Author
Wolterstorff, N. (2001). Response to Critics
3 quotes Popular first.
- “Not being able to make out this notion of two different sorts of time, I conclude that if time is an intrinsic feature of God’s own life, then the thing to say is not that God created time but that God created the cyclic processes that enable us to measure time—along, indeed, with everything else that is a creature of God.”— Wolterstorff, N. (2001). Response to CriticsSource:God & Time: Four Views (p. 235)
- “Temporal duration is a dimension of God’s own life; in that absolutely fundamental way God is not “outside” of time. God nonetheless “transcends” time in the sense that God created those cyclic processes that make possible the measurement of time, and in the sense that temporal duration is a dimension of God’s life rather than God’s life being somehow a dimension of time.
Setting off to the side for a moment the assumption that temporal duration is indeed a dimension of God’s own life, I agree with all this. I agree that God transcends time in at least those ways. Even if temporal duration is a dimension of the divine existence, God nonetheless creates the cyclic processes that make possible the measurement of time, and temporal duration is nonetheless not itself the divine substance but “merely” a dimension of the divine life.”— Wolterstorff, N. (2001). Response to CriticsSource:God & Time: Four Views (pp. 235–236) - “The fact that God is the Lord of time I have interpreted to mean that he has a plan or design for history, that nothing takes place outside of the divine will; that he is not limited or changed in any fundamental way by the passage of time, and that God is a metaphysically necessary Being who lives forever and ever. To this I would add the metaphysical properties of relative timelessness. By “relative timelessness” I mean that God is the Creator of our (physical, measured) time; that in contrast to our time, God’s eternity is infinite and immeasurable; and finally that God’s time is dependent on God’s Being, not the other way around.
. In G. E. Ganssle (Ed.), . Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic.”— Wolterstorff, N. (2001). Response to CriticsContext:I have concentrated on what Alan means by saying that God transcends time and have neglected what he says on the topic of God as Lord of time. On that latter I also agree with him. Here’s his full statement:Source:God & Time: Four Views (p. 236)