Six Days or Billions of Years?
Understanding Time in Creation
By Yeo Teck Thiam
Goldie’s Note About the Writer:
Yeo Teck Thiam studied and specialized in perfumery & olfactory senses. Now retired, he keeps up his unusual life-long interest, studying the stars and physical universe as God’s creation. He has written many articles on this subject, mainly kept in his own collection…“for my grandchildren to read if they are interested.”
We posted to him the question: “The stars are many light years away from us, how then can we reconcile this with God creating the universe in 6 days?” Here is his answer. We must admit we do not understand all of what he has written but we know he is a well- informed man who knows his biblical theology.
When we seek to know something about Creation in Scripture, there are inadvertently heated discussions about time and the Genesis account. People seem to take sides about time and Creation. Some insist Creation consists of 7 Days of 24 hours, while others see this is not literal but symbolical of billions of years.
The issue is painful because this controversy is not really about God’s Creation, but it is about time. The debate is focused on how to squeeze Creation inside our ideas about time as we see fit.
In other words, we want Creation to be decided by the meaning of time that we specify as 24 hours, or billions of years. It is unfortunate!
So, we have to consider first whether our idea about time is accurate or whose idea about time is correct! This also means that we are not really talking about Creation, but about the meaning of time!
It is necessary to clear the air. But I think this is regrettable, as we are not seeking to ask God first about Creation.
LOOKING TO SEE TIME
When we look at clear skies at night, we see many stars twinkling brightly against the night darkness. We know the light from these stars did not reach us instantly but takes time. This time will depend on the specific distance of a star from earth.
We know some stars like Sirius took about 8 years, Rigel in the constellation of Orion takes 800 years, and the cluster called Andromeda takes about a million years. All these figures of time are based on their distances from the earth.
This knowledge has surprises for us also. For one thing, we realize suddenly that the night skies do not tell us the present time only. We see Sirius as it was 8 years ago, and Andromeda as it was a million years ago! We are not seeing stars as they actually are in our time, due to this light and time travel.
If to see is to believe, this fact is saying to us that the present and the past exist together when we look at the skies! We are confronted with the idea that we cannot tell the past from the present.
The notion about time for the past and present is an illusion.
So, we have to take a step back to try and understand what time is, or what it means in our lives.
TIME IS RELATIVE
In the last hundred years, our perception of time and what it means underwent a traumatic change. Our understanding of the measure of this life, especially when counted in terms of the time of this universe, was altered by the presentation of the relativity of time in the context of what Einstein propounded.
We can no longer consider time as an absolute value. We regard time as a dimensional property of this universe, and subject to the forces in this universe, particularly to gravity, and also to the effects of motion. Time has a relative value and can “move” slower or faster.
A wormhole (or Einstein–Rosen bridge or Einstein–Rosen wormhole) is a speculative structure linking disparate points in spacetime, and is based on a special solution of the Einstein field equations.
MEASURING TIME
Time is not something that we can slice into seconds, or minutes or hours. These calibrations are man-made, to help us have a good grasp of the passage of time.
(Optional part: Scientific explanation)
We can only measure time by what we see of events through light. So how we measure time and distance are dependent on the light we see.
The speed of light is the constant for data and calculations, and this is known. Michelson and Morley established this in 1887 in a landmark scientific experiment that conclusively proved that the speed of light is constant. They were awarded the Nobel Prize for this work.
This constant speed of light affects our measurement of time. Because speed is distance over time, we cannot separate distance and time as absolute values. Space and time are interdependent in values.
Naturally, this demands that space-time is the property entity we have to accept because only the speed of light is constant in calculation.
However, we also know that space can be distorted, as volume of a gas or balloon can expand or be compressed. The space of our universe can therefore be curved by gravity and stars. This affects light travelling through space.
We are familiar with such expressions as curved space and other phenomena. This means we cannot state a value for time, unless we also state the conditions affecting space such as gravity, matter and energy in our universe.
Since space-time is the entity we must face, we realize also this universe is like a container of energy-matter wrapped in a space-time fabric. Space and time therefore have an intricate relationship which allows time to have relative values to space, and vice versa.
(End Optional Part)
In an expanding universe which is warped by gravity and other forces, we have to reckon time with a relative value. Therefore, our notion of 24 hours in a day is not an absolute value.
Scripture tells us time is not absolute. It is written: With the Lord, a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day ( 2 Peter 3:8 )
THE 7 DAYS OF CREATION
This brings us to a painful debate with regards to the Creation. Many have taken sides that the day is our 24 hours, while others consider this symbolic rather than literal. However, unfortunately the reality is that everything and we also, are all moving in this universe. And our motions are at differing speeds.
Due to relative motions, we cannot get absolute values by what we see and measure. This is dependent on light itself. If time has no absolute value, a proposal on a Creation day can be correct and wrong at the same time. It all depends on the clock we are using to measure time, and our position.
WHERE DO WE STAND?
One result of accounting for these factors is that time depends on the position where we collect data and figures. From the earth’s position, this is billions of years since Creation. This is the experimental evidence.
However, if God is giving us a view of Creation, this is not from the Earth’s viewpoint. This is because Earth was not yet formed on the first day of Creation. There was no solar system to tell us that a day is 24 hours as well!
Hence, if we are to view Creation as Scripture tells us, we must ask God where He took the vantage point for the 7 Days of Creation. For example, where did Scripture view the scene when it is written: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” in Genesis 1:1?
To this end, the Christian must not insist on whether Creation was 7 days or billions of years without asking God where He made this revelation to us. The meaning of ‘evening’ and ‘morning’ need to be discussed, but this is for another occasion.
SETTING ASIDE TIME IN CREATION
We see that it is futile to argue that Creation consists of 7 Days of 24 hours, or that it took billions of years. Those who see billions of years are looking at a position taken from Earth, whereas those with faith in God know He is in Heaven and does not measure time like we do on earth.
It is important to note that Creation as given in Genesis is not about time. Rather, Scripture sets out the purpose and plan God has in creating it. So we are climbing the wrong tree when we think only of time in Creation.
Much as people like to grasp, time cannot be cut up and sliced into seconds, hours, and years. The calibration of time is a man-made idea, and the past and the present are illusions of time. We have already seen this in the night skies.
It is futile to debate Creation in terms of time. It is better to seek God’s purpose in Creation.
TIME AND REALITY
This may set some to wonder how God worked the time program. However, I think it is better to see what God has to tell us concerning the time of our lives. Therefore, I leave these musings behind.
The enquiry into time shocks us that this world does not have an absolute time value. God deliberately created this world with a temporary time equation, if we may call it that. Life in this world is not set for eternity, but it is for the better of 100 years for all mankind.
Everything we have in this world is temporary. It was not designed as a permanent home for us or for the creatures of this world. We do not know what lies beyond this physical frame, except that God has a hope for us beyond this life on earth.
YESTERDAY, TODAY, AND FOREVER
Certainly, God will bring this universe to a close at His appointed time.
For it is written:
And also in 2 Peter 3:10:
The day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
Thankfully, our time on earth is short. We must die, and when we exit this body in this universe, we must meet our Creator. If it is in heaven, it is in the spirit because God is Spirit. The eternal home is a spiritual place where flesh and blood have no function.
Heaven is God’s throne, but it is not in this universe. God’s kingdom is in another world, without time, and in the spirit. When we leave this world, we must leave time behind — for we are entering eternity.
Hence it is written:
Jesus is the same, yesterday, today, and forever.
