Can God travel through time, in the traditional cheesy science fiction sense?

Question

If yes, why didn't he do it to (for example) save Job some trouble?

If not, how is he all-powerful?

Answer 1

Supposedly he exists outside of time.

If you existed outside of time, it would mean that there are no 'frames' of you that change snapshot-by-snapshot. If you are not part of time, and changing, viewing it from within, then you are outside of time viewing everything from the outside.

Without change-over-time, any eternal being is immutable. There are no frames, no changes over time. In other words: No progress, no retreat, no changes of mind, no learning, no psychology, no changing of emotions and no active thought. A being outside of time exists as one instant, one snapshot only (like a 2D painting in a 3D world; constant). Emotions, thought, planning, progress and all those other things require change over time. Knowledge, also, would be absolute.

Nothing new could be learned because everything that is real and true exists in the 4D object that the being outside-of-time sees all at once. A creator-god who created the universe would exist in a very strange state. This being would exist, forever, viewing the universe that it created as a single 4D object that itself doesn't change over time. All of reality, everything, is 'there', not 'happening' now, but merely existing in reality. Nothing in the world could ever surprise an eternal creator, just like the stickman will never do anything that the child hasn't already seen.

This explanation, going through all the dimensions, truly gives an idea of how a being could indeed be all-knowing about everything that goes on in the universe, but such a being lives in a sad state of eternal immutability. This ties in with one other commonly-cited feature of God: its perfection. If a being is perfect, it cannot change. God's all-knowing nature, the eternality of its existence outside of time, its status as an outside creator of the universe and finally its status as a perfect being, each predict that God is unchangeing. William James explains this well in terms of the lack of 'potential' for God:

“This absence of all potentiality in God obliges Him to be immutable. [...] Were there anything potential about Him, He would either lose or gain by its actualization, and either loss or gain would contradict his perfection. He cannot, therefore, change.”

"The Varieties of Religious Experience" by William James, p423

These conclusions were naturally reached by some of the leading historical Christian theologians. St Thomas Aqnuinas in the second book of his Summae Theologiae concludes that god cannot change itself, cannot be weary, or forget, or repent, or be angry or sad. It cannot undo the past, St Aquinas says, or make itself not exist. This is all because all these things are temporal events that require God to be subject to time itself; but as time is a dimension created by god, God is above and outside it. ["History of Western Philosophy" by Bertrand Russell, p449]

The result, in my opinion, is that if a God exists that is not subject to time like the rest of us, then, such a being is immeasurably cold and emotionless; much more like a robot than the God that many people wish exists. In fact, I would say that such a God verges on being self-contradictory. It's more of a principle, unconscious and non-thinking. That is, of course, if you believe in God.

Answer 2

im not sure about god but jesus could. Because he had a penis powered time machine and currently lives in New Jersey with a gay penguin who sublets to his boyfriend which is a neo nazi gay leprechaun, now there is also a polar bear who is their neighbor, he's kinda like the dish washer dude on Waiting, which is where Jesus got all his best stuff for when he went back in time, then there is the velociraptor which went through seminary school and had a sex change to become a nun so it could convert all the tyrannosaurus rex's. this is all conjecture but i think it's pretty solid given all the stuff he pulled. plus, he probably used it to stall time long enough to swap wine for water and brought back clone technology to make all the bread and fish at the wedding. plus... he didn't use it but didn't lose it implying the time machine being penis powered.

Answer 3

God is I AM. He doesn't simply travel forward or backward in time. In every time, He is there. He "wasn't" present during the time of Job; He IS present in the time of Job. THAT'S power!

God permitted Job's suffering. Job has become an example of how a godly individual deals with life's unfairness and tribulation, because of his suffering. Through Job we learn that it is okay to cry out to God and question why bad things happen to us. And we learn that the answers are beyond our understanding. Maybe if Job could see how many people persevered in times of suffering because of his example, he would've understood why, in part.

Answer 4

God does not honor time in the sense about which you are talking. Suggestion; One shouldn't question God's power lest He might show you first hand.

Answer 5

Would it be in the Back to the Future sense, where the past could be changed to affect the future, or the Terminator sense, where it can't, or would it be like Time Rider, which makes absolutely no sense?

Answer 6

Yes he can, God drove the Delorean from the Back to the Future movies .

Answer 7

Time means nothing to God...time was made for man not God....God is omnipresent, he is everywhere at once...in all things. He didn't help Job because he was proving to Satan that Job would not reject God, no matter what troubles he had...He didn't...He hung in there....

Answer 8

God is Outside of time.

That's why he was able to be in two places at once (Jesus)

so yes, he could have done it for Job, but he doesn't like to mess with humans anymore, for obvious reasons (Noah's ark)

Answer 9

He has a turbo, body kit and neon lights on his Delorian. Making him worshipped by all of Essex

Answer 10

all prophets of God underwent certain trials to be of guidance for the people who followed them, God did help them many times, but that would be unknown to the outside person, unless the prophet specifically mentioned it.