If you're anything like myself, you've probably sitting by way of a sci-fi convention and wondered what does the Bible say about time traveling . It's the fun thing to think about, best? One minute you're watching a film about a traveling by air car, and the next you're believing about whether Moses or Paul ever experienced a "glitch in the matrix. " While the Bible doesn't mention DeLoreans, flux capacitors, or wormholes, it actually has quite a bit in order to say about the nature of time and exactly how God goes through it.
In our world, time is an one-way street. We're stuck within the "now, " remembering the past and guessing about the future. But when you take a look at the scriptures, you start to realize that for God, time much more like the map He's searching down on rather than treadmill He's running on.
The almighty isn't stuck within the clock
The first point to realize is that Lord created time. Within Genesis, He sets the sun and moon in location to mark days, seasons, and yrs. Because He developed it, He isn't bound by this. The Bible frequently describes God as being the "Alpha and the Omega, " the starting and the end. This isn't simply a poetic way of saying He's outdated; it means He or she exists outside of our linear schedule.
In the book of Psalms, it says that will a thousand yrs in God's view are like a day which has simply gone by, or even like a view in the evening. That's a huge perspective shift! In order to us, a 1000 years is historic history—empires rise plus fall. To Lord, it's like a quick afternoon nap. This suggests that whilst we are "time travelers" in the sense that all of us move forward at a rate of one second per second, Our god is already at the destination and the starting line from the same time.
Biblical moments that feel like time travel
Even though there isn't a specific "thou shalt not really time travel" commandment, there are many stories within the Bible that will look a whole lot like time being manipulated. These types of aren't tech-based, of course; they're miracles. But they definitely mess with our understanding of how time is usually supposed to function.
The sun standing still with regard to Joshua
One particular of the wildest stories can be found in the book of Joshua. During a massive battle, Joshua realized he needed more daylight to finish the job. So, he prayed, and the Bible states the sun was standing still in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about the full day.
Now, through a scientific perspective, that would imply the Earth stopped spinning, which should have caused most sorts of mayhem. But from a "time" perspective, it's as if Lord hit the temporary stop button on the universe's remote control. For everyone else, time kept moving within terms of their activities, but the celestial clock stopped. That's a pretty significant temporal shift!
Hezekiah and the sundial
Then there's the tale of King Hezekiah in 2 Kings. He was sick and asked Our god for an indication which he would end up being healed. God gave him an option: need to the shadow upon the sundial go forward ten actions or back 10 steps? Hezekiah, as being a practical guy, figured it's easy regarding a shadow in order to go forward, so he requested it to go backward.
The Bible says The almighty made the shadow go back ten steps. That will be literally rewinding time on the localized scale. It's the closest thing to a "reverse" button we see within the ancient text. It shows that will God isn't just watching the time clock; He's the 1 who can proceed the hands back again if He wants to.
Prediction: A glimpse straight into the "Future"
If we think of time travel as seeing points before they occur, then the Bible is filled with it. We call it prophecy. Prophets like Isaiah, Daniel, and David weren't just speculating; they were provided "previews" of events that wouldn't take place for hundreds as well as thousands of many years.
Take the book of Thought. John is "caught up in the Spirit, " and he describes things that sound like they will belong in the futuristic war movie—beasts, cosmic shifts, and massive battles. Was John literally transferred to the potential to see these things, or was he or she shown a vision? In a way, the distinction doesn't matter much. He was a man living in the first century who witnessed the end of the entire world. If that's not really a type of mental or even spiritual time travel, I don't understand what is.
The Transfiguration: A temporal meeting
Certainly one of the many mysterious moments in the New Testament is the Transfiguration. Jesus takes Philip, James, and Ruben up a hill, and suddenly Their face shines such as the sun. But the kicker is that Moses plus Elijah show up plus start talking to Him.
Think about that with regard to a second. Moses had been useless for about 1, 400 years. Elijah had been used up to heaven in a flutter about 800 many years prior. Yet, generally there they were, standing on a hill in "real-time, " chatting with Jesus. It's like the cross-section of history all meeting in one point. This suggests that within the spiritual world, the barriers associated with time don't actually exist the way they do for us.
What about us traveling through time?
So, if God can do this, can we? This is how the Bible remains pretty quiet. There's no mention associated with humans building devices to go to the past or the future. Actually, most associated with the Bible's suggestions focuses on the exact opposite: staying within the present.
Jesus notoriously said not to worry about down the road because today offers enough trouble associated with its own. There's a heavy emphasis on "today" being the day associated with salvation. The Bible seems to suggest that our "time" is really a gift and the responsibility. If all of us were constantly bouncing back to repair mistakes or jumping forward to prevent pain, we'd never ever actually live the life we all were given.
The sovereignty of God
An additional reason the Bible might not concentrate on time journey is the concept of God's sovereignty. If I can go back and change the proven fact that I tripped and fell yesterday, that's a single thing. But what if I went back and changed something major? The Bible teaches that will God includes a plan that weaves via history.
If humans acquired the capacity to mess with the timeline, we'd probably develop a giant mess. We see this in most time travel movie ever made—you try to fix one small thing and find yourself accidentally making dinosaurs rule the globe. The Bible places the "remote control" of history tightly in God's hands, which, honestly, is usually probably for the best.
Eternity: The end of time
Ultimately, the Bible points toward a situation known as eternity. This isn't just a "really long time. " Most theologians consider eternity as the state where time as we know it doesn't even apply. Within the new heavens and the new earth described in Revelation, there's simply no need for the sun or moon because God's fame provides the light.
When you remove the celestial bodies that individuals use to calculate time, you're remaining with a "now" that never ends. It's difficult to wrap the heads around due to the fact everything we perform is measured by the clock—work adjustments, cooking times, 1st birthdays. But the Bible hints that we are destined intended for a place exactly where "time traveling" won't even be a concept because we'll finally be outdoors the box, simply like God is.
Wrapping it up
So, what does the Bible say about time traveling? It says that time belongs to God. He's the one that can pause it, rewind it, and see the end through the beginning. Whilst we might observe occasional "miraculous" changes in time in the stories associated with Joshua or Hezekiah, the message for us is usually to remain grounded in the present.
We might not need a time device, but we possess a relationship along with the One that owns the schedule. And when you believe about it, that's actually a lot more comforting compared to trying to get around a wormhole ourselves. Instead of stressing about what occurred yesterday or what's coming tomorrow, we're encouraged to rely on the One who is already there.
It's fun to imagine what we'd do with a time machine—would you visit the Garden of Eden? Watch the parting of the Red Sea? But regarding now, the Bible seems to claim that we're exactly where we're supposed to be in the timeline. We're "traveling" through time the old-fashioned way, and according to the scriptures, that's plenty of adventure regarding one lifetime.