Phenomenology: the Phrenology of a 21st Century Youth

Dedicated to stillborn fetuses, 99 cent Malt Liquor and Existentialism
1.
Nymphomaniac tree huggers
And overweight bisexual vegetarians
Swallowing phentermine poison to stay fit.
 
2.
Funky fresh bastards
throwing pigs at St. Augustine’s pear tree
and frolicking abortions over Moloch’s philoprogenitiveness,
 
3.
While sipping barbecue sauce dipped in Lipton tea,
dancing around adhesive bonfires
reciting memories of holocaust, the Kristallnacht nights
and beautiful words suffered by ancestors lost.
 
4.
Inhale chicken noodle soup, with a side of Lithium,
And prance to Literacy class to combat envisionment
With free association conceptual constructions,
 
5.
Computerized like Prometheus’ fire burning through SmartBoards
In classrooms where the poison of heterosexual history
Is fed to boys in skirts cursed by Adam’s apple,
 
6.
Baptized by social norms and locked away in hopeless closets
According to the Tautology of Leviticus…
until they cut their breath by the vein of soteriology;
 
7.
Misunderstanding of God’s words
Covets the innocent to early graves
In biblical paratactic irony…like God betting Satan for a Job.
 
8.
Rub fried chicken oil on Bartholomaeus Anglicus’ skin
and soil his white pride with negro flavor,
for revenge  On the Properties of Things
 
9.
and howl out in glory of victory
over totes of  lickerish piper methysticum blunts
that beg the conundrum,
 ’What is the origin of this world?’
‘Ether,’ he replied.
But it is not ether!
Nor Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.
It is Dada. Dada. Dada!
10.
For this is a record of the life stories of the greatest minds and geniuses of your generation,
written in boys and girls
who mimicked Basquiat’s genius and tagged bathroom walls with abstract philosophies like “Love is a prime number” and “ the weight of Duncan McDougall’s soul can only be found on the 15^th of October”
who drank vampirish gulps of Vicodin while consoling themselves with aphorisms such as: “don’t rue the misses, you don’t need a Mrs. when you’re elevated by chemical kisses”
11.
Who stood naked in mirrors, weeping, for they were a mystery to themselves, but a great talent and soon to be legend to some.
Who lit cannabis in loneliness and waltzed naked with their ghosts, fantasizing about heroin tomatoes and Corpus Christi Mexican Jazz.
Who composed psychedelic anthems from dreams that were lost in ghettoes where virginities were lost for loaves of bread, for the hunger of bread.
12.
Who wrote suicide notes on a toilet seat, contemplating the texture of Marshall Mathers’ favorite underwear and whether the color green was an invention of Nazi Germany.
Who used to love their lovers in darkness and colored the streets of Manhattan with rainbows on June 24, 2011 to mark the date lady liberty finally bought a new pair of glasses.
13.
Who lost musical talents to a Wine-house and ended up in a whine-house where lobotomy was subsequently prescribed by the milligram.
Who indulged in pharmaceutical vices and when asked why replied simply, every recursively enumerable set is Diophantine.
Who diagnosed themselves with “start shit-itis” and self medicated by eating Fifinellas at the stroke of each midnight.
Who rubbed paraprosdokians on their skin and occupied Wall Street in search of a new euphemism for being American.
Who poured Alkalizer on a dead moose and kicked it while feasting on the divine question, “why does Rice play Texas?”
14.
who got bored with conventional relationships and bought the Origin of the World on street corners from vixens nicknamed “Jezebel” and climaxed atop of them screaming  “I’m in Babylon, the great Mother of Whores!”
Who attempted suicides upon suicides upon suicides, in Oakland, until they were shipped away to private catholic universities in Rhode Island, where the history of Colossus was being taught.
15.
who serenaded love interests with four letter curse words at open bars where Kubla Khan was read and Tartars kings were licked all over like holy communion opium.
Who drove home with the spirits of wine and crashed on telephone poles where their obituaries were written in their prime, leaving their mothers weeping and calling congress to reconsider Prohibition.
16.
Who mixed Redbull with Propofol and drank the juxtaposition galore only to be woken up the next morning dead in their sleep.
Who tattooed rat poison packages with goodwill messages such as “Valium divided by Water =6^th day of creation” or “Seroquel + Brett Favre = St. Patrick”,
who went speedballing with Basquiat during autoscopy and woke up wondering the cost of Nautilus in Albuquerque.
17.
who took 33 hallelujah 1800 tequila jello shots and daydreamed about laying on Mithras’ grave, yelling, beetlejuice, beetlejuice…beetlejuice.
who found the truths of the Bible invalid by the miscalculation of Pi in 1 Kings 7, verse 3, and mailed death on anthrax letters to Reagan in protest.
18.
who sat empty bellied at breakfast tables wondering the temperature of satellites at Lagrangian points,  only to soon catch fire in their tongues and speak Labyrinth soliloquies that ended in
19.
Zion,
Where Google knows every answer.
In Zion
Where the youth, tomorrow’s future, quote a negro named Hova better than they can quote Jehovah.
In Zion
Where Pollock’s art was used as weapon during the Cold war.
20.
In Zion
Where sartorial geniuses where no pants,
In Zion
Where David Kato Kisule is the secret hero of these words, for he was taken at a time
In Zion
Where we were supposed to be our ancestor’s sci-fi.
 
21.
In Zion,
Where the youth bear the scarlet letter X for they are a problem to tradition and hold no definition for the future, for they have discovered
In Zion
That the origin of this world is in their living eyes, and not in the dictionary of their ancestors who lived
In Zion
when the epitome of the literature of life ended in Revelation of Amen and Shantih shantih shantih;
this is a record of the greatest minds and geniuses there ever was, written
in Zion
where the meaninglessness and nothingness of Dada reigns, and the trinity of life now lives in the Subject, subjective and subjectivity.

God and Time: Trinitarian Eternal Omnitemporality

The question and debate over God’s relation to time has been explored for many centuries. The main theological view is that God is Timeless, meaning He is beyond and outside of time. Due to this fact that He is outside of time, He experiences everything in a timeless now (for example he heard and answered St. Aquinas’ prayers in the 13^th century the same time he heard and answered Mother Teresa’s prayers in the 20^th century).  However, the philosophical and widely accepted view today is that God is Temporal, meaning that He is within time and does experience temporal succession (for example he experienced the 19^th century before he experienced the 20^th century)[1].

There are multitudes of in-between views on the matter of God and time but this article will focus on the three most prominent views put forth by Alan Padgett, Garrett DeWeese and William Lane Craig. Both Padgett and DeWeese posit that God is “omnitemporal”, meaning though God is not within our time, He does indeed experience temporal succession within His being.[2] They also posit that God’s time is metaphysical and purely constituted by the divine life itself, unlike our physical time[3]. However, since God is omniscient, His metaphysical time does map into our physical time, and this accounts for how God knows our actions at any given time. Craig also believes that God has His own metaphysical time; however he posits that God went through some changes due to the creation of the universe. He argues that God without creation is timeless and God with creation is temporal.

The purpose of this article is to explore and point out the reasons why God cannot solely be, timeless, temporal, or any one of the in-between views. Using the Trinity, I will posit a new and original position called Trinitarian Eternal Omnitemporality, which will show that God is indeed, Timeless, Temporal and Omnitemporal all within the wholeness of His being.

Argument for Divine Timelessness

The proponents of the claim that God is timeless believe that He is not temporal and does not exist at any temporal location, like us human beings. In our temporal world and reality, we experience life in a temporal succession, but God experiences everything in one “timeless now” because He is beyond time.[4] In God’s metaphysical time, there is no past, present or future because He experiences everything all at once. One the most prominent arguments proponents of divine timelessness make is to show that divine temporality, human freedom and divine omniscience cannot all coexist. As the Bible suggests, we humans were blessed with freedom (Joshua 24:15, John 15:14) and so have the power to choose our actions. If God is in time, temporal, that means He knows everything past, present and future even before it happens—and that includes our free acts. For example, the fact that I am sitting here at 7:18 pm on a Saturday night writing this sentence is not a free choice since God already had the foreknowledge of this four billion plus years ago. In other words, I along with 7 billion other human beings act not out of our own free will. Rather, we are acting out God’s foreknowledge, and we cannot refrain from doing so because that would men overruling God’s power. Clearly, as just shown and as many proponents of timelessness believe, divine temporality, human freedom and divine omniscience are not compatible because it would mean God foreknows everything, in order words, we do not have freewill. Thus the only way for human freedom and divine omniscience to coexist in our temporal world would be for God to be timeless and without foreknowledge of anything.[5]

 “Prophecy Problem for Divine Timelessness”

At the surface, adopting a timelessness view of God seems a good strategy to reconcile human freedom and divine omniscience; however a “prophecy problem” arises. In many instances, both in history and the Bible, God has spoken through prophets who then went on to make prophecies that came true (Isaiah 7:14, Psalm 41:9, Jeremiah 23:5). Thus, if God is timeless and has no foreknowledge of events in our temporal world, how then can prophecies be explained? Even further, does not God’s timeless knowledge of future acts make prophecies incompatible with free will? There is no denying that it does, thus, holding God to be timeless does not solve the “prophecy problem” because it is apparent that God does foreknow certain events and actions in our temporal world.[6]

It would be redundant to put forth any other claims or reasons for God’s timelessness because those views can be easily defeated by the “prophecy problem”. This “problem” clearly shows that God does intervene in our lives and has some sort of foreknowledge about the future in some instances, both which would be impossible if He was not within our time. There has to be a temporality to God’s nature for Him to be able to intervene in our temporal world thus, He cannot be timeless.

Argument for Divine Temporality

Perhaps, the most prominent reason many put forth in support of God’s temporality is the fact the God acts in our world. Since God created the universe, He is the reason why it continues to exist from one moment to another. He sustains it from moment to moment by performing different acts at different moments and places. This means that God also changes from moment to moment, experiences temporal succession in order to be able to perform these sustaining acts. Simple acts God performs such as answering prayers, forgiving sins and etc. are all evidence for divine temporality because a timeless God would not be able to do such things (because He would be beyond our time). God created a temporal world and since He created a temporal world, He has to relate to it in a temporal manner, and for Him to relate to it in a temporal manner; He too has to be temporal in order to do so. This argument can be summarized in the following steps:

1. God is creatively active in the temporal world.
2. If God is creatively active in the temporal world, God is really related to the temporal world.
3. If God is really related to the temporal world, God is temporal.
4. Therefore, God is temporal[7].

Another argument for God’s temporality goes as follows: if God is timeless, then He would not know which events are past or future since He experiences all of life in one timeless now and not in a temporal succession. That would mean that God does not really know which events are presently occurring in the temporal world because He hears my prayers in the 21^st century the same time He hears St. Augustine’s prayers from the fourth century. To Him, both prayers are being said and received at the same time—He has no knowledge which prayer is past or present.  Proponents of divine timelessness agree that God is omniscient; however this inadequacy for God to tell past from present is a deficit in His omniscience. If He is really omniscient, then He has the power to distinguish the past from the present and hence at all times know what is presently occurring at each moment in our temporal world. This argument can be summarized in the following steps:

1. A temporal world exists.
2. God is omniscient.
3. If a temporal world exists, then if God is omniscient, God knows tensed facts.
4. If God is timeless, He does not know tensed facts.
5. Therefore, God is not timeless.[8]

 “Prophecy (Foreknowledge) Problem for Divine Temporality”

God is omniscient. Thus if He is temporal, within our time, that would mean He knows the past, present and the future and everything there is to know. If God has foreknowledge of the future, do we  really have the power of free will? Looking at it from this angle, human freedom is not compatible with divine omniscience and thus calls the legitimacy of divine temporality into question.

While the “prophecy problem” divine timelessness due to the fact that it proves that God has foreknowledge of future actions and does intervene in our temporal world, the “prophecy problem” to some degree dismisses divine temporality because it threatens the legitimacy of human freedom. For if an omniscient God is within our temporal world, He knows everything there is to know, including our future free acts. Then one has to ask, “are we really free since all of our future free acts are foreknown by the omniscient divine dwelling within our time?”  When put to the “prophecy (foreknowledge) test” the arguments for divine timelessness and divine temporality both fall apart because both arguments are incompatible with human freedom and divine omniscience. Simply, God cannot purely be timeless or temporal.

In Between Views

1. 1.      Alan Padgett and Gary DeWeese: Arguments for Divine Omnitemporality

Both Alan Padgett and Garrett DeWeese posit that God is “omnitemporal”. They argue that though God is everlastingly temporal, He experiences temporal succession in His being. Our temporal world is constituted by physical time; however, God’s time is metaphysical and is constituted purely by the divine itself.[9] They argue that “if God is omnitemporal, His metaphysical time does map in some way onto our physical time.”[10] This accounts for how God knows what is going on in our temporal world from moment to moment. Though both Padgett and DeWeese agree that God is omnitemporal, they do differ on the little facts of this posit. In his posit for omnitemporality, Padgett allows for the lucidity of a timeless God.[11] DeWeese on the other hand argues that any timeless entity is casually inert and thus no person can be timeless; only abstract objects such as numbers and properties can exist outside of time.[12]

“Problem with Omnitemporality”

One of the significant problems with DeWeese’s view on omnitemporality is that it does not allow coherence for a timeless God. He argues that any entity existing outside of time would be inert, thus, only abstract objects such as numbers and properties can exist outside of time. Such view is incompatible with divine omnipotence because it bluntly states that God does not have the power or will to exist outside of time. If God is truly omniscient and omnipotent, as DeWeese agrees, then He should have the power and will to exist outside of time if He so pleases. Nothing should be beyond His power.

Proponents of omnitemporality believe that our physical time is metric; “in other words, it is time that has an intrinsic metric due to the regularities in the physical universe.”[13] While God’s time is metaphysical time; “it involves no metric or measured temporal intervals because God himself is immune from temporal measure.”[14] Though our physical time is metric and God’s metaphysical time is non-metric, His time does in some way map onto our physical time and that accounts for His omniscient presence in our the temporal world.[15]

The supposed fact that God’s non-metric metaphysical time maps into our physical metric time contradicts the omnitemporalist view that God himself is immune from temporal measure. For if God’s metaphysical time maps onto our physical time, it would then mean that God is also subject to temporal measure since some of His metaphysical non-metric time maps onto our physical metric time. And if God is subject to temporal measure like humans beings are, that would also mean that He is subject to the laws of nature. On this fact alone, it is impossible for omnitemporality and divine omnipotence to coexist because it would mean that God, an omnipotent being, is bound by the laws of nature (which would then not make Him omnipotent). For instead of the laws of nature acting through God, the laws of nature now act on God.

1. William Lane Craig: God as Timeless without Creation and Temporal with Creation

William Lane Craig takes a unique view on God and Time. He posits that once God created the universe, He became temporal, but prior to creation He was timeless. Craig does not mean that God was timeless at one point then became temporal at another, but rather, God without creation is timeless; God with creation is temporal.[16] “On this view, there was not a time when he was timeless; rather, God’s timelessness without creation is precisely due to the fact that time came into existence with creation.”[17] At a glance, it seems that Craig’s position has managed to the escape the deficiencies found in arguments of divine timelessness, temporality and omnitemporality. However, a further inquiry proves his argument to be just as deficient.

“The Problems with Timeless without Creation and Temporal with Creation”

1. As with divine temporality and omnitemporality, a “duration problem” also arises with Craig’s argument. If God is temporal or omnitemporal, that means He is subject to the laws of nature. As earlier stated, that would mean that God is not truly omnipotent if He is bound by laws of nature. Taking it a step further, if God is temporal or omnitemporal, that would then mean that His life has duration, as with any other living entity in the temporal world. Thus, Craig’s view that God is temporal with creation also means He is bound by the same natural laws as His temporal creations, and now His life has duration. In our temporal world, everything that has a beginning also has an end, so if God is temporal with creation that means His life too has/will have an end. This goes against the basic view that God is everlasting (John 3:16, Psalm 100:5, Deuteronomy 33:27).
2. Craig’s position of “temporal with creation” subliminally answers the old age question of how God came into existence. By saying that God is temporal with creation and timeless without creation he suggests that God brought Himself into existence in the temporal world— God created himself. How God came into existence can never be humanly known because our minds are not capable enough to fathom such a thing beyond us. However, Craig’s position of “temporal with creation” seems to subliminally offer an answer for how God came into existence.
3. Lastly, Craig’s position raises a unique question. “Is it possible for a timeless being to become temporal or for a temporal being to become timeless?”[18] According to Craig’s position, it is possible for a timeless being to become temporal and vice versa. However, Craig’s position that without creation God is timeless and with creation God is temporal seems to suggest that our omnipotent God is inadequate. Subliminally, he suggests that God was not fully whole and lacking some qualities until the universe was created. In summary, God found His timelessness inadequate and deficient to the point that He became temporal in order to adequately govern the universe He created.

Thus, Craig’s view of God as timeless without creation and temporal with creation suggests not only that God is subject to the laws of nature and that His life has duration, but also that we now have an answer for how God came into existence and lastly, that He was inadequate and lacking some qualities before He created our temporal universe.

Trinitarian Eternal Omnitemporality

After a thorough inquiry into divine timelessness, temporality and omnitemporality, we find many deficiencies in all the arguments. If God is timelessness, then He would not be able to interact with our temporal world (how would one then explain prophecies and answered prayers?). If God is temporal and omniscient, then He would already foreknow the future, meaning we do not have the power of free choice. If God is omnitemporal, then that means He is bound by the laws of nature and therefore not omnipotent. If God is timeless without creation and temporal with creation, then that means God found His timelessness inadequate and had to change Himself into a temporal entity so to be adequate enough to govern the universe He created. Simply, this suggests at some point, God was not perfect (this directly contradicts Matthew 5: 48).

As all the evidences provided so far have shown, God is not solely timeless, temporal or omnitemporal, rather God is all of the three combined—eternally omnitemporal. And the case for God’s eternal omnitemporal nature can best be made using the Trinity. In the Trinity we have three distinct persons in one God—God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. In His Trinitarian eternal omnitemporality, God the Father is Timeless (eternal), God the Son is Temporal and God the Holy Spirit is Omnitemporal; the Father is outside of time, the Son is inside of time and the Holy Spirit is in-between time.

The Father who is outside of time governs and watches all of creation in a timeless now. The Son who is within time, relates and relays His will upon all of creation. And the Holy Spirit who is in-between time serves as the divine hand and helper, and intervenes in the temporal world (which explains prophecies, prophets and miracles). As in the Trinity, all three distinct persons with distinct functions are equal, and through this Trinitarian lens can God’s relation with time be vividly seen and explained.

All three persons are eternal without duration, omniscient and omnipotent. But in order to truly convey Himself in our temporal world in a manner which we would understand and better relate to, He adopts a temporal nature in form of the Son and works through the Son through the Holy Spirit.

1. God the Father—the Father is whom we send prayers to through the Son (Matthew 6:9). The Father does not directly intervene in our temporal world; instead, He does so through the Son and the Holy Spirit. Thus, since the Father does not directly intervene in our temporal world, in eternal omnitemporality, He is viewed as timeless (beyond our time).
2. God the Son—  the role of the Son can be best explained with the Bible verse John 3:16 which reads: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” God giving Himself to us in form of His only begotten Son goes to show His temporal nature. Jesus came to redeem us from our sins and for Him to do so He had to be physically within our time. Thus through the Son, He relays and relates to us for as John 14: 6 states “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

In summary, God the Son is within our time for only through Him can we reach the Father who is timeless. Also as John 14:13 states,  through the Son can we also ask the Father to intervene: “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

3. God the Holy Spirit— in form of the Holy Spirit, God intervenes in our temporal world. God the Son is the savior and messenger of God, while the Holy Spirit is the divine mouth, hand and helper of God in our temporal world. In John 15:26 the Holy Spirit is referred to as the Spirit of Truth (and Helper) who would bear witness for God the Son (Jesus): “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.” In Acts 13:2 the Father directly speaks as the Holy Spirit: “As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”’ It was through and with the Holy Spirit was God the Son baptized: “When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him” ( Matthew 3:16). And also through and by the Spirit are we all baptized (1 Corinthians 12: 13).

The Holy Spirit also served as the divine Hand and Helper for God the Son while He carried out His mission on earth, for as Luke 4:1 reads: “Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness…” Also, after the crucifixion, it was through the Spirit did God perform the miracle of raising Jesus from the dead: “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11). Through God the Son, we send prayers to Father, who is timeless, and through the Holy Spirit He answers and also directly intervenes in the affairs of our temporal world.

Prophecies

God has no power over our free actions. However, He has a desired destiny for every individual and for humanity as a whole (hence why He sent His only begotten Son to us to relay His will and lay down the Way). We always have the power to choose which path to take to reach His desired destiny. Thus, instead of seeing prophecies as God having foreknowledge of our free actions, it should be seen and can be explained as God stirring us onto a new path, or reaffirming to us that we are on the right path to a desired destiny. This is the reason why prophecies are so awesome and rare because it is the only time God directs our free will in order to achieve His desired purpose, for a greater purpose. And He performs this awesome act through the divine Hand and Helper, the Holy Spirit:

And so we have the prophetic word confirmed,which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:19-21).

Conclusion

In the question and debate over God’s relation with time, Trinitarian Eternal Omnitemporality is the only posit that does not leave God deficient, inadequate and can account for awesome events such as prophecies and miracles in our temporal world with human freedom. The Trinity teaches us that there are three distinct persons that make up God, and using evidences found in the Bible, we can see the distinct roles these three distinct persons play in God’s relation with time. God is neither solely timeless, temporal or omnitemporal because possessing any quality over the other leaves many things unaccounted for and threatens His divine omniscience and omnipotence. When we look at God’s relation with time through the Trinitarian Eternal Omnitemporality lens, we not only see the fullness of God, but most importantly, how He relates to time through these three distinct persons found within the Trinity.

---

[1] Ganssle, Gregory, “God and time”, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://www.iep.utm.edu/god-time/.

[2] Ibid.,

[3] Ibid

[4] Ibid.,

[5] Ibid

[6] Ibid

[7]  Craig, William Lane. “Timelessness and Omnitemporality.”http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/docs/omnitemporality.html. Leadership U., 2002. Web. 13 Jan 2012.

[8] Ibid

[9] Padgett, Alan G. (2001). “Eternity as Relative Timelessness,” in Ganssle (2001a): 92-110.

[10] Ganssle, Gregory, “God and time”, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://www.iep.utm.edu/god-time/.

[11] Ibid.,

[12] Ibid.

[13] Ibid

[14] Ibid

[15] Ibid

[16] Craig, William Lane. (2002). “The Elimination of Absolute Time by the Special Theory of Relativity,” in Ganssle and Woodruff (2002): 129-152.

[17] Ganssle, Gregory, “God and time”, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://www.iep.utm.edu/god-time/.

[18] Ibid

God and Time: Trinitarian Eternal Omnitemporality

The question and debate over God’s relation to time has been explored for many centuries. The main theological view is that God is Timeless, meaning He is beyond and outside of time. Due to this fact that He is outside of time, He experiences everything in a timeless now (for example he heard and answered St. Aquinas’ prayers in the 13^th century the same time he heard and answered Mother Teresa’s prayers in the 20^th century).  However, the philosophical and widely accepted view today is that God is Temporal, meaning that He is within time and does experience temporal succession (for example he experienced the 19^th century before he experienced the 20^th century)[1].

    There are multitudes of in-between views on the matter of God and time but this article will focus on the three most prominent views put forth by Alan Padgett, Garrett DeWeese and William Lane Craig. Both Padgett and DeWeese posit that God is “omnitemporal”, meaning though God is not within our time, He does indeed experience temporal succession within His being.[2] They also posit that God’s time is metaphysical and purely constituted by the divine life itself, unlike our physical time[3]. However, since God is omniscient, His metaphysical time does map into our physical time, and this accounts for how God knows our actions at any given time. Craig also believes that God has His own metaphysical time; however he posits that God went through some changes due to the creation of the universe. He argues that God without creation is timeless and God with creation is temporal.

  The purpose of this article is to explore and point out the reasons why God cannot solely be, timeless, temporal, or any one of the in-between views. Using the Trinity, I will posit a new and original position called Trinitarian Eternal Omnitemporality, which will show that God is indeed, Timeless, Temporal and Omnitemporal all within the wholeness of His being.

Argument for Divine Timelessness

     The proponents of the claim that God is timeless believe that He is not temporal and does not exist at any temporal location, like us human beings. In our temporal world and reality, we experience life in a temporal succession, but God experiences everything in one “timeless now” because He is beyond time.[4] In God’s metaphysical time, there is no past, present or future because He experiences everything all at once. One the most prominent arguments proponents of divine timelessness make is to show that divine temporality, human freedom and divine omniscience cannot all coexist. As the Bible suggests, we humans were blessed with freedom (Joshua 24:15, John 15:14) and so have the power to choose our actions. If God is in time, temporal, that means He knows everything past, present and future even before it happens—and that includes our free acts. For example, the fact that I am sitting here at 7:18 pm on a Saturday night writing this sentence is not a free choice since God already had the foreknowledge of this four billion plus years ago. In other words, I along with 7 billion other human beings act not out of our own free will. Rather, we are acting out God’s foreknowledge, and we cannot refrain from doing so because that would men overruling God’s power. Clearly, as just shown and as many proponents of timelessness believe, divine temporality, human freedom and divine omniscience are not compatible because it would mean God foreknows everything, in order words, we do not have freewill. Thus the only way for human freedom and divine omniscience to coexist in our temporal world would be for God to be timeless and without foreknowledge of anything.[5]

 “Prophecy Problem for Divine Timelessness”

      At the surface, adopting a timelessness view of God seems a good strategy to reconcile human freedom and divine omniscience; however a “prophecy problem” arises. In many instances, both in history and the Bible, God has spoken through prophets who then went on to make prophecies that came true (Isaiah 7:14, Psalm 41:9, Jeremiah 23:5). Thus, if God is timeless and has no foreknowledge of events in our temporal world, how then can prophecies be explained? Even further, does not God’s timeless knowledge of future acts make prophecies incompatible with free will? There is no denying that it does, thus, holding God to be timeless does not solve the “prophecy problem” because it is apparent that God does foreknow certain events and actions in our temporal world.[6]

     It would be redundant to put forth any other claims or reasons for God’s timelessness because those views can be easily defeated by the “prophecy problem”. This “problem” clearly shows that God does intervene in our lives and has some sort of foreknowledge about the future in some instances, both which would be impossible if He was not within our time. There has to be a temporality to God’s nature for Him to be able to intervene in our temporal world thus, He cannot be timeless.

Argument for Divine Temporality

      Perhaps, the most prominent reason many put forth in support of God’s temporality is the fact the God acts in our world. Since God created the universe, He is the reason why it continues to exist from one moment to another. He sustains it from moment to moment by performing different acts at different moments and places. This means that God also changes from moment to moment, experiences temporal succession in order to be able to perform these sustaining acts. Simple acts God performs such as answering prayers, forgiving sins and etc. are all evidence for divine temporality because a timeless God would not be able to do such things (because He would be beyond our time). God created a temporal world and since He created a temporal world, He has to relate to it in a temporal manner, and for Him to relate to it in a temporal manner; He too has to be temporal in order to do so. This argument can be summarized in the following steps:

1. God is creatively active in the temporal world.
2. If God is creatively active in the temporal world, God is really related to the temporal world.
3. If God is really related to the temporal world, God is temporal.
4. Therefore, God is temporal[7].

     Another argument for God’s temporality goes as follows: if God is timeless, then He would not know which events are past or future since He experiences all of life in one timeless now and not in a temporal succession. That would mean that God does not really know which events are presently occurring in the temporal world because He hears my prayers in the 21^st century the same time He hears St. Augustine’s prayers from the fourth century. To Him, both prayers are being said and received at the same time—He has no knowledge which prayer is past or present.  Proponents of divine timelessness agree that God is omniscient; however this inadequacy for God to tell past from present is a deficit in His omniscience. If He is really omniscient, then He has the power to distinguish the past from the present and hence at all times know what is presently occurring at each moment in our temporal world. This argument can be summarized in the following steps:

1. A temporal world exists.
2. God is omniscient.
3. If a temporal world exists, then if God is omniscient, God knows tensed facts.
4. If God is timeless, He does not know tensed facts.
5. Therefore, God is not timeless.[8]

 “Prophecy (Foreknowledge) Problem for Divine Temporality”

      God is omniscient. Thus if He is temporal, within our time, that would mean He knows the past, present and the future and everything there is to know. If God has foreknowledge of the future, do we  really have the power of free will? Looking at it from this angle, human freedom is not compatible with divine omniscience and thus calls the legitimacy of divine temporality into question.

       While the “prophecy problem” divine timelessness due to the fact that it proves that God has foreknowledge of future actions and does intervene in our temporal world, the “prophecy problem” to some degree dismisses divine temporality because it threatens the legitimacy of human freedom. For if an omniscient God is within our temporal world, He knows everything there is to know, including our future free acts. Then one has to ask, “are we really free since all of our future free acts are foreknown by the omniscient divine dwelling within our time?”  When put to the “prophecy (foreknowledge) test” the arguments for divine timelessness and divine temporality both fall apart because both arguments are incompatible with human freedom and divine omniscience. Simply, God cannot purely be timeless or temporal.

In Between Views

1. 1.      Alan Padgett and Gary DeWeese: Arguments for Divine Omnitemporality

      Both Alan Padgett and Garrett DeWeese posit that God is “omnitemporal”. They argue that though God is everlastingly temporal, He experiences temporal succession in His being. Our temporal world is constituted by physical time; however, God’s time is metaphysical and is constituted purely by the divine itself.[9] They argue that “if God is omnitemporal, His metaphysical time does map in some way onto our physical time.”[10] This accounts for how God knows what is going on in our temporal world from moment to moment. Though both Padgett and DeWeese agree that God is omnitemporal, they do differ on the little facts of this posit. In his posit for omnitemporality, Padgett allows for the lucidity of a timeless God.[11] DeWeese on the other hand argues that any timeless entity is casually inert and thus no person can be timeless; only abstract objects such as numbers and properties can exist outside of time.[12]

“Problem with Omnitemporality”

      One of the significant problems with DeWeese’s view on omnitemporality is that it does not allow coherence for a timeless God. He argues that any entity existing outside of time would be inert, thus, only abstract objects such as numbers and properties can exist outside of time. Such view is incompatible with divine omnipotence because it bluntly states that God does not have the power or will to exist outside of time. If God is truly omniscient and omnipotent, as DeWeese agrees, then He should have the power and will to exist outside of time if He so pleases. Nothing should be beyond His power.

     Proponents of omnitemporality believe that our physical time is metric; “in other words, it is time that has an intrinsic metric due to the regularities in the physical universe.”[13] While God’s time is metaphysical time; “it involves no metric or measured temporal intervals because God himself is immune from temporal measure.”[14] Though our physical time is metric and God’s metaphysical time is non-metric, His time does in some way map onto our physical time and that accounts for His omniscient presence in our the temporal world.[15]

       The supposed fact that God’s non-metric metaphysical time maps into our physical metric time contradicts the omnitemporalist view that God himself is immune from temporal measure. For if God’s metaphysical time maps onto our physical time, it would then mean that God is also subject to temporal measure since some of His metaphysical non-metric time maps onto our physical metric time. And if God is subject to temporal measure like humans beings are, that would also mean that He is subject to the laws of nature. On this fact alone, it is impossible for omnitemporality and divine omnipotence to coexist because it would mean that God, an omnipotent being, is bound by the laws of nature (which would then not make Him omnipotent). For instead of the laws of nature acting through God, the laws of nature now act on God.

1. William Lane Craig: God as Timeless without Creation and Temporal with Creation

     William Lane Craig takes a unique view on God and Time. He posits that once God created the universe, He became temporal, but prior to creation He was timeless. Craig does not mean that God was timeless at one point then became temporal at another, but rather, God without creation is timeless; God with creation is temporal.[16] “On this view, there was not a time when he was timeless; rather, God’s timelessness without creation is precisely due to the fact that time came into existence with creation.”[17] At a glance, it seems that Craig’s position has managed to the escape the deficiencies found in arguments of divine timelessness, temporality and omnitemporality. However, a further inquiry proves his argument to be just as deficient.

“The Problems with Timeless without Creation and Temporal with Creation”

1. As with divine temporality and omnitemporality, a “duration problem” also arises with Craig’s argument. If God is temporal or omnitemporal, that means He is subject to the laws of nature. As earlier stated, that would mean that God is not truly omnipotent if He is bound by laws of nature. Taking it a step further, if God is temporal or omnitemporal, that would then mean that His life has duration, as with any other living entity in the temporal world. Thus, Craig’s view that God is temporal with creation also means He is bound by the same natural laws as His temporal creations, and now His life has duration. In our temporal world, everything that has a beginning also has an end, so if God is temporal with creation that means His life too has/will have an end. This goes against the basic view that God is everlasting (John 3:16, Psalm 100:5, Deuteronomy 33:27).
2. Craig’s position of “temporal with creation” subliminally answers the old age question of how God came into existence. By saying that God is temporal with creation and timeless without creation he suggests that God brought Himself into existence in the temporal world— God created himself. How God came into existence can never be humanly known because our minds are not capable enough to fathom such a thing beyond us. However, Craig’s position of “temporal with creation” seems to subliminally offer an answer for how God came into existence.
3. Lastly, Craig’s position raises a unique question. “Is it possible for a timeless being to become temporal or for a temporal being to become timeless?”[18] According to Craig’s position, it is possible for a timeless being to become temporal and vice versa. However, Craig’s position that without creation God is timeless and with creation God is temporal seems to suggest that our omnipotent God is inadequate. Subliminally, he suggests that God was not fully whole and lacking some qualities until the universe was created. In summary, God found His timelessness inadequate and deficient to the point that He became temporal in order to adequately govern the universe He created.

Thus, Craig’s view of God as timeless without creation and temporal with creation suggests not only that God is subject to the laws of nature and that His life has duration, but also that we now have an answer for how God came into existence and lastly, that He was inadequate and lacking some qualities before He created our temporal universe.

Trinitarian Eternal Omnitemporality

After a thorough inquiry into divine timelessness, temporality and omnitemporality, we find many deficiencies in all the arguments. If God is timelessness, then He would not be able to interact with our temporal world (how would one then explain prophecies and answered prayers?). If God is temporal and omniscient, then He would already foreknow the future, meaning we do not have the power of free choice. If God is omnitemporal, then that means He is bound by the laws of nature and therefore not omnipotent. If God is timeless without creation and temporal with creation, then that means God found His timelessness inadequate and had to change Himself into a temporal entity so to be adequate enough to govern the universe He created. Simply, this suggests at some point, God was not perfect (this directly contradicts Matthew 5: 48).

       As all the evidences provided so far have shown, God is not solely timeless, temporal or omnitemporal, rather God is all of the three combined—eternally omnitemporal. And the case for God’s eternal omnitemporal nature can best be made using the Trinity. In the Trinity we have three distinct persons in one God—God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. In His Trinitarian eternal omnitemporality, God the Father is Timeless (eternal), God the Son is Temporal and God the Holy Spirit is Omnitemporal; the Father is outside of time, the Son is inside of time and the Holy Spirit is in-between time.

     The Father who is outside of time governs and watches all of creation in a timeless now. The Son who is within time, relates and relays His will upon all of creation. And the Holy Spirit who is in-between time serves as the divine hand and helper, and intervenes in the temporal world (which explains prophecies, prophets and miracles). As in the Trinity, all three distinct persons with distinct functions are equal, and through this Trinitarian lens can God’s relation with time be vividly seen and explained.

    All three persons are eternal without duration, omniscient and omnipotent. But in order to truly convey Himself in our temporal world in a manner which we would understand and better relate to, He adopts a temporal nature in form of the Son and works through the Son through the Holy Spirit.

1. God the Father—the Father is whom we send prayers to through the Son (Matthew 6:9). The Father does not directly intervene in our temporal world; instead, He does so through the Son and the Holy Spirit. Thus, since the Father does not directly intervene in our temporal world, in eternal omnitemporality, He is viewed as timeless (beyond our time).
2. God the Son—  the role of the Son can be best explained with the Bible verse John 3:16 which reads: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” God giving Himself to us in form of His only begotten Son goes to show His temporal nature. Jesus came to redeem us from our sins and for Him to do so He had to be physically within our time. Thus through the Son, He relays and relates to us for as John 14: 6 states “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

     In summary, God the Son is within our time for only through Him can we reach the Father who is timeless. Also as John 14:13 states,  through the Son can we also ask the Father to intervene: “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

3. God the Holy Spirit— in form of the Holy Spirit, God intervenes in our temporal world. God the Son is the savior and messenger of God, while the Holy Spirit is the divine mouth, hand and helper of God in our temporal world. In John 15:26 the Holy Spirit is referred to as the Spirit of Truth (and Helper) who would bear witness for God the Son (Jesus): “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.” In Acts 13:2 the Father directly speaks as the Holy Spirit: “As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”’ It was through and with the Holy Spirit was God the Son baptized: “When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him” ( Matthew 3:16). And also through and by the Spirit are we all baptized (1 Corinthians 12: 13).

       The Holy Spirit also served as the divine Hand and Helper for God the Son while He carried out His mission on earth, for as Luke 4:1 reads: “Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness…” Also, after the crucifixion, it was through the Spirit did God perform the miracle of raising Jesus from the dead: “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11). Through God the Son, we send prayers to Father, who is timeless, and through the Holy Spirit He answers and also directly intervenes in the affairs of our temporal world.

Prophecies

     God has no power over our free actions. However, He has a desired destiny for every individual and for humanity as a whole (hence why He sent His only begotten Son to us to relay His will and lay down the Way). We always have the power to choose which path to take to reach His desired destiny. Thus, instead of seeing prophecies as God having foreknowledge of our free actions, it should be seen and can be explained as God stirring us onto a new path, or reaffirming to us that we are on the right path to a desired destiny. This is the reason why prophecies are so awesome and rare because it is the only time God directs our free will in order to achieve His desired purpose, for a greater purpose. And He performs this awesome act through the divine Hand and Helper, the Holy Spirit:

And so we have the prophetic word confirmed,which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:19-21).

Conclusion

     In the question and debate over God’s relation with time, Trinitarian Eternal Omnitemporality is the only posit that does not leave God deficient, inadequate and can account for awesome events such as prophecies and miracles in our temporal world with human freedom. The Trinity teaches us that there are three distinct persons that make up God, and using evidences found in the Bible, we can see the distinct roles these three distinct persons play in God’s relation with time. God is neither solely timeless, temporal or omnitemporal because possessing any quality over the other leaves many things unaccounted for and threatens His divine omniscience and omnipotence. When we look at God’s relation with time through the Trinitarian Eternal Omnitemporality lens, we not only see the fullness of God, but most importantly, how He relates to time through these three distinct persons found within the Trinity.

---

[1] Ganssle, Gregory, “God and time”, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://www.iep.utm.edu/god-time/.

 

[2] Ibid.,

 

 

[3] Ibid

[4] Ibid.,

[5] Ibid

[6] Ibid

[7]  Craig, William Lane. “Timelessness and Omnitemporality.”http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/docs/omnitemporality.html. Leadership U., 2002. Web. 13 Jan 2012.

[8] Ibid

[9] Padgett, Alan G. (2001). “Eternity as Relative Timelessness,” in Ganssle (2001a): 92-110.

 

[10] Ganssle, Gregory, “God and time”, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://www.iep.utm.edu/god-time/.

 

[11] Ibid.,

[12] Ibid.

[13] Ibid

[14] Ibid

[15] Ibid

[16] Craig, William Lane. (2002). “The Elimination of Absolute Time by the Special Theory of Relativity,” in Ganssle and Woodruff (2002): 129-152.

 

[17] Ganssle, Gregory, “God and time”, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://www.iep.utm.edu/god-time/.

 

[18] Ibid

Phrenology of SAMO (from 1.Amativeness to 8. Acquisitiveness)

1.
Nymphomaniac-addicts,
Overweight bisexual vegetarians
Climbing trees to stay fit
and eating 80’s fried chicken cocaine

2.
just imagine
Aquarians full of class valedictorians
Swimming on display for graduation ceremony…
reverse-symbolism of how Moolch drowned His loins

3.
Better yet, just imagine
Holy wars,
Beautiful words written to describe the burning pains
Of holocaust…the Kristallnacht nights
Under the mistletoe,
Watching Hall of fame ball hawks on pivot toes
Driving through hoes
After the whistle blows

4
College Literacy classes teaching basic:
Ideas that good questions leads to good answers,
Reading reminders
Free association conceptual constructions

5.
But motherfuckin’ professor:
free association shit shticks
misfires, false alarms
are all art, too,
Like sticking a dagger into an apple,
Not the edible, but the technology.

6.
Go head, deconstruct the philosophy
Of oral cute-tification,
according to the Tautology of Leviticus,
With the same three half truths, pogroms
against biological deviant… FLAGS!

7.
Cryptic gospels of a motherfucker
Where three F.F.F’s
Stands for six six six
Like how 1mg of juxtaposition
And a dose of metamorphosis
is the repertoire of a king of curmudgeon
‘cause even the Holy Ghost
drinks from the cup of Christ’s blood.

8.
Reading,
Self-flagellation gospel-manual of Pope John Paul II,
At shrink sessions under the daze of heron Piper methysticum blunts
With sweet phat butts like lit lickerish that droop eyes
Like the psalm of Valeriana officinalis root extract.

ART BY: BASQUIAT

A god without a paradise

Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? John 10:34

Stretch out a hand
and catch a bead of blood
from the beheaded head of St. Valentine.

Smear the sacrosanct crimson
on both lip and command
“let there be love” upon every sunset.

Treat every new face as a blank canvas
and stroke a kiss with a brush of your lips.

Leave the mark of love
upon as many hearts
and soon the world will see

and follow the light. This power is in us
for we are gods without a paradise.

href=”http://scharlamagne.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/gwpcurvesnodisplace.jpg”>
painting by: U-C.Onyewuchi,2011

Son of Kubla

Iridium fastball pitches
from Zuni serpent mound,
bottom of the 9th walk-off homerun
over 30ft diving moai.

Slide to home base in volcanic lava
to congratulatory opium Gatorade bath
from Kubla Kahn forefathers,
chanting psychedelic clubhouse anthems.

Levitate from home plate
and land atop Pyramid of Cholula for victory dinner;
for since we’re all artists in our dreams,
true dreams never come true.

New York.

Five minute street artists
and insomnia mongers.
Sleazy drunk blondes
and finger snapping phat booties.

Street geniuses
bred by Machiavellian philosophies
cypher fantasies over tokes
of marijuana smoke.

Color worshipping narcotic traffickers,
and bread winners
parole corners
sporting fitted caps and twisting fingers.

Senile war veterans
in cardboard boxes beg for change
from the American dreams
they afforded.

Sartorial geniuses with no pants
switch hips in knock-off stellos heels,
selling the origin of the world on corner avenues
next to Arab Halal food.

Cooperate ties and blue collars chafe asses on subways.
Nodding in and out of Daily News articles
while oxygen blessed by asparagus piss
pump through their noses.

Summa cum laude number runners dictate economies
From sky-crapper offices,
And powered rain swallows their concrete each winter,
With no apologies.