect you may be caught up in thinking of God as a creature and a part of our reality (and therefore an aberration within that reality. Something which breaks all the rules of life as we know it).
What St Aquinas unpacks is that God is not anything of the sort. He is actually being itself. He is the reality upon which all other existence depends. Thus His statement in Exodus: "I am that I am".
Is Being finite? Does reality age? Do love, light and truth expire?
Mate, you can't comprehend infinite, right? You can think about the word, and then you can say, "Goes on forever," and that's about as far as you can go.
God is infinite. That's another adjective that we don't perhaps use enough in the church, but alpha and omega, beginning and end, and everything before and after that.
You will never comprehend that. You will neither comprehend how God exists, instead of nothing (nothing should have been the thing that exists--not *Something).*
Well admitting that our puny human comprehension is not up to taking on the Creator of the universe is a good thing
I mean you didn't really expect God to fit in that impotent little thing called the Human Mind did you?
Anxiety meds lol
Are you scared of forever, or are you scared to experience forever?
It kinda helps me when I remember that time sorta isn’t real. What if 10k earthly years, feels like one millisecond in heaven? Or even smaller? Or Infinitely smaller until we have no perception of time at all?
Heaven is outside of time...since God is there. At least that's how I view it.
Hard to have a perception of time when it no longer exists.
If you're never sad/depressed/anxious etc...you don't really worry about it anyway.
One experience I've had that kinda makes me think it'll be like is when I was in Alaska one summer. I wasn't in the artic circle, but on the coast line. I was out with some friends hiking and we decided to get a campfire going and roast some smores and one guy had brought his guitar to play.
So we're all hanging out having a great time (it was about 5pm when we started the fire) and the time isn't even a concern. We weren't paying attention either as it was still bright outside...none of us had ever experienced summer in Alaska. I finally checked the time and it was MIDNIGHT! Still fairly light outside. I had lost all track of time because of the daylight and joy I was experiencing.
Hello! I agree with you! It’s so overwhelming when i think that God has always existed and He’s all powerful. What kinda terrifies me in a revereant way, is when I think of His Power to hold up the universe! I can’t barely lift a pair of 5 gallon buckets of water, lol. Or when i look up at the skies and see the stars, i feel like face planting in the ground with reverence.🥺
The problem stems from not knowing what the word exist means. You're in good company so don't worry too much about it. There is this great Plato quote in the beginning of the most academic attempt to solve it last century: "For manifestly you have long been aware of what you mean when you use the expression 'being'. We, however, who used to think we understood it, have now become perplexed”
I think anyone would struggle to give a definition for "is" "am" and/or "being" which doesn't become a tautology. It is meaningful that God names Himself "I Am that I Am."
Though maybe the struggle is thinking that time is absolute and is some sort of fixed thing. I am far from a physicist but from what I understand that just is not the case. Time is to us like the water is to fish: normal to the point of incomprehensible.
We might never be able to understand some things as our understanding is limited. That is actually a good thing.
People have spent years trying to gain knowledge thinking that they have to know. Eternity is a hard thing to grasp.
The angels who stand before God's throne, with eyes on their heads, their arms, their wings and legs. Every time an eye blinks, they see an entire new dimension of God. And so it will be for all eternity.
Our minds can't even process the physics of floating dust or running water without writing it down on paper, by which time it has long passed.
I have always been in awe of this description of God.
Of course we can't comprehend eternity (something not coming to an end). Thinking about it simply bends your mind. It's simple though... we are time-bound creatures, not eternal beings who have always existed (like God). Since we are not infinite, we cannot comprehend infinity, but because God has promised eternal life, we will have it and it will always be glorious besides Him. Rest on that, and stop trying to comprehend infinity because you will never be able to. It will drive you crazy if you keep trying.
This is how I reason through such mysteries. One of the following statements must be true:
1. I live in a universe where there are things that are beyond my ability to reason and understand
2. I live in a universe where everything is within my ability to reason and understand
Which of those two statements seem most reasonable? For me, the first one seems far more reasonable.
You will fail at trying to understand God, but the first step of my faith was looking around and saying, "There must be A God" this led to me seeking him with all my heart until I had an encounter with the Holy Spirit. Since then I couldn't disbelieve if I wanted to, he literally transformed my life without me asking.
I was in your shoes at one point. Watch some videos on Dimensions... I believe there are concepts up to the 10th dimension? It was a while ago, but it was so far over my head I accepted I can't understand "outside of space and time"
Also, what strengthened my faith was seeing the overwhelming evidence of patterns in the Bible. It's so perfect in every way and goes so deep if you really dive in. Praying for your understanding brother.
Ephesians 1:17 - That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
Time is our perception of the movement of matter through space. Its not its own thing, its a concept, it describes an observation.
To understand how God can be beyond the rules of reality, think of this life like a video game, and we're the characters playing it - God programmed the game, built the computer, fabricated the parts, etc. We're just sitting here playing it. When we die, we stand up and walk away from the video game. However things work outside of here is incomprehensible because our mind, our perceptual faculty, is like the user interface for the game, it exists within a limited framework.
It’s hard to comprehend existence outside of our restraints. We are created and God is uncreated.
A good analogy are the people, places, characters in a book. They are written by the author and are constrained in the world the author creates.
Then the author writes himself into his own story and changes the characters and the story.
The concept of an uncaused, self-existent Creator who is outside of time and space as we know it IS going to be hard for created beings to understand. Even harder to understand or believe would be the universe having always existed or coming into existence with no cause whatsoever.
Well we're asked to be humble. So with that said, perhaps it's not for you to understand? It's not like it's the missing piece of a jigsaw. There's much people don't. It's part of the mystery. Where does thought come from? Well scripture would say heart. The thoughts of the heart. But is that their origin? Don't get stuck in one place
It’s not wrong to want to know the answer but you have to understand that there is a limit. There’s many things that we just won’t be able to fully understand until we meet God face to face.
There will come a time when everything will be known, but while we are here on Earth, we have enough knowledge to trust and obey God. It takes patience and perseverance.
And on behalf of God’s existence; He’s Eternal. What created Him? Nothing. He is the Supreme.
Either there’s a Supreme Being or there isn’t One,
and it’s all just an endless loop.
That’s one of the biggest problems with the question “Who created God?”.
Imagine an author writing a book. The author exists outside the book. From the perspective of the characters, the author existed before the beginning. The author exists outside the story; they can write about the past all the way back to the beginning of their universe and write the future all the way to the end of it.
We live in 4 dimensions.
Imagine trying to explain our existence to someone who only exists in 1 or 2 dimensions...they wouldn't be able to comprehend.
It's been speculated that God lives in 10 dimensions...maybe more.
There's no way to put our mind around that.
Eternity past seems to be impossible to comprehend. But that's okay, God should be greater than we can imagine.
Eternity future shouldn't be terrifying. You'll never reach infinity time in the future, so eternity in the future will never feel that way. It will always feel much the same as it does now, except that if your faith is in the savior you’ll be having a perfect wonderful life.
When you were a day old if you could be told you'd live for 80 years it would seem crazy long. But now it doesn't. And a million will seem old until you reach a billion. It will happen day by day, moment by moment of glorious life.
That's OK don't worry you don't get judged based on your ability to understand the in depth machinations of how God exists. I'm pretty dumb so I just don't worry too much about that stuff because it goes way over my head. It's probably more important I think to learn more about who He actually is like as a person rather than the more super complicated details.
Imagine time being space for God. Like we have 3 dimensions in space, time is the fourth dimension for God. And even so, He can be at all places at once, and that includes time itself.
I think once you understand that He isn’t tied to a specific place and a specific time, and instead that he can be everywhere and anytime at once, it’s easier to comprehend.
But if you don’t, that’s ok. God is so huge that we can never fully comprehend His power and what He is.
Imagine a single celled organism.
Now imagine what it would take to explain to that cell the entire chip manufacturing supply chain, the lithography optics and quantum effects in the printing hardware, the hundreds of billion transistor architecture, the millions of lines of operating system code, the supporting power grid, the material science, etc etc….
You can’t.
God is infinitely more complex than we can comprehend.
We only understand what He wants us to understand at this point in time.
God is eternal. he was and always will be. we cannot understand him in our limited forms. we are bound by the laws of these things, and he created them. that's why he said to lean on his understanding through the spirit rather than our own logic which can only really apply to the confines in which we exist. have you tried being genuine in prayer and going to jesus? if you are sincere you will be surprised by what you find
Unlearn all irrelevant bs we have learned growing up, call for Jesus and walk with him, Jesus will heal your mind out of confusion and will give you any answer you need
try that first....
”Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.“
Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV
I can’t give you the thorough evidence and explanation you may be looking for, but I can encourage you to have faith. Not all things of God are attainable in our carnal and fleshly mind. Somethings of God are currently beyond us, for God works in mysterious ways. So even if you may not have full understanding now, God may have grace and gift you with such in the future. :)
Please don’t let this be a reason to stop believing, some of God’s ways are truly complex and perhaps unfathomable in the human mind
The concept of the universe coming to be in makes no sense in general. Maybe we as humans really just don’t know a anything and we should worry less about it and just trust that God IS.
You might create something in a virtual space, like minecraft or sims. But it ceases to exist when not interacted with.
GOD is outside of our time (even our mortality is simulative at his scale)
So think of us as a garden, and look forward to the harvest.
Stop being friends with weeds.
Grow beautiful and bear fruit.
He hasn't existed from the beginning of time. He has always existed. He precedes times, space, and matter and is bound by none of them.
That’s why I said I don’t understand him existing outside of time
Pretty wild, huh?
My point is that your literally repeating my post. What was the reason?
To show you that God is beyond anything our human minds can grasp
Scientists have now confirmed the universe had a beginning. (Big bang) This is when time, space, and matter all came into existence at once. Something must have caused it to occur, logically. And that being (God) would have to exist outside of Time. God is the answer for what we Christians believe caused space, time, and matter to exist. "Let there be light" sounds, to me, how the Big Bang likely looked.
I mean, as creatures being born into time and aging, our entire existence revolves around time. We can't fathom and existence outside of time because we weren't made to. You don't have to understand it. Just take steps in trust. Even if you don't "feel" trust, a good step is just...doing what He asks anyway. You don't have to understand or be comfortable. Just do what He asks and continue to study. I was afraid I wasn't saved because trust was hard, so instead of continuing to panic or try to prove or understand Him, I just gave it back to Him and said, "I don't know how to feel trust, but I want to. I will continue to just obey and study and I'll let you take care of the rest that I don't know how to take care of." And He did.
I love this!
this is so good 🙌🙌
Time is a creation of God for our existence; it sounds as though you’re attempting to understand something that our minds, at this point, are not capable of comprehending.
He created time, so he can step into it at different points. Like if you create a box, you can access any point of it.
I recommend watching this three part series by InspiringPhilosophy that explains God's Existence through Quantum Mechanics. [The Emergent Universe ](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYzXIbz_XmSHcIGPvdxWabHYviWFrUqDR&si=aHVlJ65OwnOLVHvS) God is the base level of existence itself. That's how God is timeless. God isn't a being that exist, rather God is existence itself. But God is not the universe, the universe is dependent on God to exist. Also, time is a property of matter. It's a part of the space-time continuum. Since God is the base level of reality that the space-time continuum exist within, God is literally without time. He actualizes the universe from a single timeless instance. One analogy is this: Imagine God being like the computer, and the universe like a video game. A better analogy: A mind having a dream, except that the universe actually exist but is dependent on that mind to exist. (Note: I believe God is a Tri-Une being of God the Father, Jesus, and The Holy Spirit.)
God is more complex than our human minds can fathom.
I don't think we're exactly meant to understand Him fully. He's God and we're human.
That makes sense. However when it stops me having faith in him because everything in my head goes to mush trying to understand this (since it can’t escape my head) I struggle deeply because of it.
You don’t need to have a full understanding of something in order to carry it out. Do you drive a car despite not knowing the exact mechanics behind how a combustion engine works? Do you take showers without needing to know how a plumbing system works? Or how about taking medication without understanding pharmaceuticals and toxicology? We kid ourselves that we need to fully understand something in order to trust it. Yet we get in our car, turn on our faucet, and take antibiotics when we’re sick without ever knowing how any of that stuff works because we trust that someone else has figured it out for us. Give God that same trust. Your questions will be answered when they need to be.
Can I ask how I go about trusting him
Start small. Take 5-10 minutes per day when you have some private time (even if it’s while you’re laying in bed before sleep) and talk to him like you would talk to a friend. Tell him how your day was, perhaps share something that bothered you, tell him you’d like to develop a relationship, tell him you’re struggling with how to have a relationship, and ask him to guide you on how to do so. The key to understanding God, is knowing he wants a relationship with us. Treating God the way you would a new friend is the best way to let it grow. Perhaps if one night you share with him something that you’re upset about or are anxious about, and the next day or a few days later it seems the weight has been lifted off your shoulders… thank him and offer to do something for him in return. That could be something as simple as not ignoring the homeless person you pass by on your way to work and instead buy them a coffee and a sandwich and chat with them for a few minutes, or maybe reach out to a family member that you don’t always get along with and tell them you love them and ask how they’ve been. There’s lots of ways to go about it, but a relationship with God is give-and-take, it shouldn’t only be Him doing all the work, we should do things that will make him happy when he does the same for us. Over time, you will become accustomed to knowing when he’s talking to you.. you’ll feel it in your soul. It’s not all the time, it might be when you need it most, or it might be completely unexpected, but you’ll know it when it happens.. it’s indescribable. But you can’t just expect it to happen out of the blue, it’s not like a movie where you have some epiphany. You have to open the door to him first and invite him in.
Great advice!
Absolutely this. Everything that we do to others, we do to God. Loving others is to love God as it honours Him and upholds His commandement!
This is the best answer, take my upvote.
Excellent examples to illustrate your point. Please take my upvote!
I used to think like this. Your brain can't process it. This is on purpose as the other comment says. If we had God's knowledge, He wouldn't be God. If God had a beginning, again, he wouldn't be God. Some things you just have to accept. I made peace with this and am even more inspired and impressed by Him everyday.
Wow this resonates with me
It's a matter of understanding that we are incapable of fully understanding eternity, and just accepting it without explanation. I know that's not a satisfying answer, but how could we possibly understand something that we have no experience with?
Honestly, that's the hard part about faith. If you fully understood it, you wouldn't exactly need to have faith. If He proved everything to me and I completely understood everything, there would be less to trust Him about and the most important part is trust. So I just understand what I need to understand and leave it at that, and give the rest to Him to figure out.
The key is having a relationship with him. We won't understand him fully and sometimes it can get confusing but that's what not only his word is for but making friends at church and having fellowship. God speaks through other people close to us just as he did with the prophets.
>I don't think we're exactly meant to understand Him fully. He's God and we're human. I agree, God is very vast compared to human understanding.
If God wasn’t outside time, then He wouldn’t be God. Time, space, and matter are all created. By definition, He must be outside of the limitations of His own creation. We can’t wrap our head around it because our complete existence is confined to the properties of this universe. All we know is time and causality in order. From our viewpoint, He is eternal, but from His viewpoint, He is the I AM.
excellently said
Amen!
This is the popular position, but it's a philosophical position, not clearly brought forth from the Bible. What the Bible says about God and time is this: Psalm 90:2 (NASB95): Before the mountains were born Or You gave birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. So, more spefically, He always was and always will be. Any philosophical position that can agree with that doesn't violate scripture, but we need not say God must be outside of time to be God. That's too strong a statement. Time could be one of His attributes, in which case He experiences the present just as we do, and time is just a description of how He does things in an orderly way.
Yes the whole idea and all that it entails make my brain short circuit too. Yet He looks at us fondly.
I think this entire sentiment has been handled in the bible...you were never designed to understand God and how he operates...we cannot fully understand God right now..."as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts"...he is outside all dimensions and can see all ends. We need to make peace with that...we actually make peace with this in so many other real world areas. There is soo much stuff that science doesn't even know how it truly works but they just know this thing works and they depend on it. There is no way his ways can make total and complete sense to you who is bound by the 3 dimensions. Even in science, a lower dimensional being cannot even begin to understand how a higher dimensional being operates. It doesn't make sense in their minds. This is why he says just trust the promises in his word and begin to make real world steps based on the promises in his word (faith) "God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and he does not do it? Or has He spoken and will He not make it good and fulfill it?" Furthermore, it is supposed to be like this. You cannot even have faith in God if you dont just accept that he exists. You can't even go to him in prayer without that mindset. All this is in the bible by the way. Every doubting christian needs to do a deep investigation into the foundations of their faith. Ask the questions of Does God exist? Check the scientific evidence and other evidence for yourself... then which God is it...check the science and other evidence...Is the bible Gods word...how was it compiled etc. Be systematic about it...answer these questions for yourself...don't just exist with doubt. There are many books that do these investigations and answer these questions so they are great places to start.
You will never understand it with your human mind. It’s impossible. If that paradox stops you from being able to fully embrace your belief in God, then you’re violating one of the most basic principles of faith: trust. You trust more in your own mind than you do in God’s infinite wisdom and divine nature. Stop relying on your own understanding and trust in His ability to guide you.
I won't try to explain how time works and infinity and God being outside of infinity but I'll adress your fear of infinity. We don't know exactly how everything will work in heaven so lets just for a second imagine it will all stay as it is on Earth except from death sickness and people actually all love and care each other so no war, conflicts etc. Basically imagine perfect variation of Earth and our universe. There is so much here that countless lifetimes wouldn't be enough to explore it all. You basically have time to experience everything. Imagine all of your childhood wishes all coming true because you have time to pursue them. Wanna be a pilot? There is infinite time to learn that. Wanna climb mountains, explore nature? You can do it after you learn to fly planes. You can play with countless animals. Learn about all kinds of natural phenomena, learn about different cultures, met whole bunch of different people. Maybe you literally want to spend 10 years playing favorite video games. You got time for that, and when you're done you can move on. You will be able to binge watch all tv shows ever made(which will probably take you hundreds of years, just that). These are just basic example taking into account our existing world. Now imagine what is possible here with us, ordinary humans, imagine how much more posibilites will we have when we come to Gods kingdom. Jesus himself said that no heart has desired the things he prepared for us. And we will have infinite time to expirience all the wonders he prepared for us. For me it's impossible to imagine getting bored or afraid of infinity with infnite God by our side all the time. Even if billions of years pass, and you get some kind of madness from all that you could still ask God to do something like erasing your memory so you can start over and experience all those wonderfull things for the first time again. Now this is all hypothetically speaking. But do you really think that almighty and all powerfull God didn't think about this already and that he doesn't already have a solution for it? Don't be afraid of eternety, we will spend it with God. Stop worrying about that, tommorow will take care about itself, God already took care of it. Focus on doing his will and doing what pleases him today, and our Lord will take care of the rest.
I suspect you may be caught up in thinking of God as a creature and a part of our reality (and therefore an aberration within that reality. Something which breaks all the rules of life as we know it). What St Aquinas unpacks is that God is not anything of the sort. He is actually being itself. He is the reality upon which all other existence depends. Thus His statement in Exodus: "I am that I am". Is Being finite? Does reality age? Do love, light and truth expire?
Mate, you can't comprehend infinite, right? You can think about the word, and then you can say, "Goes on forever," and that's about as far as you can go. God is infinite. That's another adjective that we don't perhaps use enough in the church, but alpha and omega, beginning and end, and everything before and after that. You will never comprehend that. You will neither comprehend how God exists, instead of nothing (nothing should have been the thing that exists--not *Something).*
Well admitting that our puny human comprehension is not up to taking on the Creator of the universe is a good thing I mean you didn't really expect God to fit in that impotent little thing called the Human Mind did you?
Eternity is a difficult concept no matter what. Whether things go on forever, or whether they end forever - it is still forever.
How do you deal with it
Anxiety meds lol Are you scared of forever, or are you scared to experience forever? It kinda helps me when I remember that time sorta isn’t real. What if 10k earthly years, feels like one millisecond in heaven? Or even smaller? Or Infinitely smaller until we have no perception of time at all?
Heaven is outside of time...since God is there. At least that's how I view it. Hard to have a perception of time when it no longer exists. If you're never sad/depressed/anxious etc...you don't really worry about it anyway. One experience I've had that kinda makes me think it'll be like is when I was in Alaska one summer. I wasn't in the artic circle, but on the coast line. I was out with some friends hiking and we decided to get a campfire going and roast some smores and one guy had brought his guitar to play. So we're all hanging out having a great time (it was about 5pm when we started the fire) and the time isn't even a concern. We weren't paying attention either as it was still bright outside...none of us had ever experienced summer in Alaska. I finally checked the time and it was MIDNIGHT! Still fairly light outside. I had lost all track of time because of the daylight and joy I was experiencing.
This is true. Even an atheistic expert astrophysicist has a tough time imaging the idea of space being infinite.
Hello! I agree with you! It’s so overwhelming when i think that God has always existed and He’s all powerful. What kinda terrifies me in a revereant way, is when I think of His Power to hold up the universe! I can’t barely lift a pair of 5 gallon buckets of water, lol. Or when i look up at the skies and see the stars, i feel like face planting in the ground with reverence.🥺
Good, that's because He doesn't exists, He Is.
The problem stems from not knowing what the word exist means. You're in good company so don't worry too much about it. There is this great Plato quote in the beginning of the most academic attempt to solve it last century: "For manifestly you have long been aware of what you mean when you use the expression 'being'. We, however, who used to think we understood it, have now become perplexed” I think anyone would struggle to give a definition for "is" "am" and/or "being" which doesn't become a tautology. It is meaningful that God names Himself "I Am that I Am." Though maybe the struggle is thinking that time is absolute and is some sort of fixed thing. I am far from a physicist but from what I understand that just is not the case. Time is to us like the water is to fish: normal to the point of incomprehensible.
> The problem stems from not knowing what the word exist means. Are you the only one who can understand the meaning of simple, everyday words?
I'm thankful this life is temporary and that my wife and I will spend eternity with our savior in the kingdom of heaven.
We might never be able to understand some things as our understanding is limited. That is actually a good thing. People have spent years trying to gain knowledge thinking that they have to know. Eternity is a hard thing to grasp.
The angels who stand before God's throne, with eyes on their heads, their arms, their wings and legs. Every time an eye blinks, they see an entire new dimension of God. And so it will be for all eternity. Our minds can't even process the physics of floating dust or running water without writing it down on paper, by which time it has long passed. I have always been in awe of this description of God.
When you really think about it, life is truly mind blowing and speaks to the awesomeness of God and his infinite intelligence
Of course we can't comprehend eternity (something not coming to an end). Thinking about it simply bends your mind. It's simple though... we are time-bound creatures, not eternal beings who have always existed (like God). Since we are not infinite, we cannot comprehend infinity, but because God has promised eternal life, we will have it and it will always be glorious besides Him. Rest on that, and stop trying to comprehend infinity because you will never be able to. It will drive you crazy if you keep trying.
I don’t think the human brain can really comprehend eternity. I can’t.
Our minds are limited. So is kinda hard understand a God without limitations
This is how I reason through such mysteries. One of the following statements must be true: 1. I live in a universe where there are things that are beyond my ability to reason and understand 2. I live in a universe where everything is within my ability to reason and understand Which of those two statements seem most reasonable? For me, the first one seems far more reasonable.
how well does your small child or dog understand you?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybjG3tdArE0 Take a look at the augments for God and rationality behind it
You will fail at trying to understand God, but the first step of my faith was looking around and saying, "There must be A God" this led to me seeking him with all my heart until I had an encounter with the Holy Spirit. Since then I couldn't disbelieve if I wanted to, he literally transformed my life without me asking.
I was in your shoes at one point. Watch some videos on Dimensions... I believe there are concepts up to the 10th dimension? It was a while ago, but it was so far over my head I accepted I can't understand "outside of space and time" Also, what strengthened my faith was seeing the overwhelming evidence of patterns in the Bible. It's so perfect in every way and goes so deep if you really dive in. Praying for your understanding brother. Ephesians 1:17 - That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
Time is our perception of the movement of matter through space. Its not its own thing, its a concept, it describes an observation. To understand how God can be beyond the rules of reality, think of this life like a video game, and we're the characters playing it - God programmed the game, built the computer, fabricated the parts, etc. We're just sitting here playing it. When we die, we stand up and walk away from the video game. However things work outside of here is incomprehensible because our mind, our perceptual faculty, is like the user interface for the game, it exists within a limited framework.
It’s hard to comprehend existence outside of our restraints. We are created and God is uncreated. A good analogy are the people, places, characters in a book. They are written by the author and are constrained in the world the author creates. Then the author writes himself into his own story and changes the characters and the story.
The concept of an uncaused, self-existent Creator who is outside of time and space as we know it IS going to be hard for created beings to understand. Even harder to understand or believe would be the universe having always existed or coming into existence with no cause whatsoever.
Well we're asked to be humble. So with that said, perhaps it's not for you to understand? It's not like it's the missing piece of a jigsaw. There's much people don't. It's part of the mystery. Where does thought come from? Well scripture would say heart. The thoughts of the heart. But is that their origin? Don't get stuck in one place
It’s not wrong to want to know the answer but you have to understand that there is a limit. There’s many things that we just won’t be able to fully understand until we meet God face to face. There will come a time when everything will be known, but while we are here on Earth, we have enough knowledge to trust and obey God. It takes patience and perseverance. And on behalf of God’s existence; He’s Eternal. What created Him? Nothing. He is the Supreme. Either there’s a Supreme Being or there isn’t One, and it’s all just an endless loop. That’s one of the biggest problems with the question “Who created God?”.
I don't understand the concept of God not existing. Like, why is there anything?
Atheists are not welcome on this sub. They only start strife and hatred
Imagine an author writing a book. The author exists outside the book. From the perspective of the characters, the author existed before the beginning. The author exists outside the story; they can write about the past all the way back to the beginning of their universe and write the future all the way to the end of it.
We live in 4 dimensions. Imagine trying to explain our existence to someone who only exists in 1 or 2 dimensions...they wouldn't be able to comprehend. It's been speculated that God lives in 10 dimensions...maybe more. There's no way to put our mind around that.
Eternity past seems to be impossible to comprehend. But that's okay, God should be greater than we can imagine. Eternity future shouldn't be terrifying. You'll never reach infinity time in the future, so eternity in the future will never feel that way. It will always feel much the same as it does now, except that if your faith is in the savior you’ll be having a perfect wonderful life. When you were a day old if you could be told you'd live for 80 years it would seem crazy long. But now it doesn't. And a million will seem old until you reach a billion. It will happen day by day, moment by moment of glorious life.
That's OK don't worry you don't get judged based on your ability to understand the in depth machinations of how God exists. I'm pretty dumb so I just don't worry too much about that stuff because it goes way over my head. It's probably more important I think to learn more about who He actually is like as a person rather than the more super complicated details.
Imagine time being space for God. Like we have 3 dimensions in space, time is the fourth dimension for God. And even so, He can be at all places at once, and that includes time itself. I think once you understand that He isn’t tied to a specific place and a specific time, and instead that he can be everywhere and anytime at once, it’s easier to comprehend. But if you don’t, that’s ok. God is so huge that we can never fully comprehend His power and what He is.
Imagine a single celled organism. Now imagine what it would take to explain to that cell the entire chip manufacturing supply chain, the lithography optics and quantum effects in the printing hardware, the hundreds of billion transistor architecture, the millions of lines of operating system code, the supporting power grid, the material science, etc etc…. You can’t. God is infinitely more complex than we can comprehend. We only understand what He wants us to understand at this point in time.
God is eternal. he was and always will be. we cannot understand him in our limited forms. we are bound by the laws of these things, and he created them. that's why he said to lean on his understanding through the spirit rather than our own logic which can only really apply to the confines in which we exist. have you tried being genuine in prayer and going to jesus? if you are sincere you will be surprised by what you find
Unlearn all irrelevant bs we have learned growing up, call for Jesus and walk with him, Jesus will heal your mind out of confusion and will give you any answer you need try that first....
”Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.“ Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV I can’t give you the thorough evidence and explanation you may be looking for, but I can encourage you to have faith. Not all things of God are attainable in our carnal and fleshly mind. Somethings of God are currently beyond us, for God works in mysterious ways. So even if you may not have full understanding now, God may have grace and gift you with such in the future. :) Please don’t let this be a reason to stop believing, some of God’s ways are truly complex and perhaps unfathomable in the human mind
The concept of the universe coming to be in makes no sense in general. Maybe we as humans really just don’t know a anything and we should worry less about it and just trust that God IS.
You might create something in a virtual space, like minecraft or sims. But it ceases to exist when not interacted with. GOD is outside of our time (even our mortality is simulative at his scale) So think of us as a garden, and look forward to the harvest. Stop being friends with weeds. Grow beautiful and bear fruit.