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accident
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 14
| Posted 7/11/2001 2:56 AM (GMT -6) |   | Here's something I posted on another forum. I'd like to run it by y'all for consideration:
I think a more fitting analogy for time (as opposed to strict mathematical formulae) would be the cascading of water in a waterfall. While we know that the water left a certain point (the cliff) and is destined to reach a certain point (the pool or lagoon below), it is impossible for us to know-- due to the infinite variables that turbulence provides-- which paths individual droplets of water are going to take in their journey to the bottom of the waterfall.
Which is not to say it is impossible for God to know in advance and exhaustibly the entirety of human history before it unfolds. But, in order to maintain the ability to have genuine relationships with His created beings, I believe God precludes Himself from knowing the future exhaustibly. If He did anything other, then each person's will becomes an extension of His will, and thus we fall from Christian monotheism into pantheism.
I believe time behaves much like a stream or waterfall, and that there are nexus points along the stream (much like the pool at the bottom of the waterfall) that are established by God's counsel (acting much the same way as gravity upon the droplets of water; a prime example of one of these nexus points would be the Crucifixion; another is the evntual defeat of satan). The turbulence in this case is provided by the self-determining wills God has given us.
An interesting side effect of this view of God's interaction with man are the Messianic prophecies-- they seem (IMHO) to progress from general to increasingly precise as time flows toward the nexus point. The first one given was immediately after the Fall: that the seed of Eve would crush the head of the serpent, and that the serpent would bruise His heel. All that would be required at this point for this prophecy to be fulfilled is for one of Eve's female descendants (it could even have been her daughter, at this point!) to conceive a Son while being a virgin, for that Son to be put to death, and for that Son to arise and crush satan.
Later, as timeflow gets closer to the nexus point of the Messiah's coming, we get more detailed prophecies. In Micah, the prophecies become so precise as to name the town Messiah would be born in (Micah 5:2)!
I believe God could have, had He wanted to, laid out all the particulars of Messiah's coming in the prophecy given at the Fall, but in doing so He would have sacrificed a significant portion of His creature's freedom then and there: Instead of letting time and human events flow naturally to the nexus point, He would have had to begin micromanaging the flow of time right away to make sure events played out as planned.
I hope this doesn't overcomplicate things. Even though the analogy of time as a stream suggests the reification of time, I do not believe time exists in a physical sense. Time-- like emotions and mathematics-- is a natural byproduct of existence.
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Lee Merrill
booted
Date Joined Jun 2001
Total Posts : 723
| Posted 7/18/2001 6:59 AM (GMT -6) | | I really would expect that the problem is not much reduced by the approach in time of what was predicted. In a book by a physicist (James? Polkingham? not sure about the name), he says that to predict the path of one air molecule over the time interval of a small fraction of a second, if you make all your calculations, but leave out the effect of one electron at the other end of the universe, your calculation will be quite incorrect.
Thus the problems with accurate prediction are overwhelming, and they remain overwhelming at small time intervals near the event predicted, even for physical evennts, how much more for people events, especially if 100% accuracy is required?
God bless you,
Lee
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"What we love, we shall grow to resemble" (Bernard of Clairveaux)
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