Thinking differently

Possibilities are now opened up … that even many Christians are loath to consider. Lifespans for the earliest men and women were up to ten times longer than they are now. Something was certainly different then. Perhaps time flowed very differently then. Now that’s a bold statement, but it’s just a suggestion and I’m no Einstein (and he’d probably rock in his grave at the cheek of it!). There is apparently evidence, for instance, that the speed of light has actually decreased just over the last 300 years. This is in the realm of Science Fiction for some, but a Hebraic mind should always accept the possibility that God will do whatever He needs to do to fulfil His purposes, such as at the Mount of Transfiguration, when He pulled Moses and Elijah from their respective time zones, to appear either side of Jesus! (Luke 9:28-36)

Of course this can also take us into the contentious arena of Creation vs Evolution and Young Earth vs Old Earth because the battleground is over the concept of time. Evolution needs vast quantities of it to do its stuff. Geological dating devices use radioactive decay periods, so time is a factor here too. I will rest my case with this simple statement by Paul.

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; (1 Corinthians 1:2)

Because of the Greek view that governs the way our society runs, we are servants, rather than masters, of time. We are governed by the clock and are told when to start and end our tasks, according to whatever schedule is in play. This, as mentioned earlier, is not conducive to physical, emotional, mental or spiritual health and can very well lead to untimely death (from our point of view). This sad fact was brought home to me recently through the suicide of a good friend who found the burden of his work schedules too much to bear.

In the Hebraic understanding, all-important is the way that we live, the quality that we put into the tasks given to us, rather than being restricted by time considerations. This is exemplified by the Sabbath, a ring-fenced day where time can be ignored and we can indulge in the important tasks, regarding family and leisure and worship, without worrying about schedules and targets.

So what about Christians? What we ought to do should now be self-evident. But the more pragmatic and realistic consideration, perhaps, is what can we do? We are still living in a “Greek” world, our Churches are still locked into the Greek system, because they too are living in a Greek world.

Perhaps we are starting to think a little differently. Now we are now going to really exercise ourselves! We have considered time, next we’re going to look at space.

So, how should we be thinking differently?

• God intervenes in our lives at certain times. These are to be celebrated because they form our first-hand testimonies of the Divine.
• Time is our servant, not our master. Rather than thinking “what is the best use I can make of time”, we should ask ourselves, “what is the best use I can make of my life”?
• God is the Master of time. Our scientists and philosophers make some assumptions about time that cannot be proven and if God truly is the Creator of time and space, then we simply can’t assume that what is observed today is as things were in earlier ages.
• Think differently …

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

Who is the Master of time?