Genesis 1:1 - In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The Lord predates the beginning [of time]. He also exists for eternity future.

Psalm 90:2 - Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

As believers, we struggle over concepts like the Trinity, Omnipotence, and Omniscience, yet rarely try to grasp the implications of existing outside of a linear timeline. We are locked into a mindset where our lives begin at birth and mortality ends at death. The truth is that humanity is actually immortal, having a starting point but no ending. While alive, the notion of “time” is foundational. On the other side of the grave, that will not be the case.

The majority of the Bible reinforces the notion that one event follows another from Adam to Jesus to 2025 and beyond. However, God falls outside of time. He condescends to mankind by speaking through a timeline in Scripture. It is an attempt by God to define who His is and what He expects of us using a framework we are familiar with…. the passage of time. Science, mathematics, and all major disciplines of education teach a view of time dependency.

But God is not bound by those rules.

Revelation 1:8 - “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

What are the implications of this freedom from the constraints of time… for the Father, Son and Holy Spirit?

God knows all from eternity past to eternity future. More significantly, being outside of time, God’s actions (omnipotence) are not limited to a timeline of cause and effect. His limitations are only to the extent God wishes them to be. The most significant example of this is Old Testament salvation. From our human perspective, the sacrificial system was only an illustration of what was to come, for the benefit of Israel. However, outside of time, Jesus suffered a substitutionary death for everyone who has ever, and will ever live. The theology of that fact becomes palatable if one assumes that God [Jesus] is outside of time.

A step further, God’s omniscience can be explained by understanding He exists outside of time. At some point after birth, a born-again believer accepts Jesus Christ through the grace of God, through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). At the time, we look back on who we were before salvation, what happened at the point of salvation and how we have changed as we move through the rest of our lives as His child (sanctification). Understandably, that process leads many to believe we are actively moving toward God over time, leading to a free-will decision to follow Christ. It, therefore, becomes hard to reconcile a loving God who determines those who are saved from those who are not (predestination).

Romans 8:29 - For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

However, if God, outside of time, can (and does) see our lives played out from birth to death, knowing every thought and action we will take, He knows who are/will become His children before our great, great grandparents were even born.

Jeremiah 1:5a - “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you..."

Finally, God is not the only one who sits outside of time. God created angels, Satan and his minions, who all had a beginning, but have no end. Much more significantly, mankind has no end. At death, we will either be in Heaven (2 Corinthians 5:8) or Hell (Matthew 25:41,46) for eternity… outside of time. Struggling in life on the timeline from birth to death, it is critical that we consider our true immortal nature while we have the opportunity to set the direction of our soul and make a decision for Christ. Regardless of whether you believe in predestination or free-will, from a human perspective, we each are faced with the most important decision we will ever make…. to accept or reject Christ as Lord and Savior.