Time: the Mysterious Dimension
by Dr. Peter Masters


Time is something which dominates us all. We are held in by time rather like goldfish in a bowl. Our entire lives are just brief moments in the rolling ages of time - just flecks; tiny passing seconds.

No-one has any power over time. We like to think that ultimately man will be able to control more or less everything in the universe, but there are certain things which mankind has no power over at all. He cannot make the slightest impression upon them.

Time is one af these 'unconquerables'. It is as though a great Creator has organised such things to keep the human race in its place. We cannot tamper with time even to the extent of a milli-second. It is a whole dimension which we are utterly unable to alter.

We may dream of time machines but they remain pure fiction. Not a single step has ever been made towards building one. Mankind is firmly stuck in time, and under its authority.

All we can do with time is to make clocks and measure it. We cannot rush it, nor can we slow it down. We certainly cannot step back in time to re-live or revise events. Things happen to all af us which cause so much pain and regret that we would give anything to have our time back and do everything differently. But once something has happened no-one can bring that moment back. It has gone for ever.

An unknown future
Time also dominates and humbles us as far as the future is concerned. We can guess at future events and make short-term forecasts, but we really have not the remotest idea what our lives will be like a few years from now.

Similarly, we have no idea what the world will be like in twenty years time. Will there be global war soon, or will economic catastrophe shatter our lives? We have no control over the past, and no capacity to either predict or avoid the future.

And who can extend his lifespan? Soon we shall leave this life behind and all too soon we shall be forgotten. Time will take its toll of us, erode away our youth, speed on the ageing process and finally claim us in death.

Time, like an ever-rolling stream
Bears all her sons away;
They fly forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.

We are just here today and gone tomorrow. Change and decay rule!

Time is like a large room. That is how God has designed it. It is a container for the human race.

For God, however, it is altogether different. He is not boxed into this dimension of time but stands outside it and above it. Time, to God, is like a modern, semi-circular organ console where every key and every stop-tab is at the same distance from the organist. God has that kind of relationship with time, for every event which occurs in history is at an equal distance from the Lord of time.

Above time
Imagine a group of travellers trekking on foot across difficult, hilly countryside. Because of the hills they can only ever see a few hundred yards ahead. Every time they crest another hill, all they see is another small phase of their journey, and so their journey seems endless.

But imagine a helicopter climbing above the hills and, hovering high above these travellers. Its pilot can see the place they have came from and the point which they are making for. He can watch their every step and see the end just as clearly as the beginning.

That is how God stands at an equal distance from all time, as Lord over it. Being above time God obviously does not change. He will always be perfect, all-knowing, and all-powerful. He cannot be affected by time as we are. He cannot grow old and weary, nor can He became out of date in any way. God's message to man never changes either, so His way of saving souls will be unaltered to the end of time.

If God can observe everyone's entire life at a scan, it is obvious that no sin will ever pass unnoticed, no act of rebellion, no misdemeanour against God, no slander of Him. Our most secret sins will always be exposed to His searching sight.

At twenty years-of-age we already have many years of sin to account for when we stand in the presence of God. At the beginning of our adult lives we have already polluted His moral universe and decided to spend our lives entirely upon ourselves. We have quickly become taken up with pride, arrogance and selfishness, and have completely turned our backs on our Creator and God.

By forty years-of-age the record of guilt is twice as long; by sixty, three times as long. All that we do is seen and marked by our God Who is absolutely holy, and we must one day be held to account for the lives which we have lived.

The Bible tells us that - 'one day is with the Lord as a thousand years; and a thousand years as one day.' This indicates that God can review a thousand years with the ease with which we can reflect on the events of a single day, or even a few moments.

However, it also gives us an insight into how God evaluates human history. A thousand years may, in God's sight, possess only the value of a single day!

Take an approximate thousand years of history like the period from William the Conqueror to the present day. To become an expert in such a period of history would take several lifetimes of study, but what is it worth by Heaven's estimation?

Apart from the fact that God touched the lives of many people who came to know Him and who are now with Him in Heaven, what is all the human struggle and toil worth in the sight of God? When it is all past, what will it have brought to Him? It will be worth no more than a single day, because all life lived away from God is lived in vain.

Value of a life
An entire millennium can be played through on the 'video' of Heaven within a day, and to God it may not be worth any more than a passing glance.

What about an individual life? Suppose we never seek and find the Lord, what is any one life worth in God's sight? Barely a second. Our seventy years are worth nothing from God's perspective. One day they will all prove to have been a tragic waste of time.

We may protest that we try to live good lives and to bring up our children well. But our feeble claims look pathetic from God's viewpoint. All our waywardness and self-seeking over the years, and all our ugly deeds far outweigh the few good intentions and the fleeting moments of righteousness we may have had.

In every day and age God will call men, women and young people to turn to Him for forgiveness and conversion. Many will seek and find Him, and this is the whole point and purpose of time. This alone will bring significance and value into life.

Returning to our biblical quotation, if a thousand years can be worth no more than a single day in God's sight, in what way may a single day be like a thousand years?

This reminds us that God is not fickle and forgetful like us. If God loves and forgives a sinner, He does not lose interest in him after a day or two. God's affection and mercy will never die or fade.

The quotation also teaches us that every act of God has lasting significance. Think of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary. When Christ came into this world to suffer and die on the Cross, He accomplished in a single day something which was worth far more than a thousand years. His personal sacrifice for sin lasts for all eternity.

Just consider the 'mechanics' of bringing one lost soul to an experience of true conversion. That person's lifetime of sin had to be paid for by Christ on Calvary's Cross. All the punishment which that person deserved to suffer had to be taken instead by Christ. What He did on the Cross was an act of atonement.

Then think further of the millions of people who have been and who will be converted to God through the long history of this world. Think of the sum total of all that guilt. All of it was dealt with, wiped out, and purged away, when the Lord Jesus bore its terrible punishment.

In a single day Christ made possible; forgiveness, conversion and eternal life, for all who ask Him. The accomplishment of that one day was worth a thousand years multiplied by infinity!

The most important issue of life is to face up to this: What is my life worth? Will it turn out to be meaningless - a mere speck in the timescale?

The greatest day
It could be so different, because anyone who seeks the Lord sincerely will be received by Him. Jesus said clearly enough, 'Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.' If we will only admit to Him what a mess we have made of life, and what sinners and failures we are, He will wash away the guilt of all our sin and infuse spiritual life into our souls. He will totally change our lives and bring us to know and serve Him.

When the last Day comes and the 'record books' of God are opened all the inhabitants of this world from every period of history will be divided up into two categories - those for whom life was worth nothing but dismissal from the presence of God, and those who one day earnestly sought the Lord and came to know Him. That day will prove to be worth a whole eternity.