Time Versus Eternity

Is there any scriptural basis for saying that prayer is a special case of synchronicity? Is the idea of synchronicity even found in the Bible?

I believe it is. I believe it has to do with the Biblical difference between what is called “time” and what is called “eternity.”

It is well said that the fish will be the very last creature in creation to discover that there is such a substance as “water.” This is the problem we human beings get into when we start trying to figure out what “time” is and how it works. We exist in time, so we think everything in creation operates the same way time does - sequentially. This can be readily seen in the way human beings see and describe God.

In the Hebrew scriptures, there are three major words that are used to describe God in terms of time. In the King James Version of the Bible these words are somewhat interchangeably translated as “everlasting,” “eternal,” or “forever.” These words are ‘ad, qedem (or qedmah) and ‘owlam.

‘ad comes from the root word ‘adah, which means “to advance.” ‘ad modifies this root to mean “advance in perpetuity.”

Isa 57:15
15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
(KJV)

qedem (or qedmah) comes from the root word qadam, which means “to project oneself; or to precede.” qedem modifies this to “from aforetime” or “ancient” or “of old.”

It also seems to partake of a linear metaphor of distance because it can also be translated as “on the east,” “from the east” or “eastward, ” which I think signifies “since Abraham came from the east “ (Ur of the Chaldees.)

Deut 33:27
The eternal God is thy refuge, ...

‘owlam comes from the root word ‘alam, which means “to veil from sight or conceal.” ‘owlam modifies this root to mean “concealed in the vanishing point of the distance” (another linear metaphor) which means something like “time out of mind” or “So far back, nobody can remember”.

Deut 33:27
The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: ... (KJV)

Significantly, Moses gives us a strongly linear picture of God’s being.

Ps 90:1-2
1 LORD, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting [‘owlam: vanishing point] to everlasting [‘owlam: vanishing point], thou art God.
(KJV)

So not only has God existed from all the way back into the vanishing point of time in the past, He will continue to exist all the way into the vanishing point of the future. Hence the expressions which seems so self-contradictory: “eternity past” and “eternity future.”

This linear picture of time is also carried forward into the Greek language of the New Testament. The Greek word translated “eternal” or “everlasting” is aionos. It comes from a root word, aion, which means “an age,” but aionos modifies that to mean “perpetual” - an age without end (or “world without end” as the King James translators put it).

As far as these statements go, they are all true. But there are some cracks in this picture of linearity that give us a clue to another meaning that “eternity” and “everlasting” can have. Thus saith holy Moses:


Ps 90:1-4

1 LORD, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
3 Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.
4 For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
(KJV)

And thus saith the apostle Peter:

2 Pet 3:8
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
(KJV)

Now here we begin to see a difference between the time that God inhabits and the time that we inhabit. This would have to be the case considering that:

Gen 1:1
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
(KJV)

... and ...

Rev 21:1
1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; ... (KJV)

Time is not just a clock ticking. It’s creation’s processing. It’s molecules constantly moving from one place to another. It’s trees spouting, growing up, growing old, and then dying. It is us being born, taking in food and drink and eliminating waste, and growing up, growing old, and then dying as the trees do.

If the creation we live in was created by God, and will one day be done away with by God, then the time we live in must also be a part of that passing creation. And so it cannot be the way God experiences time, or the way that God means for us to experience time when it is no more. This is what the apostle Paul was getting at when he wrote:

2 Cor 4:17-18
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
(KJV)

This becomes even clearer when we consider the personal name of God given to the children of Israel, and the person of Jesus, who’s name is derived from that sacred Name.

As we have seen, the personal name of God that was revealed to the children of Israel is represented in the Hebrew language by the four consonants YHWH. The Name comes from the root word, hayah, which means (always in the emphatic form) “to be” or “become.” From the usage of YHWH in the Hebrew text, it is clear that the Name means “the self-existent one.”

In Greek mythology, all of the false gods of Greece - including the supreme Olympian, Zeus - were subject to one god, Chronos, who was Time. The one, true God, YHWH, is not subject to time.

The name “Jesus” is the Greek translation of the Hebrew name, “Joshua.” “Joshua” in turn means “YHWH saved” or “YHWH is savior,” or “the self-existent one is savior.” This is what the apostle John was getting at when he wrote:

Rev 1:7-8
7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
(KJV)

This is what the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews had in mind when he wrote:

Heb 13:8
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
(NIV)

We who live in time, like the fish who lives in water, are not aware that the Godhead exists outside of time. We who live in time have our seconds and minutes and hours dealt out to us sequentially like we were card players receiving a hand from a card dealer. We tend to extrapolate that onto God and think of Him as just having one infinitely large “hand” in comparison to our own small one.

The reality is that, as far as our existence “down here” is concerned, there is a finite (though very large) number of cards to be dealt, but every card in the deck is as “face up” and available to God as every other card in the deck is, and it is God who decides which card will be dealt to which player and in what sequence. Every moment in created time is as available to God as every other moment in created time is.

We think of Him as being really really old and getting older and older. The reality is that it is we who wax old with the years. He remains as fresh as a daisy (so to speak).

Do you now begin to see how phenomena like sychronicities can come about in our world? If God is dealing out our little hands of time according to His own will and purposes, then it should not come as a surprise to us that if we link our own will and purposes with His will and purposes, we might be treated to very some interesting coincidences in life.

In my book, Twenty-Seven Metaphors to a Grasp of Happiness, I have another model of how I think synchronicity works, and it includes an idea of how I think the free will of an individual still continues to work in the face of it.

See http://twentysevenmetaphors-graspofhappiness.blogspot.com/2005/01/metaphor-2-time-as-metaphor-of.html
And http://twentysevenmetaphors-graspofhappiness.blogspot.com/2005/01/metaphor-5-novel-as-metaphor-of-time.html