Mike
What are your thoughts re this exerpt from ML Andeason's book called "The Sabbath?" Do you see any connection with this quote, and Rev.13:8?
"We can understand how God can bless human beings.
We can even understand how He can bless animals and give them their work to do in carrying out God’s purpose; but how can God bless a day, a division of time, neither animate nor inanimate, not alive nor dead, a thing without substance, a conception rather than a reality; time, which defies definition, though all mankind is aware of its existence and reality?
How can time be blessed so as to be a blessing to man?"
"The answer is that time does not have any virtue or power in itself to be a blessing or a help to others.
Time is as impersonal as space, and equally inconceivable.
One difference between the two is noticeable: space extends in all directions, while time might be compared to a one-way road, permitting traffic in one direction only.
Man has no power over time, to hasten or retard it. Whether he will or not, he is carried along with it, and despite all protests is one day older tomorrow than he is today. He cannot reverse the process, however much he may wish to do so. Time is superior to him, and he obeys its mandates."
"There are those who believe that God did not create time, but that in some way He found it already existing. But this cannot be. Time and space are not self-existent entities, operating apart from God and independent of Him.
If that were true, they would be equal with God, or even His superior; for that which is coeval with God or exists prior to God must at least be equal with Him; and that which is not created by God is self-existent and is God. The Christian believes that “without Him was not anything made that was made,” and that time and space are created by God as verily as anything else He has made. John 1:3."
"Though the two conceptions of time and space are beyond human comprehension, each is helpful in understanding the other. Our conception of space, for example, helps us to understand time better, and how it is possible for God to bless time." (The Sabbath, pp. 54, 55 - M. L. Andreasen)
There can be no concept of eternity without the concept of time. As Andreasen noted, if all things were created by Jesus Christ, then He created time. Speaking as Paul, “after the manner of men” for lack of better words, there was a period in history before time or eternity existed. Christ, being the author of time, must also be the author of eternity as we know it.
Therefore, Christ, the Son of God, was begotten before time and eternity existed since it was Christ who brought these into being. With this understanding we can see how Jesus “was with God from all eternity” and yet also the literal Son of God begotten before Bethlehem.