If God transcends time, then from his perspective, has the end of time already occurred?

Question

If God as a being transcends time, then the linear (past - to - present - to - future) nature of time is irrelevant to him.

Therefore, wouldn't it follow that for him the beginning of time and the end of time (and everything in between) are equivalent?

And wouldn't such an existence mean that there is no such thing as free will, since God as an observer sits outside of time and knows it fully from start to finish?

Answer 1

Well if a God existed outside of space-time, outside the universe he would be for all intents and purposes non-existent. I find it amusing that Christians do not realize that when they argue about this.

But assuming for a moment that this omnipotent God exists, yes he would have already known every single thing that would have ever happened. Which begs to question, why. Why go though all this, why created Lucifer if he knew he was going to rebel? Why create Adam and Eve if he knew they were going to partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Why have us go through all of this when he already knew in advance which souls were going to follow him and which would choose to stand against him.

Time would be meaningless, and actually life would be meaningless too because having every little thing already know and fated to happen would mean that we are nothing more than characters in some movie that God is watching.

If God knows everything, he knows what he will do in the "future" (in any dimension, not necessary the time dimension). He must have known that from the very start of his own existence. Thus God's actions are predestined. God is tied by faith, he has no free will. If God has no free will God is not omnipotent. Another way to put it is that to be able to make plans and decisions one must act over time. If God stands above time he can not do that and has no free will. Indeed, if God stands above all dimensions God is dimensionless - a singularity, nothing, void! Besides there can exist no free wills at all if God is almighty. If you had a free will, God wouldn't know what you would do tomorrow and wouldn't be omnipotent.

Answer 2

Bryan's analogy is amusing, but way off. If Mike likes orange soda and Dave knows this, Dave can make a PREDICTION about Mike's future drinking habits and POSSIBLY be correct. Mike is not, however, inevitably going to go through with everything Dave predicts he will do.

With God, it's a different story. God doesn't just PREDICT future drinking habits, he KNOWS future drinking habits (since, like you said, he knows ALL). In the case of Dave and his predictions, it's entirely possible for Mike to prove him wrong and drink a Coke. In the case of God and his perfect knowledge, Mike can NEVER do ANYTHING other than what God KNOWS he will do.

God KNOWS if Mike will drink orange soda or drink a Coke... and whichever Mike "chooses", it was NOT POSSIBLE for him to have done anything other than what he did. It doesn't matter if Mike agonized over that "choice" all day long, or even for a week. No matter what he ends up drinking, that's what he was going to drink. He could've been thinking "orange, orange, orange, orange" and then at the last moment reach for a Coke...

And that still would've been the only thing he was ever really going to do. How could he have done anything else? God knew he'd take the Coke. How could he have taken the orange soda?

Answer 3

If God knows all, then he would not even have to transcend time to completely remove free will.

By knowing all you remove randomness. So you will know exactly what the outcome would be if you moved a box three inches to the left. You could affect all that were to ever happen in the universe by making this atom over there instead of over here. Which removes all free will.

Answer 4

The first part of your question is impossible to answer, because we have no perspective to view from. We can only theorize. I would imagine that from God's perspective, the end times have already happened, are happening now, and will happen soon, all at the same time.

As far as your second question, no, it doesn't diminish free will if someone already knows what choices you will make. You still make the choices, it's just that someone has already seen what they are, and the consequences of them.

Answer 5

Yes - God knows the beginning and the end - He's even called that as one of His names.

There is free will in that we don't know what will come, and can decide what to do - we have the freedom to chose.

Just because God knows what we will do since He has already seen it, does not mean we do not have free will.

Answer 6

Free will means freedom to believe as you wish and worship as you wish. It does not mean that you are allowed to think and express patently absurd thoughts without being subject to the critical thinking of a time transcending God.

Answer 7

no because of free will there are infinate "futures" based on large and small choices each being makes. the divine can simply see all ends and attempts to influnce the decision based on the divinities concept of what is "right"

however because each sentient being has the first gift (free will) and because of the influence of other divinities and lesser beings things do not always go as planned

Answer 8

No. God created time, and appoints time.
He has appointed an exact time for the end, and has given us ample understanding of the seasons so that we know basically when it will be, but not the exact day.
Time is very relevent to God.
Your question is goofy.

Answer 9

How does sitting as an observer, outside of time, make free will impossible?

Answer 10

How does this affect your free will? If you like orange soda. And you drink orange soda everyday. And when your buddy goes "I know he's gonna have an orange soda with dinner" When you choose to have an orange soda with dinner does this mean you have no free will because your friend knew you were going to choose it? We choose things, God just knows what choice were going to make.