The Bible and Time

LOCH A TUATH NEWS -- December 2002

It seems like a couple of weeks since we celebrated the arrival of the millennium, and here we are approaching the end of 2002. Truly, as the Bible says, we spend our years like a tale that is told, and each passing year is like the closing of yet another chapter. It is fitting, at the close of a year, to reflect on the changes that the past year has witnessed, and on the hopes and aspirations which motivate us as we prepare, God willing, to cross the threshold of a new year.

The importance of time has always fascinated me. Evolutionists talk of the world evolving over millions of years -- but where did the years come from? Or the months, days, hours or minutes? The world runs like clockwork precisely because it is not the product of chance, but the product of God's creativity.

The Gospel says a great deal about time. It reminds me, first, that time is the creation of the God who is above time. The God of the Bible is infinite -- that means that he is boundless, not hemmed in either by time or space. I believe, therefore, in an eternal God, and in the eternity which God inhabits. My world is time-bound and time-regulated, but the Bible urges me constantly to look not on temporal things, but on eternal things.

The Bible also reminds me of the God-man, Christ Jesus, who entered time; who was born, according to Paul, in the fulness of the times, and who lived for the advent of a particular hour at which he would do his greatest work. The Christian faith is not rooted in mythology but in history -- in the clearly documented, verifiable facts of history. There was a time when Jesus lived, a time when he died, and a time (a rather important, specific day) when he rose again.

People tend to celebrate Christmas without too much thought of the time of the incarnation. In our paganised culture, we have all but obliterated the thought of Christ from the festivity. But the reality is inescapable -- at the centre of the world's history is the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The Bible also tells me to redeem the time -- to use time wisely and well. What have we done with our days, our months and our years? How do we fill that spare hour in the day? Do we claim all our time under the sovereignty of Christ? Do we fill the unforgiving minute, as Kipling puts it so magnificently, with sixty seconds' worth of distance run? Or do we allow the sandglass to empty without any thought of using these moments for Christ?

Because at last I am reminded that soon time will be gone, and eternity will meet us all. "When I was a child, time crawled; when I grew up, time ran; when I became old, time flew. Soon it will be -- time gone". If it is true that we spend our years as a tale that is told, it is also true that one day the story will be evaluated, and what we will have done in this body-life will matter supremely, and for all eternity. In a world of appointments and time-keeping, let's not forget, as another year draws to a close, that we all have an appointment with God, a time of reckoning to keep, when we will give our account.

"Others," said Rabbi Duncan to his class at the beginning of the year, "will be wishing you a happy new year. I wish you a happy eternity." May we learn the secret of living well -- to live each day as if it were our last.