Author
Padgett, A. G. (2001). Eternity as Relative Timelessness
5 quotes Popular first.
- “The relationship between God and time may seem an obscure subject. Yet the more one studies it, the more convinced one becomes that this doctrine plays a key role in our grasp of the relationship between God and the world. How we understand God’s relationship to the world, in turn, is a central part of any theistic worldview. So despite the seeming obscurity of the topic, the doctrine of divine eternity is an important part of any fully developed theology.”— Padgett, A. G. (2001). Eternity as Relative TimelessnessSource:God & Time: Four Views (p. 92)
- “The main problem with the everlasting model is not logical consistency but theological inadequacy. Given our notion of God as an infinite, personal Creator, we would expect God to transcend time in some way. Merely knowing the future and living forever is not enough to satisfy this demand. Recent developments in physics would join with St. Augustine and many traditional philosophers to insist that time is a created category that came into existence with the physical universe. Space-time as we know it has a beginning—but God does not. Space-time is warped by the presence of matter—but God is not. Thus God must be beyond time as we know it, in some sense. David Braine may overstate the case when he writes, “If we understand eternity as mere everlastingness, then it seems that we are in danger of reducing him who is worshiped to the level of the creature,” but he is giving voice to a common and powerful objection to a merely everlasting eternity for God. Proponents of an everlasting view of eternity have difficulty overcoming this objection, in my view.”— Padgett, A. G. (2001). Eternity as Relative TimelessnessSource:God & Time: Four Views (p. 93)
- “Nothing that is temporal can also be timeless. In the second place, all times cannot and do not coexist in any sense—and certainly not “timelessly” or “in eternity.” Different times are not all present, and only present things are fully real (on the process view). Things have happened in the past, and things will happen in the future, but those things are not real. Therefore they cannot coexist with present things.”— Padgett, A. G. (2001). Eternity as Relative TimelessnessSource:God & Time: Four Views (p. 98)
- “Our time, created time, exists within the pure duration of God’s time, which is relatively timeless. And God’s time exists because God exists (not the other way around). What many people seem to imply by “God is in time” is that God exists only if time exists—and this is what I deny.”— Padgett, A. G. (2001). Eternity as Relative TimelessnessSource:God & Time: Four Views (p. 106)
- “God is immutable relative to essential divine attributes, those powers and properties that constitute a perfect Being. God changes only in relational ways, in order to create and care for that creation. The ability to change in response to others is part of what makes God a perfect Being.”— Padgett, A. G. (2001). Eternity as Relative TimelessnessSource:God & Time: Four Views (p. 109)