{"id":68522,"date":"2018-08-14T07:00:06","date_gmt":"2018-08-14T14:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=68522"},"modified":"2020-01-06T22:41:13","modified_gmt":"2020-01-07T05:41:13","slug":"the-eagle-and-child-s1e31","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2018\/08\/14\/the-eagle-and-child-s1e31\/","title":{"rendered":"PWJ: S1E31 – MC B4C3 – “Time and Beyond Time”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Today we’re talking about time. This might seen like an abstract topic, but it helps us understand important questions, such as:<\/p>\n

1. If God is all-knowing, how can we really have free will?
\n2. How can God keep creation going while He was a baby asleep in a manger?
\n3. How can God be attending to millions of prayers at once?<\/p>\n

So put on your thinking cap and let’s ponder the mystery of time…<\/p>\n

Please send any objections, comments or questions, either via email\u00a0through my website<\/a>\u00a0or tweet us\u00a0@pintswithjack<\/a>\u00a0or message us via\u00a0Instagram<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Episode 31: \u201cTime and Beyond Time\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0(Download<\/a>)<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/TEAC-S1E31.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

<\/p>\n

If you enjoy this episode, you can subscribe\u00a0manually<\/a>, or\u00a0any place where good podcasts can be found\u00a0(iTunes<\/a>,\u00a0Google Play<\/a>,\u00a0Podbean<\/a>,\u00a0Stitcher<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0TuneIn<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u2014 Show Notes \u2014<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 I began by mentioning\u00a0The Confessions<\/a> of St. Augustine. In\u00a0Book Eleven he speaks at length about time and I found it rather hard to follow<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Matt and I chat about the Jim Carrey movie,\u00a0Bruce Almighty<\/a>, the story of a man who is given the powers of God because he thinks then he’ll be happy.\u00a0 In the end (spoiler warning) he realizes that all he wants is his girlfriend, appropriately named “Grace”. We referenced a scene in the movie where Bruce tries to handle all the prayers being made to God from across the earth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0The Quote-of-the-week:<\/p>\n

“Where, except in the present, can the eternal be met?”
\n<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2013 Christian Reflections \u201cHistoricism”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 I explained that I’m currently reading a really enjoyable book,\u00a0C.S. Lewis and Narnia for Dummies by Richard Wagner<\/a>. It gives a really great overview of Lewis’ life and works, particularly focussing on the Christian themes of the Chronicles of Narnia.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The drink-of-the-week was Ballast Point’s Victory at Sea<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Jack begins this chapter by saying that if it’s talking about things you’ve never cared about, please feel free to skip it. Matt and I remind the listeners that this permission to skip the material does not apply to this podcast! Matt and I chat a little bit about skipping chapters in books and finishing books we’re not enjoying.<\/p>\n

\u2022 We begin to start about the subject of prayer. I recommended Lewis’ book Letters to Malcom<\/a>, which I read for the first time a couple of months ago.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Lewis asks “How can God hear all the prayers at the same time?”<\/p>\n

\u201cA man put it to me by saying \u2018I can believe in God all right, but what I cannot swallow is the idea of Him attending to several hundred million human beings who are all addressing Him at the same moment.’\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

– C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book IV, Chapter 3)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

This was never an objection that either Mat or I had, as though something like this was “too hard” for God. However, Lewis resolves this by speaking about God’s relationship to time:<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of us can imagine God attending to any number of applicants if only they came one by one and He had an endless time to do it in. So what is really at the back of this difficulty is the idea of God having to fit too many things into one moment of time\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

– C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book IV, Chapter 3)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

We easily forget this because we have a different kind of existence:<\/p>\n

\u201cOur life comes to us moment by moment One moment disappears before the next comes along: and there is room for very little in each. That is what Time is like\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

– C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book IV, Chapter 3)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

But this is not true for God:<\/p>\n

“We tend to assume that the whole universe and God Himself are always moving on from past to future just as we do. But many learned men do not agree with that…\u00a0<\/span>His life does not consist of moments following one another. If a million people are praying to Him at ten-thirty tonight, He need not listen to them all in that one little snippet which we call ten-thirty. Ten-thirty-and every other moment from the beginning of the world-is always the Present for Him\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

– C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book IV, Chapter 3)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

I mentioned that I had once heard time described as a “parenthetical insertion” in eternity.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Related to the issue of time, Matt and I acted out a famous scene<\/a> from the Star Wars spoof, Spaceballs<\/a>:<\/p>\n

HELMET:<\/strong> When does this happen in the movie?<\/span><\/p>\n

SANDURZ:<\/strong> Now. You’re looking at now, sir. Everything that happens now, is happening now.<\/span><\/p>\n

HELMET:<\/strong> What happened to then?<\/span><\/p>\n

SANDURZ:<\/strong> We passed then?<\/span><\/p>\n

HELMET:<\/strong> When?<\/span><\/p>\n

SANDURZ:<\/strong> Just now. We’re at now, now.<\/span><\/p>\n

HELMET:<\/strong> Go back to then.<\/span><\/p>\n

SANDURZ:<\/strong> When?<\/span><\/p>\n

HELMET:<\/strong> Now.<\/span><\/p>\n

SANDURZ:<\/strong> Now?<\/span><\/p>\n

HELMET:<\/strong> Now.<\/span><\/p>\n

SANDURZ:<\/strong> I can’t.<\/span><\/p>\n

HELMET:<\/strong> Why?<\/span><\/p>\n

SANDURZ:<\/strong> We missed it.<\/span><\/p>\n

HELMET:<\/strong> When?<\/span><\/p>\n

SANDURZ:<\/strong> Just now.<\/span><\/p>\n

HELMET:<\/strong> When will then be now?<\/span><\/p>\n

SANDURZ:<\/strong> Soon.<\/span><\/p>\n