Understanding the Concept of Time

When we look at our clocks, we see time. What can we tell from the time? Is there a purpose to time? Did God create time? Is God governed by time? Is heaven regulated by time? How does God interact with time? How should we respond to time? With these queries in mind, let us look at the theology of time.

Ecclesiastes 3:11
He has made everything appropriate [Lit beautiful] in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.

There are three important concepts that will help us understand time.

Psalm 90:2
Before the mountains were born or You gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.

Firstly, there is no “time” in the everlasting to everlasting (or eternity). God is not governed or regulated by time in His thoughts and ways; rather, His thoughts and His ways are regulated by His own nature and sovereign pleasure. The point when God decides on a new matter, that point is the beginning of the new matter. For example, when God decided to create the heavens and the earth, that point when words proceeded from His mouth was the beginning of the heavens and the earth. In the same breath, the point when God decides to end a matter, that point of withholding the breath of His nostrils is the end of the matter.

Isaiah 46:10-11
Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure’; calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of My purpose from a far country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it.

The concept of time may exist in God even before it was brought to bear, God does not think or act based on time-consciousness, but rather based on His sovereign will and good pleasure; at which point, the beginning of a matter begins, or the end of a matter ends, without reference or giving due consideration to time. Thus, God is the beginning and the end (Revelation 21:6; 22:13), and His sovereign will is always the right point to begin or end a matter regardless of time.

Genesis 1:14-19
Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

Jeremiah 33:25-26
“Thus says the LORD, ‘If My covenant for day and night stand not, and the fixed patterns of heaven and earth I have not established, then I would reject the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, not taking from his descendants rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them.’”

Secondly, God first created an order, or fixed patterns, of cosmic proportions to regulate His creation, not time. With order comes the measurement of the many constants of that order, like physical constants, mathematical constants, etc. One of the units of such measure is time, although time is technically not a universal constant.

Jeremiah 33:20-21
“Thus says the LORD, ‘If you can break My covenant for the day and My covenant for the night, so that day and night will not be at their appointed time, then My covenant may also be broken with David My servant so that he will not have a son to reign on his throne, and with the Levitical priests, My ministers.'”

So, God created order, and then appointed the concept of time to regulate His creatures’ dwelling within this order – for instance, evening to morning to evening is one day; seven days make one week; new moon to new moon is appointed as one month. Then men measured this order with ‘chronometer’ time – from sundials to oscillations of the Caesium atom, etc. So, one full orbit of the sundial is 12 hours, and a full orbit of the earth around the sun is 12 months or 365.25 days. So, it is the cosmic order that regulates the life, operational dynamics, and cyclical activities of His creation, not hours, minutes, and seconds.

Joshua 10:12-14
Then Joshua spoke to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, “O sun, stand still at Gibeon, and O moon in the valley of Aijalon.” So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation avenged themselves of their enemies. Is it not written in the book of Jashar? And the sun stopped in the middle of the sky and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day. There was no day like that before it or after it, when the LORD listened to the voice of a man; for the LORD fought for Israel.

Here, God did not stop time; rather, God stopped the cosmic order that regulated light, darkness, and human activities. Even cyclical activities like tidal ebb and flow stopped. If Joshua had a wrist watch (or analogue chronometer), the hour hand, minute hand, and second hand would have continued to turn even though the earth had stopped rotating and the moon had stopped orbiting.

Thus, mankind and both animate and inanimate things live by this cosmic order created by God. Whether it is the ebb and flow of tides, summer and winter, or day and night, we live, sow, and harvest according to this cosmic order. Animals do not read time, yet their activities are regulated by this cosmic order. Therefore, time is immaterial in the cosmic scheme of things.

In fact, time was irrelevant in the Garden of Eden where God’s eternal life permeates mankind, and possibly all creations. In other words, all creations were made perfectly to last eternally in the eternal God without decay over time. There was no mention of time and age in Eden because time is irrelevant in the eternal God by whom all creations were sustained.

However, when mankind and other creations were subject to futility, decay, and death because of man’s sin, they were separated from the eternal life of God. Thus, without living forever, time was instituted to number the days, or lifespan, of mankind and creations, including the heavens and the earth. In fact, the passage of time was first mentioned in Genesis 4, and age was first numbered in Genesis 5.

Hebrews 1:1-2
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.

Thirdly, though it was only revealed through scriptures approximately 2600 years after creation, a sense of time was introduced by God after the Fall through scriptures to show the temporal nature of creation on account of sin, to inspire a sense of futility apart from God in one’s limited lifetime, and to provide a chronological order and perspective of God’s dealings with mankind in their times, seasons, generations, and epochs; until the workmanship of God is complete, and the eternal purpose of God which He carried out in Christ is fulfilled; at which point, mankind will attain to the stature of the perfect image of God and dwell in eternity again in the new heavens and new earth (or new Eden).

Thus, time is the milestone that marks or points to the progressive workmanship of the eternal God on temporal man, such that finite man can know and respond to an infinite God in progressive bit-sized portions, until the eternal purpose of God in heaven is fulfilled on temporal earth within the set number of milestones appointed by God. It is through progressive revelations over this passage of time that man can find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end – something man could not do in the days of Ecclesiastes.

There are two dimensions of time.

The first dimension is chronological time as a unit of measure of the cosmic order.

Acts 7:17
But as the time [Greek “chronos”] of the promise was approaching which God had assured to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt,

1 Thessalonians 5:1
Now as to the times [Greek “chronos”] and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you.

Psalm 105:19
Until the time [Hebrew “eth”] that his word came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him.

Ecclesiastes 3:1
There is an appointed time [Hebrew “zeman”] for everything. And there is a time [Hebrew “eth”] for every event under heaven—

Esther 9:27
the Jews established and made a custom for themselves and for their descendants and for all those who allied themselves with them, so that they would not fail to celebrate these two days according to their regulation and according to their appointed time [Hebrew “zeman”] annually.

The original Greek and Hebrew words that define chronological time as a sequence of durations or succession of moments in the physical world are “chronos” and “eth” respectively. The Hebrew word “zeman” is a subset of “eth”, which means a specific time appointed by men for specific activities. “Chronos” is the regular hour, minute, and second that measure the passage of time for human activities as we know it.

The second dimension is time appointed by God for specific purposes of God to be accomplished in His sovereign dealings with man and other creations.

Acts 17:26-27
and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times [Greek “kairós”] and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;

2 Corinthians 6:2
for He says, “AT THE ACCEPTABLE TIME [Greek “kairós”] I LISTENED TO YOU, AND ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU.” Behold, now is “THE ACCEPTABLE TIME [Greek “kairós”],” behold, now is “THE DAY OF SALVATION”—

Mark 1:15
and saying, “The time [Greek “kairós”] is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

John 7:6
So Jesus said to them, “My time [Greek “kairós”] is not yet here, but your time [Greek “kairós”] is always opportune.

Exodus 9:5
The LORD set a definite time [Hebrew “moed”], saying, “Tomorrow the LORD will do this thing in the land.”

Genesis 21:2
So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time [Hebrew “moed”] of which God had spoken to him.

The original Greek and Hebrew words that define God’s appointed time to fulfil God’s sovereign will are “kairos” and “moed” respectively. Therefore, “kairos” time is always the acceptable time or opportune time to fulfil God’s will and accomplish His good pleasure.

Since God and the eternal dimension are not regulated by time, “kairos” is not regulated by time either. Rather, “kairos” is simply God’s sovereign will at any point of His good pleasure, which is whenever He desires to begin a matter or end a matter, independent of time. However, when viewed through “chronos” that regulates human activities, “kairos” can be described as God’s appointed “chronos” at any point of His good pleasure to interact with men and achieve His sovereign purpose. Thus, “kairos” is frequently called God’s appointed time.

“Kairos” is derived from “kara”, which means “head”; it refers to things “coming to a head” with God, and unless something is done to align with God, the “chronos” of our lives will not be acceptable to God. Thus, “kairos” is a sovereign, authoritative, and overriding imposition of God’s appointed time on man’s “chronos”. In other words, “kairos” is a period of “chronos” sovereignly determined by God as His appointed or acceptable time to fulfil His appointed purposes. This means that the natural activities of “chronos” must supply the overriding demands of “kairos”, even though the activities of “chronos” are not ready or convenient to meet the demands of “kairos”.

Mark 11:12-14, 20-21
On the next day, when they had left Bethany, He became hungry. Seeing at a distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if perhaps He would find anything on it; and when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And His disciples were listening… As they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. Being reminded, Peter said to Him, “Rabbi, look, the fig tree which You cursed has withered.”

As we can see, the demand of “kairos” is authoritative over the natural order of “chronos”, and men must rise to the occasion to meet the requirements of “kairos” in their “chronos” so that God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven.

So, “kairos” is not a respecter of “chronos”. God can change any ordained sequence of “chronos” anytime at His good pleasure to accomplish His sovereign desires, even if it means upsetting the established order of nature, religious practices, and human institutions.

Thus, every “chronos” has a “kairos” decreed over it, even when you are reading this blog at this hour. There is a God’s appointed will for every minute of your life. Depending on how you respond to the “kairos” in “chronos”, time can either be your friend or your foe.

What, then, is our conclusion?

Psalm 90:12
So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.

Ephesians 5:15-17
Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Time is not illusive, neither is time forever. Let us know our “kairos” in our “chronos” on earth; let us learn how to use time in reverent fear of the Lord so that we can live wisely and walk in a manner worthy of our calling all the days of our temporal lives; such that when we return to God, we can spend eternity with Him in the new Eden rather than away from Him in the lake of fire.

May you live in the eternal throughout time on earth, so that you may live throughout eternity in heaven at the end of time.

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