Originally Posted by boxcar
It's not arbitrary at all! We all intuitively think logically about time, even though we're so chronologically time bound. The only way to trace the flow of Time is by starting with the Present. I repeat: it is the only way -- if no other reason, we cannot trace it from the dead time of the Past or the the yet-to-lived/used time of the Future; for Phenomena only touches our senses in the Present.
We know that one hour from now will become NOW, and we know that one moment from NOW will become the Past. We know, therefore, that the Present is the portal through which all Time flows. The Present is always situated between the Future and Past.
We know that one hour from now is the immediate future that is arriving to meet us. We know that two weeks from now is in the near future. We know that one year from now is in the intermediate future. We know 5 years from now is in the distant future.
Likewise, we know that one hour ago is in the immediate past. We know that 2 weeks ago is in the recent past. We know that a year from now is in the intermediate past. And that five years from now is the distant past, etc.
We intuitively know that we look in one direction for the future and think of the future as laying ahead of us, relentlessly moving to meet us at some point in time. We also know that the Past is behind us and we look in the opposite direction back to it when our minds think upon it. And just as the Future is moving closer and closer to us, the Past is moving farther and farther away each moment, each hour, each day...receding farther and farther into the distant past. And we do all this with our minds in the Present. Our minds look forward or back just as we physically look in the Present toward the East for the new, oncoming day and look in the opposite direction of the West for the aging day's demise. The Material and Immaterial are in sync, aren't they? Intuitive Revelation and Natural Revelation are in perfect harmony --just as we would expect from an infinitely wise God.
Well, what about Divine Revelation? Is this, too, in sync with Natural and Intuitive Revelation? I suspect, Doc, we might part company here. However, you have already conceded that God in eternity has decreed -- has ordained -- not only the number of your days, and my days but the days of all mankind. So, when God created Adam and Eve all their lives lay ahead of them. Adam and Eve had nothing but a Future, as did their entire progeny! All mankind's existence was bound up in the Fountainhead of the Future! Not the Past! The vast storehouse of all God-ordained Time for all mankind is the Future, whereas the Past is the graveyard of all Time.
Look at Time as the "Spring of the Water of Life", to borrow a biblical phrase. When this world passes away and ceases to exist, will it be because the graveyard of the Past became too full -- became so bloated -- so overloaded -- that it could no longer pass through the portal of the Present to become Tomorrow? Or will it be that the world simply ran out of Time -- that the spring of the water of life dried up and there was no more water to sustain life -- no more time to pass through the portal of the Present? Which do you think it will be? If you really believe that God in eternity has ordained all the days of mankind, and all the days that the world has left reside in the Future, then the spring of the water of life must be flowing downstream from the Future to the Present. Life, as we know it, will end when that spring dries up --when all Time ceases to exist. And when Time ceases to exist, the universe, as we know it, will cease to exist!
Finally, when Jesus returns to restore all things, will he be returning from the Past or coming out of the world's Future?
|
