And Still the Rivers flow ( a contemplation of time)

Very nicely written.

I don't mean for this to be a physics discussion but when you say that times "ceases to be" what do you mean? I have a hard time wrapping my mind around that concept.

Beautiful Frank, thank you for sharing this with us here.

God bless
mj

I guess my difficulty lies in the fact that I consider time as nothing more than a way to measure the duration between one event and the next. So I don't see time as a "thing" that actually exists.

So perhaps saying that eternity is something that lasts forever is not entirely accurate. Perhaps rather it is simply a state of uninterrupted "being".

We actually spoke some on this in our SS class a few months back. It was part of some studies we did I apologetics. Fortunately for us, we had a Ph.D. Physics guy in our class who works for NASA.

Here is my physics for dummies way of expressing what I understand.

First, time is really a measurement of distance. Without some sort of matter, there is no such thing as time. Think of it. What is a second? It is a calculated fraction of a minute, which is a fraction of an hour, which is a fraction of a day. Each of these were formerly measured by the relationship of some point on earth to some point on the Sun, and the rate of the change of distance between those points. Think of light years: simply a measurement of distance of how far light travels from A to B in the time it takes for the earth to cover a distance (the length of its orbit) of one full year around the sun. You cannot even conceive of time without matter.

Nowadays, our time is measured atomically. The cesium atom emits electrons at a certain rate. The length of the microwave from top to bottom is at a given measurement called a hertz. Cesium atoms consistently emit electrons at x number of hertz in what everyone agrees is one second. From there, essentially, our times are measured. Point is that time is a function of the existence of matter. No matter, no time.

It is also why you can't reach absolute nothingness in the physical universe. This is true of distance and temperature. Since all matter exists in space, and because all matter, even the indivisible electron, cannot be in the same space as any other matter, there is no true zero in distance. Time is FORCED into being by the very existence of matter because all matter requires distance. Without matter, there is no concept knowable as time. With matter, there is no concept knowable without it.

This is why some atheists can say "there never has been a time when there was nothing." It is true. But, saying that doesn't really mean anything since time requires a "thing". No thing equals no time.

Outside of time, God is. He is not a thing. He is the I am. He simply is and that is who He reveals Himself to us to be. He hung everything on nothing, according to the imagery in Scripture. Whereas there was nothing, God spoke and there was something. By His word, all that is came to be.

Atheists will argue that nothingness is illusory and matter has always been, that it has no beginning or end. As Dawkins says, nothing is really something. He says so with a straight face. He isn't alone. Of course, that merely replaces one form of belief with another form of belief, doesn't it? Saying everything always has been, and that time never wasn't, begs the question of how that is true. They say that nothing never was and matter always was, but can only speculate. We say that matter wasn't eternal, but that God is and He made something which is, in truth, everything.

It is indeed hard to conceive. I don't really. I don't know anyone who truly can except our Lord.

Just to carry on the science lecture a bit further. :)

Dolfan said, "Whereas there was nothing, God spoke and there was something. By His word, all that is came to be. Atheists will argue that nothingness is illusory and matter has always been, that it has no beginning or end. As Dawkins says, nothing is really something."

Here is a quote from "Who Are You" by George Warnock:

"It is not true that God created the world, or anything in it, out of nothing. Everything God made, He created out of attributes or powers or qualities that are inherent in Himself... so that 'things which are seen were not made of things which do appear'-- but from invisible things (Heb. 11:3). And these 'invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and godhead; so that they are without excuse' (Rom. 1:20)."

To put that in my own words, the things that were made were not made out of nothing; they were made out of invisible things-- things in a spiritual dimension. For example, God created rock-- material rock. But the real Rock is Christ Himself. So we know what the true Rock is like by checking out some earthly rock. It is very enduring, and will not give way under us when we stand on it. Or... the branch of a tree. This was not made out of nothing. It was made out of something invisible-- Christ the Branch. And God did all this, created all this, so that we would come to know and understand the invisible things of the spiritual realm. The visible things are a testimony of the invisible things of Him.

End of my contribution to the science lecture.

...Beautiful poem, Frank.