The Present and the Past

It is the Exodus and what followed afterwards that becomes the central theme in the Hebrew Scriptures, because it was here, as we saw earlier, that God first acted in history with His covenant nation. Salvation history is a story of God’s acts, rather than His instructions, His appearance at Sinai, to the prophets and through Jesus. These are the keys.

And here’s some more food for thought.

First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:3-9)

What is this saying? It tells us that the mysteries of time are in God’s hands. Scoffers (we call them scientists, in this context) make assumptions that the present is a picture of the past. This idea is called uniformitarianism and it is a guiding principle in geology and archaeology and is key to evolutionary theory and the dating theories of an old earth. This is a fair assumption if all you have to go on are theories and deductions from evidence and perhaps we would all agree that it seems like a good idea … apart from one thing.

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

God intervenes in history. He created everything at the hour and day of His choosing. It was a single event. The Creation of man was a single event. The Fall of Adam was a single event, as was The Flood. None of these events square up with uniformitarianism, as they are unrepeatable events and conditions on Earth were very different in those days than they are now. How do I know this? Because the Bible tells me. Just read the first eleven chapters in Genesis and then tell me if you believe that the present is a picture of the past. Of course it isn’t. If you don’t believe in God and His Word, then, of course, you are left with the theories of the scientists who would rather believe in their own intellect than Divine revelation.

To mangle an established Scripture, we can safely say that time is made for man, man is not made for time. We have not been created to be slaves of the processes of time. It may limit us in terms of our lifespans, but within our individual allotted spans we are free to plot our journeys, following the divine script that is unique to us all.

This is an extract from the book, Hebraic Church, available for £10 at https://www.sppublishing.com/hebraic-church-101-p.asp

Is time made for man?