People often say God created time, and was there before time. But isn't that an illogical statement? The concept of something being before time is a paradox. The idea of 'before' is to do with time, so it is not possible to be before time, it is only possible to have always been.
I don't think God created time. I think that God and time have always existed.
Other things that have always existed would include love, existence, and goodness.
God created every creature, but some concepts, such as these, can't have been created. Existence has been there for as long as God has existed, he can't have created existence because he would have had be exist to do that! Equally, God has always been good and loving (and just and faithful and merciful and holy etc.), so these things cannot have been created by him. Instead, they have always been, just like God has always been.
4 comments:
I agree with you about love, goodness, etc. They are part of God's characteristics, and He defines them. However I disagree about time, and I have spent the last 10 minutes trying to explain why... I'll continue to think about it!
Excellent! Nothing like a controversial statement to spark a debate!
I read this post first a week ago and I'm still struggling to get a grip on it. My only thought is that you could phrase the 'things that God did not create' in a way that suggests their eternal existence lies outside, rather than within the character, of God. Goodness has always existed because God has always existed, not 'as well as'.
It also has echoes on what I think is the hardest question for the Christian narrative to answer - where did evil come from?
Yeah, that's what I was getting at - goodness has always existed because God has always existed, and goodness is part of his character.
I'd be interested to know your thoughts on the time thing though. Does it work to say that time, as in sequence, has always existed?
As for your little can of worms, my (brief) take on it is that when God created sentient beings (angels), he gave them the capacity to choose to resist his will. Some of them did.
'Evil' is a way of saying anything that is contrary to God's will. For anything to be able to act within God's will, there must also be a possibility for it to act outside his will too.
Evil exists because good exists. Or at least the capacity for evil exists because the capacity for good exists.
p.s. I'm knackered and very little thought has gone into this so it may have gaping holes!
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